This entry in a textbook (supposedly named ATLAS - but nobody seems to know who is the publisher and where exactly is this book being used) has caused an uproar because of the offensive comment that 'Malays are generally the poorest group." A quick glance at comments left by angry Singaporeans in various websites reveals that in addition to the totally unnecessary comment about the Malay's economic condition (even if it can be supported by actual facts and statistics, as some people insisted), something else in that little bit of description has caught the attention of many Singaporeans. "the newer Mandarin-speakers are now well integrated". Every comment which referred to this line assumes that the 'newer Mandarin-speakers' refer to the PRC immigrants in recent years, and responded in disbelief that anyone could suggest that they are well integrated. 

The description is extremely misleading, but I am almost confident that the textbook wasn't referring to the PRC immigrants, but the Chinese immigrants who came to Singapore after the British founded modern Singapore (i.e. the forefathers of the vast majority of Singaporean Chinese). I say this because these 'newer Mandarin-speakers' are differentiated from the 'English-speaking Straits Chinese' who are obviously the Chinese who have assimilated into Southeast Asia long before (i.e. the Peranakans), hence it cannot be referring to the recent PRC immigrants. 

Why do I say that the description is misleading? Because many of these early immigrants are NOT 'Mandarin-speakers' - having come from the southern parts of China before Mandarin Chinese was established as the lingua franca when PRC was formally instilled as a country in 1949. The vast majority of these Chinese (my grandfather's generation) spoke little to no Mandarin. A very poorly written description indeed for what is supposed to be a textbook. 

But I am also alarmed at how the people who thought that the 'Mandarin-speakers' referred to the PRCs have such poor understanding of our country's history, and are so unacquainted with the idea of 'English-speaking Straits Chinese' versus the 'newer Chinese (NON-MANDARIN) immigrants'. We are a sad nation indeed.  

My raid team is no more

I really don't want my blog to degenerate into one where I just post my backpacking pictures, despite the fact that I have a backlog of travel photographs that cry out to be put on my blog because I have not been updating regularly. So, today I shall risk putting things out of chronological order and write about something else. I hope nobody feels disturbed at this lack of continuity.

I have been raiding in WoW for as long as I can remember (actually, only since about 2007). I found the perfect guild for myself in 2011, a primarily Singaporean guild (already not exclusively so) with rules and directions that are in alignment with my own. I had the best time raiding through Firelands and Dragon Soul, and tried heroic raiding for the first time. Unfortunately, by the time Mists of Pandaria come around I will be in London, and the time-difference between London and Singapore, together with my post-graduate classes schedule, prevent me from raiding with them anymore. I tried finding another raid team - but most of them suck, especially if you are raiding on an Oceanic server at European times. I had to resign to the fate that I will not be raiding properly for Mists of Pandaria, until one of the guild leaders told me that the guild is stating a new team which will be raiding on weekends. That would be perfect for me, since I have no lessons on weekends and I can wake up at unearthly hours just to raid at Singapore time.

Most people see WoW raiding as some geekish, otaku-like activity, but they have no idea how challenging (and social) it is to form a good raid team. As a council teacher I can see the parallels between council and raiding (and indeed any kind of activity that requires teamwork, commitment, leadership and strive for excellence). If I could I would make all the councillors raid on WoW as part of their leadership training. Teamwork is ultimate in raiding - that is the whole idea of bringing together 10/25/40 people to down a raid boss - precisely because there is no way you can down the boss on your own. Expertise and knowledge is essential - you don't down a boss by haphazardly flinging your spells at him. Each person in the raid has to perform their specific roles, and yet be flexible enough to react on the fly when something goes wrong. Different bosses require different strategies, and the strategy which works for one group might not work with another depending on the raid composition and skill level of your team. The raid leader needs to know the fight inside-out, and also the strength and weaknesses of the players, unless he is prepared to wipe 50 times on a boss for the whole night and end up with no loot. There is human resource management - you need to deploy your people accordingly. There is conflict management - how are you going to convince 25 other skilled players that your strategy is going to work and they should listen to you and not try something funny. There is lots of drama - we are all busy people with limited time on our hands, and yet we want to see new content, down challenging bosses, and get fat lewt (loot). You want commitment from your team - a raid is not going to get very far if people don't show up on time or turn up unprepared. You want effort from your team - where everyone make sure their gear/ gems/ enchants are in tip-top condition, where everyone puts out the maximum amount of dps/healing that they can, etc. And conversely the team wants reward - if the raid makes unsatisfactory progress or a player deems it to be a waste of his precious time, he can find another guild with a more competent leader. And when everyone in the team has different commitment levels, objectives and priorities, holding a team together becomes a real challenge for the raid leader.

