Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Potpourri...

It is almost like a potpourri of very interesting events today that I have to write something about it.

Things have been going very well for the new class (at least I think) today until some communication problems popped up among the colleagues. Without naming names and specifications (I have learned my hard lesson from my blog here) some people's Chinese old school cultural revolutionary mentality totally drives me nuts. Being Chinese myself, I really can't stand many of our "mainland comrades" of their self-centered "biggest gains with the least effort" type of attitude at work. I was treated like their best friend if their benefits/rewards are at stake but I would be shown a "bad face" when I am asking someone to carry out their responsibilities. I feel like a work environment of "everyone eating from the same pot" is encouraging and nurturing this kind of work ethics that I despise the most. The biggest home to this school of thought once again is the PRC government that its people are being fed with propaganda of such kind subconsciously. It goes along with my puzzlement that why the independence of Tibet is such a taboo and evil thing. Why is Dalai Lama treated like a demon? The tactics of vilifying the person that voices a different opinion of yours is so typical of the communist word games that it takes simple logic and education to counter the arguments. I wonder how many people have really studied the history of Tibet. I admit I haven't until these past few weeks to realize what a beautiful culture and religion is being jeopardized in the name of economic prosperity. If displaying my love/heart for China on my MSN messenger means I am a supporter of such irrational ideology of many Chinese, sorry, I DON'T LOVE CHINA (no offense to many of my friends with the display on their MSN). I know I probably would be labelled as a traitor but I don't feel like I am not patriotic at all. I think many people do get the concepts mixed up.

While I was still upset about this, I am glad I got to attend my German class right after work. What a huge contrast it was to see my lovely teacher and classmates all contribute to the party today. Many of us did not just bring the minimum amount of food but it turned out to be a huuuuuge feast in class! And I was thrilled that my German sketch performance with my cute partner worked out great that I got compliments on my acting. I never thought I would be a good actor but I start to develop a fondness to it. Anyways it's a great class because everyone was very into what they are doing and bring out more than a 100%. I keep thinking if every single person of the billion strong population in China can do something like this without being selfish, how much nicer the world would become. And here is the evidence of the pretty dessert my classmates made. And I could not help to take the cupcake with the word "lehrer" which means "teacher" in German...
And the last thing is a very good college friend of mine whom I reconnected with through facebook and talked on the phone for 1.5 hours (which is extremely rare in my case) agreed with me that the "magic of facebook" has worked wonders on strengthening our friendships and relationships, even crossing the boundaries of places and times.

Gute Nacht!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Stumbled on a show by John Bytheway on BYUTV. He actually is my favorite LDS speaker even though he is not a GA of the church and most of his talks are targeted for the teenagers. I actually met him in person and got to have a quick word with him at the LDSBA convention a couple years back. He's very insightful, inspirational, and funny at the same time. His most recent quote that I like from the show is

"it's better to be respected than it is to be popular, because popularity ends on yearbook day, but respect lasts forever."

Speaking of being popular/respected, the thought hit me hard yesterday. I never was the "popular" guy in school, at work, or even among my circle of friends. I used to be very paranoid at this which worsened my shyness in front of other people. I realized I have come to be rather comfortable at being myself in the past couple of years and rather be a more respectable person than being popular. Yesterday at the chinese speech contest with all the colleagues around that I am not familiar with I did not really care I hardly knew most of them and did not bother to force myself to mingle with them either. Through life experience I know it is rather an uncomfortable feeling not being part of a clique or the "in" group. Now I have learned to just walk away or ignore those who are not interested in or respect me. I really need to please myself before I can please others. Surprisingly yesterday what I enjoyed most was during the return trip of 2+ hour bus ride, I got to talk to a former student of mine and we shared many amazing, but sometimes saddening, or even shocking stories (in Chinese!). It's so comforting to see the growth of the students and we have mutual respect of each other. And I actually have the utmost repect to all of my students for the intense study they have to undertake on top of their hardships in life that they are going through. I'd really prefer spending time on sharing with and even learning things from the students than the mindless social games and the office politics.

As for my current students, week 1 has gone by rather smoothly. I am relieved that for the first quiz all but 2 met the high bar we set at 95 points while the other 2 still scored 85+. They also performed well with the week-end performance I designed which was inspired by my own German class that I am taking. I am learning a great deal on leadership skill as well. Not that I am a power control freak but I find communication skills with colleagues, students, and even myself are crucial and useful. I am striving to be a much more effective and organized person after all.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Go with the flux...

