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 | New Blog | Jul 23, '11 2:54 PM
for everyone |
Dear all, I have decided to stop posting here, and all new blog entries can be found on this wordpress site: www.crazchyi.wordpress.com
Your critical comments and ideas are always welcomed.
Best, Chyi One of my great passion is traveling. I enjoy stumbling my feet on different corners of the world, and amazed by its wonders. I also love to encounter new culture, personalities and ways of thinking from different civilization and upbringing. This helps to broaden my mind and imagination.
I have been taking this pleasure for granted, mingling around the global trotters to talk about the experiences in the past trips, and the exciting traveling plans ahead. I even naively believed that our world has been so globalized with people crossing the borders and continents so easily and frequently.
Until I found out and personally experienced the painful process that the nationals from the so called "third world" countries to get a visa just to pay a short visit to the so called "advanced" countries. You need to pay certain amount of money for the visa, display your financial statements and insurance to convince the consular that you can afford to make this trip.
I found this a discrimination. First, it discriminates people from their nationalities. Second, it discriminates people by their wealth.
On the other hand, the travelers from the advanced countries have been entering the less developed countries freely, boasting about the amazing beaches they found, great parties they had, hot women that they met, and how cheap the things are in the exotic countries they visited. Some of them even turned the nature paradise into their drug paradise, and more saddening is to instill their polluted "advanced values" to the locals who has no idea but to admire.
They step in and out easily, spending the low currencies like water, and enjoy the humanity and hospitality from the locals. I can't believe how these people can turn into a cold mask to the "immigrants" from lower income countries in their own society.
I understand that the law and regulations are set by the government, with the reason to block illegal immigrants and to protect the social security of their residents. I have no objection on this. May I ask the government in the third world countries to block certain travelers from the rich countries who might cause social issue in their society as well? They should block the irresponsible tourists who bring in biased culture, drug and pollution. Shouldn't they show a proof of good behavior before they are grant a visa to enter the country?
Sadly, the rich as the choice to filter, but not the poor. Reversely, the poorer countries have to close an eye to allow these tourists to come and exploit their nature and society in order to bag in a few dollars which worth a greater amount in their own currency.
I definitely do not think that all the rich tourists are racists, or drug addicts; at the same time not all visitors from third world countries are trying to earn the meagre wage illegally or to rob or to steal or to do any crime in the advanced societies. If they have a choice, I believe they wouldn't really want to come to the rich countries, to work on the jobs that no one wants to do, and to work harder to achieve some low achievements.
Instead of feeling the world is shrinking, I think the inequality gap is broadening. It is just we are too comfortable to be aware of it. But what can we do? I am seeking for the solution which I hope is existing. I always strive to grab every second and minute possible to read, to study, to experience, to learn and to work, without wanting to "waste" any moment to "enrich" myself.
And, I look at the girl working in the pizza stand. For me, baking hundreds of pizza a day doesn't make any sense to enrich one's own life. However, she is enriching the palate and stomach of many people everyday.
What is the purpose of enriching yourself if not this?
 It was shocking and heartbreaking watching the news broadcasting the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Disasters are what one would like to live without, and take no control of it. However, only via disasters and bad time, one has the opportunity to display his real ability (底力) instead of during good times.
Many things can be learned from this disaster, that again, I am paying my highest admiration and respect to Japan.
It is a country with high civic that people would help each others, and they share a strong spirit to stay together and get through tough time together. Sometimes we like to laugh at the Japanese people that they work too much or they stay in the office or the time. Yet, during the earthquake, I saw how the companies take care of their employees to make sure that they are safe in one piece, provide them help on logistics, support from small things like hot tea in the cold winter, provide them chocolate and food if they decide to walk home, or even try to get the company car to make sure that they can be home safely.
Corporate Social Responsibility - you know what, you can open the vending machine during the disaster as the beverage company is providing the drink for the people to support them during emergency.
Participation of citizens and corporate - there are Japanese high school girls helping Disneyland, to distribute the sweets from Disneyland product to families with children, to console them and to provide morale support.
This is what Japan can proud of and what they can impress the world most.
We know that Japan can do this, but due the the recent economic downturn, and the lost of motivation of the people, we often turn to the downside of the society. What the real value underlying them are not dying. At some point I was wishing that I am still there with them, and hope to do what little thing I can with them.
Another interesting observation from the incident is, the whole world is paying full attention to this and the important role played by the social networking site. Even in Spain, the TV program has been broadcasting the news and video about the tsunami, and even the twitter feed of a Malaysian news media is updating the live report about the the catastrophe. Since the telephone is unavailable, most of the people are using the internet to keep in touch with their family to check their safety. I found reading twitter and facebook would give me more insights about how everything is actually happening. There are a mass of information from people in all walks of life, and they tweet and talk about what they feel and what they are facing, those are the information that beyond the reach of the media.
