With better communications do we communicate better?

Two things reminded me of my former  boss in the early nineties. He passed away last year (may Allah blessed his soul). One is about working beyond the stipulated hours and the other about speeches in front of a table full of food.

In those days minutes were typewritten on machine like this

On the former, he said, those who work beyond the stipulated hours are poor  managers. I was a green horn at the time and still could not fully grasped the meaning of his words. Those days  working hours were from 8.00am to 4.15pm on weekdays and 8.00am to 12.45pm on Saturdays. Yes, Saturday is a working day in those days, albeit only till noon. We hardly had meetings beyond 4.30pm. Fast forward 20 years, these days, meetings that started at 4.30pm is fast becoming a common practice. I already had two meetings lined up in early February that is going to start at 5.00pm and 5.30pm respectively. Echoing the word of the Prime Minister since becoming the PM, his days are becoming longer and his nights are getting shorter, I am also slowly falling into the pattern. With the working hours normally spent attending numerous meetings, I can only attend to the various in-house letters and memos well past 5pm. That means either I have to bring work home or stay in the office till I finish the jobs, which could go on  well past 7pm. That brings the question, am I a poor manager? Maybe indeed I am.

With better global communication, are we better in communicating?

Maybe in the old days we are better prepared for a meeting since everything has to be done manually. We took extra care to get everything ready beforehand. And we tend to make less errors in communication as it was quite difficult to correct them. With better communication equipment at our disposal these days we become a bit slack and a tad  careless. These days we should be better equipped to communicate at a faster rate and things should be better. But unfortunately it does not.  Wan Ahmad Fayshal Wan Ahmad Kamal wrote in the New Sunday Times today, ” despite having a plethora of information at our disposal, how efficient are we in making use of our cognitive abilities?” He questioned further ” Have we, through this hyper connectivity become better communicator?” I truly believe we are non the wiser despite tremendous amount of info and quick way of getting them. I do not know about you, but for me, I think I have to agree with Wan Ahmad Fayshal, we are still not able to tell the difference between  information and knowledge, knowledge and wisdom.

Well, you may wonder what was the other word of wisdom from my former boss? Well, if you are making a speech, especially if food have been served, it should like a skirt, long enough to cover the essential parts, short enough to make it attractive. There was a second part to his advice , but I won’t report it here as I could be charged as sexist as well as racist. You cannot be too careful in these fast global communication days. Many people have been taken to court over a seemingly innocent remarks

 

English is a strange language (or some people call it idiotic)

With its numerous nuances and exceptions to its basic rules, English is definitely a strange language, making it terribly difficult to master. Today I append a posting that was found in the WordPress (Liana)  that I thought confirmed my haunch all these years that English is build by the arrogant people with scant regard for its own rules. Truly ypical of British nonchalance and arrogance.

   Let’s Face It. English Is a Stupid Language.

 

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There is no egg in the eggplant,
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England,
French fries were not invented in France.

We sometimes take English for granted, but if we examine its paradoxes we find that:
Quicksand takes you down slowly,
Boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If writers write, how come fingers don’t fing?
If the plural of tooth is teeth,
Shouldn’t the plural of phone booth be phone beeth?
If the teacher taught,
Why hasn’t the preacher praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
What the heck does a humanitarian eat?
Why do people recite at a play,
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways?
How can the weather be as hot as hell on one day
And as cold as hell on another?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language where a house can burn up as it burns down,
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!

English was invented by people, not computers,
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn’t a race at all.)

That is why:
When the stars are out they are visible,
But when the lights are out they are invisible.
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts,
But when I wind up this poem
It ends.

 

The Idiocy of the English Language

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Elana

 

The Idiocy of the English Language

If you are at all acquainted with the English language, you may have noticed some common sayings and words in there that are really silly, once you come to think of it. For example, why is it called a boxing ring when it is actually a square? Why is the load of the ship referred to as cargo, but when a truck carries a load on land, that is referred to as shipping? Actors recite a play for an audience, but then they play at a recital. See? It doesn’t make sense! But that is English, unfortunately. That is also one of the reasons why English is such a hard language to speak fluently – incorporating all its nuances. Ask me – I’ve been there. There are so many things you simply have to know.

If you want to read more about the silliness of English, there is this poem. It is unfortunately not the original one that inspired this post – that one was printed in my English handbook and I can’t find it – but most of the cartoons of this post are also illustrations from it.

 

Now, without further ado (cliché!), let’s have a giggle!

*

 

You would not believe how many “desert peaches” I’ve seen at the grocer. I always wonder if they are all sandy and dry. And I’ve also had several people ask me if I would live in a dessert. “No, I don’t think so. It would probably be very sticky. And sickly.” Then they look at me as if I’ve gone mad.

 

What the hell just happened there? Please excuse the language: I just felt that was the only suitable comment to use.

 

Yes. And if fire fighters fight fires, what then do freedom fighters fight?

 

Why do we drive on parkways…

… and park on driveways?

 

Oh. Well, I just asked the dictionary, and apparently the word “pineapple” is derived from the Middle English word for “pinecone”. The fruit seems to have reminded whoever named it of a pinecone. If you say so. I can’t say I really see the resemblance. Except maybe in the shape.

 

So sometimes the connections do make sense. A lot of the time they do not, however. But no-one can deny that English is a creative language!

 

I hope you all have a great week!

Have we plunged that low in Maths and Science?