And there is plenty of drama in our team. The raid leader is the girlfriend of our tank (sigh, any kind of romantic relationship spells disaster in a professional team when people don't know how to act professionally). Most of the people in the team has little serious raiding experience and it seems like I was the only one with heroic raiding background. The atmosphere of the team is also too casual for my own liking - it was a valuable experience for myself as well - Having been a fairly serious raider all along, what I have assumed all along to be basic expectations from raid members turn out to be something which they consider to be excessively stringent -.- Well since I am not the raid leader I can only go along with whatever she decided (I soon realize she seldom decides on anything) while I continue to subtly work my influence in the group haha.

The first crisis came when we were stuck on Horridon. And the cause for our lack of progress was very apparent - a dps monk who SUCKS. I mean really SUCK. I can put out more dps than him as a healer. On top of that, he DOES NOT RESPOND to feedback. He doesn't talk on vent, he doesn't type anything in raid chat (except for the occasional OK), he doesn't react when we ask him if he understood the fight. The whole idea of the Horridon fight is that we need to control the adds to prevent them from overwhelming us, and only take out the boss towards the end - but he would be on the boss from the start to the end despite whatever we have said. To me - he has to be kicked out of the team, as simple as that. If he puts in the effort to learn and improve, then I might give him a chance, but he freaking hell does not even respond to whatever we say. The raid leader and the tank were soft-hearted - but to me, I am not going to spend week after week wiping on Horridon just because some idiot refuses to co-operate. And if this goes on pretty soon nobody wants to raid with this team anymore. The problem kind of solved itself when the monk decides to quit raiding (NO I did not force him. He couldn't have known that I was rolling my eyes in front of my laptop everytime he does something wrong). We found someone new (and better) and moved on.

The second crisis came when I realized that people were not putting on their best enchants and gems on their gear! Two years ago this would have been common respect and courtesy for the rest of your team mates. I come to a raid as prepared as I can be to give my best - because I don't want to waste other people's time when we wipe. And if you are having trouble getting the stuff, the guild is ever ready to help with gold, crafting gear, cutting gems, selling you cheap enchants etc. Imagine my wrath when I realize one of the healers uses the best enchant for his dps weapon, but just a mediocre enchant for his healing weapon. And that our tank uses a cheap gem because he is too cheapskate to fork out the gold. This kind of behaviour would result in an immediate warning from the guild leader, and if you don't listen, you will be replaced. But gosh our own raid co-leader is doing it. And worst of all, they question a pug (pick-up-group, gamer's lingo for someone you 'picked up', i.e. not a regular team member, when you are short of people) and ridiculed him when he was not fully enchanted. Double standards!

I asked point-blank whether we are going to enforce this as a basic requirement, and it was a shock to me that some of them do not consider it to be a basic requirement. Fine, I said, then don't blame me when I don't reforge/enchant/gem correctly when I get a new piece of loot. And then about a month later, I realized that our tank (who is a pally) got the legendary cloak for his monk toon before his pally toon! The legendary cloak is a painstaking investment - one that only comes after months of grinding. The fact that he spends more effort on his alt to get the cloak just reeks of selfishness. You are making your team mates work harder in order to cover your ass - for the simple reason that you would rather keep the cloak for another character that you are playing. How do you expect me to give my best when the tank is doing this and the raid leader condones it? (to be continued ...)

Dubrovnik, Croatia

After my Scandinavian trip, I did whatever preparation I could for my dissertation, knowing very well that I will be missing for another 2.5 weeks in August - this time to the Balkans. I did wonder whether spending another 2.5 weeks travelling on top of the 2 weeks in Scandinavia was a wise decision, and me being me, despite whatever promises I made to finish as much of my dissertation as I could before I go off again, in all honesty I accomplished very little before the trip. Heck it, I told myself. It's the Balkans. With the colourful culture and sad history. And I am going to countries which most people cannot even pinpoint on the map (Neither can I before planning for the trip). The boost to my street cred is so enticing that I just cannot resist.