This is the first time that I do not find bad spending long hours strolling around facebook pages and tracking my friends. :)
Last thing, I hope the effect from the nuclear plant is not going to be a crucial one. After some months being a graduate school student in Europe, I started to be able to observe a little bit more about the situation of the advanced education here, at least on the field that I am engaging, and the people that I have encountered.
In terms of level of education, facilities, accessibility to the information, they are up to the upfront. The professors and academic staffs are great combinations of diversity, network, and they are dedicated to bring the course into a competitive level among the tops. Since European Union is closely united now, and the flow of people, information and interaction is much more frequent across the countries nowadays, this is an advantage that they have but not in other region.
However, I found quite different is, the students. The European students who are doing a graduate course are normally those with a good motivation, as a continent where people make decision on their own will, they won't take on something if they are not interested or prepared to do it. Hence, they show good attitude or at least take responsibility of what they are doing, they have good knowledge on the field and always make sure that they are up to the pace.
They are motivated, knowledgeable, and what I found is different with graduate students from America or Asia is, they are not very ambitious nor aggressive. Maybe being ambitious and aggressive is not very European. I am surprised when I found that the students in the postgraduate course of Economics would have a good understanding of difficult models of monetary model, pricing of stocks, market theory, growth theory but they do not know what's going on in Wall Street, what happened to "Lehman Brothers", China is growing but they do not have much idea about what is really happening except their employment rate is now high.
Perhaps unlike students in America, for instance in New York University (NYU) where they are a few blocks away from the financial center, and unlike students in China where competition is tense that they always have to show that they are excellent than others in every way, the students here are more laid back and spend a greater amount of time to understand the theory, idea and philosophy better.
It is an interesting phenomenon to see, although sometimes I do worry how will these people behave when they are facing the real world, but as what I see other Europeans on work force, with a solid background on their field of knowledge, they are doing fine, they will pick up the business knowledge and main issues better accordingly. Perhaps it could be a better way than if it is the other way round. Here it has swung into year 2011, sometimes I wonder why people wish each others "HAPPY" new year, or "Felis" ano neuvo, is the beginning of a calendar year a happiness to celebrate? Well, it is another good festive reason for family to gather, friends to party to celebrate a new start. It could be a good time for one to take a pause, to reflect on last year, and to set new resolutions for coming year.
I am happy that I was welcoming my new year in Barcelona. I have just moved in on the last few days of year 2010. I first heard about Barcelona in year 1992, when I was in primary school and first know about what Olympics is. I visited Barcelona for the first time in 2002, and I was very impressed by the architecture, culture and liveliness in the city. When I thought about my exit plan to leave Japan, this city as crossed my mind and now I am really glad that I made it happen.
Year 2010 was so far the best, until we have 2011, my resolution of the year is always to make the very this year the best year in my life.
However, most of the time last year, I was also always busy with deadlines, administration, work delivery, examinations, that I was chased, and I ran, and I reached the goals for each task I was doing. I just do what I had to do. Especially in the new country with foreign language, I needed to spend more effort to get things done. Now, I should appreciate all of these as a good experience to learn how to deal with different circumstances and people. In this year 2011, I would like to focus on what I want to do.
I am glad that all the major moving has been done. I will settle in Barcelona for at least a year. This year, I would like to focus on the Economics studies which was the reason I came back to Graduate School, learn the Spanish language and to integrate with the local society, and resume the public speaking activities and do more reading & writing which are my hobbies. I would like to continue doing meditation as well, during whenever I feel like to, and hopefully make it a good morning habit. I lost a lot of energy by the chase and run activities, I would like to regain them by generating the positive one.
On the social part, I would like to matter the relationship and friendship that matter. I started to realize more and more about what are the relationship that matter, and how to treasure the real friendship. Then I won't feel any obligation to meet anyone or to attend any function, but to meet anyone I love and any function I like pleasantly.
I started to look forward to looking back at this year 2011 on the first day of year 2012. I believe it will again become one of the best years in life.
Wishing everyone a great year ahead too. 皆様も素晴らしい一年になりますように。
Finally, this is the very first time, could be the very last time I feel that I am doing it right since I come to Paris. The poor service and my lack of knowledge of how things work here have created a lot of hassle when I try to get things done here. I hope this is an exception.
There are many luggage and package shipping services in Japan, and one can get rid of the trouble of carrying the huge luggage when they travel domestically or the are affordable services to ship the luggage to the airport / from the airport to their house. The service is trustworthy, and the packages are always handled carefully. This service is called takuhaibin (宅配便), which could be useful for living / visiting Japan: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2278.html
Since I arrived in France, I never feel satisfied with any of their service. It leaves many room to worry especially whenever it comes to anything urgent.
This time, I needed to find a shipping company to ship my luggage from Paris to Barcelona. I am not familiar if there is any similar service with the luggage shipping. Unfortunately, after asking around, the French has no idea what am I referring to, and I tried out services such as UPS, DHL, but most of them are enterprise based services or they charge expensive prices for private shipping. For instance, I was told that it costs more than 1300 Euros to ship a luggage from Paris to Barcelona, and I have to reconfirm several times if he really means 1300 but not 130. The Post office can only send parcels but not suitcase.
