Using the E-mail as a Productivity Tool

Recently, I put out a teaser to all the staff in my place of work. I wanted to see how well the e-mail could function as a productivity tool. Here's the gist of the teaser: Why are the snow monkeys in Kyoto's Monkey Park more disciplined than their Malaysian counterparts? Well, not all the staff answered, but those who did certainly contributed to my insight into using the email as a productivity tool.The following is a summary of what I have learnt:                                                         1. Knowledge. The diversity of replies has increased my knowledge of monkeys and animal psychology.                                                                                                                             2. Brainstorming. This is the first time I’ve tested the e-mail as a productivity tool. The replies I
 received and the discussions I’ve had with a few respondents is just like in a face-to-face brainstorming session. The idea is not to judge any in-coming replies even if some ideas may appear to be ridiculous. And this is most true for me. Sometimes it’s the seemingly ridiculous ideas that trigger off a useful idea. In my case, it has given me an idea about storyboarding my English modules. The brainstorming has also encouraged me to write an article (answer to the teaser) instead of just writing a 2-sentence reply that I had originally planned to do. It was while writing the article that I got a brainwave for the following: 3. Classroom Management. Can we use the idea learnt from the way the Japanese use to ‘train’ the snow monkeys in Monkey Park? Most certainly This would be particularly useful when you have a large class of unruly students (monkeys?).
Click here to  read an account of my visit to Monkey Park.

Hail the King!



The smell has arrived.

It’s that time of the year in Malaysia when the smell announces the arrival of the king. For the uninitiated (read Caucasian), the fruit attacks the nostrils like some odoriferous fart. In fact, the durian has not been accorded the royal treatment it so rightly deserves by the hotel industry. After 52 years of independence, I think it’s high time the hotels rolled out their red carpets to welcome the king of fruits. Just think of it: the king of fruits is barred from our hotels.

What ignominy!

If this happens in France or some other republics –I can understand– for they have no love for royalty. But this is Malaysia, man, and we Malaysians revere the fruit. And we Malaysians love our king – in fact, we have nine rulers who take turns to be the king every five years. Are our hotels off- limits to our king or Agung? Then, why ban the king of fruits from gracing the hotels?

For the life of me, I just can’t understand how our very own government could allow this affront to our beloved king to continue for so long. Is it because of some colonial hangover that we should protect over-sensitive white noses who simply can’t stand the sweet fragrance of our king- at our expense? Talk about our sovereignty! We can't even take durians into our own hotels!

Huh! - I would like to propose that parliament legislate the law of lese majeste to protect the dignity of this king of fruits. The law of lese majeste could then be used against any hotel owner for barring the king of fruits from their hotel. It could be used for other acts of disrespect like calling the king ‘smelly’, ‘ordoriferous’, ‘pungent’, or likening its smell to ‘damp socks’.

When the law comes into effect, we shall invite Chef Andrew Zimmern (of the Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern TV food documentary) to come to Malaysia and repeat his ‘rotten mushy onion’ remark against our king. We shall then shackle him with durians in the very same durian orchard where he made the offensive remark against our beloved king.

Honestly, I can’t wait for the day when hotels like the Hyatt, Hilton, and Sheraton will open their doors to guests bearing the thorny fruit. It should even be mandatory for doormen to give the durian bearing guest a royal salute – or at least a slight nod as a mark of respect. It should even be de rigueur for durians to be served at hotel buffets or banquets – during the durian runtuh season, of course.

Hail the king!

Your Creative Meridian Point

You might find this hard to believe: The meridian point for one's creative energy lies somewhere between the hallux and the second toe. Whenever I run into one of those writer's blocks, I'd wiggle my toes in order to stimulate the release of the creative qi. This stimulation often results in a tingling in my tailbone followed by an electric current coursing through my spine, and, finally, a heightened sense of awareness, bringing with it a thunderclap of a new idea or a burst of new ideas. Well, you should find this hard to believe.

