Singapore Botanical Gardens - 150th Birthday

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." Eleanor Roosevelt




"Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume." Jean de Boufflers

It's all in your mind

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." Galileo Galilei

"The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same." Carlos Castaneda

"Knowledge can be communicated but not wisdom. "Herman Hesse

'I will continue to teach until I can't'

BEN TRE, VIETNAM - "I will continue to teach students in my hometown until I can't."

For 84-year-old Tran Ngoc Anh of Ben Tre Province's Mo Cay District, teaching is akin to breathing. He has been doing it non-stop for 30 years. And his passion for teaching is matched only by his willingness to learn.

Nguyen Thi Suong, principal of My Hung Primary School in Thanh Phu District, says: "Mr Anh is a diligent and enthusiastic teacher who loves his students very much.

"He always learns new things from his colleagues and other sources to enrich his knowledge and uses it for his teaching. I'm very lucky to have been taught by him."

Anh graduated from high school in 1943 under the French curriculum, but he was unable to continue his studies because of many problems in his life then.

Many years later, he joined the resistance war against the French. He returned home in 1954 and focused on taking care of his family - his wife and two children.

Anh began teaching and continued his studies at the Sai Gon Lecturer's University a year later. After graduation, he taught literature at the Thanh Phu High School in Ben Tre Province, going on to become its principal from 1969 to 1973.

Twenty years later, he retired at the age of 65, but two years on, in 1995, he opened his first class, teaching English.

Despite learning under the French curriculum, he had been taught English for two years, and he was ready to build on that.

At the age of 74, Anh would ride his bicycle to teach English in the morning and learn it in the evening at the Ben Tre Foreign Language Centre.

He smiles as he recalls: "Several teachers and students who could be my grandchildren were very surprised when they saw a man over 70 years old go to school."

After three years of study, Anh became much more proficient in English, and began teaching the language in right earnest.

"I have to make teaching plans which help students understand lessons quickly."

He now teaches English to about 20 students, ranging from beginners to ninth-grade students. He also receives a few high school students sometimes.

Many people who have studied English under him have succeeded in life. Some of them are studying at Dong Thap Province's University of Pedagogy and Can Tho City's University and others have become teachers.

Anh is one of the first teachers in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre to receive the Viet Nam Medal for the Cause of Education.

Apart from teaching, Anh is also a poet. His poems about education have been published on local art magazines.

Someone once said: You don't grow old. You become old when you stop growing.

At 84, Anh has not stopped growing.

- Vietnam News/Asia News Network

Employers are demanding better English skills to cope with new challenges in the business environment By Dao Phuong Mai, a teacher of English at the Hanoi-based University of Commerce.

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." Derek Bok

Babies who gesture have bigger vocabularies

CHICAGO, Reuters (Adapted) - Babies who use many gestures to communicate when they are 14 months-old have much larger vocabularies when they start school than those who don't, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

They said babies with wealthier, better-educated parents tend to gesture more and this may help explain why some children from low-income families fare less well in school.

"When children enter school, there is a large socioeconomic gap in their vocabularies," said the University of Chicago's Meredith Rowe, whose study appears in the journal Science.

Gestures could help explain the difference, Rowe told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Chicago.

Vocabulary is a key predictor of school success. Earlier research showed that well-off, educated parents tend to talk to their children more than their poorer, less-educated peers.

"What we are doing here is going one step earlier and asking, does this socioeconomic status relate to gesture, and can that explain some of the gap we see at school entry." Rowe said.

"I don't think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good." Oprah Winfrey

Most people don’t conduct their day rationally, instead they go about their day based on feelings. They live from feeling to feeling, like stepping on stones while trying to cross a river. The only question is, “Which stone is the closest to me now?” The end result is that they never really cross the stream, but they made a lot of effort! Doesn’t effort count for anything?

"Success is not measured by what you do compared to what others do, it is measured by what you do with the ability God gave you." Zig Ziglar

I am cybernetic human HRP-4C

Japanese researchers have showed off a robot that will soon strut its stuff down a Tokyo catwalk.

The girlie-faced humanoid with slightly oversized eyes, a tiny nose and a shoulder length hair boasts 42 motion motors programmed to mimic the movements of flesh-and-blood fashion models.

"Hello everybody, I am cybernetic human HRP-4C," the futuristic fashionista said, opening its media premiere at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology outside Tokyo.