Hence, I started to do a few research online, and found a useful article on the New York Times. It is mainly for travelers who want to travel lightly, with their suitcase sent to the destination prior to arrival, especially sometimes this shipping could be cheaper than checking in the luggage if you are using a budget airlines, it saves you the hassle to drag your luggage from your house to the airport and from the airport to the hotel. I think this article is worth reading: http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/sending-excess-baggage-home-from-abroad/
After checking out a few services, I decided to use this service called firstluggage.com it is a U.K. based company.
This is an experience that I feel so happy to discover all the smooth globalized workflow. First, I booked a reservation online, putting my contact information, address to pick up the luggage and the destination. On the next day, someone with the excellent British accent called me up, to confirm the details with me and we arranged the best date and best way to pick up the luggage.
The operator brilliantly helped me to contact someone in Paris to pick up my luggage in Paris, and to distribute it in Barcelona. After a few communications and knowing her name, I realized that she has an Indian which most likely she is located in India. The workflow is simple and clear, the service is excellent. I trust the arrangement of this company and my only concern is if the French people is going to handle my things with care.
Again, I am amazed by how things are worked out well in this globalized world. An Indian working for a U.K. company with perfect British accent helped someone from Malaysia shipping a luggage from Paris to Barcelona.
I hope this can be worked out well then I will celebrate the advancement of the technology, and communication again.
Merry Christmas! One of the surprising things I see in Paris is - there are many beggars on the street. Some of them would play the musical instruments in the train, especially the sentimental songs which would bring you to some happy or sorrow old memories that would touch you and you can't help without putting a few Euros to them. Some of them only beg even they look healthier than me, while some homeless will enjoy cheap wine as their breakfast on the bench in the middle of the street.
Suddenly I remembered that I was asked this question, "Are there many beggars in your country?" when I was in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which is so far the city with the highest density of beggars that I have been to. More specifically, they are interested to know if there is any beggar in the developed countries. For them, beggars only exist in poor countries, and people in rich countries are living in totally different world, that they would dine in high-class restaurants, sleep in well air-conditioned rooms, shower with hot water even in the summer.
I shrugged the question off as I haven't met any beggar in Japan, and in Malaysia, my impression told me that there might be some when I was a kid, and there still might be very few beggars in the tourists spots nowadays, but so far I can't really recall if there is any significant number of beggars anymore.
Hence, I was astonished by the number of beggars in Paris. Of course, most of the beggars are neither French nor Parisians.
It reminded me that it is much more difficult to be poor in an affluent society than in a lower income country. In developing countries, there are only a small number of people who are really well off, and most of the rest are normally around the same struggling line with you, and it is easier to live cheaply there, so life can be good even if you are not rich. Hence, I used to think, if I were to settle down in a rich country, I want to make sure that I am at least richer than the average as I don't want work like dogs just to make ends meet in the higher society, while life could be good and leisure in the less stressful society even with a smaller amount of effort.
Nonetheless, when you think from another perspective, it is more competitive in the developing world since everybody is hungry, they are in the desperate level, people would do everything to achieve what they want. Sometimes due to the constraint of their society, people would only able to achieve certain level, and the maximum level they can achieve sometimes even lower than the lower level in the developed world. Hence, it is a dream for many ambitious youths from the developing world to chase improve their life standard here. They are great if they succeed, else, we will see another beggar on the street.
I am always impressed by people who come from a less developed society, but able to make their way and become successful in a developed countries. They must have paid more amount of effort to reach there compared with those who are originally from a higher starting point.
At the same time, I started to think, if they pay the same amount effort, there are also possibilities that they could overcome the constraint and make a difference in their original society. This could be more challenging than making a good living in a rich society. It takes more than effort to overcome this, wisdom, determination, and luck are other factors that matter. The possibility to succeed and the incentive are lower, but, at least, when they fail, there are less chances that they would become a beggar. Now I am living in the second country where the society has its rich and unique culture, language and social norm. I was living in Japan for 9 years, and only came to France for 2.5 months, and I started to observe some similarities and differences in both societies.
In Japan, in order to say oneself as a Japanese, the sufficient condition is to have the Japanese nationality. In order to be recognized as one of the society, one has to be able to of course knowing the language but more importantly the culture, the culture here is not the traditional culture such as the bushido, samurai, kimono or the tea ceremony, but the unspoken rules followed by the society nowadays, for instance obeying the seniority and hierarchical society, able to swim around the society of honne and tatemae (hide your true emotion and display another public behavior). However, the NECESSARY condition is nothing more than having a Japanese blood-stream, and Japanese family root.
In France, as long as one speak French, able to understand French culture, which is associated with the way of living, the appreciation of the life value, able to express yourself in the society, then you can be a French regardless of where your root come from. However, I realized that the French with other ethnic group (from instance there are many from Asia (China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) and Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Congo)), even the young generation, when they refer to "my country", they do not actually mean France but the country of their ancestors come from. They are fully blended into the French society and many of them still preserve their original culture.
