I asked a few graduating USMers this question: "So, what are your plans now?"
A says she's headed for Singapore. Quantity surveyor. She says she has to start working somehow. I say yeah, you can't expect to land an ideal job as your first job. Pragmatic. Good.
I realized that language students are usually put on a spot. It's hard to decide what you want to do if you have linguistics under your belt.
For example, B's plan is to marry a millionaire who is 98 years old.
C says, he's not sure. Maybe he's gonna continue with Masters.
2 more guys from an older generation, D and E, did the same thing. They continued with Masters.
Hmmm... Maybe it's the nature of employment in our country. Jobs don't come by easy for linguists. And it's not easy to decide what you want to do with a language degree. Yes, the options may be really wide. But you got to get creative with your options to come up with a job you'll be happy with.
Compared to language students, I think tech graduates, finance graduates and communication-based graduates have it easy. You more or less know what you're being shaped out for from the very start. After you've got your paper qualification, you can pull out a hit list and start going through them one by one.
It may not be true for everyone. But I guess generally, it is.
There are also those who did not graduate with an education degree, but they want to go into teaching. Well, F and G... Here's my advice to you. Real advice.
Number 1. Make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. Schools vary from place to place. You may have grown up in a good school. You may have even taught temporarily in many schools, but all in the same vicinity. Based on that, you may think that all schools are generally the same. You may start to believe that it ain't so bad to be a teacher.
Many people have fallen prey to that line of reasoning. They start to regret by the time they start practical training. They say they never knew students (or schools) can be that bad.
Number 2. Make sure you have what it takes to stay in there. A majority of mental patients in psychiatric wards consist of school teachers. I can't quote you the stats. But it's true. I've read about it a few times already at several places.
Here's why. You walk into classes of 35+ students each. You have to face 3 or 4 such populations each day. That makes an average of 123 "clients" a day.
You must remember that you don't get commission for each "client" you meet. There's no motivation for taking more "clients".
You can't meet them one by one. You have to meet allof them at once.
You cannot turn down your "clients". You don't have the privilege of choosing to make do with less "clients". You must take them all.
Your "clients" may not like you. You have to see them. Your "clients" have no interest in your product. You have to see them. Your "clients" may give you trouble. And you have to see them. Your "clients" may mock you or irritate you or publicly defy you. And you still have to see them.
You can't deal harshly with your "clients". If you go one inch too far, you'll get into trouble. If your "client" comes from a rich background, you'll have a lawsuit coming after you. If your "client" comes from a poor background, you'll have vandals coming after your property.
Do you have what it takes to face your "clients" and be indiscriminate about them, every working day?
Number 3. Make sure you can face yourself. You will feel that you are getting older, but you are not getting any smarter. Your intellect is limited to the sphere of a 17-year old kid.
No matter how good you are (or think you are) in your job, you may feel that what you do doesn't matter to anyone anyway.
You know that's not true. But your feelings will tell you otherwise. Be ready to feel constantly unappreciated and undervalued.
Number 4. Make sure you can live that way for the next 30 years. Can you live by the bell?
No flexibility here. You wake up like the schoolboy. You go to work like the schoolboy. You have your breaks like the schoolboy. You have to wear proper attire like a schoolboy. You have to do the same things over and over again. Like a schoolboy.
Number 5. Make sure you can be steadfast. If not, turn back while you still can.
What is the initial reason that inspired you to take this road? Freeze that memory in your mind. Because doe-eyed moments don't come every day.
There will be good days. There will be bad days. But you must stay the same. Because you are the cikgu. Like it or not, people still come to you for answers. You must not, cannot, and should not, betray them. No matter how much you may not like them.
* * * * * * * * * *
Anyway, of all the people I asked, this guy's answer is the most interesting...
H is one of those Math guys. Or is it Physics. And he says he wants to be...
A piano tuner.
He wants to travel around Malaysia, tuning pianos.
Chinese taxi driver robbed by a parang-wielding Indian man. That was on Tuesday, 11th March, 1:30 pm. The robbers were picked up by the taxi man at Taman Wahyu, Selayang. For full story, click here.
