Create a culture of positivity

Are you a follower of trends, or do you create them? Do trends affect culture? If yes, how so? If no, why not?

Trends and culture have everything to do with one's mindset. Am I open to change, or do I just want to maintain the status quo? Am I adverse to change? Why is it we don't like people who "rock the boat"? If the change is for the better, why don't we want to change?

Unfortunately, the world around is changing rapidly. A company CEO in Singapore said this: "计划跟不上变化." (Planning cannot keep up with change.) Rapid changes are making us confused and insecure. What I learn today is irrelevant next month. I just can't keep up!

Am I creating a change in trend and culture? I can't control factors around me, but I can try to create an atmosphere of peace and calm. I can create a culture of clean living and positive talk. I can choose to be happy every day. I can choose to encourage others around me, regardless of how I feel myself. I will soon "infect" others to be like me. It's all about choice.

Is culture man made? I can't answer that question. But I can make my own culture for everyone to follow. Look at Psy. The world got "infected" by his horse-riding dance. So, I can create a positive culture too!

As we enter 2013, let's create a new trend: happy, positive, encouraging!

Fun Language Tools wishes you a blessed, happy and positive 2013!

2012 Word of the Year: Gangnam

2012 must be the year of the Korean.

Korean dramas have captivated the world for a few years now. I was in Honolulu, Hawaii, last October. My friends said everyone at his workplace talks about Korean dramas all the time. His wife's friend (who is of Korean descent) watches Korean dramas on her iPad to keep up her Korean. A young lady I met went online to teach herself the Korean language, just to watch dramas.

Then came Psy and Gangnam Style. The video got so many hits that "Gangnam" has now made it as one of the words of the year!

K Pop appeals to young people all over Asia, more than some of the American boy bands.

History has just been made in South Korea after the people elected their first female President. Times have changed. The world has changed.

I just wonder if traditional Korean culture will be eroded because modern Korean culture has overtaken the world. At any rate, the Korean language remains a strong tie between North and South Korea, plus a tie between the past and the present.

As the year comes to an end, what are your plans for the new year? Is one of them learning a new language? Make that a goal and get started today!

Learn a language, open a door to an adventure!

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Language of courtesy

"Mind your P's and Q's!"

Mother's words to every child in whatever language and culture you come from. Be polite. Say "please". Say "thank you". We all want to deal with polite people wherever we are in the world, even if we can't communicate in the same spoken language.

The writer of this forum letter was right to complain about rude service towards his elderly mother. There were no customers in the hair salon at the time. There were no seats other than barber chairs in the shop. Why can't she sit in the barber chair while waiting for her son? It's only a short while. Why does the haircutter tell her to sit in the stairwell outside?

Rightly so, the writer has taken his business elsewhere. He can't communicate in Mandarin with the staff in the new salon, but they treat him and his elderly mother with courtesy and concern. Granted, the two of them can't understand each other, but the message comes across loud and clear: the old lady is waiting for her son. She can sit comfortably in a nice chair in the shop while waiting. No matter if there are other customers. I would say this message speaks loud and clear to the other customers as well: the staff of this salon provide good customer service regardless of whether the person is a customer or not. This automatically translates into more business in the long run.

It is most helpful to speak the same language, but if you can't, just be polite and friendly. The language of courtesy knows no cultural or language barriers. Let's resolve to be courteous every day of our lives!

Here's to cross-cultural communication through the language of courtesy!

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Culture of giving

Singapore has been conducting the Singapore Cooperation Programme to train government officials from different countries for varying lengths of time. Giving back to society has become de rigeur corporate culture for many companies for years. Singapore is just being a good global citizen.

Somehow, the culture of giving back to society rings loud and clear in Singapore. People are more likely to support a company with a social cause/enterprise. Helping others in need always makes one feel good. Makes me feel good too.

What is your area of expertise? What can you contribute to others? It could be a neighbour's child who needs some extra help in schoolwork. Or helping a single mom with childcare so she can go to work and earn some money. Perhaps the new immigrant family a few doors away needs your help to get settled in. Build bridges across cultures today. Bringing over a hot meal of your favourite food is a good door opener.

In the spirit of Christmas, go bless somebody today!

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What's "polite clothing"?

New Year's Eve church service next week. Dress code for leaders:
Men: Smart casual, shirt with jacket, no tie needed
Women: Neat and polite clothing

Huh? What's "polite clothing"? I thought I knew all about the different dress codes, but this one was completely new and puzzling. I had to stop for a moment and think from the point of the writer. Problem? Translation.