            And so I find myself in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Once part of the Venetian empire (hey, my favourite civilization now in Civ 5!). I have heard so much about Dubrovnik being the ultimate tourist spot in summer, where northern Europeans and Australians flock to to get their share of the sun, island hopping along the Adriatic Sea. That was all true. Each day numerous boats and ships of various sizes dump their tourists onto Dubrovnik. The old town part of Dubrovnik is choked full of tourists, both day and night. But that still does not hide the fact that Dubrovnik is a beautiful place. The uniformity as a result of the mud-coloured bricks used throughout the city, beautifully preserved buildings that still evokes the typical Venetian coastal city, and of course the most famous of it all, the City Walls of Dubrovnik.

         Unless you don't mind splurging exorbitant prices for your accommodation, you are likely to be staying far away from the Old City. I walked 30 minutes into the Old City every morning, a part of it being uphill. And the summer heat in Dubrovnik is enough to put any Singaporean to shame. My T-shirt was totally soaked with sweat and I changed them like thrice a day. Climbing and walking along the walls was a real challenge in the heat. (A complete round takes more than an hour). But the scenery is simply amazing, and my favourite photo is the last one up there. 

          After seeing Dubrovnik, I regretted not setting aside time for Split and Zagreb. But then for this trip Dubrovnik was really just a convenient place for me to fly into, my welcome mat into the veiled mysteries of the Balkan Peninsula. And so, I only allocated one day in Dubrovnik before I met up with the rest of my Road Trip fellow travellers, ready to visit the Southeastern  part of Europe, which has been so well-hidden away until recent history ...

The one with an inadequate introduction

The problem with not updating your blog regularly is that you need to do a fast-forward style recap of your life to keep up with some sense of continuity in the fragmented virtual reality that is your blog. Not that there is any need to do so, except for the tiny voice in your head which gnaws at your conscience every now and then.

        So, the last time I blogged was three days before I flew to Scandinavia. Wow, a lot has happened between then and now. Firstly, the Scandinavia trip itself of course. It was nice to see a part of Europe that has not been part of mainstream Western European culture (which bores me to tears that until now I cannot find the motivation to visit Italy, Germany or Spain - much to the disbelief of others when they know how much of Europe I've travelled to). Helsinki, disarmingly modest for a modern capital when you first arrive, exudes a certain charm which is not duplicatable in a big city. Unfortunately the amount of time I have as a masters student who have not finished his dissertation does not permit me to travel to the other areas of Finland, and I so want to see what Finland has to offer outside of Helsinki.

        The overnight cruise from Helsinki to Stockholm was, surprisingly, a major highlight of this trip. I was of course rolling my eyes when I first saw TWO overnight cruises on the itinerary. I relented when I realized that even locals do it in order to make full use of the duty-free shopping that is found on the ship. I caved and submitted when I walked onto the ship. Shops. Food. Entertainment. Console games corner. Massages. Sauna. All neatly packaged together in a gigantic steel container which transverses the Baltic Sea. And since the locals do it with such fervour (it is like grocery shopping for some of them, and many don't even bother to alight when they reach the other port and instead continue to make use of the facilities found on the ship, returning home the next night), I can do it too without an ounce of shame as a tourist.

        Stockholm is definitely the biggest and grandest of the Scandinavian capitals, not surprising given its superiority in history. The old town is simply jaw-dropping. And the modern side of the town fits into the capital with such harmony. And then there is VASA - a shrine to the 17th century warship which sunk on the same day it left the Stockholm harbour, not even out in the sea, marvellously preserved as a result of the unique saline conditions of the brackish water.

        Copenhagen seems disappointingly plain after Stockholm, but that only lasts for a grand total of thirty minutes until you find yourself at the port area. Upon seeing the sails and boats impeccably lined up against the straight canals of the wharf, the fact that you are in a city which was once ruled by the Vikings dawned upon you.

And Copenhagen has lots of interesting bits thrown in as well. Tivoli Gardens, a retro theme park (or more accurately, a theme park built a long time ago and never renovated) , which reminds me a great deal of Teachers' Day planning with the 35th. Christiania, a neighbourhood in Copenhagen which rules themselves, and has become and enclave for bohemians, artists, and other people who feel that they do not fit into mainstream society.

