Inspiring! But Ah, the Shallowness of My Soul!!

The first half of the day was a blur because I wasn't fully awake yet. After lunch and some laughter and conversation I woke up completely and was able to pay better attention during the second half of the day, which was really good because that was when all the good bits came in.

During the second half of the day, the Head of the National Education department in the ministry of Education came to talk to us. National Education is this thing that's supposed to be infused subtly into the school syllabus so that a greater sense of national pride can be created in Singaporeans. Having such a long jargonish-sounding aim you would expect the head of the NE department to be long faced and dragonish looking, but he wasn't. He was wrinkly and old and humourous and cute and he called himself the "Chief of Propoganda".

He told us a few anecdotes, justified the concept of National Education, listened patiently to various criticisms of it being ineffective and overtaxing and impratical because of the logistics involved, and acknowledged all these problems in a very humourous down-to-earth way. He was a very inspiring, funny speaker, and at the end he gave a little speech about us having to build up a sense of pride in our students about how Singapore went from an undeveloped country to an "affluent city state" in just 39 short years, how the various races and religions coexist so peacefully together in Singapore, how we have managed to retain our Asian identity and still integrate ourselves pretty successfully into the Western world (our students did even better than English and American ones on International English tests!) (?), and how we built our country up into what it is today from scratch. Ok, I may have been successfully emotionally manipulated and brainwashed but I really felt this sense of pride rising up in my chest...er....should I say the feminine part of the chest? Maybe not. ahahhahahhaa....

Two entrepreneurs also came to speak to us, Singapore's education system being geared up to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship. I expected a long esoteric talk on cash flow and market economies and blahdy blahs, but the talk was so inspiring.

Questions were put to them. "What makes a successful leader?" we asked.

"I believe everyone is a leader in his own circle, in his own way. The janitor may be a dynamic leader within his own circle, and the CEO is a leader in his own circle. The janitor may feel out of place in a group of CEOs, but that doesn't mean that he isn't a leader in his own right. You may feel you're not a leader. But everyone is born with leadership qualities. It's up to you to find them and use them. Don't ever say you can't do anything because there are always other people who can and what they can do, you can do," this coming from the heavily made-up female entrepreneur who reeked of wealth.

"What makes a successful entrepreneur?"

"I have to say it's humility. You have to recognise the best in people and learn how to bring it out. You have to recognise that a business isn't about earning money. It's about creating jobs for people... it's about taking the money that the government gives you, investing it and growing it, and giving it back to benefit others." The HMUFE (heavily made-up female entrepreneur) answered.

"I would say that there's only one thing that makes a successful entrepreneur, and that is: You have to do what you say. Now this may sound easy. But it's not. You have to work at it every day. It's only when people know they can truly depend on you that you have succeeded in your business and only then can you succeed as well." The QCNG (quite cute nerdy guy) answered.
I was so blown away, but then again I don't happen to be the cynical type so other people may have found it very cheesy but I just drank every word in. Haha...

We went out for dinner at one of the dying out rickety hawker centre thingys near NUS and sweated and chomped our way through chicken chops (not western at all, lah!) and nasi lemak, and moaned about what the guy from Social Services had said yesterday while showing us some statistics about the demographics of Singapore.

He was talking, talking, talking, calmly showing us graphs and facts and figures, talking about our falling marraige rates, and he said very placidly, "Yes, if a young person cannot find a partner by the time they graduate from tertiary institutions, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to get married in the future." Valerie and I looked at each other with horror and I gripped her arm, and some of the guys were giving each other worried looks too, and that particular civil servant continued droning away as if nothing was the matter!

So we were griping about that during dinner and talking about our visit to the Social Service Centres and things.

I was thinking about how, yesterday, when the teacher had asked me to explain my "roles" to the class, I'd been a little lost as to what to say. I'd spoken extra slowly and clearly, and had tried to use as simple a vocab as I could. But when I got home, I agonized over whether they'd thought I'd been condescending to them.

I agonize too much over what I say and what I do. Every night when I get home and reflect I make big plans and I pray. Tomorrow I won't laugh so much, tomorrow I'll be more serious, tomorrow I won't talk so much about guys, and then something happens and I'm back to being frivolous shallow-souled me.

Today this guy complimented me on my top and I really wanted to say "thank you" and leave it at that but Yijin gave me that "Something dodgy is happening" smile and when aforesaid guy elaborated on the niceness of the lace on that top I burst into giggles which were not meant. I-do-not-want-to-giggle. But sadly they just came out like burps.

I know I make a good first impression on people (at least I think and hope I do), but I worry about good future impressions on people because I think I'm like a balloon covered with very fancy icing. On the outside I may look as though I have something solid and delicious inside but slice into the cake and it pops with a very loud bang and it turns out to be just AIR.

Need to work on that butter and cream and eggs!