From there, study seems to be taxing and no more fun. Obviously different strategies needed to be adopted. Competition was high. Fun in studying took different meaning. In Form Four and Five, I was in science class, competing with better students from even wider region. Now we were talking not only competing among ourselves in our class, but also among other students in other school in the whole district.
Study was a battle, and casualties were many. This is like playing poker in ‘Maverick’ movie starred by Mel Gibson. Not only you have to beat those in your table, but you have to outplay the whole people on the ship. Not to mention the gun tooting bad cowboys and the corrupt law enforcers. Against all odd, I became the best student for the school again in SPM in 1989. My bet this time was different. I will elaborate on it in latter part of my book. Soon I was heading to a more challenging Casino!
In 1990, I was in Taiping Perak Malaysia in University Sains Malaysia (USM) Matriculations. Now I am playing against the best students from all over Malaysia. No kidding, I could never beat them. They were too clever, far better exposed and they know things much more than me. This was because all this while they were better resourced than me. I was from remote forrested kampong in Sabah, remember!
Obviously, if I want to stay sane, I got to stop competing. My strategies changed. No more beating the guy in front of me. I am now happy if I win bigger money than what I have got previously. It was not playing poker anymore, it just the big Casino with many types of gambling activities. Somehow, I think my life was just like playing a jackpot machine then. It is just me and the machine or in other words me and the system.
At that time, I just wanted to do my best and try to beat my own previous achievements. This method managed to get me through my 2 years of matriculations. In 1992, I was selected to advance my study in Australia in Medicine. In Australia, competing was out of the question, I could barely speak in English.
How do you play games with opponents who do not speak your language? Easy! Speak their language and speak it better.
Again, this time, I had only myself to beat and to compete with. In every achievement, I made a promise to do better the next time. Within 6 months in Medical School, I was comfortably speaking in English. In fact, I articulated better than any of my batch who previously spoke better English than me in Malaysia. I mingled with all the Australians and the English speaking Chinese Malaysian. I always reminded myself that it is their (not mine) disadvantage if they could not understand my English and it is my advantage that I could understand them (my listening skill was better). So I never feel discouraged, every time I speak, they will courteously correct me if my pronunciation or grammar is wrong. So, instead of being afraid of making mistake, I was actually eager to expose my speaking skills so I could be corrected whenever I made a mistake.
Other Malaysian friends of mine minimize their conversation with the Australians due to their apprehension. Consequently, they learn much slower than me. In fact, most of them speak too proper in English, it sounded memorized and text book-like. Here I was speaking in Australian slang and colloquial, they were still heavily accented in Malay English. I achieved that, because I simply talk more without being afraid of making mistakes. To this day I believe, the best way for anybody in Malaysia to learn English is to pack their bag and live for at least a year in English speaking nation. It is a simple logic, because in English speaking nation, you are surrounded by ‘teacher’ who will ‘teach’ you the skills in every moment of your life. Of course, provided you converse with them in the first place. I learn the language of the players, so I can win!
I persevered on. In 1998, as scheduled, I graduated as a medical doctor and also certified in a self-improvement course.
Study was a battle, and casualties were many. This is like playing poker in ‘Maverick’ movie starred by Mel Gibson. Not only you have to beat those in your table, but you have to outplay the whole people on the ship. Not to mention the gun tooting bad cowboys and the corrupt law enforcers. Against all odd, I became the best student for the school again in SPM in 1989. My bet this time was different. I will elaborate on it in latter part of my book. Soon I was heading to a more challenging Casino!
In 1990, I was in Taiping Perak Malaysia in University Sains Malaysia (USM) Matriculations. Now I am playing against the best students from all over Malaysia. No kidding, I could never beat them. They were too clever, far better exposed and they know things much more than me. This was because all this while they were better resourced than me. I was from remote forrested kampong in Sabah, remember!
Obviously, if I want to stay sane, I got to stop competing. My strategies changed. No more beating the guy in front of me. I am now happy if I win bigger money than what I have got previously. It was not playing poker anymore, it just the big Casino with many types of gambling activities. Somehow, I think my life was just like playing a jackpot machine then. It is just me and the machine or in other words me and the system.
At that time, I just wanted to do my best and try to beat my own previous achievements. This method managed to get me through my 2 years of matriculations. In 1992, I was selected to advance my study in Australia in Medicine. In Australia, competing was out of the question, I could barely speak in English.
How do you play games with opponents who do not speak your language? Easy! Speak their language and speak it better.
Again, this time, I had only myself to beat and to compete with. In every achievement, I made a promise to do better the next time. Within 6 months in Medical School, I was comfortably speaking in English. In fact, I articulated better than any of my batch who previously spoke better English than me in Malaysia. I mingled with all the Australians and the English speaking Chinese Malaysian. I always reminded myself that it is their (not mine) disadvantage if they could not understand my English and it is my advantage that I could understand them (my listening skill was better). So I never feel discouraged, every time I speak, they will courteously correct me if my pronunciation or grammar is wrong. So, instead of being afraid of making mistake, I was actually eager to expose my speaking skills so I could be corrected whenever I made a mistake.
Other Malaysian friends of mine minimize their conversation with the Australians due to their apprehension. Consequently, they learn much slower than me. In fact, most of them speak too proper in English, it sounded memorized and text book-like. Here I was speaking in Australian slang and colloquial, they were still heavily accented in Malay English. I achieved that, because I simply talk more without being afraid of making mistakes. To this day I believe, the best way for anybody in Malaysia to learn English is to pack their bag and live for at least a year in English speaking nation. It is a simple logic, because in English speaking nation, you are surrounded by ‘teacher’ who will ‘teach’ you the skills in every moment of your life. Of course, provided you converse with them in the first place. I learn the language of the players, so I can win!
I persevered on. In 1998, as scheduled, I graduated as a medical doctor and also certified in a self-improvement course.
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