Indonesian language: sopan (respectful, well-mannered, decorous, usually translated as polite in English)
Chinese language: 斯文 (refined, educated, cultured, intellectual, polite, gentle)
Khmer language:សុភាព (polite, ladylike)
Thai language: สุภาพ (polite, refined, cultured, ladylike)

I am sure that other languages probably have similar ways of describing appropriate clothing for an occasion. But, these are the only languages I know, so I can only comment thus far.

What tickled me most was seeing an ad in the local newspaper for Etiquette Clothiers. Ha! This is the meaning of "polite clothing"! The funny thing is that Etiquette Clothiers sells underwear and socks - inner wear, not outer wear! How is anyone going to see your "polite clothing"?

The long and short of it all is wear something appropriate for church and to usher in the New Year. Now, that's polite and respectful. If you want to avoid such puzzling (and sometimes hilarious!) instructions, learn a language well, whichever one you choose. Then you'll always be polite and respectful!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

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End of the World = Try Wasabi Day

Today is 21 December 2012. The end of the world? The end of an era? Winter solstice? The one day in history when Jewish, Mayan and Chinese Lunar calendars meet?

As I write this, the sun is shining outside my window. The sky is clear blue, with some clouds stretched across. A very beautiful day indeed. No end of the world in sight.

Some Christian friends of mine made a joke of "doomsday". In Chinese, "the end of the world" is translated as 世界末日. Using the same tones and pronunciation but entirely different Chinese characters, they called today 试芥末日, which is translated into English as "Try Wasabi Day"!

I have to admit this is most creative! As someone who knows a few languages, I appreciate their humour. While many are wondering if the world is ending today, the rest of us should just go eat some sashimi or sushi with wasabi - in honour of "Try Wasabi Day"!

So, let's have some fun today. Play around with words in different languages. Learn a new language. Make the most of the sunshine while it is still day. The end of the world will come soon enough.

Happy learning a new language!

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Speak the language, open the door

Ms Jasmine Lee is ethnically Filipina. She married a Korean (who has since passed away) and is the 1st naturalised Korean citizen, and the 1st non-Korean to win a seat in Parliament. She is a history-maker.

Ms Lee has challenged the Koreans to think about who really is Korean. She is a Korean citizen. Her children are half Korean racially, Koreans in citizenship. With more and more non-Korean brides marrying into the country, what makes a Korean? Even K Pop stars are not necessarily Korean. Two of the members of the latest female K Pop group are Singaporean teens. They had to undergo the rigourous training to make the cut. They may fit the "look", but they're not Korean.

Does speaking Korean make you "Korean"? Probably not. But, you'll be more acceptable to the Koreans if you do. It's true in any culture. Silence rules when you have to speak in another language. When you can speak something of the foreign language, it gets noisy. People get friendly. Everyone wants to chat with you and tell you their life story. I love it!

Want to cross the cultural and language divide? Start by learning the language. Make the most of your time by working at it a little a day. You will get there! Start today! Click here!

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Do you have manners?

Korean pop culture is taking the world by storm. Gangnam Style and Psy are now international. Girls as young as 12 and 14 years old are auditioning to be K Pop stars. Every girl's dream is to be the next big hit.

So when I read this article, I was curious to know what the audition panelists look for during the K Pop audition. Singing and dancing are a definite must. Does she have the "X factor"? To my surprise, this is what one of the top judges said:

Yes, indeed! What IS the point of being a star if you don't have manners? Fans don't remain fans forever if you can't be nice to them. A 12-year-old Singaporean boy who made the cut as one of Psy's backup dancers for his local concert was thrilled to bits when Psy casually put his arm on the boy's shoulder during the group photo. Yes, Psy does have manners. No airs about him at all.

Same goes with any culture in the world. Manners speak louder than anything else. Business, tourism, friendship? Manners. Nobody wants to deal with rude or uncooperative people. Hong Kong used to known for extremely poor customer service. That changed as they prepared to return to China. Today, Hong Kong is one of the friendliest places in the world to visit. Thousands of tourists and business people flock to Hong Kong annually, bringing in much-needed cash to fuel the economy.

Going cross cultural is not easy. Learning the customs and behaviour of another culture is often a mystery that takes a long time to solve. Begin by being a student. Find out as much as you can before you get there. Most importantly, bring along your best manners. They will open doors for you.

Happy learning!

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Translation = changing a language?

"Lost in translation" is a phrase used frequently. I use it too. Since I have to translate orally and written text often, I face this issue too. It is very real.

When I read what Howard Goldblatt wrote, I was fascinated. We're not merely making the text understood in a different language, but we've sort of added our own perspective into the text. Writing is very personal. Writing expresses what we want to say in the way we want to say it. Translating a text adds the translator's personality into the expression. This is why Google translate is not the best translator in the world. In fact, most text gets mangled simply because it is not human!

