I was serenaded by my dearest and cheeky bom bom at 10pm the night before my birthday. To all who smsed me yesterday, sorry I couldn’t reply coz one of my pressies was a new phone. By the time I finally switched on (by then, my old phone was already cheeky bom bom’s play thing), the incomings were too many to reply at one go…but I will reply. Tunggu….
This week we have so many makan-makan sessions, unit’s raya partylah, dept raya partylah and yesterday was the organization’s open house to celebrate the birthday girl (I wish!). I’m happy with all the free food, who wouldn’t be? But whatever miligrammes that I managed to get rid during the puasa month came back in tonnes with full vengeance!
A friend of mine suggested a rice free diet but I’m afraid such a diet will be like expecting a Kancil to beat a McLaren F1 in a drag race, Lindsay Lohan to ‘behave’ in public or expecting the bumbling idiot Mr Bean to be debonair and charming like Prince William…. It’s a nice thought…..but have u ever heard of the saying…Yeeah!! When pigs fly!!!!
Anyway, during one of the face stuffing gluttony open house sessions, we decided to have the technician hook up a karaoke set in the hall for the karaoke junkies to belt their hearts out to the raya songs. When the gang (myself included) were hogging the mic, one of our colleagues stood by listening to us practically ‘Menyumbangkan’ lagu raya. Out of courtesy, we offered her the mic and to my surprise, she actually accepted it and started singing. No, she didn’t sound like the late Rafeah Buang or Sharifah Aini, in fact she sounded like she was in excruciating agony as if someone banged her big toe with a wooden mallet!! But here was a person who looks like even a butterfly can scare her to death, you can hardly hear a squeak from her during the day, without hesitation accepted our invitation.
Don’t judge a book by its cover…. Or the power of persuasion due to American Idol and AF!
I’ve been here for a year and there were many times I was surprised as such. Here, people don’t seem to have a shy bone. Every time I go to some courses or to some presentations, its normal to see people actually scrambling to put their hands up or go to the mic to ask questions or give their opinions.
Wah Lau weh!! In my previous lifetime, I would expect very few people to have the guts to go up to the mic and ask/give questions to the presenter in front of hundreds of people. But not here! It’s a good thing actually coz naturally I’m shy person. But being surrounded by these confident and robust styled personalities, I can’t afford to be seen as one. I can see now why we had to undergo a series of exams and series of interviews before being accepted into this esteemed organisation! It pays to really select your employees.
Not being able to express your feelings clearly is actually a disease that’s quite norm nowadays. My sis in law who is an HR manager said that out of 100 candidates she interviews, less than 5% was able to talk (and this was done in their own mother tongue! Belum lagi in English!). Oh sure, anyone can talk, but I mean really talk, really able to express their views in a convincing way…not talk cock, any cock can talk, cock talking or To’kok is common among people who don’t know very much but want to be seen as knowledgeable, u can tell by their laugh….sooo loud and just plain annoying.
Being able to write is not a skill anymore. With internets, plagiarism is norm. But being able to talk! Now, that is something no one can give you. It’s skill that you have to teach yourself!
So how do we cure this? Parents? Education? Peers? Banning Prof Razak Mydin’s anak mami movies?
I’ve got a neighbour who is an English teacher but in my 5 years of knowing her, I have never ever ever heard her speak in English. Scary eh?
