foreign talent

不需要去嫉妒或讨厌中国人..他们真的很了不起。只要自己够上进，哪一国的人都敌不过你。

成天只会埋怨的新加坡人才是东亚病夫。

不喜欢外界人士没关系，不需要去侮辱他们以便让自己显得比较出色。你们这样看起来真得很蠢。

不喜欢他们在学校里带来的压力? 你比他们用功多一点不就得了吗?

不喜欢他们在事业上带来的竞争？只要你够勤奋，有眼的人一定会认同你，有什么好怕的？

在你怪罪别人之前, 先看看自己吧…反正你自己也是中国人。不妨考虑换换你的态度，向他们学习？

每个人，每个国家，都有他们的好与坏。不要因为自己的偏见而只选择往坏的一面想。

Cyclone Nargis

It has been one year since Cyclone Nargis ravaged Myanmar and killed almost 140,000 Burmese and affected 2 million others.

I honestly didn’t give a shit about it last year but after my Myanmar service trip last December, things I saw on the media that was once so distant from me became a slap in the face.

I saw many Burmese staying in makeshift huts and many of them are still living in really bad conditions. The orphanage I was staying at had its classrooms completely destroyed by the cyclone. A number of children died on the spot and so the new building was placed in another area as a sign of respect.

I vividly remember this conversation with one of the female students I taught:

She: Teacher, do you have any siblings?
Me: Yah, I have two sisters. What about you?
She: Oh I have a brother! (She was really happy when she said this.)
Me: What grade is he in? (I assumed he was in the orphanage too since there were quite a number of orphaned siblings.)
She: He died.

I didn’t ask more because I didn’t really know what to say. I found out later that her brother died in the cyclone.

Sometimes when you think your life is shit, it pays to have a little perspective.