On the same day, at 9:00 pm, another case of taxi robbers. This time, involving three men. The police spotted them at Sungai Mas, Jalan Ipoh. Very close to Selayang.
The police also recovered another taxi that was stolen by the same trio. The taxi was found at the Selayang wholesale market. For full story, click here.
Spot the similarities in all 3 cases. All of them involved taxis. And all of them happened in, or very near, Selayang. Selayangku sayang.
Every single colleague of mine has a thief/robber-personal-encounter-story to tell. I wonder when my turn will come.
* * * * * * * * * *
Anyway, here's a sight worth mentioning...
A Chinese girl's car got stalled at USM's Yeap Chor Ee entrance. Two young Malay guys, complete with songkok and kain sarong, got down from their motorbike to help.
That's something I'm sure everyone would like to see more.
My first assignment as a church retreat speaker ended on Monday. Theme was on "Unity in Christ".
Unity... Ironically, it's one of the trickiest things to deal with among Christians. But I'm glad how things went, message-wise. I think it was something the young people really needed to hear. I thank God for the privilege of putting me in the correct position in the right time. Glory be to Him!
With that over with, I have the luxury of time to fully immerse myself in DAP island.
Unity has been, still is, and will always be something very tricky to deal with. In the spiritual sense, and also in the racial sense.
When I first heard the election results for Penang, I was still at church. There were rumours of riots going to break out. I had a paranoid feeling as I drove home. It was a scary moment. The streets of Penang have never been so deserted!
I fell asleep in the hall sofa, in front of the TV, with a calculator in hand, watching the opposition deny the government a two-third majority inch by inch. Or rather, decimal point by decimal point.
All eyes will be on Penang now. Penang will be a model of how Rocketland will look like. A blogger will be running it! Blogger sakti!
Penangites are dangerous people. They are sensitive, unpredictable and decisive. They may love you one day. They may dump you the next. And during the silence in between, you will not know what will hit you... Until it hits you!
Don't believe? You don't have to ask Koh Tsu Khoon. Just ask the koay teow man.
When the koay teow man does something wrong, you just wait and see. It does not even have to be something wrong.Maybe it's just something that is not preferable. Half the state will boycott the stall within a week.
Oh well. I don't know if it's warranted to feel this way. But I do feel safer in Penang. I feel very, very much less likely to be robbed on the streets. I can stroll Gurney Drive on foot late at night, and feel as though nothing will or can happen to me.
Is it because of the majority-minority mentality? You feel safer when you are a majority. You feel insecure when you are a minority. Deep inside, you feel that every thief or robber won't rob their own kind. The minority is less likely to rob the majority because he is less likely to make it. You feel that the hidden racist inside every man works in your favour.
Racial polarization is bad. I'm not justifying it. But I can't deny that it happens.
The Malay taxi man in Batu Caves says he won't pick up Indian passengers when it is late at night. He says they will rob him. He's been robbed by Indian passengers a few times already. His hard-earned money for the whole day goes down the drain in exchange for his life.
The Malay robber who robbed a cyber cafe near my school lines up his victims in two rows. Malays are lined up in one row. Non-Malays are lined up in another row. All the non-Malays are emptied of their pockets.
The Chinese man who works in a private college systematically decreases scholarship allocations to bumiputeras. He turns Malay inquirers away whenever he has a chance. He says it is a righteous thing to do. He sees it as his mandate to champion the cause of the Chinese. He feels that if he doesn't do it, who will?
I've had bad personal experiences too. The mother of a tuition student who won't pay up fees. She says one thing but I know she means another. One night, the boy and his friends happened to turn up at a mamak stall where I was eating dinner. He acted as though he never knew me.
There's a hidden racist in all of us. We try to suppress it. We try to change. It is ideal to be colour blind. Sometimes, we believe that we are. But, being human, the situation is not made any easier when we are hit by bad encounters of our own. Just when the wounds are healing, you get a gash in the same spot that makes it worse.
