Continuous Evolution

MOST, if not all, languages in the world are evolving continuously, and Bahasa Malaysia (BM) is no exception. Just like the English language, BM sometimes has to borrow words from other languages which are then "Malaysianised", perhaps to suit our national identity. For example in the scientific world, names of chemical elements have been "Malaysianised" and then those words are used in our syllabus. There are other fields, e.g. the IT industry where many, many words have come into existence very rapidly. Apart from formal usage, some words like "dude" have also become commonplace in the younger generation.

When I was still in school, I can remember many, many BM words which were not imported from the English language. For example, we had perbahasan, perbincangan and penyesuaian, to name a few. However, because of the evolution of our national language, I can't help but notice that there is now a general preference to use words imported from the English language. Therefore, instead of perbahasan, we prefer pendebatan (debate); instead of perbincangan, we prefer diskusi (discussion); instead of penyesuaian, we prefer adaptasi (adaptation). In most cases, I suspect that this current trend has a lot to do with the perception of sophistication in the BM if the English-imported words are used instead of our good old-fashioned original Malay ones.

As the New Generation Director dealing with the Interactors, I've had the opportunities to have several casual conversations with secondary school students. In one such conversations, we somehow spoke about science and I brought up the word raksa, which is the Malay word for mercury. When I was still in school a hundred years ago, raksa was a very common word and every student would know its meaning. But the modern-day students don't know raksa. I actually spelt out the word for them, and still it didn't ring a bell. In the end I gave up and told them that raksa is mercury. They replied that as far as they're concerned, mercury, when translated into Malay is merkuri.

I looked up for raksa in my kamus as soon as I could and was relieved to find that it's still there! I suppose that means my knowledge in Malay is still relevant. Perhaps merkuri sounds a bit more sophisticated and modern than raska—I don't know—but someone in the Malaysian education system should decide, once and for all, which is the standard to be adopted. We can't keep moving back and forth from English to Malay to English.

So now that we've decided on merkuri, what is to become of raksa? Will it resurface again in the next generation? Or will it be forgotten for good this time?

If our national language must evolve, then let's evolve progressively—not changing back and forth over and over again.

Salt Counts!

SALT COUNTS!

That's what a master treasure hunter, Vincent Woo, said in one of his comments in the Riddle Raiders Blog some time ago. He was referring to the experience in treasure hunting. I can easily support that claim—in fact experience counts in most things in life.

I've been meaning to explain my writing style for a while now. Some people have been asking for the explanation for a long time, but I kept putting it into my "to do" list. Well, perhaps now is a good time to explain myself.

It all started years ago when I was teaching maths and science for a little over 3 years. And further back than that, when I was still in school, I used to feel frustrated when some of the teachers did not really know how to teach in spite of their diplomas in the teaching discipline. And unfortunately a fair number of students had a phobia of maths. Perhaps that is still the case today. When they're presented with algebras and calculus etc, their minds will automatically shut down.

When I started teaching, the first thing I did was to put myself in the shoes of my students. And not only did I put myself in their shoes, I specifically put myself in the shoes of the weakest student. That then was my starting point. In my opinion, when imparting knowledge, the focus should be leaning more towards the weak students, not the brightest.

My strategy was to give plenty of examples—the many ways how the problem could be presented; the tricks and twists of how to arrive at the solutions. It made the learning process more interesting too. I did not think that explaining the theory once, and then shoving 20 questions from the text books down their throats as homework, very interesting. That would just kill the mood, really.

I was teaching in a private school and some of the students were drop-outs from the government schools. They were generally written off as hopeless. Yet I managed to turn the tide and made some of them excel in maths—a subject which they hated so much at first.

Giving many, many examples might be seen as boring by the bright students. I had a feeling that some of them had no patience. But the vast majority of them enjoyed those examples. The more examples I gave them, the more experience they had with the problems, and how to derive the solutions. So once again, salt counts!

I have always used that same formula when I write articles. When I write valuation reports, I'd like to be thorough. We can't expect the clients to know what we already know. Don't use abbreviations if we can help it. And try to explain all the way up to the conclusion.

When I comment about treasure hunt questions, I usually go to all extent to give examples and treat them step by step. I can feel that the elite hunters may become bored reading all the basic stuff. But I console myself that the new hunters will benefit immensely in the end. Examples from past questions are not only good for providing the experience, but also make the read more interesting. In fact, I may add that they can even be entertaining too!

Imagine that a student does not know how rubber gloves are made. We explain to him that in India, because of the cheap human labour, they use people who would dip their hands into latex. They then walk around for a while to let the latex dry up; and when dry those people would then peel off the latex which would by then become rubber gloves. The process then repeats itsself.