Notice on the window of an apartment block in Puchong

I Love Free Radicals

While trawling the Internet for some interesting facts on Redox Reactions I discovered that oxidation takes place in our body resulting in the loss of electrons by our body cells. This can be caused by the presence of free radicals caused by food and environmental factors. The ravaging effects of free radicals could result in ageing of our body and to counter or retard this ageing process we should resort to food or supplements containing antioxidants, At the same time, I also came across a research on worms that appears to contradict this conventional wisdom. The worms that produced more free radicals had actually lived longer while the fortunes of those that were treated with antioxidants were reversed. Read more at this site: http://news.discovery.com/human/aging-free-radicals-antioxidants.htm

Was this How the Universe was Created?

What Vijay, Dolores & Stephen Hawkings didn't Know

Find out more at the National Visual Arts Gallery

What Makes a Good Teacher

I believe there are many differing views on what it means to be a good teacher. I shall try to distill a definition from my three decades of experience as an English teacher in both public and private institutions of learning. For me, a good teacher is someone who is able to create meaningful learning opportunities that maximize learning. Implicit in this definition is a teacher who plans his or her lessons in such a way that they facilitate learning. Every lesson has to be planned, whether it's written in the form of a lesson plan or the planning is done in the head.So, here are the keywords in my definition: create, plan and facilitate.

What can we learn from this stump? Read about Lessons from a Stump at: http://meexam.blogspot.com

Dateline: Sri Lanka, August 6, 2013

There I was climbing up the steps of this ancient heritage site: Sigiriya. At one of the stops to catch my breath, I was standing next to a French-speaking group when the local guide called out: Venez ici. Regardez! La statue de Buddha. Elle est plus grande! Imagine my excitement. I was able to understand what he was saying. Je peux comprenais! Bravo! 

In these hazy days...

The flats, about 0.6 km away, lost in the haze


Woray ! Woray !
Da haze is back!
Woray ! Woray !
I yamback, yamback,
Yamback to rob and planda
In da kaver of da haze.
-Extract from the Songs of a Bandit

In these hazy days, I try to look for that sliver of light in our economy to cheer me up but this is what I see: a Myanmar teenager working as an apprentice mechanic in a motorbike shop; a young man from India selling newspapers in my neighborhood; Indonesian and Nepalese men and women manning foodstalls or working as waiters in coffee shops and restaurants; Bangladeshis peddling imitation branded clothing in Chinatown. For the last 30 years, our government has been doing the same thing, bringing in cheap unskilled labor from neighboring countries. Can these immigrants help propel our country towards Vision 2020 which is only seven years away? But then again, the man who hatched this vision doesn't even believe in it anymore. So, what does it matter? Just hatch a new vision and give ourselves another twenty years!

I Have a Dream...

This "great" idea about starting an English speaking course has been brewing in my coconut for over three months.What's so great about starting an English speaking course? Well, I think it's amazing because I believe it'll enable learners to speak fluently and confidently in English in 15 to 20 lessons - something the majority of Malaysian students aren't able to do even after 12 years of schooling!

Now, why am I telling you all this?

I've been through what Michael E.Gerber calls the first dimension of the entrepreneurial personality: The Dreamer. In this Dreamer's dimension, I was inspired and aroused by the idea that I was going to realize my dream. But "when and how?" This question brings me to the next dimension: The Thinker. To quote Michael Gerber, "The Thinker asks the questions essential to formulating the business model-the form the dream will take visually, emotionally, functionally, and financially-as well as the impact the Dream will have on its customers, its investors, its employees, its suppliers, and its strategic partners".

Although I haven't thought out the business model in detail, I do have an idea what it takes to execute the idea. I have started to work on the curriculum and the lessons.

The entrepreneur would also have to be a Storyteller. This is the third dimension where the Storyteller is the "one who evokes excitement when the Dream is conveyed to other people". I believe that I have a compelling story to tell that will resonate with my target audience.

Having gone through the dream, the thinking, and the storytelling, now comes the most difficult part: the Dream needs a Leader who can move the Dream forward in the right direction. "The Leader possesses the five essential skills of concentration, organization, innovation, and communication, through which all great things are made real in the world".