As it is almost impossible to be a Japanese if you do not have the bloodline, it is easier to be a foreigner. If you are a foreigner, you are allowed not to follow the unspoken rules among the Japanese, you are well entertained as a 'gaijin' or foreigner. The Japanese will feel sorry that they do not speak English and they do not expect the foreigners to understand Japanese.
On the other hand, as everybody can be French, everybody in France is expected to be able to live in the French way, to speak the French language is the most important element in the French society. You won't be entertained or sometimes being treated harshly only because you do not speak French. There are more people understand English nowadays as the country started to recognize English as the international language, but majority still thinks what while you are in France, you have to speak French.
I use "Understand" in Japanese, and "Speak" when I talked about French. It is because in Japan, the society doesn't require people to speak up, or to express. You will be much appreciated if you understand and preferably follow their ways of doing things. While in France, in this heterogeneous society, it is very important to be able to speak up and express yourself, else you will lose your position and recognition among the others.
It is important to "understand" in Japan, and it is crucial to be "understood" in France.
Beside the challenge of struggling to understand the system and organization of a new society, I am enjoying the pleasure of discovering the different faces of the places with different idea and culture. I told myself that this has to be more than a travel experience.
Shoah means holocaust in French. I didn't know much about Jewish in France, and their historical relation with Germany, especially during the second world war until I found out about this exhibition of Irene Nemirovsky, a Jewish immigrant from Russia to France, who has been living in France, publishing numerous novels in French but keep her national and racial identity. I became more interested while reading the "Suite Francaise" by this author while she is in the Auschwitz Concentration camp.
I had a fruitful visit to this Shoah Memorial - Museum, Center of Contemporary Jewish documentation in Paris today. http://www.memorialdelashoah.org/getHomeAction.do?langage=en
As I didn't have much exposure about Jewish culture and the proper interpretation of Jewish history during my education in Malaysia (our then Prime Minister is known by his anti-semitism), I had rather bias idea about the Jewish and Judaism. The visit to this museum which covers a good documentation of the life of the Jewish in Europe, especially in France, and how they were treated, sometimes excluded and sometimes integrated with the local community, and how they were involved in the second world war, when the Germans came to France.
The exhibition provided a good coverage of the situation of the Jewish in the part of history including their struggles and treatment from the societies, which I thought is a great exhibition. There is more to learn if I need to understand the current affairs in the middle east with Israel, but this visit has given me a new perspective while viewing the past events from the experiences of the Jewish people.
There is another special exhibition for Irene Nemirovsky, which included many of her handwriting scripts, letters and life tracks. One of the sentences that attracted me are:
" The aim of my life is self improvement." - Irene Nemirovsky
The following is the wall of names of the victims in the concentration camps as memorial. (Le Mur des Noms).
 Paris has been known as one of the most beautiful cities where many people dreamed to visit. Its historical architecture, mouth watering cuisine and wine, and the romantic atmosphere has made Paris top listed as one of the most popular honeymoon destinations.
I have been living here for more than 1.5 months now, I shall say that I have been loving my life here. Living in a beautiful city is a good reason to feel happy, and another main reasons are I have done a progress in my life to try living in Paris, and to attend a competitive Graduate School here, I enjoy the intellectual stimulation, and at the same time enjoy the simplicity of my life in this romantic capital of France. I have been so contented that even the simplest baguette will make me feel happy.
However, despite the happiness floating in the surface, I remind myself to forget about the joyous of just a visitor who try to make up her best memory in the city, I started to look at the city in its deeper layer.
You will start to feel disgusted with this place if you are unlucky enough, and yet being unlucky is more common. Sometimes I feel insecure walking around the streets, and using the metro. One of the phenomenons is, pickpockets are everywhere and they are invisible. Even the thieves are very relaxed like other French people. I was with a friend when her purse in her backpack being taken without noticed by both of us. The thief only took out the 10 Euro notes from it, and then the purse was thrown on the platform towards the railway. It wasn't a big loss but it was a horrible experience. This is not a single story and immediately after that another friend's passport was stolen in the Metro during her honeymoon in Paris!
The Parisians are relaxed but furious. There is not many friendly smile on the street. French do not work long hours - they work the least among the developed countries, but the Parisians do not seemed to be happy in anyway. I feel that they are always in an unstable mode that they do not feel harmony and calmness within themselves. Even the sales persons are not friendly.
One obvious example I found is, in Japan, the sales person would apologize to you even it was you who made the mistake, but in France, you will be scolded just because the sales person is in a bad mood. There are many moody people. I started to get ready for a rainfall even their current mode is on cloud nine.
One of the best thing to experience in France is their strike. It says that France is a country of liberty and people has the right to debate and get what they want, but I still feel that they are not that democracy as the way I think is the real democracy. People protest on the street when they are not happy with the government's policy, they put on fire, they blocked cities, petrol supplies which only adds trouble to innocent people's life but not making any difference at least before the next election. On the other hand, there are young people use the strike as a "reason" to party, they put on music, eating sandwiches, drinking beer and parading around Paris. That's cool, isn't it?