The overnight cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo was a big disappointment. I blame the first cruise for raising my expectations so high that any other cruise was sure to disappoint. Suffice to say that I spent most of the time in my cabin sleeping and reading. Oslo itself didn't do much for me either. Having spent most of its history being part of Denmark, there is very little history or culture that it has accumulated for itself. The city hall (All Scandinavian cities seem to have these) is quite nice with its Communist-style mosaics though.

 

                 But then, what Norway is famous for is its fjords. The entire coastline of Norway is full of these inlets cut by the sea into mountain cliffs, forming a saw edge pattern if you examine the outline of the country on a map. I did a bit of hiking (and actually started to enjoy hiking - unbelievable!) and enjoyed the nature - and the cold breeze too! And it doesn't hurt that my hotel room is so comfy - there is a window right above the little alcove with the sofas and little table - allowing sunlight to shine in directly above you - a wonderful spot for reading! I need something like this in my own house ...

                 And this is where I realized what started off as a 'fast-forward recap' of my life in the last six months became a long drawn, picture-filled report of my Scandinavian trip. Like a bad GP student who realized his time is up and the main body of his essay has failed to achieve what its ambitious introduction has promised, I am going to write a hasty conclusion which does not do justice to the wonders of this trip. I can't believe I actually went to the extent of dragging out 3000+ photos from my phone (not just from the trip) into my laptop when I realized my descriptive powers fall short of bringing out the true beauty of Scandinavia. (Actually my photo-taking powers fall short too, but what else can I do at this point in time? =p) 

TRSS (Translation Research Summer School)

It costs a few hundred pounds. I had to drag myself out of bed every morning and made my way to UCL (By the end of the week I was wondering how on earth did I survive 6 years teaching in a Singapore school).   It took up 2 weeks of my summer holidays when I can be travelling or working on my dissertation. But this Summer School is probably going to be the highlight of my year in London.

First of all, I get to meet Mona Baker and Theo Hermans. No, they are not rock musicians, but the translation studies academic circle is so small that you basically know almost all of them. Not forgetting to mention Hephzibah Israel and Kathryn Batchelor, who I have never heard of before this program, but they blow my mind away all the same. The ease with which they explain and present sophisticated ideas and theories is so awe-inspiring.

And of course you get to meet fellow translation researchers from all over the world - Finland, Argentina, Mexico, Libya, Nigeria, Ukraine (of course there are more, but these are the more exotic ones haha). When you belong to a particular institution and you only talk to fellow classmates who all attend the same classes from the same few lecturers, sooner or later your perspectives become limited. This is where this summer school helped tremendously, listening to all the different issues which people from various language pairs and research interests are dabbling in. I certainly got a few inspirations for my dissertation and also my PhD research proposal, and I regret to say that they have provided my impetus and suggestion than my supervisor  (who is MIA and nobody knows what happened to him) ever did.

I have fewer than three months in London now, and out of which I will spend one month or even more travelling. There are so many places to visit and things to do, stuff which I have put off indefinitely, telling myself that I am living in London for one whole year and there was no rush. Clearly I cannot afford to do all of these things now and I need to be more selective. And I have not typed a single word for my 20,000 word dissertation, although I do have a drawer full of research articles and readings at various states of completion.

Flying off to Scandinavia in three days time! Wanderlust which I cannot restrain.

There is a post on FB about how a student, when asked in an exam to state a similarity between a bull and a lion after observing their pictures, was marked wrong when she answered that they are both mammals. The reasoning was that the question explicitly tests observation skills and the students are supposed to infer based on the picture and not based on their own general knowledge. Of course, angry parents denounced the question and expectedly people began commenting vociferously about the inflexible school system which we have in Singapore.

To me, the root of the problem is that it is difficult to state explicitly in the instructions what you want, especially when it is a question targetted at P3 students. The question is flawed, certainly, although I am not sure what is a better way to set the question given what the setter wants to test. What amused me more, though, was the insistence that this is a manifestation of our inflexible education system.