Do I have what it takes to push my idea forward and take it to where I want it to go? Well, time will tell. For now, I'm working on the lessons, and once they are finished I'll have to get into the Leader mode.

You can read more about How Ordinary People Can Create Extraordinary Companies in Michael Gerber's "Awakening the Entrepreneur Within".

The Importance of Having a Good Subject Line in Your Email

"Don't Miss This!"

"Your $12 into $4000 in 7 Days Online!"

Don't they look familiar? Like me, you probably receive countless spam emails in your Inbox on a daily basis. Yet, we can learn from these spammers in crafting our emails. Without fail, most of the spam that I receive has arresting subject lines like those above. Yet, I have received emails from friends and non-spammers that either don't have a subject line or a subject line that doesn't spell out the purpose of their  intended message.

Let's say you are writing an email to a client to correct an error in the invoice sent out by your company and you have this as your subject line: "Invoice". This subject line does not give an indication of the purpose in sending out your email. The subject line could be rephrased thus: "Error in Invoice No. 45601". This would tell the reader what the email is really about.

A good subject line will also get the reader's attention. Quite often I have deleted emails that don't have a clear or arresting subject line. You may write a good email message, but there's still the danger of your email being deleted without the recipient having read your message if you have a lame or an ineffective subject line.

 Woman in Red

                          Water color, courtesy of One Academy undergraduate.

Charming Cherating

This Chinese New Year I made my way to Kuantan and onwards to my favourite spot in Cherating. As I've stopped swimming in chlorinated swimming pools, the few annual trips to any sea is something I always look forward to. There I was, soaking it all up in the South China Sea when anidiom nibbled at my toes and I found myself out of my depth! Gr-up-gr-up-gr-up...I was gasping for breath, struggling to keep my head above water when something gave me a swift tug and, before I knew it, I was plumbing the depths of the more than 5000 m deep South China Sea. I guess by now you're already saying that all this doesn't hold water - it's all bunk, a load of baloney!

Yeah, baloney, alright. I'm just having fun with some water-idioms. Good thing it wasn't a sea snake that nibbled my toes!

Eureka!

What can we learn from famous personalities, be they scientists, business icons or artists?

I can still recall the vivid tale we read in our science book eons ago about the discovery of the Archimedes Principle: the upthrust experienced by a body immersed in a fluid. Apparently, he proclaimed Eureka! - a word derived from the ancient Greek word heureka, meaning I find - when he stepped into a bathtub and understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body that was submerged. The story has it that he was so excited about his discovery that he ran naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting Eureka!

So, what can we learn from Archimedes apart from the amusing spectacle of a disheveled-looking flasher shouting Eureka!?

Was his discovery of the Archimedes Principle the result of a stroke of good luck, much like striking a lottery? Like Sir Isaac Newton who discovered the law of gravity after an apple fell on his head, Archimedes's discovery was not pure luck. If at all it was luck, it was luck that was caused by the collision of two speeding cars: HARD WORK and OPPORTUNITY.

BING! BANG! BOOM!...EUREKA!!!

Apart from the one-in-a-million chance lottery winner, success for most people comes from hard work and perseverance. If Archimedes had not been thinking and working hard in trying to solve this problem, I doubt if he'd have had his breakthrough Eureka moment.

Sir Richard Branson Makes Me Sweat...

I'm about 80 per cent through Sir Richard Branson's risquely-titled new book, Screw Business As Usual, and I'm sweating profusely with inspiration from chapter to chapter, page to page. In this book, he champions his mantra: "Do good, have fun and the money will come". He illustrates with examples how "businesses, from commercial enterprises to those run by social entrepreneurs, can grow and thrive by doing the right thing". Here are three examples that I like.

Having been in the education industry for the most part of my working life, I'm inspired by his story about a dyslexic,  Peter Avis, and how he makes it good at one of Branson's businesses. At the age of 17, when he was looking at the various career options open to him, his headmaster told him: "Some people are made to sweep the streets and, unfortunately, you are one of those people". Peter, the no-hoper, who started off as a dishwasher, battled the odds and went on to manage Babylon, a restaurant owned by Virgin Limited Edition.