The fashion-bot is 158 centimetres tall, the average height of Japanese women aged 19 to 29, but weighs in at a waif-like 43 kilograms, including batteries.

She has a manga-inspired human face but a silver metallic body.

"If we had made the robot too similar to a real human, it would have been uncanny," one of the inventors, humanoid research leader Shuji Kajita said.

"We have deliberately leaned toward an anime style."

The institute said the robot "has been developed mainly for use in the entertainment industry" but is not for sale at the moment.

Hamming it up before photographers and television crews, the seductive cyborg struck poses, flashed bright smiles and pouted sulkily according to commands transmitted wirelessly from journalists via bluetooth devices.

The performance fell short of flawless when it occasionally mixed up its facial expressions - a mistake the inventors put down to a case of the nerves as a hail of camera shutters confused its sound recognition sensors.

The preview was a warm-up for the robot's appearance at a Tokyo fashion show on March 23.

Like its real-life counterparts, robot model HRP-4C commands a hefty price - the institute said developing her cost more than 200 million yen (US$3 million).
- AFP

"The product of the human brain has escaped the control of human hands. This is the comedy of science." Rossum, in Karel Capek's play R.U.R.

"If you do not speak English, I am at your disposal with 187 other languages along with their various dialects and sub-tongues." Robby the Robot (Forbidden Planet)

"The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything." Oscar Wilde

Why we think it's OK to cheat and steal (sometimes)

Why you should listen to him: Despite our best efforts, bad or inexplicable decisions are as inevitable as death and taxes and the grocery store running out of your favorite flavor of ice cream. They're also just as predictable. Why, for instance, are we convinced that "sizing up" at our favorite burger joint is a good idea, even when we're not that hungry? Why are our phone lists cluttered with numbers we never call? Dan Ariely, behavioral economist, has based his career on figuring out the answers to these questions, and in his bestselling book Predictably Irrational (which will be re-released in expanded form in May 2009), he describes many unorthodox and often downright odd experiments used in the quest to answer this question.

Ariely has long been fascinated with how emotional states, moral codes and peer pressure affect our ability to make rational and often extremely important decisions in our daily lives -- across a spectrum of our interests, from economic choices (how should I invest?) to personal (who should I marry?). At Duke, he's aligned with three departments (business, economics and cognitive neuroscience); he's also a visiting professor in MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. His hope that studying and understanding the decision-making process can help people lead better, more sensible daily lives.
"If you want to know why you always buy a bigger television than you intended, or why you think it's perfectly fine to spend a few dollars on a cup of coffee at Starbucks, or why people feel better after taking a 50-cent aspirin but continue to complain of a throbbing skull when they're told the pill they took just cost one penny, Ariely has the answer." Daniel Gross, Newsweek

About the video, one comment...
"It seems there are two forces at work. One is the individual's propensity to bend his moral code, to justify advantageous behavior that he knows is "wrong". M. Ariely points out that certain cues can strengthen or loosen this propensity, for e.g., loosening via the reward be an abstraction (tokens or pencils vs money), or strengthening by virtue of posting a reminder of morality (for e.g. agreeing to an ethics code).

The second (related) element, that he hints at with the Carnegie Mellon experiment, is the flexibility or shifting of one's moral lattice structure in a group setting, more commonly known as the "everyone's doing it..." justification (or it's sibling effect, where it's not the group that's the powerful force but the leader/idol/hero figure, etc.). It would be interesting to see the relative strength of one versus the other - what happens when you're reminded of your moral code in an environment where you know everyone else is cheating. My guess is that the second trumps the first, which is why mob mentality is so powerful and prevalent. I would also attribute the wholesale irresponsibility in the stock market to this second element, rather than the first." Farhad Farzaneh

"When you let somebody be dishonest, you are setting him up to become physically ill and unhappy." "When you let a person give nothing for something, you are factually encouraging crime." L. Ron Hubbard

"Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something." Eric Hoffer

"I would prefer even to fail with honor than to win by cheating" Sophocles

"It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau

"Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will." John D. MacDonald

The real crisis? We stopped being wise

Chúng tôi dừng khôn ngoan 我们停止了明智


"The darkest hour of a man's life is when he sits down to plan how to get money without earning it." Horace Greeley

"Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do. It's a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do." Neale Donald Walsch

"Learn from everyone, and follow no one."‏

The Oscar Robertson Rule

It was 1960. The Olympics were going to be held in Rome. And the USA was sending its best amateur players. The 1960 US men's Olympic basketball team may be the best amateur basketball team ever assembled.