So, how do we solve the problem? Let everyone become Christians. (Now I'm being a spiritual racist :P)
We can each do our part. We can't solve it. But we can help by not aggravating it.
Treat your neighbour well, especially those of a different colour. Hope that he will remember it. And that one day, he will do the same to others.
Give him not a reason to harbour racial bitterness. If a small boy carries his bitterness into adulthood, he may do exactly what we don't want him to do when he has the capacity to do great things. We may never know who that small boy is.
When we are hit right in the center of an old wound... Pray that we will be able to turn the other cheek. A scar in both cheeks may look like dimples.
Investment advice from a guru... Real wan... (guru sekolah)
If you are a normal wage earner, you don't have a lump sum of cash on your lap, and you don't play shares... You may find this investment advice useful.
Number one. Invest in fixed deposits.
Put RM1k (minimum deposit) into any bank's fixed deposit. The interest rate is at 3.70% per annum. Put it in a 12-month tenure. Your 3.70% will come at exactly one year later.
Repeat this every month for 12 months. At exactly 1 year from now...
You will have 12 fixed deposit certificates, one for each month.
You will enjoy 3.70% (RM37) of interest every month.
You have the flexibility of taking out RM1k worth of fixed deposit every month.
It's better than dumping in RM12k into fixed deposits in one lump sum. You don't have a lump sum of RM12k anyway. If you're a normal wage earner, it won't happen. At least, not too early in your working life.
Staggering it over 12 months will be more strategic because...
You get to liquidate your fixed deposit during a rainy day in any month. Assets that cannot be easily liquidated is almost the same as not having them at all.
You don't have to forfeit your 3.70% interest if you liquidate your fixed deposit before maturity. Sometimes, you don't need RM12k. It will be a waste to liquidate RM12k if you only needed RM1k.
You can't withdraw RM12k in one go. It helps you to not be spendrift.
Number two, invest in oil.
No oil mine in your back yard? Never mind.
Go here.
Pump RM30. Take the receipt. Staple it on the contest form. Drop it in the box. Then, wait for the magic.
If you're lucky, you may get RM25k. That's equivalent to an interest rate of 83,333% per week!
If you're not so lucky, you may get RM1k! That's an interest of 3,333% per week.
Beats any fixed deposit or unit trust. Even the stock market can't come close! Hehehe...
The Shell contest period just ended on 2nd March.
Never mind. If no Shell...
Go here.
Pump RM20. Swipe your Mesra card. This one's easier. No need to fill in form. Just wait for the magic.
If you are lucky, you will win a brand new car! That's like dunno how many percent already! *faint*
If you're not so lucky, you may still win RM1k.
In a nutshell, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify, diversify, diversify. And think outside the box! :)
1.Traditional method. Sally forth to the mall. Use the "thick skin, old clothes" maneuver.
2. Play doctor. Ask your friends if they have unwanted or spare handphones that are not too old or terminally ill. They may not want to repair it. But it may be worthwhile to you if the handphone is a fancy one, its market price is way above your budget, but the repair costs the same as a brand new "cheapest off the shelf" handphone.
3. Bank method. Put RM6k into AmBank for 2 years. The interest rate is at 8.9+ per annum. And you get a new Sony Ericson, Cybershot, 2 megapixel camera phone worth more than RM800. Free gift.
4. Celcom method. Bring a friend who uses a Celcom line to a Celcom store. You get to buy a handphone at a significant discount. If I'm not mistaken, my handphone can be bought at RM118.
My phone's screen went blank again. This time, it is really dead. Brain dead. Microchip dead. LCD dead. Whatever you call it. Cannot be resuscitated anymore.
I went to Digital Mall and got this.
Nokia 1200.
How did I arrive at making this purchase?
Very simple.
Wear shorts, slippers and and a t-shirt. Enter the mall. Locate handphone shop. Ask, "How much is your cheapest Nokia handphone?" Repeat question at every shop. Skin must be thick, clothes must be old.
Seems that when it comes to shopping, my theory is correct. The nearer the shop is to the ground floor, the more expensive it is.
It's the mall's strategy. Shops on lower floors have more customer traffic. You want more customer traffic? You pay higher rent. Hence, you hike up your products' prices too.
