"Noises"

Today's lesson on communication noises was interesting.

My students pointed out how Psychological Noise (which include Cultural and Religious bias) can be a problem even with a simple thing like a Zebra crossing. To us in Singapore, a zebra crossing is a zebra crossing, for crossing the road. In Africa, zebra crossing may mean an actual herd running past you.

The word 'malu' means 'shame' in Malay. 'ma lu' in Chinese means 'road'. So the Road to Shame must surely be the Malu Ma lu.

Likewise, dog is 'anjing' in Malay, but 'an jing' is 'peace' in Chinese. So is a quiet dog an 'anjing an jing'?

What took the cake must be the response from the class when I told them how my late mentor Dr Douglas once remarked that exclamation marks should never be used 'unless it is an actual ejaculation.' I pointed out to the class that the Biggles books, written during the early part of the 20th century for boys were full of 'ejaculations' of the verbal type.

Din, my student pointed out that is must surely be a 'semen-tic' noise.

Very punny.

Unbelievable!

As usual there was a long queue for bus 902, the shuttle to RP. Sure enough some kid would saunter up to their friend already in line, strike up a conversation, and then neatly inch his or her way into the queue. If the queue jumper is near enough, I usually reprimand them and they would slink to the back in shame and join the queue at the back.

Today one girl cut into the queue right in front of me and started talking to the person immediately ahead of me.

"Excuse me, are you trying to jump queue?" I asked sternly.
"No, my friend here was queuing for me!" she replied defensively.
"Got such thing, ah?" I exclaimed, flabbergasted.
"Yah wat!" the recalcitrant individual had the audacity to reply, and continued with the line to board the bus.

I was at a loss for words!

When s**t hits the fan

It's a basic principle. When things go wrong and someone tells you about it, that person wants:

1) help
2) reassurance/encouragement
3) comfort/sympathy

They are NOT asking for advice on how to solve the problem. That can come later.

It's amazing how often people forget that.

Be Positive: Don't Say Don't

My friend Rita suggested that instructions should be given in the positive as opposed to the negative ones which are so common around us. Don't smoke, don't litter, don't jaywalk.

She claimed that when a negative statement is issued, the listener tends to focus on the action rather than the prohibition. So when told not to litter, the listener will hear "litter" rather than "do not."

I kind of concur with her. Whenever I see a "Wet Paint! Don't touch" sign, I am inexplicably drawn to touch to check if the paint is wet.

I shared this observation at a workshop organised by RP a few days ago and a colleague, Orla, shared that in the field of sports, this is indeed a mantra that athletes are trained with. Research in sports shows that when a sports person is told "Don't look down" they will invariably look down. When the instruction is switched over to "Look straight ahead" the sports person then remembers what he or she has to do rather than what he or she is NOT supposed to do.

I have started to apply this to my teaching. Instead of telling my students what not to do, I have started to tell them what to do. Time will tell if this will yield any positive results.

Meanwhile, looking around, it is heartening to see some public announcements have become more positive too. Instead of "don't block the MRT exit" they now have "Let me come out first" although it is still preceded by PCK's trademark "Don't play play." (You win some, you lose some.) Again, it would be interesting to see how effective this new campaign will be.

Nice to be part of history

CNA featured this report with a video of my work place and student
My 3 seconds of fame is found here

RP teachers conduct e-lessons to minimise spread of H1N1 virus

By Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 26 June 2009 2300 hrs

SINGAPORE: It is the second day of home-based e-learning for some 4,600 students at Republic Polytechnic (RP).

The poly said while attendance has been comparable to that at physical classes, it does have to remind affected students to stay at home to minimise possible spread of the virus.

On Friday, eight new cases have been confirmed at the poly, bringing the total to 20.

RP said its H1N1 crisis management centre will remain operational round-the-clock over the weekend.

Staff and students are also required to take their temperature twice daily and declare it online on weekdays.

Teachers at RP have been conducting lessons with their first-year students since home-based e-learning started on Thursday.

The teachers, also known as facilitators in RP, have to engage an average of 25 students online at one time. Lessons are held from 8.30am to 3.30pm in three different sessions with breaks in between.

Students are required to submit assignments everyday. The poly said students' attendance has not been drastically different from that at physical classes.

Vicky Wong, facilitator, Republic Poly, said: "Most of the time, we see 23 students actually logging on to download resources and we have something like 18, or 19 actively engaging in discussion with us."

While the poly cannot force all affected students to study from home, it has reminded them to be socially responsible.