Yet, translators are indispensable. We can't live without them. So many languages in the world. So many excellent pieces of writing in each language. How can I appreciate it? I need a translator.

The only way to circumvent "lost in translation" is to learn the language yourself. I speak from experience. I love it when I catch the nuance that just isn't there in English! Communication becomes a real joy! So, make a plan to start learning a new language today! Log on to Fun Language Tools to find a package suited to you!

Happy learning!

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Language learning - can it be supernatural?

Speaking in a Different Language is a blog post written by a Filipino friend who moved to Costa Rica for work. He and his wife had to learn Spanish before beginning actual work there.

I thought that Filipinos would have little difficulty learn Spanish because many words in Filipino (the national language of The Philippines) come from Spanish. They use Spanish to count money, tell time, ... The Philippines was colonised by the Spaniards way before the Americans came. Even the country is named after Spanish royalty. So, why did he find it so difficult to learn?

Every person is different. We all face limitations in learning different skills. But, Lloyd brings out an important point in his blog. God can work miracles in teaching us a new language (tongue). In the Bible in Acts chapter 2, God supernaturally gave the 120 praying people languages of the places where Jews had settled, without any lessons! Perhaps the only "work" they had to do was wait in God's holy presence for 10 days non-stop. But note one thing, these 120 people received a new language supernaturally but did not understand what they were saying. Their received language was to tell the people who did understand the wonders of our Almighty God.

Can this happen to you? Most definitely. The key is to seek the Giver of all languages first. Remember the Tower of Babel? But He is God and holds the prerogative to give or withold the language from you.

So, this holiday season, dream about speaking a new language. Make a plan to start learning. In the new year, begin the lessons. By the end of 2013, you will be communicating in a new language without having to think too hard!

Happy dreaming and learning!

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Forced to learn a language?

Many friends have asked me how I ended up being able to speak Indonesian. This is considered unusual for a Singaporean because the average Singaporean is monolingual, either only English, or only Mandarin, or a smattering of one or other other. My standard answer is, "I was forced to."

On Sunday, an Indonesian Chinese pastor friend spoke at my church. He introduced himself saying that he did not complete school in the Indonesian language and could only speak Teochew (a Chinese dialect from southern China) and no Mandarin. However, because he was asked to start a Chinese service in his church, he was forced to speak Mandarin. He still gets the tones mixed up sometimes, reads the Bible with Pinyin (Romanised phonetics for Mandarin) and sometimes can't recognise the characters. Yet, he can communicate quite well in his "forced-to-learn" language and is getting better by the day.

This got me thinking. Can someone really be forced to learn a language, against his will? We all do have choices. As a college student, to fulfill my college credit, I had to learn Chinese or Japanese. I took a summer basic Mandarin course and decided I should not take the easy way out, but learn something new instead. So, I took Japanese from beginners till graduate level. I really enjoyed Japanese as the semesters wore on. But since I never used it from the day I graduated from college, I have since returned 90% to the teachers!

When I joined the Indonesian church I'm in now, I could only manage simple sentences in the Indonesian language. But, I set my mind to learn, no matter what it took. I tried my level best to find myself a teacher, but no success. How did I learn? Sitting in church every week listening to the sermon. Later, I bought a grammar book and tried to learn on my own. Immersion in the language and atmosphere helped me greatly. More of my language was caught than taught. I had no choice. Either I "fit in" or remain an outsider forever.

On top of that, I was sent out to small islands in Indonesia to speak. No English there! Do I have to rely on a translator all my life?! My Indonesian language learning may have been forced, but I was determined to learn. I don't like being an outsider, or be treated like one. Life is so much more fun when I can communicate across another culture. It's a win-win situation for both sides.

So, can someone be forced to learn a language? Yes and No. Yes, by force of necessity. No, because we choose to learn the language to benefit ourselves in the end. I know many, many foreigners living in Cambodia who never bothered to learn the Khmer language, much to their detriment. They survive, but not live life fully.

Will I continue to learn other languages? Yes. Some by being forced, but the enjoyment comes after the tears and the pain. Being able to communicate is sheer joy for me and my new-found friends. Begin the new year with a language-learning plan! Develop that hidden talent in you!

Happy learning! Find a book or software here at Fun Language Tools.

Handsome = Obedient?

My teenage friend from Hong Kong took this photo. I think it so aptly summarises the way Hong Kong people "translate" Cantonese into English. Signs in Hong Kong are all bilingual, thanks to their British colonial past.

The Chinese words 恒顺园 literally mean "constant obedience court". In Mandarin, it is pronounced as "heng shun yuan". In Cantonese (the Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong and Guangzhou), it is pronounced "hung soun yuen". "Hung soun" sounds like "Handsome" in English. So, there: 恒顺园 gets translated as "Handsome Court", which is so much more catchy than "Constant Obedience Court"!