Here's the proof. The lower floors are selling the Nokia 1200 at RM150. The highest floor with handphones sells it at RM129.
Here's a tip. If you want a price slash, say you're paying by cash. Then, ask how much discount they can give. It works most of the time.
For the less informed on why paying by cash is sometimes more advantageous...
If you pay my credit card, three parties are involved in the transaction: You, the shop owner, and the credit card company. If the product costs RM100, the shop owner must pay the credit card company a small percentage from that RM100. That's how the credit card company gets its cut.
It's no gain for the shop owner, no gain for you. It's all good for the credit card company.
If you pay by cash, only two parties are involved in the transaction: The shop owner and you. The shop owner may be willing to settle for less if he deals directly with you. The "discount" he gives to you is actually the credit card company's cut. Instead of giving the small percentage from RM100 to the credit card company (if you pay by credit card), he marks down the price for you.
It's still no gain for the shop owner. But it's gain for you! And the shop owner still wants to make the sale anyway.
I got the phone and a hard handphone cover for RM130.
So, be wise. Jadilah pengguna yang kiam siap. I mean, bijak.
4th March.Taman Templer's "bakal wakil rakyat", Dato' Subahan Kamal from Bee Ann, will be coming to my neighbouring school. There will be a ceremony there to give away "sijil bantuan KPM" the students. No, not the "wang bantuan KPM". Just the certs.
The students who are supposed to receive the monetary aid are already qualified for the monetary aid. The ceremony will be held so that Bee Ann's Dato' Subahan Kamal can be there to give away the certs. To signify that the students will be getting the monetary aid.
This is a very important. Because, if you don't give certs to students that are supposed to get the monetary aid, they may not actually know that they will be getting the money. So, it's good to spend just a little more money to create certs and to hold a lavish ceremony. Or else, people may not know. Or worse still, they may forget.
5th March. High tea at my school. Bee Ann's candidates, teachers, parents and teachers are invited to attend. It is not appropriate for the school to host anything politically motivated. But it's ok if we do it under the PIBG's banner. Because, you see, the PIBG and the school are two separate entities.
The price is set at RM10 per head. Who's going to pay for the high tea? Not the school. Not the PIBG. The PIBG endorses it. Bee Ann pays.
When all the Bee Ann candidates come and see the condition of the school, it is with this hope that they will pour in tens of thousands worth of funds for upgrading purposes.
29th March. My school's PIBG AGM. Bee Ann's "bakal wakil rakyat" should be "wakil rakyat" by now. He will officiate the AGM.
22nd March. There will be a special PIBG meeting one week before the PIBG AGM to finalize AGM plans. I wonder if Bee Ann's "bakal wakil rakyat" will still officiate the AGM if things don't work out as planned. But it probably won't happen. Because he is already invited.
A colleague, En. A, comes to school and distributes Bee Ann's pens and Bee Ann's t-shirts. It is ok for a government servant to be active in politics on the bureau level. As long as you give the Headmaster a letter to inform her about it. En. A is often found sleeping in the staffroom during this exciting period.
I heard that Bee Ann is pouring in 20 million into election campaigns. It is indeed a very fair move, because every tax-payer's money will be used to help people make better choices. Every tax-payer will benefit from this indiscriminately. Regardless of race, religion, or political inclination.
"Wah, banyaknya funding untuk buat semua ini?"
"Of course. We are the government," Said En. A.
Upon the dissolution of the parliament, the Prime Minister is still called the Prime Minister. The Deputy Prime Minister is still called the Deputy Prime Minister. It seems that all ministers are still retaining their titles although the parliament is no longer ruling.
It will be confusing for the rakyat if the ministers shed their titles, only to take them up again after 13 days, isn't it? Imagine how it feels like if you suddenly don't have a PM or a DPM. The rakyat should not be left to feel abandoned during these 13 days. Bee Ann has always been there, and will always be there for them.
Is is true that many people are still quite ignorant about politics. That's why the rakyat should be educated about it. Starting in schools.