Ten of the twelve team members would go on to careers in the NBA. Four of them, Jerry West, Walt Bellamy, Jerry Lucas, and Oscar Robertson would be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

They won every game they played, averaging 101.4 points per game. Their average margin of victory was 42 points. Big margins were important, because, in those days, the Olympic rules used victory margin as part of the ranking system. That wasn't all that was different from what the players were used to from the US. The foul lanes were different. Contact rules were different. Even the ball was different. The Olympic ball had a giant seam in it.

The first practice something of a gripe session.

As Coach Pete Newell explained the rules, the complaint level rose. Everybody seemed to be complaining except for Oscar Robertson. He quietly picked up the strange new ball and wandered to the far end of the court. He bounced it, handled it in different ways, shot, and dribbled.

As the complaints started to die down, Robertson walked back to join his teammates. "I know how we can make this work," he said. Then he started showing the others what he'd learned about handling that ball with the great big seam.

These are tough times. When you're confronted with a situation you can't do anything about, you have two choices. You can spend time complaining. Or you can look for a way to deal with the situation.

Remember the Oscar Robertson Rule: You'll do better in sports, in business, and in life if you get to work on "what to do" as soon as possible.

- Wally Bock


"There is no eternal enemy in this world, neither are there friends forever. I do hope friends can be forever, but there is definitely no eternal enemy... it is meaningless to keep talking about the past when we are moving forward." Nicholas Tse

I want to make late dad proud

HE made history in his junior college by becoming the first student to score seven straight As in the A-level examinations.

"Life is about growth. There's just no staying still. We're either moving backward or forward all the time."

CLUELESS: Ming Da looking composed before the school named him as top JJC student.
Yet, while the vice-principal was lauding his achievement when the results were released yesterday, Tok Ming Da, 18, began to cry.

For his is a story of determination and resilience in the face of tragedy and adversity.

What should have been his happiest day was tempered by the sudden death of his father from a heart attack last September, just six weeks before he sat for the exams.

The Jurong JC (JJC) student found it hard to come to terms with the shock loss as his father had seemed to be in good health.

But rather than mope, Ming Da decided to use the memory of his father to motivate him for the exams.

When his touching story was told to his college mates yesterday, many of them were inspired by his success, but also red-eyed over his loss.

As vice-principal Chua Lek Hong put it, Ming Da is a testament to how anyone, no matter how old, can overcome all odds to achieve great success.

When Mr Chua mentioned his family tragedy, the boy couldn't help but shed a few tears, as his friend passed him a piece of tissue paper.

SAD: He turn tearful when the vice-principal relates his story to the school.
Ming Da topped the JC's previous record of six As by getting As in all his seven subjects - General Paper, economics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, project work and Chinese.

'I did it to make him proud,' said the soft-spoken boy, referring to his father, Mr Tok Khoon Hee. He was 55.

Recalling the tragedy, he told The New Paper: 'He woke up at 3am and started coughing non-stop. He complained that he couldn't see very well.

'We rushed him to the hospital but his condition worsened very quickly. His heart stopped but the emergency crew managed to get it pumping the first time. But it stopped again and we had to let go.'

His father had run an automation company. His mother is a housewife and his sister, 28, who had just become a teacher, became the sole breadwinner.

Said Ming Da: 'My father was the one with a true resilient spirit. He dropped out of school after O levels, did odd jobs here and there and made it to run his own company recently.

'Even though he didn't do A-level maths, he was a maths genius and helped me a lot with my homework.'

- TNP

"Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember - the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you." Zig Ziglar

"Change one's mindset and boost one's ability. Do not hold onto thoughts that 'things will always be like that'. One must always be true to one's word and determined in deed. Be realistic - it is better to have tried and failed than not to try at all." Claire Chiang

"One day at a time - this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone: and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering." Ida Scott Taylor

Macro-Pessimist; Micro-Optimist

Stairway To Success Extracts
You cannot give that which you do not possess.

Relationships break down when there is a preoccupation with self.

Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people.

The practical side of dreaming is being willing to pay the price to make those dreams come true.

If you work only on days you feel like working, you'll never amount to much.

Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? A thermometer only reflects the temperature of its environment, adjusting to the situation. But a thermostat initiates action to change the temperature in its environment.