I feel that like their mood, people feel angry on things they feel unhappy easily here (as they are quite self-centered, when they feel that their rights and benefit is taken, they started to feel unbalanced.), they marched on the street, and protest. They feel the need to shout out their voice, and the society accept it, as it happens all the time. I doubt it as I think showing unsatisfactory is alright as everyone has the right to do so, but they need to review if they are doing in a right way?
Even in the ordinary citizen level, people would cry and shout when they feel things are not beneficial on their side, but I seldom see them slow them at least lower their tone to discuss and to negotiate to find out a good solution. Perhaps they have more passion to fight and have less patience to tolerate compared with me.
These are not complaints but some small observations with what I have experienced. I might have misunderstood certain parts of it, and I hope to clarify in time to come.  The first time and the last time I visited La Basilique du Sacre Coeur was a brief visit 8 years ago, I didn't remember the place well but somehow I know that I have to go back again.
It was more crowded than I was there before, I usually do not like crowded places or touristic destinations, but this is an exception. This is a sacred place that has an unexplained reason to call people from everywhere, to gather them together in one place, to have their own enjoyable moments in one place.
I enjoyed the peacefulness in the Basilique, and once I stepped out, I had the luxury view of the panorama of Paris, with a glass of good wine with the foie gras (fat liver in French) sandwich or escargot from the market, ended with some crepe with homemade jam. What else could you ask for to enjoy a lovely evening in Paris? When I was walking across the bridge linking the Île de la Cité, the small island where the Notre Dame located, to the other side of the river, I was stopped by the traditional music instrument performance by Scottish man with his traditional dress. Under the bridge, I saw the tourist cruising boat along the Seine River, and the tourists with different skin colors from different nations were waving to the people on the bridge.
It was a pleasant moment indeed. I believe that I wasn't the only one who was immersed by this atmosphere.
Again, I am amazed by how globalized the world is, and how people from everywhere now have the opportunity to visit the beautiful places around the globe. I am among the lucky ones who have the chance to live in great cities in the world, and to see more people from many parts of the world.
I have left my country Malaysia for almost a decade now, I can not imagine if I am going back there one day. I miss the strong connection with the people, the leisure and stability of daily routine in my hometown, but I feel unmotivated or unsure about my future in the place where I come from.
I like to proudly tell people that I come from Malaysia, and I pay effort to learn more about the country but I am reluctant to settle there. What's wrong with that? Maybe I just enjoy being a foreigner. I am a foreigner everywhere except Malaysia. I feel the same when I am in France and when I was in Japan.
Am I really enjoy the process of adapting to a new environment, or I am addicted to the feeling of accomplishing my levels of achievements despite I am in a foreign land? Or I merely want to escape the expectation from the locals which require me to follow the social norm without questioning?
Sometimes I feel tired of moving around, but the inner urge tells me to continue doing so because I haven't seen enough, and I haven't found out where to settle in. I have found the person to settle with, and I am working towards what I want to do in my life, and my passion in mankind, perhaps in this globalized world, location is no longer an issue. When I was walking on my usual path to the regular station from my apartment in Tokyo, on the last day before my departure, I felt sad because I don't know when will I walk on this same path again. I have been passing by this neighborhood many many times, and even made acquaintance with some familiar faces I met. I have made a tough decision to leave Japan, a place that I have get very familiar with, not only the language, the lifestyle, but also connected with the society, culture and people. The tough decision was proved tough when I landed in Paris, a new place with a totally new set of language, lifestyle, society, culture and people. I felt foreign again. Paris is a beautiful city that I couldn't stop being impressed, and simultaneously remind myself that I am not on a holiday now as a tourist but I am here for a longer stay. Staying and visiting are totally different. When you visit for a short time, you may just get a glimpse of the city, tried out some cuisine, take a few photos for memory or to show people that you have been here. But to stay, you will face the new sets of system, lifestyle, way of thinking and doing things. You need to create your own routine / lifestyle to live happily here. Occasionally I am tempted to look back on what I had in Japan, the stable job and income I had, the people I met regularly. However, most of the time I switch the thoughts immediately towards what I want to do in the new city. I might need another enormous of time to blend into the Parisian life, but if I just reminisce without taking step forward, what was the point of bringing myself here? Besides the main purpose, to excel in my studies, I would like to get a deeper understanding of Paris, the French society, language and culture. I want to be able to communicate in my daily life, and to be more involved with the local community. I only have 4 months but I want to do what I can. Then, when I thought over it, I have no reason to feel sad that I was leaving somewhere I feel familiar, to leave my usual routine. Nonetheless, if I never break this routine, but repeating it daily without giving myself a chance to create a new route for myself, when years pass, I think I will feel even sadder. After all, I am having a great opportunity to open a new journey in a beautiful city like Paris, I don't have much to say about the society and people yet, but if I take my passion and patience to explore, the new routine will only be better rather than worse. The picture shows my new neighborhood, an angle shooting the Pantheon from the Rue Valette copying the photographer Eugene Atget. I just live on the left of the street. 