Examinations are necessarily inflexible. They are meant to be fair, impartial methods of assessment, where the same marks will be awarded to a particular answer regardless of who the marker is. Examinations have a place in any education system, and having inflexible examinations does not necessarily entail having an inflexible education system.  The problem is when the education system is so centred around examinations at the expense of other assessment methods, or even worse, at the expense of teaching and learning. That should be what we are concerned about, and not over particular questions in examinations, which are just there to help a teacher assess how much a student has learnt.

Far too often, the criticism goes on to comment about how our inflexible school system results in students who are not creative and that teachers do not teach students how to be creative. My first response to that would be: I am not sure if creativity can be taught and it can only be, at best, nurtured by allowing opportunities. My second response would be: I am not sure if Singaporean students are ready for creativity and less examination-centred education system. Just look at how PW turned out. To most Singaporeans, creativity is just a convenient excuse which they use whenever they are unhappy with the education system. Having a more tolerant and less rigid marking scheme does not really help to nurture creativity.  "GP teachers force us to write in a certain way! This inhibits my creativity!" I have heard this accusation far too often. All I can say is - creativity does not mean writing in any way that you deem fit. Academic writing has certain requirements which scholars and researchers all over the world adhere to, and for good reason. Writing a rambling, disorganised, irrelevant and poorly expressed essay is not being creative - it is simply an ineffective way of writing.

Another FB comment which caught my eye was this. "When I was in primary school, I wrote 'My age is nine years old' in a composition and my English teacher marked me wrong, crossing out my sentence in red and writing above it 'I am nine years old.' The English HOD of another school said that there was nothing wrong with my original sentence. My English teacher was just too rigid and inflexible."

Yes, there might be nothing grammatically wrong with "My age is nine years old", but I cannot imagine any circumstance where a native English speaker would use this sentence. Even if I were to ask you "What is your age?", it is very unlikely that the answer would be "My age is X years old." It is an unnatural construction which signals prominently the fact that the speaker is really not very good at using English naturally. It would be irresponsible of the English not to point this out to the student. Language learning is far more than not making grammatical errors and expressing meaning accurately, a concept which seems to have eluded the English HOD and the person who posted this comment.

Sitting in front of the counter in Mekong, my favourite Southeast Asian takeaway, waiting for my food to be ready. A group of three walked in and started ordering their food, three feet away from me.

"Hey, what's that?" one of them pointed to my pipa bag lying against the counter. It was one day before SOAS Music Day and I was lugging the pipa from SOAS home to practice.

"Oh, it's a pipa - erm ... a Chinese traditional musical instrument".

"Oooh show us what it is like!" The other two guys were also looking at my direction now.

I unzipped the top of the bag - exposing the carved head of the pipa with its unmistakably Oriental design.

"Shit, how cool is this?" the first guy commented to his friends. "Is it very old?"

"Hmmm.... the instrument has a long history - but this particular instrument is probably not that old"

"Is it made by hand?"

"Erm .... maybe the carving and the finishing? But most of it is probably machine made and mass produced." I feel like I am disappointing them by pointing out that the instrument is not a handmade relic from some ancient Chinese dynasty.

"Why don't you play us something?"

I hesitated.

"Come on! Show us!"

I decided I cannot afford to disappoint them further - so I took out the whole pipa and played a verse, without bothering to put on the artificial nails which will probably take me a good ten minutes. Dance of the Yi people - with its characteristic sliding notes evoking the Orient.

"Shit, how cool is this?!" the guy repeated.

"Ah - I recognise the sound. It sounds very Chinese or Japanese."

I smiled. The Vietnamese girl who took our orders has reappeared from the kitchen, realizing that there was a mini-recital happening in her small little takeaway shop.

"This is traditional music... yes? I am Italian. We love and respect our tradition too."

Our food orders are ready. I started to put the instrument back into its bag.

"Your playing was great - good luck and cheers!" The three of them smiled broadly at me before they collected their food and left the little shop.

Music is a wonderful way to connect with people. Much of my social life in London revolves around the SOAS Thai Music Society, the Silk and Bamboo Ensemble, and the community orchestra at St. Silas Church. In fact, many of my friends were musicians who had played and made music together with me in some point of my life, and I have joined more musical groups than I can count. Sadly my last few years working as a teacher prevents me from taking part in music as actively as I would have liked. I am sure it will not stay this way after I go back to Singapore.