Those with a strong self-image realize that the only way to keep from making mistakes is to do nothing -- and that's the biggest mistake of all.

The process of growing and learning always involves risk. No one ever becomes perfect; but anyone can improve.

Whether you are a success or failure in life has little to do with your circumstances; it has much more to do with your attitude.

If you could view your life as you do a highway from an airliner, many of the detours and curves would make more sense.

The practical dreamers know the harder they work, the luckier they get.

No failure, misfortune, or mistake is ever so great that nothing good can come from it.

Only when your memories are more important to you than your goals are
you old.

Fixing the blame is never important, and fixing the relationship is never unimportant.

You can't think your way into acting positively; but you can act your way into thinking positively.

People who are looking for something to make them happy, somehow never seem to find it. Yet those who find a way to be happy while they are looking for something, typically find what they are looking for.

What matters is not so much how you got to be the way you are now, but what you do with the person you have become.

A strong awareness that you are loved by God provides the most solid foundation for building high self-esteem.

Your best bet for a good job is to do the best you can with the one you have right now.

Those who spend their lives searching for happiness never find it, while those who search for meaning, purpose, and strong personal relationships find that happiness usually comes to them as a by-product of those three things.

13 Things Not to Share


"The prizes go to those who meet emergencies successfully. And the way to meet emergencies is to do each daily task the best we can." William Feather 1889-1981, Publisher and Author.

"The result of our people-judgments is that we often throw away someone's ideas because they are voiced by the wrong person or because we don't agree with all of their ideas." Thayer White

"Real obstacles don't take you in circles. They can be overcome. Invented ones are like a maze." Barbara Sher

Reading, Writing and Understanding

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't." Anatole France

READING
Students learn and practice beginning reading skills through building their knowledge about language and letter-sound relationships and developing fluency in their reading and must then begin to use these developing reading skills to learn – to make meaning, solve problems, and understanding something new. They need to comprehend what they read through a three-stage meaning-making process.

Stage One: Prereading
It's not uncommon for a struggling secondary reader to declare, "I read last night's homework, but I don't remember anything about it (let alone understand it)!" Therefore, asking such questions as, "What do I already know and what do I need to know before reading?" or "What do I think this passage will be about, given the headings, graphs, or pictures?" helps students anticipate the text, make personal connections with the text, and help to promote engagement and motivation. Brainstorming and graphic organizers also serve to strengthen students' vocabulary knowledge and study skills.

Stage Two: Guided Reading
The ability to monitor one's own reading often distinguishes effective and struggling readers. Thus, guided-reading activities should provide students with the opportunity to reflect on the reading process itself – recording in a log how their background knowledge and experience influenced their understanding of text, identifying where they may have gotten lost during reading and why, and asking any questions they have about the text.

Stage Three: Postreading
During postreading, students test their understanding of the text by comparing it with that of their classmates. In doing so, they help one another revise and strengthen their arguments while reflecting and improving on their own.



WRITING
Writing is often used as a means of evaluating students' understanding of a certain topic, but it is also a powerful tool for engaging students in the act of learning itself. Writing allows students to organize their thoughts and provides a means by which students can form and extend their thinking, thus deepening understanding.

Research suggests that the most effective way to improve students' writing is a process called inquiry. This process allows students to define and test what they would like to write before drafting.

The three stages of writing-based inquiry:
1) stating specific, relevant details from personal experience;
2) proposing observations or interpretations of the text; and
3) testing these assertions by predicting and countering potential opposing arguments.

Through inquiry, students discover and refine something worth writing about.

Writing-to-learn activities can include freewriting (writing, without editing, what comes to mind), narrative writing (drawing on personal experience), response writing (writing thoughts on a specific issue); loop writing (writing on one idea from different perspectives) and dialogue writing (for example, with an author or a character.)

"Not surprisingly, writing-to learn activities are also known as 'writing-to-read' strategies – means by which students can engage with text in order to understand it." Vicki Jacobs


UNDERSTANDING
The relationship among reading, writing, and understanding is clear. Students engaged in reading-to-learn will also be prepared to write well. In turn, students who are engaged in writing-to-learn will become more effective readers. Through both approaches, students will gain a better understanding of material and a greater ability to demonstrate that understanding.


Critical Thinking framework - Using Tamblin and Ward’s (2006) Triple A approach
1. Acquaint yourself with the topic
Do you have enough information to proceed? Reading lists, Your own literature search, Internet, etc. What else might you want to find out?

