The Accidental Actor - For the love of Mandarin

The story behind how I ended up with acting as a hobby began with my search to improve my Mandarin. I came from an English school. In the early 90's when Singaporeans were beginning to explore business opportunities in China, a client requested me to travel with him to Guangzhou to negotiate a property deal. This was my second trip to China, my first being a study tour of a few major cities to understand the Chinese legal system.

My Mandarin proficiency in those days was below average and this second visit to China was like a Mandarin language immersion programme. Every document that I had to read and explain to my client was written in Mandarin. After the trip, I felt a strong need to improve my Mandarin, especially since my social circle has come to include more and more Mandarin speaking friends. I forced myself to read more Chinese texts and joined a Mandarin toastmasters' club. But I needed to upgrade myself further. I was looking for another learning pathway when I saw a television commercial that led me onto an unusual way of raising my Mandarin proficiency.

Mediacorp was conducting a drama class for those in the middle age group and I thought this might train me in good diction. Surprisingly, I graduated from the course with high grades. Soon acting assignments from Channel 8 came pouring in. Reading the scripts for Chinese dramas helped me improve my Mandarin and it was this desire to keep improving my Mandarin that I accepted the acting assignments. Eventually, acting became a hobby and I took up assignments from Channel 5, movie producers and production houses as well.

Acting gave me an insight into the working  lives of artistes and an understanding of how the entertainment industry works. I saw good and bad acting, professionalism and unprofessionalism and what it takes to produce a television drama and movie. The challenges that an actor or actress face cannot be described in mere words. You need to be on the set, face the entire filming crew and the constraints of time to understand the pressures of acting. And of course there is the anticipation of how viewers will respond to your performance.

I have always encouraged those who wish to have a taste of acting to go for the experience. It is not something that money can buy unless of course you are rich enough to produce a drama or movie yourself. Acting brought me a new dimension. So if you think you like to try, take the opportunity when it comes.

Food Distribution in Potong Pasir

The distribution of rations at Potong Pasir with Project Awareness and Happy People took place today. Coincidentally, Mr. Sitoh Yi Ping, the current MP of Potong Pasir SMC, was in the vicinity. We shook hands and had a photograph taken together. I invited him to join our volunteers for the distribution but he was unable to make it.

There were volunteers who were themselves residents of Potong Pasir. Our volunteers visited a few blocks and met many elderly residents. They were happy to see our concern for them and shared with us the issues that bothered them. A number of them were disturbed by the construction works and spoke about how their peaceful living environment has been disrupted. The cleanliness of the estate has suffered and their homes are dusty. 

We were invited into their homes to look at wall cracks, leaking pipes and creaking doors. These problems have led some of them to fork out extra money to pay for rectification work. There was a resident who renovated her flat after being tired of waiting for the upgrading works to begin and went ahead to renovate her flat. However, after her renovation was completed, the upgrading works began and caused repeated damage to her flat.

Residents spoke fondly of Mr. Chiam and how they miss his personal touch. There were requests for help during our visits and even after the distribution, there were telephone calls from residents for us to visit them again. We moved on to King George's for lunch and bought some more rations to distribute to the lonely elderly residents that we met.

Those in need will not be forgotten and we will continue to reach out to as many of them as we can.

THEME: Thinking about Education

Singapore has repeatedly won wide acclaim in international maths and science competitions but yet in the last 50 years, we have not produced a single Nobel prize winner or a great mathematical formula or scientific invention. Is there something amiss in our educational system?

Education is the key that helps us unlock the intellectual resources that reside in our people and it seems that our key has not been able to adequately unlock the minds of our industrious students to help us achieve the makings of a great nation. Although creativity and innovation have been the declared goals of every education minister appointed in the last 20 years, they remain elusive. There is an urgent need to look deeper not only into our pedagogy but the values that are being imbued in our students who spend most of their time in school.

Our teachers are trained to help our students learn but unfortunately our students learn that their utmost priority is to do well in examinations is all that matters. We cannot put all the blame on their teachers because they are themselves the product of the same educational system. Such an attitude in learning is reinforced by the schools' teaching curricula which emphasises being exam-smart. This has nurtured a whole generation of parents who base their parenting success on producing exam-smart children, learning them to cramp their children's timetables with tuition classes before and after school. Consequently, a tuition industry has blossomed with good subject teachers preferring to be run tuition classes than teaching in schools. An academic rat-race to obtain degrees and higher qualifications has been around for a long time now, encouraged by a government that is made up of scholars. Hence, a recent change of tone by the government suggesting that a university degree is "not vital for success", did not go down well with the people.

For most students, studying is not about acquiring knowledge to become a better person and to add value to society. it is about passing examinations with flying colours and getting into top schools and landing a job in their choice professions. As for most teachers, teaching is not about imparting knowledge, values and discipline. It is about getting recognition for producing top students in every national examination and meeting their key performance indexes for promotion and salary increments which are based on their students' academic performances. 

When learning is exam-driven and when not everyone is gifted to excel in examinations but could be talented in non-academic ways, juvenile delinquency becomes an issue in schools, at home and in the community at large. Discriminatory educational practices, like class streaming which puts all the "bright" students on one side and the "not-so-bright" students on the other side, have stigmatised students with poor academic results, leading to the development of inferiority complexes and disciplinary problems . Stories of how teachers are abused by rebellious students emerge day after day. And parents run to seek help from the courts when their children are beyond parental control. Even principals, teachers and tutors get into trouble with the law for their indiscretions. Students who successfully sail through our educational system, especially those from the gifted stream, are often said to have high IQ but low EQ. And many of them have ascended high positions in government service because of their academic excellence and devising national policies.

What can we do about our education system? I will share some of my thoughts in my next blog.