Knowing that I have only 6 months in town in Tokyo, I gave myself a challenge to join a toastmasters club in town, Sakura Toastmasters Club in Tokyo, and destined to complete the first level of Communicator qualification, which is the Competent Communicator before my departure.
It wasn't an easy task as I needed to give speeches every two weeks in order to complete 10 speeches to reach the level. I was destined to fulfill the task, or more importantly to improve my public speaking skill. I was able to complete my goal eventually in the targeted, the processes include learning from the tips in the manual, evaluation from peers in the club, and more importantly constant self evaluation and self improvement.
I have learned many things from the process. This could be a good experience to grow one's confidence speaking in front of people, and it is not an easy job. There are many obstacles to give an excellent speech, especially to give an inspiring speech confidently.
Unlike acquiring knowledge, acquiring skills for instance painting, crafting, or writing are not easy. It doesn't mean that you will be good as long as you study and read hard, these skills are states of art that sometimes people say that you need to have a talent to do them well. I partially agree with that, we do need talent to acquire a skill seriously, however, the more important thing is, how strong your determination to do things well, and if you are paying effort to perform it better and better.
There is also saying that practice makes perfect, I partially agree with that. Of course a lot of practice is necessary to perform the skill skillfully, but the attitude to constantly conscious about how you can do better and try to really do it is very important to improve the skill. That is a good attitude to have. Eventually, with enough effort paid, even you might not realize it, you will improve significantly.
Before this, I did like to speak with many people in personal level, and I felt nervous when I had to make a speech or presentation. I always wanted to conquer this. By acquiring the competent communicator, I could give myself enough learning experiences by giving speeches, by targeting to complete by targeted time, I could push myself to keep giving speeches. It was a great chance to polish my brain to come out with a great topic to speak about, as well as observing my progress and look for ways to improve. A great thing about the toastmasters club is, the audience will give you feedback, and there will be an evaluator to give you evaluation or suggestion to your speech. These have been tremendous help for me to improve myself.
Anyway, the CC is the most basic level, I have a long way to go if I would like to achieve more in toastmasters. However, I think it was a great learning opportunity from a good community but not just looking for levels to reach. I hope to continue my learning journey in wherever I go, and I think having a community to learn from each others, not just particular skill but learning for individuals is crucial for personal development. Of course, before that, you need to know what you want to achieve. Once you recognize it, it will just depends on how you are going to make it happen.
 I have been living in Japan for more than 9 years. Occasionally, I meet people who tells me that they really like Japan or even there are people who dream of living in Japan. When I reflect the living here, I do agree that this country is so unique that there are many things that you can only enjoy in Japan. The following are the example of some activities I can only do it here in Japan.
1. Having a deep conversation with the Japanese persons in Japanese language in Japan. Being in Japan itself would somehow affect how we think and react to the happenings and surroundings, and the expression in Japanese language again affect my way and style of communication. The expression in Japanese is rather vague and indirect. This kind of communication is not efficient and not suitable for business context, but how it gets you to read the atmosphere, and word between line creates a unique way cultural and personal understanding.
2. Soak in the local sentou (Public bath, especially in the traditional neighborhood) and share some brief conversations with the housewives / obaa-chan (grannies). I like to go there once in a while to recover from the high pressure and high speed lifestyle in Tokyo, and it would be awesome if you get a glass of cold milk to recharge the liquid & nutrient loss after the getting out from the O-yu (hot water).
3. Getting hungry in the middle of the night, and walk into a standing noodle place to slurp a cup of kakiage-soba (mixed-tempura soba noodle) or kitsune-udon (fried thin tofu on Udon). 4. Wear the summer bathrobe called Yukata to participate in the local summer festival, O-Matsuri, and enjoy watching the Hanabi, or fire flower, the firework.
5. Gazing at the sakura (cherry blossom) trees in spring, have a sip of sakura-zake, to be impressed by the beauty of sakura, and the quickness of the time flying. This is a time to reset for a new life to welcome the new encounters in the new year.
6. Empty the bowl of thick green tea, to calm down to a peaceful mind, to enjoy the serenity atmosphere in the tatami tea room, and not forgetting to appreciate the hospitality of the tea master / host. This is the so called Japanese hospitality - the Omotenashi.
I have learned how to appreciate the beauty of Japan. The Japanese have a very unique way of appreciation of beauty, in the nature and art. I only had a glance on it, but it has helped me to create a new scope in my world view.
This is another big asset to carry with me in the luggage with my departure. Today is the last day of my first employment, and also a delighted day for myself. After another month, I am going to say sayonara to the land of rising sun where I have been living for more than 9 years. I am moving to a new continent for a new journey with new challenges.
I am happy today not because I can now start to have my month long vacation, or to release from my long hour desk work. I am glad because I have successfully made a progress for myself. The completion of this step means I am moving to a new stage, and start a new steep curve to start over again.