Yet, before Peter Avis worked at Babylon, whenever success stared him in the face, he would resign for fear that his dyslexia would be discovered. His transformation is only possible because, as Branson explains, "Virgin people are happy people...and because of that they love their jobs and stay in them. It's not just that the staff like working at Virgin- we value and respect them". In 2008 Peter Avis was voted Restaurant Manager of the Year and in 2009 Babylon was named Toptable Best Restaurant.

Branson's story about how at the age of 15 he decided that he wanted to get into the world to "continue my education in life" also makes inspiring reading. Like Peter Avis, he is also deslexic. Quite interestingly he nurtured a secret ambition to be a journalist, and at age 16 started Student, a magazine that would engage people to talk about "issues facing young people in the sixties, like the Vietnam War, racism, sexual health, and son on". An old letter he wrote to his school principal to explain  his reason for wanting to quit his school at Stowe shows the self-assurance and confidence that continue to serve him well in life and in business: "By leaving this summer I feel I can give more to Stowe and Britain..." Wow!

I also enjoy reading his anecdote of a KwaZulu woman who stopped him while he was visiting Ulusaba, Virgin's private game reserve in South Africa. "Mr Richard," she said, "I've heard you are a very generous man. Can you lend me money to buy a sewing machine?" Branson gave her the $300 she requested and she said she would "repay it within three months and employ six people full-time". When she left, Branson thought to himself that he would probably never see his money again. Three months later, when he visited a village to open some community projects supported by Virgin Unite, he was surprised when six women came up to him and gave him "a gift of the most exquisite cotton pillows and tribal clothes which they had made. And to complete my surprise, they returned the $300". But the entrepreneurial seamstress was nowhere to be seen as she was "off to the market selling the products".

Can you do this?

Go to this LINK to read more.

Biz Writing - When Do We Jargonize?

Generally, in business writing, it is advisable to avoid the unnecessary use of jargon. For example, it is perfectly alright for a doctor to call up a pharmacist to send some sidenafil over to his clinic. But a patient from a non-medical background who is suffering from a flagging libido would only be nonplussed if the doctor tells him that he needs a prescription of  sidenafil instead of the famous brand name, Viagra.

Back in 2001, I took my children to Bangalore, India. On the very first night, both of them came down with fever and vomiting. I took a cab to a private hospital and went straight to the dispensary. The pharmacist who attended to me looked puzzled when I asked him for some Panadol. Then he asked me what it was for. After my explanation, he said what I needed was paracetamol. It was then that I realized that Panadol is the brand name used in Malaysia, but in India, paracetamol is sold under a different brand name. In this instance, I knew what paracetamol was, and there was no information gap between us. The message wasn't lost.

In business writing, it's always important to understand your audience. if you know that your readers are technical people, by all means shoot your jargon at them. In most situations, your readers are likely to comprise both technical and non-technical people. And bear in mind that the person who decides whether to give your company the job or not may be a non-technical person. So, if you have to use jargon in your writing, you can include footnotes or a glossary to explain the jargon used.

How much does it cost to cross a street in Bandar Sunway?

A  One Academy student was trying to cross Jalan PJS 11/28 to her class during a heavy thunderstorm about a week ago, and she had to fork out RM12.00 to make it to her class on time. No, she wasn't fleeced by some notorious taxi driver. She had no choice  but to pay RM12.00 for a parapluie to take her across!

I'm sure it must have occurred to those who live, work, or study there that the developer should provide a few covered walkways to connect the blocks of shops. Just think: You're standing at KFC overlooking Persiaran Lagoon and you can see the person you're supposed to have an appointment with standing on the opposite side of the road - both of you separated by a massive downpour!

Maybe I should go into the business of selling parapluies at this time of the year! BTW, parapluie is French for the humble umbrella the student bought.  

Quel dommage! Sorry, I've been sneezing French; it must have been the monsoon!  

Au revoir et a bientot!