Though it may sound funny, I think Hong Kong people are so creative when it comes to translations between Cantonese and English and vice versa.

So, why not exercise a bit of creativity when translating names? Add some fun to life!

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Good friends, good diplomatic relations

Student exchange programmes have been around for a long time. As an 18-year old going to America for university, I did not know about exchange programmes or even care to find out about such things. I went with one goal: complete my Bachelor's degree in as short a time as possible because my father was paying a lot of money for me to study there.

Today, I have become friend and host family to many 19- and 20-year olds from different countries in South-East Asia. They come to Singapore on a scholarship for 3-4 years, depending on their course of study. While many of them have never been out of their home country before, some others really don't need us host families to settle into a foreign land. Regardless, I still do my best to stay in touch with them and fulfill my obligations as a host family.

The best part about getting to know all these students is the cultural exchange. As the newspaper article implies, student exchange between Singapore and Indonesia has greatly helped in diplomatic ties between the two nations. These young people from so many different countries interacting with each other in Singapore helps build ties between their nations.

Unfortunately, disputes between their nations also affects them. During the height of the tensions between Thailand and Cambodia over the ownership of an ancient temple, overnight Thai students snubbed their Cambodian friends, when they were buddies just the day before. Students from China protested over the tensions arising from the ownership of the Spratly Islands, by throwing their belongings around. It seems to be that patriotism overrules friendships and personal relationships that transcend ethnic ties and nationality.

Yet, it is actually the friendships built up as students that will pave the way for good diplomatic relations in later years. Singapore's first Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, was a student in the UK when many British colonies were talking about independence. His classmates often had discussions over what was happening in their own countries. When Mr Lee became Prime Minister, many of the heads of states of other Commonwealth countries were already his friends from school days. Diplomatic ties were simply a matter of course, since the basic friendships had already been built so long ago.

To build friendships across cultures, one must maintain the attitude of a student. Read, learn, interact. Those are the keys to a more harmonious world today.

Here's to multi-cultural friendships!

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Shared culture - basis for friendships?

This article is not about business friendships, but the common theme is still friendships - for life.

The writer talked about a junior college classmate's 40th birthday party, where their close knit bunch of classmates were invited, along with the birthday girl's other friends. The classmates had been together through two years of junior college and into university in UK. After that, how different their paths have taken them. Yet, the friendship remains, after about 20 years in between.

Thanks for Facebook, one of my primary school through to secondary school classmates found many of us. We've had several reunions in the last 2 years. We've all gone our separate ways. Some of us have embraced different languages, different accents when speaking English, different cultures, ... but at the heart of it all, we're still good friends.

Perhaps what lies behind the solid friendship is the common school culture that we share: education in a convent school. My friend said to me that "convent girls in India are the same as convent girls in Singapore. They're articulate and outspoken." At that moment, I put it down to our shared heritage of British colonialism. Maybe so. Maybe not. Regardless, a common culture (not always tied to ethnicity) can bind us together in friendship for the long haul.

Sometimes in business, we may not always speak the same brand of English or share the same ethnic culture, but if we went to the same family of schools (e.g. Catholic school), we could well hit it off and build not only a business relationship, but also a friendship, for life.

Culture is an interesting concept. Let's not limit it to language and ethnicity alone.

Happy adventures in exploring other cultures!

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Keep making friends for life

To follow up on my post about building friends, not just business relationships, I wanted to share this article about how Singapore has managed to survive all these years - just by making friends for life. And long may she continue to do so.

Singapore is a small island city state with no natural resources. But, our forefathers have built up a strong nation of 47 years, simply by focusing on the most important resource in the world: people.

It takes people to build relationships.
It takes people to build friendships.
It takes people to maintain relationships for the long haul, beyond the momentary business deal.
And it takes people to cross the language and cultural barrier to build friendships for a lifetime.

My whole purpose of learning languages is to communicate in the heart language of the people I want to learn about, befriend and appreciate. In the process of learning their language, I learn about their culture. I get accepted as "one of them". I have effectively crossed the cultural barrier. I am no longer considered an "outsider".

Would you like to be accepted into another culture as "one of the boys"? Begin by learning a language. Begin here.

Have fun!

Share your skills to benefit others

Two Singaporean doctors have been recently honoured for their contributions to the healthcare system in China. One older and a prominent eye surgeon, the other a younger doctor. They have chosen to give their lives to make the Chinese people's lives better.

Congratulations to these two distinguished gentlemen! You have chosen to cross the cultural and language barrier to see the real needs and meet them! May Singapore send out more of such fine men (and women)!

Would you like to serve another culture with the expertise that you have? Start by learning a new language. You will find yourself falling in love with the people in no time at all!

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