Recently I chanced upon a report on Malaysia’s standing in the world in terms reading, Maths and science. The PISA (Programme for International Students Assessment) reports on OECD’s (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) countries young people ability to use their knowledge and skills in real lives.

PISA is an international comparative survey of 15-year-olds’ knowledge and skills in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy.  It measures how well young adults have acquired the knowledge and skills that are required to function as successful members of society.  This is the first time Malaysia joined the programme to gauge our standing in the educational world specifically in reading, Maths and Science.

Among the OECD countries the top performers in reading literacy are Finland (536 points) and Korea (539) while Shanghai, China (556) is the top performer in non OECD countries.  Reading literacy encompasses the range of situations in which people read, the different ways written texts are presented, and the variety of ways that readers approach and use texts, from the functional and finite, such as finding a particular piece of practical information, to the deep and far-reaching, such as understanding other ways of doing, thinking and being. The lowest score in OECD is Mexico (425) while Khrgyztan is the lowest in non OECD with a score of 314. The mean score is 494. Where did Malaysia stand in the reading literacy scale? Read the summary of reports about Malaysia here:

• Students in Malaysia attained an average score on the PISA reading literacy scale that was below the average attained in all OECD countries and equivalent to the average scores estimated for Brazil, Colombia, Miranda-Venezuela, Montenegro, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago.  In Malaysia, 56% of students are estimated to have a proficiency in reading literacy that is at or above the baseline needed to participate effectively and productively in life. This compares to 81% in the OECD countries, on average.
• Students in Malaysia attained an average score on the mathematical literacy scale below the average attained in all OECD countries. In Malaysia, 41% of students are proficient in mathematics at least to the baseline level at which they begin to demonstrate the kind of skills that enable them to use mathematics in ways that are considered fundamental for their future development.  In Malaysia, there was no statistically significant difference in the performance of boys and girls in mathematical literacy.
• Malaysian students were estimated to have an average score on the scientific literacy scale that was significantly higher than that estimated for the lowest scoring OECD country, Mexico.
• In Malaysia, 57% of students are proficient in science at least to the baseline level at which they begin to demonstrate the science competencies that will enable them to participate actively in life situations related to science and technology. This compares to 82% in the OECD countries, on average.
• In Malaysia, there was a statistically significant gender difference in scientific literacy, favouring girls.

The results is quite damning for a country aspiring to be a fully developed nation by 2020. And the students surveyed were students of the PPSMI generation. As far as this report is concerned, we are on par with countries like Indonesia, Montenegro, Jordan or Trinidad Tobago. We are even lower than Thailand and way below our kiasu neighbour. If Vietnam and Brunei joined the fray, I am worried that we may fall below them as well.

The report only confirmed what we have feared to be happening to our students. Many blamed the results on our inexperience in the PISA arena as well as our overly emphasis on examination. Having looked the overall result we can see that the latter excuse is not quite valid. Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong are countries that famously exam oriented. Reports of students committing suicides as a results depression due to exam pressures are not uncommon in these countries. So why did their students did very well in PISA while ours didn’t? I had a peek at some samples of the PISA questions and it came clear why our students failed miserably. PISA questions are mostly high level, text heavy, and graphical where as our exam questions are mainly low level recall and comprehension questions. Unless and until we change the  content and structure of our exam questions so that more questions on high level thinking skills are asked, we would continue to be a nation of  producing huge number of A+ but unthinking students. Our teachers are so good at producing large number of A+ students at every public exam, one sometime wonder if these A+ are a true reflection of the students overall creative and critical thinking capabilities. We cannot blame the curriculum either because the notion of critical and creative thinking skills have been a major aspect integrated in to the schools syllabi since the KBSR and KBSM days. If the results of the public exam is the true reflections of their academic capabilities then why do we fared so badly in PISA? The mind boggles.

Pessimist view of the new year.

I am not much of an optimist. Every new year I hardly hope for anything new or dramatic to happen in my life. People may not like it, but I cannot help feeling, 2012 would be business as usual. Despite the promise of 1BestariNet would make internet accessibility in schools a breeze, personally I am still not convinced. I have had enough experience of putting too much hope into a project and going round the country telling people of how wonderful it will be only for it to fall flat and to have the dirt splattered on my already battered face. The reason for its failure is beyond our control, we did our darndest and damnest to make it happen, but then due to things that were far beyond our grasps, the project failed to deliver on its promises and we were left holding the sick monkey on our lap ( to borrow the term used by my former DG).

To be honest, I am quite petrified of the prospects of things in 2012. Petrify with the facts that, now we may not have the excuse of poor accessibility for not using the technology in teaching and learning. Petrify with the facts that users may not like what we have done so far. Petrify with the fact that people would point out all those mistakes that we have done. Petrify with the prospect that  users would vilify us for providing not so high standard materials. Petrify with the prospect of schools blaming the ageing equipment for not able to use the technology. I am happy with their current ignorance. Happy and comfortable with their limited use. Ignorance is a bliss. Anxiety also heighten the sense of fear. How are we going to streamline all those requirements. How are we going to meet all those next gen e-content, cyber school, customer satisfaction, and 80% learning objects requirement. Can we meet our April target? Can we match the KPI? Do we have the capacity to do it? Am I going to be drowned in meetings again? Would I be distracted from our mission?

Wow, with all those burning questions, I can only gather my team and plan and hope for the divine intervention that everything would be OK. I am a pessimist and a worrier ( not a warrior mind you). Happy new year everybody.