I'm well known as a (late)night person which explains why I often look sleepy and tired. It comes from our family habits and traditions back home since the city never sleeps and I often enjoy the "freedom" that we can still do whatever we want without sun rays. As one grows older I realize the drawbacks of sleep deprivation and the risk of fighting against the nature of our "bio-clock". I read from different sources lately on the correlation of sleep/light and diabetes along with cancers. The picture above shows the "light pollution" which pretty much coincides with distribution of the world energy consumption. Studies show that the "brighter"/more developed the area is the more incidents of cancers can be found. One suggestion is people should use more natural light rather than man-made light at night. This really is a wake up call to many of us. When the world begins to focus on environmental issues people should also think more about making our own bodies to be in tuned with the nature as well.

And quotes/thoughts for the day:

"Most of us do not accept, or even believe in, the continual flux of life. However strange this may seem, once we truly accept this at a physical level, we will not need to search for certainty... As you tackle the tribulations of life, insight helps you refrain from taking yourself, your challenges, and life itself too seriously, because you will know that no matter what situation you are in, good or bad, it will change. This insight into the changing nature of the world will give you equanimity and joy" (p 60).
-Kamal Sarma in Mental Resilience: The Power of Clarity (New World Library)

"Every obstacle is just an invitation to relax."

A new day... and say...

Friday was quite a big day for me mostly due to the incoming new students and my new responsibilities. I felt like I had learned a lot more on this particular day than any other since I came to work. Despite a few kinks with the Smartboard (I guess it is not so smart after all) the day went down quite well and fast. I seemed to have gotten the good draw of a group of experienced and bright students while having a nice team of colleagues that the meeting I had to hold ran smoothly as well. As long as we keep the high hopes with the current motivation to work well together this team looks very promising. And the biggest reward for myself toward the end of the day is that I got my new HDTV! Yeehaw!!!

And of course I have been following the Olympic controversy. I am not going to deliberate my opinions too much again here (I'm scared of death threats and such...) but I just want to say there are too many people maybe unintentionally upholding double standards. On one hand they say such an event should not "involve politics" but on the other hand they would protest against other countries' attitude and opinions towards the occasion. Haven't their protests become part of the politics per se? I actually find the current Olympic theme of "One World, One Dream" a chilling idea as it resembles the ideology of tyrants past and present. The intolerance of different voices and opinions would only make the current sitation worse which is something the Chinese, especially the CCP needs to learn if the nation is to present itself as a real power on the world stage. My conclusion for everyone is this song which has been a favorite of mine in the last few days...

Thursday, April 17, 2008

This week...

I love sumptuous brunch on a weekend...
I love Mariah Carey's and BYU Vocal Point's new CDs...
I love watching news lately (world economy, olympic controversy, US presidential campaign, etc.)...
I love the freedom that I enjoy these days in choosing when, where, what, and how I watch movie and TV shows (DVDs, Comcast on demand, Netflix, Azureus, internet)...
I love being reconnected with so many long time acquaintances in the virtual world...
I love attending school and learning a new language with virtually no pressure...
I love seeing the funny and adorable wild sea otters float and sunbathe in the ocean while the mommy seal teaches the suckling baby seal how to swim and survive... (click and enlarge the image to see those cutey creatures in the sea)
I love the lovely spring/summer weather in Cali...
I love the opportunity to travel with my fam all over again this summer...
I love my new smaller but comfy office...
I love my old students and the fact that I failed to take pictures with them two days in a row due to a colleague's "magic touch" on my camera that it kept dying on me...
I love having more say in my work and teaching now and the anticipation of the new students coming in tomorrow... stay tuned...

Sunday, April 06, 2008

On being a polyglot...

New disclaimer:
blog readability test

I actually am happy this blog is categorized as high school reading level. Considering English not being my 1st language I do think it is quite an achievement! Hehe...