One thing I can't miss in my life, is to move on. I do not like to feeling of being stuck or trapped, being in a same place and doing the same thing without making any inch closer to my goal.
When my life doesn't move on, I want to be able to revise the destination, and take initiative to restart the engine. Sometimes there is a risk of where you are going might not as wonderful as where you currently are, but if you started to feel uncomfortable in the current comfort zone, you should move on in any means.
Coming to Japan was my dream, but staying here forever is not.
I started to think about the last day before your move on to your next step. It provides a good chance to review what you have achieved there, from there, you will be able to understand what really mean to you, and able to set a new prioritization for your next move.
There are always something you feel attached to every single point you come across, but the departure is not necessarily meaning that you are cutting yourself away from them, especially the relationship, friendship and trusteeship built. These invisible yet if with real value, they will stay or continue growing.
I started to look forward to my last day in Japan. Again, I am happy not because of I can start living to another beautiful city and it doesn't mean the end of my connection with Japan. Instead, I am curious to see how my experiences in the past will help me to do it better in my new environment.
Another happening which made me feel great today was a small episode in the train home. I was carrying a huge backpack, hands full with umbrella and a bouquet, and immense myself with a novel. The water of the bouquet started to leak and the paper bag of the flowers started to tear. I was embarrassed and awkwardly tried to hold the bottom of the bouquet and even tried to resume reading.
After that, a Japanese (senior) lady kindly reminded me to be aware of the bouquet, and then she started to searched around her handbag and found me a plastic bag. I was hand-full and wasn't able to nicely put my flowers into her bag. Then, a gentleman standing next to me started to help carrying the plastic bag so that I can put the flowers in more easily, and I passed my book to another guy sitting opposite me and gracefully put the flower into the bag.
This is just a small episode but I felt so warm. What the others did was something very tiny but this is what I don't get everyday in Tokyo. Sometimes small things do brighten your days, or maybe I have already in a happy mode. :) The current prime minister of Japan, Yukio Hatoyama announced his resignation today. I wasn't surprised at all, although I was disappointed be  cause I was expecting something better or at least different from this new government formed by the Opposition party who has successfully took over the government after the sluggish Liberal Democratic Party, the former governing party was taking the office for more than 50 years.
This shows a few things to me, and somehow provides me some materials to ponder a little about the politics and society in Japan. The social phenomenons in this society do not change easily, although the Prime ministers keep changing and even the parties changed. It is a common Japanese practice that leaders resigning to take responsibility for failure. I think it is quite an easy job to take as a leader in Japan, because the worst thing happen is to just resigning, and you will get rid of all the troubles. The problems that you have created will be dealt with your successor, and you can be carefree after that. Doesn't this sound good?
On the other hand, the reason behind resigning is, mistake is not easily forgiven in this country. The people would give pressure when the leader does something wrong and they do not give enough patience for him to correct it. The Japanese are basically perfectionists and they feel embarrassing when there is any mistake and immediately they demand someone to take responsibility and shift all the responsibility to that person. This doesn't solve the problem fundamentally, but it makes the Japanese people feel good.
Going back to Hatoyama's resignation, a main point he mentioned was, "People are now no longer listen to the government." This is the indication that the people has lost the credibility of the ruling party. However, I see the fundamental problem of what he says there, about he is expecting the people to listen. The act of listening sounds quite passive to me, what this country need or any healthy and progressive country needs is not people who listen, but people who is able to read, to research, to think critically. The politicians are those who should learn how to listen, but not the people.
The keyword of the criticism on Hatoyama is "迷走", or wander, weave about in English. I think he is not the only Japanese politicians who wander around but just he doesn't know how to hide his wandering mind in his speech and behavior. Most of the leaders in other parts of the world (let's imagine some famous leaders like Barack Obama, Hu Jintao), I am sure that there are some policies that they are not very sure about, but they always appear confident, promising and credible to the people. It is not natural for Japanese to show that they are confident in public, but what Hatoyama behaved was not Japanese either. Most of the Japanese at least know to think deeper before they say something, they might seemed indecisive but at least they won't say one thing today and another thing tomorrow. Something hypocrite is, the stock market bounced on the same day of PM resignation to indicate that it is a good move. I am not too positive about the future of this country, in terms of politics and economics. However, this incident definitely gives me a few points to look at the current situation of Japan. I hope the people here would learn something from this, but it is quite unlikely, as this is the fourth PM who resigned in less than a year in these 4 years, and they still haven't learned anything yet.  A colleague jokingly shared me the fact that in the Japanese cookbooks, there are instructions to cut vegetable in exact size in centimeters or inches. I wasn't surprised at all, and this brought out a whole idea of Japanese cooking and how it reflects the Japanese culture.
I remember a Japanese friend I used to hang out with, who is a fan of pumpkin. She will bring Japanese style boiled pumpkin when she comes to my house party. Normally, the host will feel absurd as he will feel why the guest will bring something like "boiled pumpkin in soy sauce", but not something more elegant or presentable.