Ms Wong added: "I had a team this morning saying they want to go to Starbucks. I told them 'What if you pass it on to your friends? You don't know now whether you're a carrier of the virus. You just have to be socially responsible. It's not just about you and you being sick anymore, it's about you working with others in your environment.' And after that they kind of agreed, and didn't go."

"The good thing about our interaction with students is that most of the time, we're actually quite close to them. Because we have very small classes, we do enjoy close relationships with students. Sometimes, they do try to tell us things and we try to warn them."

Affected students said they try to abide by the rules.

Ian Immanuel Rodriguez, first-year student, Republic Polytechnic, said: "I try to stay at home and I just go out to grab some food whenever needed. But most of the time, I try to stay at home."

The experience has thrown up some pleasant surprises. Facilitators said quieter students who were shy to speak up in class turned out to be more expressive online. And some students even found ways to do group work without meeting face-to-face.

Sociologist Pauline Tay Straughan said the SARS experience has taught Singaporeans to take virus precautions seriously. But schools and companies need to be flexible when affected students and workers are required to take leave.

She said: "There's a limited extent to how far you can isolate yourself because we live in such a dense city state. So in that kind of social setting, inevitably we let our guard down because we have to go on with daily life.

"To encourage people to be honest, to abide by a self-policing kind of norm, I think that employers, for example, need to continue to exercise flexibility. If there's a way around this, everybody will try their best. It's only when they're pushed into a corner, where there's no other option for them, then they lie."

She added the Health Ministry's calm advisory approach so far, instead of imposing statutory requirements on affected cases has also helped the public remain civic-minded. - CNA/vm

To All those Born in the '50s, '60s & early '70s...

I got this in my mail today. Although this is not new, and I the lifestyle described below does not fit me 100%, there is enough truth in what the anonymous author wrote and it brought a pang of nostalgia in me after reading it.

To All those Born in the 50's, 60's & early '70s...

First, we survived with mothers who had no maids. They cooked /cleaned while taking care of us at the same time.

They took aspirin, candies floss, fizzy drinks, shaved ice with syrups and diabetes were rare. Salt added to Pepsi or Coke was remedy for fever.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.

As children, we would ride with our parents on bicycles/ motorcycles for 2 or 3.
Richer ones in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a private taxi was a special treat.

We drank water from the tap and NOT from a bottle.

We would spend hours on the fields under bright sunlight flying our kites, without worrying about the UV ray which never seem to affect us.

We go to jungle to catch spiders without worries of Aedes mosquitoes.

With mere 5 pebbles (stones) would be a endless game. With a ball (tennis ball
best) we boys would ran like crazy for hours.

We catch guppy in drains / canals and when it rain we swim there.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually worry about being unhygienic.

We ate salty, very sweet & oily food, candies, bread and real butter and drank very sweet soft sweet coffee/ tea, ice kacang, but we weren't overweight because...

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, till streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. AND WE DONT HAVE HANDPHONE S TO BUG US. And we were O.K. AND WE ARE SAFE.

We would spend hours repairing our old bicycles and wooden scooters out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, X-boxes, Nintendo's, multiple channels on cable TV, DVD movies, no surround sound, no phones, no personal computers, no Internet. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and we still continued the stunts.

We never had birthday parties till we are 21

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and just yelled for them!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Yet this generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 40 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!


You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the government regulated our lives for our own good.


And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

PS: -The big type is because Long-sightedness or hyperopia at your age .

Letter to TODAY: Road to a solution?

Wrote another letter to TODAY's editor. Letter was published on 14 May 2009.


I refer to “7 in 10 killed on roads were jaywalkers” (May 13). I find this baffling.

In less developed countries with relatively few pedestrian crossings and overhead bridges, the act of crossing a road is routinely performed by tens of thousands of people, including school children, with relatively few untoward incidents.

To them, it is a matter of common sense to look left, right and left again, and to cross only when the way is clear.

It would be helpful if the authorities provide details as to who the people getting killed on Singapore’s roads are, and the circumstances surrounding the accidents.

Were they children who were not properly trained in road safety?

Were they young people distracted by conversation with their friends or plugged into their music players, rendering them oblivious to their surroundings?

Were they impatient office workers trying to beat the lights at signalled crossings in order to catch a train?

Were they elderly folk with failing eyesight and hearing?

Or perhaps they were those who failed to come to terms with the fact that they were no longer as agile as they used to be, and dodging traffic was not as easy as when they were younger.

We require a more sophisticated analysis to the problem to find an appropriate solution.

Imposing a fine or a blanket ban on jaywalking is an easy way out, but is unhelpful if the problem is to be solved meaningfully and effectively.

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