More than once people asked me how many languages I speak and usually the answer they get is either a "blah" meaning nothing at all or I completely avoid answering it. The reasons are:
1. it is hard to define what it means to "know" or to be able to "speak" a language;
2. I really don't know because I have exposure to many but nowhere close to being fluent enough to fully communicate with others;
3. and of course I don't want to sound cocky as I really am a humble and a nice person! ;)

My goal in life is to learn as many languages as I can because I think that is the best way to learn about a culture. Of course it is not possible to be fluent in more than a handful but I enjoy the stimulation a language offers in reshaping my thinking about cultures and the world. Here it is all my encounters and experience with different languages if you really want to know:
Cantonese: Of course it is my native and I feel the urge to defend it whenever people think it is not a real language but a dialect. Personally I think it is way more fun and colorful than the dry and dull Mandarin. My goal is to teach Cantonese at the college level again someday.
English: I was fascinated by it since I was little as I thought it was cool to be able to speak a language so different from my own and communicative to the entire world. I was fortunate to attend a semi-international elementary school but had a tough time handling all subjects in English. I hated the teachers so much that eventually switched to a regular Chinese governement/public school which was then way too easy for me. My English skills soared and was perfected during the year as an exchange student at the University of Utah. Defintely the best year of my college life.
Mandarin: Had no problem understanding since both parents speak it with my older bro. I refused to speak it at home when I was young however as I thought it was "uncool" that none of my peers spoke it at the time. Who would have thunk (I think this word is "cool" as well btw) I would be a teacher of this "uncool" language now?
Indonesian: I was left living in Indonesia for 3 months alone with my Indonesian relatives at the age of 8 in the name of curing my health problems. Had ton of fun to begin with that most of my relatives there spoke limited Chinese which forced me to pick up Indonesian at light speed. After 3 months I'd had enough of living away from my family and I had no desire of receiving Indonesian education (I don't think I would enjoy being converted into Islam) that I demanded to be sent back home. But now I'm amazed at times how much I still remember after all these years with that brief exposure to the language and the culture.
Sign Language: Thanks to Berinda, Brother Yuen, and Sister Fung that I picked up CSL (technically HKSL) at church as there was a need for interpreters for the deaf members. It was really an eye opener to learn the signs and interacted with the deaf communities in Hong Kong and later Macau on my mission. They are the nicest and the most humble people I have ever met. Even the visit to the deaf school in Quanzhou China with the YAs made me want to give back and do something for them again in the near future.
Italian: Took a year course during freshman year. It was my last choice of foreign language class but I felt I had to learn a new language to keep me sane from the boring biology classes. The Italian Diction class I took at the U of U was super fun but I keep wondering why I had the guts to take that class with everyone else being senior vocal majors. I did somehow mysteriously get an "A" in the end!
Japanese: I was one class shy of being a Japanese minor in college but just wanted to know more so that I know what I was eating or watching while enjoying my favorite Japanese snacks or the crazy Japanese TV shows.
Spanish: One year at the U and one year at CUHK. The two teachers at the U were wonderful while the one at CU was a total slacker. The good thing is I don't have to worry about not having exposure to it now being in a state where Spanish is pretty much the 2nd language. Many of my students are of Latino descent as well.
Tagalog: Did not really learn it formally but the fellow Filippino missionaries taught me quite a bit. Learned the lines for ice-breaking so the Filippinas would really open up when I approached them. It was amazing to get to know these people who have always been a part of Hong Kong culture but often neglected by the locals.
French: Took a summer intensive course at the Y. The American teacher was actually a classmate of mine but I learned more about language teaching than the language per se. He has very creative and organized teaching skills that I later integrated into my own teaching. I love how things are pronounced... tres beau...
Hebrew: I wanted to take the intensive summer course at the Y as well but felt it was way too intensive than I expected that I dropped out after a week. The teacher was very experienced but the methodology was too traditional for me. I am glad he still recognized me and said hi to me afterwards without sounding mad...
Korean: In preparation for the Asian tour with the YAs, I studied a bit of Korean on my own that I wanted to fully experience the culture. I memorized a few lines in Korean that I fooled most of the group that I spoke Korean! But I am so proud with the help of a Korean classmate that I ran the entire Korean supertitles of the show on my own not really knowing how to read Korean!
German: It has been a little over 2 months since class started but my intension is more on language teaching observation rathan than really learning the language per se. The experience so far has been very enjoyable and I even want to visit Germany now because of the things I have learned. I'd better go back to study for the test tomorrow now! Tschus!