Get Off Your Laurels!

Warning: This post isn't, by any means, degrading, condemning or rebuking anything or anybody.

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So my class was selected to attend the Business China seminar today. As for the speakers, perfect, they are not, and unfortunately, the only one I really enjoyed listening to was Miss Lim. But they did share their experiences with us, and as students, I think we should be grateful that they took time off their hectic schedules to attend this talk.

Sleeping was definitely a no-no in this seminar, not when the school went to great lengths to provide a comfortable environment for us, as well as to prepare a gracious tea and not-so-gracious lunch. I admit that I did doze off -- that was way in the afternoon after we'd been listening for hours -- but I managed to pinch myself awake by chatting with my neighbours. Hey, at least I made an effort.

I compared the professionals and students by the way they spoke, and one would realize after a while that the adults spoke in slow, measured sentences while the students spoke with a brisk and impatient manner. Note that I am generalizing here, even though I know that there are those that could control the bullet train speed they could speak like. Back to the comparison. It is very obvious how the adults have gained a sense of serenity that youngsters seem to lack nowadays. No matter what the undercurrent was, on the surface they are like the lakes and rivers -- calm and peaceful.

And I liked that. It is a characteristic I would like to have someday (or maybe in five years' time): Cool and collected.

And then there was something that irked me immensely. Some students were handed remote controls and asked to vote from the choices reflected on the screen. The instant results were more than contradictory, and all the more confusing. But that wasn't what fueled my anger. It was the fact that was presented before me that irritated me to no end.

In the first question, it asked if the students felt that Chinese or English was more important. More than half of the students said 'Chinese'. In the second question, the students were asked which view was closer to their perspective. 1) S'pore is not doing enough to bring students to another level in Chinese. 2) S'pore is doing enough to spread the Chinese culture, but it's the students that are not interested.

More than half chose 2.

Combine this result with the previous and you see a contradictory sentence. "We [students] feel that Chinese is more important than English but we don't want to take time to learn it." That's my interpretation. And I went, "WTH?"

Why is it that when China scholars come to Singapore, they immediately slacken? First, they've already learnt what we're learning now, and more. To come to class was like revision. All they had to do was understand the English and they'd be able to answer the questions. So they come, and they focus on their English, and they leave, with a better English standard than most of us. To learn a new language and speak it fluently at the age of sixteen is no easy feat. They have to work five times harder than most Singaporeans. And they emerge winner while we rest on our laurels and complain that all these 'Cheena Scholars' are taking away our first, second and third places. Yet it never occurred to our students that we are the ones that aren't working hard enough -- what right did we have to point our fingers at others and put the blame on them?

The students' attitude speaks for itself from the survey results. It shows our selfishness and just how narrow our vision is. We can't see that everybody around us is getting of their feet and racing to embrace the competitive future. No. We're still sitting in our warm, comfy seats, too warm in fact, and we still do not want to get off our butts and start walking. I think China scholars are a wake-up call. So why aren't we waking up?

Because we are defiant. Our students have too much pride to speak of. Singapore is the best because we have a successful Prime Minister. That does not mean the rest of us would be.

I am not saying that all China scholars are nice, fantastic people, but some of them are. And we should learn from them. We have China people as our neighbours, literally, so why aren't we making good use of the situation? Why do we ostracize them? Why do we mock them?

The wake-up call is ringing, people. Get up.