2. Analyse the information
Logic e.g.:Are all the claims backed up by evidence? Is the theory or information consistent? Are all the claims justified or are assumptions being made? Are the points relevant to the overall argument?

a) Emotion e.g.:Does the author use emotional language? Is the argument overly emotional? Does the author have a vested interest in persuading the reader? Is there bias in the argument?

b) Omission e.g.: Is the information lacking in detail or precision? What is omitted? What is included? What sway? Why?

c) Research e.g.: Why was the research undertaken? What was the aim? Where was the research carried out? When did the research occur? Who took part? Who presented the research?

3. Advance the argument e.g. Why is this an important topic? What are the implications and applications of the arguments presented? What's the bigger picture.
Then use your critical analysis of the sources to create your argument in your assignment.

Useful phrases when writing
In order to show that you have thought about information in a critical way, you will need to demonstrate your critical analysis in your writing. The following phrases (adapted from Gillet 2006) are examples of language that can be used when writing about your own critical analysis.

Presenting your point of view
a) There are many reasons why.....
It is important to point out that....
Presenting another point of view
In a study of X, Y claims that.....
It has been suggested that.....
According to X......

b) Commenting on another point of view - negatively
These views are open to doubt.....
Reservations can be raised against this.....
One objection to this argument is......

c) Commenting on another point of view - positively.
One of the main arguments in favour of X is that....
Another point in favour of X is that..
Indicating a lack of knowledge in a particular area
Little research has been done...
Research has tended to focus on A, rather less attention has been
paid to B...

Drawing conclusions
In short....
On the whole...
Altogether...
It may be concluded that....
Comparing and contrasting
Similarly
Likewise
Correspondingly
Whereas


by HGSE Lecturer Vicki Jacobs, (adapted).

10 Characteristics of Good, Effective Writing

"Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them." W. Clement Stone 1902-2002, Author and Businessman

Singapore English

Keep it clear, keep it simple

Thirty years ago today, on Feb 27, 1979, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew called a meeting of ministers, ministers of state and senior civil servants to discuss how government papers and minutes can be written in clear, clean prose.

Singapore's GDP has grown almost sevenfold since 1979. Marina Bay didn't exist then. Changi Airport was still two years away from completion. Singapore has been transformed beyond recognition in the last 30 years. But the same, alas, cannot be said of the quality of written English, which remains recognisably the same now as it did in 1979. We reprint excerpts of Mr Lee's address to mark a melancholy anniversary.

I WANT to discuss the importance of simple, clear, written English. This is not simple. Dr Goh Keng Swee gives every officer whom he thinks is promising and whose minutes or papers are deficient in clarity, a paperback edition of Sir Ernest Gowers' The Complete Plain Words.

It presupposes that the man who attempts to read the book has reached a certain level of literary competence. The book, written words, cannot convey to you the emphasis, the importance, the urgency of things, unless the receiver is a trained reader. And in any case, human beings are never moved by written words. It is the spoken word that arouses them to action. Arthur Koestler rightly pointed out that if Adolf Hitler's speeches had been written, not spoken, the Germans would never have gone to war. Similarly, Sukarno in print did not make great sense.

The spoken language is better learnt early; then you will have fluency. However, my thesis is that the written language can be mastered at any age without much disadvantage. It is learnt fastest when your written mistakes are pointed out to you by a teacher, friend, or senior officer. That was the way I learnt.

When I was in school my compositions were marked. When my children were in school they simply got grades for their written work. Their teachers had so many essays that they never attempted to correct the compositions. This has contributed to our present deplorable situation.

I want to convince you, first, of the importance of clear, written communication; second, that you can master it, if you apply yourself.

The use of words, the choice and arrangement of words in accordance with generally accepted rules of grammar, syntax and usage, can accurately convey ideas from one mind to another. It can be mastered.

When I was a law student I learnt that every word, every sentence has three possible meanings: what the speaker intends it to mean, what the hearer understands it to mean, and what it is commonly understood to mean. So when a coded message is sent in a telegram, the sender knows what he means, the receiver knows exactly what is meant, the ordinary person reading it can make no sense of it at all.

When you write minutes or memoranda, do not write in code, so that only those privy to your thoughts can understand. Write simply so that any other officer who knows nothing of the subject can understand you. To do this, avoid confusion and give words their ordinary meanings.

