the verbal war by email,来了，战争来临

Dear Mr. L

 

Thanks for the mail.

 

I have no comments over it. Education comes a long way, thousands of years right from the start of Confucian till now. There are all the time different schools of thoughts.  If  a 18-year-old need to supervise like a kindergarten, I am afraid this is not my concept of education. My coming of age teaching experience from kindergarten to masters level would not call for  army camp of supervision.

 

I did not know your management did any of the survey of the interests of the students, as I emailed a The Star report on the wrong choice of courses in local tertiary education scene, however, when I came into Company for two weeks, I did a soft survey on the interest and choice of courses the students like and the results showed not more than 10% of the students are interested in the culinary world  ( Batch 6-Batch 11 ). This is not their choice of studies.  Does Company have a counseling department ?

 

The whole world is calling for small group learning especially in the language and I did not see why the interest would be lost when the number is dwindled.

 

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/symposia/reading/article6/mclaughlin93.html

 

http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED158563&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED158563

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_theory_(education)

 

here are few mails I got from the IEC and it said all.

 

 

FROM: l y m

 

 

sorry sir。。。我承认我没努力到也承认一天到晚只顾着玩。。。自己做的事自己要承担我不会再浪费我的时间前途是我自己的。。。我会加油is u told we never say die的。。。thank you sir…^^

 

 

 

(i’m kurt) you no need to tell me. i will know my result already, i so sad …this exam i learn a hard lesson and will face the music .I cup of tea of English ,now i turn over a new leaf .

 

I’m joe. 

Thank you.

I have to work hard.

 

 

FRom j L

 

 

how i can leaning English more fast and don forget?

 

 

FROM: lvs

 

 

sir for our exam the geographic got use wan ? very sry i no so hardworking at iec dono why but 我想上dipolma 怎样好..一些基本常识我还会。。只是一直在犯错..我的缺点在哪里呢？

 

What my sharing moment of skm vs diploma seemed have missed the point. My doubts of the promotion to Diploma is not based on the SKM level result instead of English language , is  also a part of the doubts of the students. If a student’s English is good and he/she does not like to put afford into the work and fail the SKM Level 2, he can be promoted to Diploma level. There are many unanswered questions.

 

Please do not under estimate the 18 years old. We have working adults turn students. We too, have student who is a graduate. They could not do well in the academic subjects do not mean they do not have the reasoning power. It is undeniable that English language is a lingua franca especially important in the English speaking world, the utmost vital as the C & G is a British examination body.  However, it is not saying that the students can command it within the short time of period.  It is to my wonder what language the students of Taylor have to learn when the college is teamed up with University of Toulouse.

 

http://www.taylors.edu.my/courses/hnt/hnt_landing.php?id=101

 

I would like to thank the management  providing me this opportunity to discuss about issue in the company. I would also like to thank Chef Bernard, a wonderful supervisor that always coaching me and letting me to learn and unlearn. The ‘tagline’ of ‘Many can teach, ONLY a special FEW can REACH’ , I got it in an international conference and fell in love with it immediately. I put it in my signature as a reminder to me that teaching world is still full of unlearnt elements. This would propel me to  be better but I did not make it very much here.

 

Finally, I would like to suggest to set up a suggestion box or a webpage of forum for the students to voice their parts of words. Students words would be the most valuable in testifying in the marketing strategies.

 

Once again thanking the management for the time, warm and friendly working environment.

 

Best Regards

 

Mr. E

 

 

 

 

老板的回复

 

Guys,

                Both of you have your points, from different perspectives.

                But for this, I’ll have to agree with Bernard.

                Unlike universities or other large colleges, we are a considerably small vocational college, in which whatever we do, we have to do more than what others offer, to make us stand out among others.

                English for example, we don’t have to offer English in the 1^st place. But we know this language is so important in order to survive in this industry.

                We did extra, by offering English course. Even more, setup special IEC class for weaker ones.

But to me, both in IEC and normal English refresher course, we failed. We failed mainly because:

·         One way delivery does not work for these students. They need a lot of practices, role play, games or such to encourage them in learning, perhaps unconsciously.

·         No close monitor to IEC during self learning session. They do what they like and its waste of time.

·         Exempting students from English class do not seems to work. The class gets smaller and smaller and eventually students lose interest in it.

 

Conclusion: we need to fine tune our delivery method & structure, to encourage learning through various programs. If we don’t make a change now, or fail to get their interest to learn, then again, we are doom.