Examples such as the above are important. Although the student did not actually experience the process himself, at least he has experienced it indirectly. That experience counts! The next time there is a similar question or problem, that student might be able to solve it based on his experience. For example, he might be able to know the answer when asked how condoms are made.

Of course I just made up the above scenario, so please don't take it seriously. In fact, I don't really know the entire process of glove-making. But I made that story up to illustrate my point—that experience counts... salt counts!

So those who've been asking me several times to explain the way I write, I hope you are happier now. I know not everyone may agree with my teaching approach. I am against the memorisation approach which our education system is adopting now. We need the practical experience. Theory alone is simply not good enough.

A trainee student from one of the local universities was brilliant in her theorical knowledge. I asked her to convert between meters and feet. She did the conversion with ease, and the answers were impeccable. I then asked her to show me with her hands, roughly, the length of 1 meter. She couldn't give me anything close. What could potentially happen is that when she's out there doing site inspection, she will actually find a boundary stone of the subject land, but she will fail to realise that those houses are not located on the land, because she just can't judge the distance from one boundary to another.

So I hope my readers will bear with me. I will still be long-winded in my articles. If they're getting too boring, you can skip the examples. But as far as treasure hunt examples are concerned, be careful not to miss some important points. For one of these days, you might just end up unable to solve one of my questions because you have ignored some of my examples!

Moving Up The Value Chain

You have some breakfast before you leave the house for a seminar which is supposed to start at 8:30am. But 8:30am actually means plus the traditional 30 minutes delay to about 9:00am. After the numerous speeches and the opening ceramony by the YB, the first session begins.

At about 10:30am, there is a tea break. And that means some fried noodles, cakes and sandwiches, popiahs, and several other snacks. Not to forget the hot coffee and tea.

The tea break which is supposed to be for 30 minutes only drags on for another 10 - 15 minutes at least. The remaining morning session continues, and before one is able to begin digesting the so-called "tea" consumed during the mid morning, it's already lunch break.

And lunch break entails glorious, glorious food comprising more fried noodles, plenty of rice, a variety of dishes of the highest calories, all to be followed by cakes fruits and ice-creams to one's content.

You get to enjoy the fellowship of fellow professionals, exchanging ideas on what is really happening to the economy. And everyone seems to know exactly how to solve the current crisis if only...

But you also talk about golf, and other recreational activities. Then you continue talking about how lucky your friend is, now that all his kids are already at the Australian universities. And there's that interesting stories of one's career in the City Hall etc. Of course all these talks eventually inevitably encroaches into the afternoon session by at least 20 minutes.

The afternoon session then starts way behind time, and while the speaker tries to rush through the slides, you notice that everyone is struggling to stay awake, and then before you know it, voila! it's the afternoon tea break!

More fried noodles and the finest snacks of anything but healthy food, which can live up to the standard of a 5-star hotel. And more coffee and tea too! Even further delays going into the final session of the day. And then you notice that by that final session, only a third of the morning crowd is still there. The rest have all found dubious (albeit creative) excuses why they can't be there for that last session.

Such was the scenario of the seminar organised by The Institute of Surveyors Malaysia, ISM, with the theme:

MOVING UP THE VALUE CHAIN

The theme was intended to focus on what surveying professionals should do to "move up the value chain" to remain relevant in the face of the ever-changing market place.

But I can't help wondering if the theme is also apt for the amount of food we consume during the breaks...

Losing Momentum

It's been only about 3 days since my last post. And already some people are getting worried of the "infrequent" postings here. That is the tragedy of active blogging—because once you start to lose your momentum, your loyal readers can immediately sense the change.

Today I received two emails and one text message from my fans, seeking to know what has happened to me. In one of those emails, I was asked if I had fallen ill; whereas in the other email, someone was jokingly complaining that I should start blogging again soon, as otherwise he would become "so bored with nothing else to read".

The text message was from another friend, and I find it more interesting than the emails. In it, the friend wonders if everything is OK with me. He said I sounded "agitated or frustrated lately." He was even planning to email me to cheer me up! I did not realise that I sounded "agitated or frustrated", but although my friend did not explain himself, I suspect it probably had something to do with my recent comments in Mike's blog and A Hunter's Tale. In the former, I was more or less told to stop commenting (smile). And in the latter, I commented against equating SHUT UP = TO CONFINE. I did so without consulting my dictionaries first, although I did say that I wouldn't be surprised if some dictionaries support that equation. Later, it turned out that it was indeed supported by the dictionaries, and I quickly added a comment in the same blog to admit that I was inaccurate. At first, I had said that we can only equate SHUT IN = TO CONFINE, but not SHUT UP = TO CONFINE.