Nonetheless, it takes quite some hidden effort to prepare the simmered pumpkin. First you need to prepare the dashi - or the broth with some fish scrap or seaweed to get its taste, then you will boil the pumpkin with the broth so that the taste of the fish / seaweed will simmer into the pumpkin. Finally it will be seasoned with soy sauce, mirin - a Japanese seasoning with sweet taste. If you don't eat carefully and able to appreciate it, you might miss the hidden taste of the carefully prepared simmering process with the broth.
This friend was shocked once when she saw me skipping the process of making the broth but trying to cover the taste with soy sauce and other stronger seasonings. I think this is the biggest difference of Japanese as they are always making sure every step is performed well, even in the unseen parts. Unfortunately sometimes it is quite a task for a foreigner like me to obey.
For me, it is just boiled pumpkin, why are you so serious and putting so much extra effort on it? For the Japanese, what they think could be even it is just pumpkin, we want to put in our best effort. This is the difference of our mentalities.
Back to the point of recipes showing the inches of vegetable sizes, beside I think the reason is Japanese emphasize on precision and perfection, another reason is Japanese people do not know how to cut if they are not instructed in details. To maintain their unique social system and harmony, Japanese are usually not trained to be able to think independently and based on their common sense, if they are not told precisely the size to cut, they will be confused and feel uncomfortable to adjust the size by themselves.
Except the size of the food is specified, they need to know the exact measurement of quantity of seasonings to be used, it is not just because they want to be precise with the best portion, but they are constantly seeking for instructions / guidance as they have been trained.
Sometimes I am quite annoyed by this, but sometimes I do enjoy this. It is because of this, everything is so precise and predictable, you don't see unpredictable vegetable size in your dish, and the taste would not go to wrong, the same thing for the daily life in Japan, the punctuality of the systems and efficiency of their service, even at every single simple minute thing. “You are an ambitious lady.” A friend of mine told me during a conversation last January. At first I felt uncomfortable, I paused for a while, and I answered, “Yes, I am. If I have the ability, I would like to make a positive change to the world, be it huge or small. If I do not have the ability, I would like to build up the capability to be able to do so.” I used to have very negative feelings towards being ambitious. I hesitated to be ambitious. My upbringing as a woman in an Asian society would not encourage me to touch the sky. I am born in a traditional Chinese family in Malaysia, and I remember when I was 17, my cousin has warned me, “The last thing you ever want to do in your life is to get a phD, I could excuse you from going to a good college because you will have the chance to meet a nice and potential boy who can give you a comfortable life. Most of the guys do not want to have a wife who is too smart or successful.” After that, I lived with the Muslims for roughly 2 years, I was surprised at the beginning but somehow persuaded that in that community, men are the one who make important decisions, women should be submissive and take care of the family as it is as important as making big decisions. Later on, I moved Japan, a country where Gender Equality rank 101st place in the world, women have their specific and limited roles in the society, and they are definitely not very welcomed to share half of the sky with men. Still, I want to be ambitious. I am not interested to fight with and beat the men but I am ambitious to be a wonderful woman. Man and woman have different strengths and weaknesses, for instance women are not physically strong but they are mentally strong enough to support the family and raise the children in any kind of circumstances. Additionally, women are more sensitive and talkative :-); this will definitely help them to become a better communicator. I don’t see what is wrong for a woman to be smart and intellectual, and the problem is definitely not because of the phD degree. At the same time, I was also uncomfortable to be thought as ambitious because of another reason, which is the image of people who are ambitious. I used to have a perspective of ambitious people as somebody who is aggressive; they are those who aim for top school, best academic performance, prestigious corporate and high profile career. These people would fight with all means to achieve that they think to make them look better than others. They are always ambitious, successful, and lonely. Now, I started to think, instead of being aggressive, ambitious people could be energetic. Those who are energetic work because of passion and love. They do not care what they have but who they are. They care about what they are doing but not if they are doing better than others, they want to achieve not for the title but to make a difference. These people are ambitious, energetic, and more importantly they are happy. Understanding how ambitious can be defined; I am comfortable to be ambitious now. Melinda Gates, the wife of the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates once said, “What great changes have not been ambitious?” and I couldn’t agree more. I started to think like this since I visited Myanmar 4 years ago. That is one of the countries that I feel changes have to be done if not things would go unimaginably bad. I was truly hope that someone from that country would stand up and do something on this no matter how difficult the situation is. And then I ask myself if it were me, would I want to do it? The answer is no doubt yes, but just I did not have the ability to do it. I kept having conversations with myself, and suddenly I told myself, why don’t you work out to build up your ability to do it? Why are you giving up just because you can’t do it at the moment? What I mean here is not solely doing something to change Myanmar but to do something you think it is right in your life, be it big or small. I haven’t found out what my definite aim and huge ambition are, but I know what I want in my life, which is to stay happy, and stay hungry. Life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve and to conquer. Boys and Girls, be ambitious! |