 

Best regards,

 

老板

 

 

上司的回复

 

Thanks for the outline.

 

Just for your understanding into why English is equivalent important is that , when we send them out to the so call “real world” they will be facing tough time with their immediate supervisor.

Most of our student are facing difficulties during their training in  reading the menu and understanding what have been instructed to them.

 

 What I required here is just to train them into the ability in reading, listening  and writing. I know it very well that this can’t really work for just a short time but don’t forget that our responsibility is to educate them, just like what we are doing now, I know it so well that even what  we  tough them it can only be in their mind about 10% of it. Now should I have to question all of us that should we not teach them the balance 90%?

 

What I am trying to say here is that Teaching is our responsibility and to groom them up to be someone also is our responsibility ,if not why should they respect us as “Teacher” ?

 

English is important as a language of communication in our industry that can’t change.

 

I know that our center is call “Vocational” but that doesn’t mean that we can’t do a little extra to walk another mile !

I know that is difficult to share one vision with two persons but with a little Love the new generation of these children will make us proud.

 

Most of our student here are rich family background but do you know that so many of them are neglected child ?

That’s why they are here not in Sunway, Tailors or KDU, cause they can’t achieve their dream, some of them they repent for what they have done.

We can’t have all the good ones. We can’t have everything run smooth as we wanted. That’s Life……..

 

“GOD” also have headache.

 

We can’t turn a worm to be a butterfly but at least that we can cultivate them to help us to fertilizes the soil.

 

That’s all I need.

 

You always have a good tagline “ many can teach but not all can reach “ that’s true. If everyone can reach we might be out of JOB…..

 

 

Thanks, Pardon me….

 

 

 

我的信件起因

 

Dear B

 

Greetings !

 

I would like to share with you my personal view on the Batch 8 SKM Level 2 result.

 

Please pardon me that I did not see eye to eye with the comment the main cause of failing in the theory is English language proficiency. From the test paper that I have seen, the English language contributes to a very basic word lsit, not even more than the 850 words of the elementary word list.

 

My analysis is the students are not doing their part of studies, the test paper calls for the knowledge of the culinary terms but not much of the English language. It is just as any professional fields that they require the terms or specific language in the area, for example, the computer is using ‘menu’ for the list of the item in the programme. This word is being borrowed from French and is mainly used in the culinary world. It is now again being borrowed by the IT field.

 

The attitude of learning contribute to the major of success. The many foreign words that now exposed to the students should be learnt by heart as there is no short cut. Even in the linguistic world, we still have to learn by heart. There are many foreign words as it depends on who discovers the theory and how they coil the meaning into it.

 

Therefore solely pointing the fingers at the linguistic part would rather sound unfair to the students.

 

Besides, many of the students, though did not say it openly, have voiced that the language unit is the cause for their failure to promote to the Diploma level. What is the main criteria for attending the Diploma, for my personal observation is the knowledge in the (1) the recipe (2) the name of food (3) the ability to analysis the content of the food. I might be wrong as after reading the books that I borrowed from you, even I have to start a fresh to memorize the terms in French, Italian and even in German. The names of the foods do not all come in English.

 

My question is how much time that the students set aside for the revision and reading of the additional info.

 

I was all the time wondering the SKM level 2 is not the main criteria for the promotion to Diploma  instead the language performance.

 

If CCA wants to grow and be in the academic world, the change in the grading system in Level 1 and Level 2 should be seriously looking into. The eligibility to study in the Diploma level should strongly be based on the SKM Level 2 theory passing in one sitting  and the next consideration would be the language. The very good example was that, there were 4 students from Batch 7 who sat for 4 times of SKM Level 2 paper and still could not pass it. They are not retarded in mental. The passed the driving license, could play piano.

 

It is hard for me to see into the eyes of the students and begged: “ Sir, please don’t set that high standard of English.’

 

As I all the time maintain the standard answer to them,’ Did you do well in your SKM paper ?’  

 

This led me to think of why the SKM Level 2 is unable to be arranged by the end of Level 2. Though it has to get the Malaysian Vocational department to validate the test, it could be arranged after Level 1 test.

 

Please do not take me wrong for blaming  the studies department. It is however should look into the main criteria a chef in future would need in his/her working life. City and Guilds  with its tagline—skills for a brighter future.  As we all work in a team, I wish to see the team be in one.

 

Regards

 

A

 

 

 

Many can teach,ONLY a special FEW can REACH