Our biggest obstacle to better English is shyness. It is a psychological barrier. Nobody likes to stop and ask, 'Please, what does that mean?' or 'Please tell me, where have I gone wrong?' To pretend you know when you don't know is abysmal folly. Then we begin to take in each other's mistakes and repeat them, compounding our problems.

The facility to express yourself in a written language is yet another facet or manifestation of your ability, plus application and discipline. It is a fallacy to believe that because it is the English language, the Englishman has a natural advantage in writing it. That is not so. He has a natural advantage in speaking the language because he spoke it as a child, but not in writing it. It has nothing to do with race. You are not born with a language. You learn it.

- ST


"Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it." Buddha

"Books defy universal physical laws — they are time machines transporting us backwards and forwards to lost civilizations and futuristic worlds." Renie Garlick

" I've always worked very, very hard, and the harder I worked, the luckier I got." Alan Bond

Help or Harm

Anyone who attains a minimal level of success or even a degree of enlightenment understands that there is no true and lasting achievement without helping others and making a difference in the world around one.

While most everyone would agree on the fact that they want to help others, the act of helping another person is not as easy to identify as one might think.

Abraham Lincoln said, "The worst thing you can do for anyone you care about is anything that they can do on their own."

People who are given things, opportunities, and solutions without earning or paying for them often are harmed more than they are helped. Wealth without work, position without effort, and remedy without resource is seldom positive in the long run.

The majority of lottery winners are in worse financial condition five years after their winning number is called than they were before playing the lottery. They suffer a much higher divorce rate and instance of drug abuse and alcoholism.

At some point in life, all mature people learn that action shave consequences -- either good or bad. The sooner we can learn this lesson, the more productive and peaceful life we will have.

If you shelter a child from all consequences of their decisions, you may protect them temporarily from a few bumps or scrapes. Unfortunately, you may relegate them to making a poor decision during a life or death situation. We all need to learn that the stove is hot--one time--the hard way. From then on, we are cautious around stoves and begin to consider the consequences of other decisions.

Any study of successful people in our society will reveal a disproportionate number of underprivileged immigrants achieving great success in a relatively short period of time.

There is nothing innate about financial struggles, language barriers and cultural challenges that make people succeed. It is simply that enduring problems and overcoming barriers is a habit that, once learned, carries over into every area of our lives.

That person that turned you down for help may have done you the greatest favor of all. Self-reliance and independence are critical parts of succeeding in life.

All of us have received a hand up at one time or another, and hopefully have offered the same to those coming along behind us; but it is important to be sure that we are helping and not harming those that we care about.

As you go through your day today, look for ways to assist others, and eliminate any harm you're doing by trying to help in ways that people can perform on their own.

- Jim Stovall (adapted)

"Through adversity and life's challenges I am made stronger for having had overcome and worked through each particular hardship. I remind myself that on the other side of every single challenge which stands before me, I have within me, though it may be hidden deep, the necessary ingredients to overcome and thrive." Jim Stovall

"Any rough patch that you're going through right now will smooth out to a tiny wrinkle by the day's end, so you shouldn't waste too much time worrying about things. Turn your thoughts to tomorrow, when all of this will be over and things will be so much better. You can't have a good day every day, but you can certainly choose to focus on positive things instead of negative ones. And if the only positive thing in your life right now is hope, then so be it."

"Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty." Stephen King


"The money I have is in direct proportion to the value I've given to others. The more I give of myself, incredibly, the more economic power comes my way." Tod Barnhart

Billionaire wishes to donate wealth

Bias for Targeted Action

What are you doing? What are you studying? What's your objective?

Geoffrey James's business perspectives (adapted).

1) Any business activity that can’t be measured quantitatively and objectively is a waste of resources.
2) The point of commerce is to generate profitable revenue, so all measurements should tie back to sales.
3) Everyone’s compensation should be tied to their ability to help sales generate profitable revenue.
4) Employees who object to being measured quantitatively and objectively are running a scam.
5) Effective marketing are activities that can be objectively and quantitatively measured that make it easier and quicker for sales to take place.