I went on to comment against equating SHUT UP = PEN, because I thought it is more accurate for the PEN to be followed by UP too. I am still unsure about this up to now. It just doesn't sound right to me. I see it in the same light as equating STACK to PILE, and STACK UP to PILE UP, but not STACK UP to PILE (without UP). However, if I am wrong, I am willing to admit defeat. There is really no need to become agitated or frustrated about losing a debate. Life is just too short to become all stressed up about petty things like this. All I can say is, it takes a lot more to make me become agitated or frustrated.

But let me share with my readers what I've been up to over the last few days. Apart from my running at the gym and the jogging track, I've been busy sending text messages and emails to treasure hunters in the hope of attracting as many teams as possible for Alvin's (Kena Tembak) hunt in May.

The other reason which had kept me occupied was the amount of time I'd spent playing online chess. A treasure hunter friend of mine, Master Teck Koon, gave me the link to an online chess site some time ago. But I did not really look into it. Then last week, I suddenly thought that I'd just go check it out for a bit. And I ended up registering (for free), and soon started playing up to 5 games with 5 different players!

Needless to say, I also started playing chess with Teck Koon, and quickly realised that he is a very strong player! Within the first few moves, because I violated a basic opening principle, I was swiftly punished by Teck Koon with strong attack because I failed to castle when I had the opportunity to do so. Instead, I took the big risk by grabbing some pawns! But somehow I was lucky to have found a way out from an apparently hopeless position, forced some trade-offs and now arrived at a rook endgame. Material is equal again, but I like my pawn structure (I have 2 pawn islands, whereas he has 4, one of which is a doubled pawn). Still looks drawish to me though. I'll let you know what happens next as the game progresses.

In the mean time, I have also finished 2 other games, of which I was lucky enough to win. I can't believe how much I have forgotten about chess. The only other game which I find interesting is against another player of about 1300+ only, but he is really good! I opened with the Ruy Lopez (Spanish) as white, an opening which is very, very well analysed. It is interesting that we've made about 9 - 10 moves deep by now, and we're still within book opening of the Morphy's lines. But the trouble is that I'm not sure if I can remember very much more beyond this point, and I can sense that I will soon start to lose out to this guy!

So you see, folks, I've been very busy this lately. However, I have no intention to keep this going for too long. I will probably slow down to Teck Koon's rate of making only a few moves per week, and take months to finish a single game! I shall then be able to come back to my regular posting. So don't worry too much about me, OK? I am still very much alive, though probably not exactly kicking. Still need to deal with Alvin's hunt, and then I will start posting again soon.

A Day's Earnings For A Momentary Pleasure

We are after all just human—we can't escape from making mistakes every now and then. And some of us are lucky to learn from these mistakes. Others are not so lucky—they forget all too soon and repeat them over and over again.

A friend told me that life in Singapore is very, very competitive. The cost of living is very high, and many people have no choice but to have two jobs to make ends meet. Buying an average car in Singapore is like buying a decent house in Malaysia.

When I visited Singapore last December, I took the cabs to move around even though they had very efficient train and bus systems. Due to the size of Singapore, and because of the limited areas that I covered, I'd say an average cab ride in Singapore is worth S$10 to S$15. Of course the amount can vary substantially if one were to travel from one end to the other end of the island on every ride.

Anyway, considering the thousands of cabs in the streets of Singapore, I can just imagine the level of competition among cab drivers even after taking into account the number of visitors to Singapore. The cost of an average hotel room, S$40 for a "service", and a subsequent visit to the boutique would probably easily wipe out an entire day's earnings of a Singaporean cab driver. And one can only wonder what kind of story he'd tell his wife—on where his entire day's earnings had gone to.

And a few months down the road, he finds out further repercussion from his mistake—one that's gonna cost S$12,500 to remedy. Oh man! that must be like many, many trips taking passengers all over Singapore. If luck is not on his side, maybe his wife might even go on strike for a couple of months; and that's really bad.

But we learn from our mistakes... and hopefully we won't repeat them again, ever.

Best Ever Performance

The Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) Board declared that it recorded its highest ever earnings last year. In fact it achieved RM20bil gross income last year, up 9.36% from RM18.29bil recorded previously. [The Star]

Yet for the year 2007, the EPF declared a 5.8% dividend, whereas for last year (2008) we had a dividend of 4.5%. That works out to be over 20% drop in terms of dividend between 2007-2008. This was in spite of EPF achieving its highest ever earnings in 2008.

I'd probably only get to touch the bulk of my money in the EPF when I retire many years from now, but I really wonder what the dividend will be like when its announced again at around this same time next year.

Scary!

Current Economic Situation

Forwarded to my emailbox today.

So far I haven't seen anything like this in KK, and God help us all, I hope our economic situation won't become this serious.