Brand Management
1st - Confidence
2nd – Quality
3rd – Service
4th – Selection
5th – Price

"I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words again and again, each hour, each day, every day, until the words become a habit as my breathing and the actions which follow become as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every act necessary for my success. With these words, I can condition my mind to meet every challenge." Og Mandino, author and motivational speaker (1923 - 1996)

"Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just: By doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we become brave." Aristotle, Greek Philosopher (384 BC – 322 BC)

"All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible." Orison Swett Marden
1850-1924, Author

"Action makes more fortune than caution." Luc DeClapiers

Assessment

"Assessment is often described as having two purposes: one lies in measuring someone's performance to communicate it to the outside world; the other in helping the student to learn. The NUS, and many academics who study assessment, argue that there is currently too much emphasis on the former at the expense of the latter." Rebecca Attwood Adapted


NATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS' PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT, UK.

1. Should be for learning, not simply of learning
This positions assessment at the heart of learning rather than it serving as a simple add-on at the end of the process.

2. Should be reliable, valid, fair and consistent
It is crucial for staff, students and employers to have confidence in the assessment processes and their outcomes.

3. Should consist of effective and constructive feedback
Effective feedback on assessment is a crucial aspect of assessment processes and a key feature of enhancing the learning process.

4. Should be innovative and have the capacity to inspire and motivate
Formative assessment practices have the potential to inspire and motivate, and this aspect can be captured by innovative approaches, including those making use of new technology.

5. Should measure understanding and application, rather than technique and memory
Assessments need to have a holistic approach that transcends the particular method being used; only this will truly test and reflect levels of learning.

6. Should be conducted throughout the course, rather than being positioned as a final event. Positioning assessment as an integral part of the course helps facilitate continuous learning.

7. Should develop key skills such as peer and reflective assessment
Not only do such mechanisms allow students to receive extra feedback on work beyond that of their tutor, they also help develop the key skill of self-reflection.

8. Should be central to staff development and teaching strategies, and frequently reviewed
Assessment processes must be innovative and responsive to learners' needs, and as such they need to be central to staff development and teaching strategies.

9. Should be of a manageable amount for both tutors and students
While assessment should be placed in a central role in learning, for it to be effective neither tutor nor student should be overburdened.

10. Should encourage dialogue between students and their tutors and students and their peers (Mutual Goals)
It is important that students and staff share the same definitions and ideas around standards. This can be fostered by increased dialogue and engagement.

"'Fitness for purpose' - To give them the maximum opportunity to perform you want to provide a wide variety of opportunities. Somebody who is not terribly good at writing essays may be very good at presenting a paper or doing a project. The more kinds of assessment you use, the more you get a proper picture of what the student can really do." Patricia Broadfoot

They say that we live in an A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder) society and that we are bombarded with: ==> so much advertising ==> so many refined foods ==> and literally thousands TV channels, it is not surprising that more and more people are turning out to have ADD than ever before...

"The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing." Michael E. Gerber

Being Happy

The path to happiness
No money? No marry

Count your blessings
With the economy in bad shape, it may be time to take stock of the other things in your life that you can be happy about, like having friends, family and being in good health.

'Reflect on what really matters and re-chart your course to one that will bring joy, meaning and fulfilment to your life,' said life coach Kenny Toh.

Money can't buy happiness
Material ambitions can sometimes be our downfall in building a happy life, as a bigger income can often lead to more desires and expectations.

Thus, our overall happiness may not increase by much even as we get richer, said psychotherapist Stephen Lew.

His advice: Engage in more meaningful activities like bonding with family and friends, or pursuing charity work.

Avoid 'toxic' people
Ms Zaibun Siraj, author of the book, Zany, Zeal, Zest And Zing: The Z Way To Happiness, said that it is best to avoid those who may bring you down with their persistently negative attitudes.

Conversely, happiness is infectious so one can find joy in both spreading and receiving it.

Show gratitude and appreciation
Mr Lew also advised people to keep a diary consisting purely of the happy events in their lives.

This may seem hard at first but it can bring about reflection and acknowledgement of the good things in one's life.

Another easy way to feel happy, he added, is to write a letter of appreciation to someone close to you, to thank them for who they are and what they have done for your life.

Keep things in perspective
The key to happiness, said psychiatrist Adrian Wang, is balancing your expectations with the reality of your situation and your own perception of things.

Keeping things in perspective, in this sense, is essential to maintaining high spirits.

For instance, losing your job does not mean that you are a total failure, as your career is only one part of your whole life, said Dr Wang.

- ST


"It boils down to thinking and coping strategies. Happy people are able to problem-solve instead of dwelling on the negatives." Dr Adrian Wang

Xuan Mai

Authentically Vietnamese. Beauty queen turned spy and now chef.

LINING the walls of a Vietnamese restaurant in Bangkok are newspaper clippings trumpeting the owner's illustrious past as an FBI agent.

And yet some of 58-year-old Vietnamese-American Meyung Robson's customers still think the former spook is in deep cover.

"Many people suggest that I'm working undercover as a restaurant owner. But once I quit (the FBI), I quit," says the owner of Xuan Mai restaurant.

Pointing at the framed articles from American, French, Japanese and Thai newspapers and magazines, Robson continues: "If I'm undercover, I would not – you know – show off."

Asked why she displayed her clippings, she replies, "I'm proud of my past (as a FBI agent)." Her past reads like a best-seller memoirs.

Robson, the daughter of a three star general who was second-in command of the South Vietnamese army, was Miss Saigon in 1970.
On the afternoon of April 29, 1975, a day before the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese army, her family – carrying only US$60 – fled the city via a South Vietnam navy ship for the US.

"We went from the sky (a privileged existence in American-backed Saigon) to the bottom (refugees picking strawberries in New York)," she relates.

In 1984, she became the FBI's first Vietnamese-American special agent.

She went through a 16-week training programme, and to pass she had to score 85% in 10 exams (including firing 8,000 live rounds).

Although she is not generous with anecdotes of her undercover days, Robson did show me a photograph of her masquerading as a refugee. It was amazing to see the beauty queen transformed into a downtrodden immigrant.

In 1999, Robson was posted to Bangkok, working at the FBI legal attache office at the US Embassy.

Her two biggest achievements as an agent are assisting in the capture of two fugitives in the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list – a Vietnamese-American murderer who fled to Vietnam and an American paedophile who jumped bail when he was arrested in Bangkok.

On Christmas night in 2005, Robson – after retiring from the FBI – opened Xuan Mai (which is named after her daughter).

The plan was for her to be a silent investor while her Vietnamese friend, a professional chef, took charge of the kitchen.

"On opening night we had a huge fight (it had been simmering for three months because she disagreed with the chef's preference for MSG and artificial colouring) and I was left to cook the ten dishes on our original menu,"she says.

It turned out to be "a totally happy accident" of how she became a chef.

Robson taught herself Vietnamese cuisine. And she does not use a recipe book. "I have a gift of taste. I can even remember the taste of dishes that I ate when I was 10," she says.

Back in the 70s, her family who "entertained a lot" had two full-time chefs. "I grew up watching the chefs prepare the dishes and, somehow, I can cook the dishes from memory," she says.

Since her debut three years ago as a Vietnamese cook, numerous Thai publications have named her as one of Bangkok's top chefs. She credits her accolades to her philosophy of serving authentic Vietnamese dishes.

Is her restaurant popular because she is an ex-FBI agent or is it her cooking?

"At first customers come because of the write-ups. For some reason – I did not plan it – this formula of 'ex=beauty queen + ex-FBI agent + chef' works," she says.

"FBI is a catchword. But if you cook junk, trust me, they will not come back."

Asked if she had used her FBI skills in running her restaurant, Robson says: "Profiling? It is fun to watch people."

How? "It is a trick of the trade, so I can't tell you," she replies, giggling. Who do you profile – your staff or your customers?

"My customers," she says, quickly adding “sometimes so that I can serve them better”.

"What other FBI skills have you found useful as a restaurateur?" I query.

"No, I can't tell you," she says. Probably if she did, she would have to shoot me.

How to get there: Take the Skytrain (BTS) to Nana station. Walk up to Sukhumvit Soi 13. From there you can either walk to the restaurant (which is located close to the end of the soi) or take a motorbike taxi (10 - 15 baht).
Open: Tuesday-Thursday & Sunday 11:00 - 14:00, 17:00 - 22:00;
Friday & Saturday 11:00 - 10:30, 17:00 - 24:00
Skytrain: Nana
Contact: +66 (0)2 251 8389

Cash accepted only.

by Philip Golingai, The Star (adapted)


Trung Nguyen Coffee
02-34 to 35
Liang Court Shopping Centre Level 2
River Valley Road
Tel: 6837-2480
Open daily: 9am to 11pm


"Venture all; see what fate brings." Vietnamese Proverb

Mind Your Language

"Ordinary Person; Extraordinary Passion"