Wednesday, April 30, 2008 @3:50 pm
Being out of school and in the 'real world' has taught me many things; one of the main things being to appreciate and have a deeper understanding of the chinese phrase: 各有千秋， everyone has their own good and bad point, talents, skills etc.
Having grown up in a system that very efficiently segregates children according to their intellectual calibre, I'd always been surrounded by people similar to myself. There might have been activities where we interacted with other groups of people, but always as different groups working together, each being aware of the seemingly acute differences, never really coming together as one. Being put together on the same level and having to work together for an extended period of time is a whole new experience altogether.
With people from all sorts of different backgrounds coming together, working on the same thing, one has to come to a compromise as to the pace of things and the manner in which things are done. Initially, I thought others very incapable and inapt and uncomparable to myself. But in time, I learnt to come off my high horse. Although it might be more difficult to start a relationship with someone so seemingly different from yourself than with someone you can relate to immediately, all that's needed is an open mind and a willingness to make the effort.
Of the two ingredients to make a 'rojak' team work, I'd say the more important would be the latter. If there ever was a preconception or a stereotype about the type of person the other party was, that's the first thing that'll have to be binned. While putting people you see on the streets or around you into convenient compartments and having 'interesting' ideas about them might be fun, I've learnt that it isn't very helpful in forming personal relationship; not totally that is. One can't help having certain 'first impressions', and these impressions are definitely not formed groundlessly. The danger comes, I feel, when one starts expanding on these impressions, this time, groundlessly. This is when stereotyping comes in. Thus, the action needed here is to be fair about one's opinion of others, and be conscious of how these opinions are formed. Once people start seeing each other as another human being to get to know, one doesn't interact with this person with a preconceived notion of what kind of a person he is.
Once preconceived notions of others are done away with, it is pretty easy to recognise others' abilities and accomplishments. Coming from different backgrounds, everyone would have talents in different areas, received different methods of training/learning, formed different perspectives to issues etc. While each of us might have our own convictions about certain things (which probably stems from the way we were brought up/educated), one should not form ideas about the minds of others, but be open to new and different thoughts about things.
I'm glad I didn't take up some office job. Things would have been very much different, and I'd have learnt this much later in life.
It is good to be confident of one's capabilities and to make use of them, however, it is of utmost importance not to form a superiority complex and compartmentalise others.
Oh dear, this is a very badly written piece of work.Partly because I don't want to very explicitly admit certain things about myself and have hence veered from my main point.Also partly because I haven't written for ages!Ha, I think I am in great need to come to terms with my own shortcomings. My looking for excuses for the above badly written piece of work is a prime illustration of my inability to do so! lol.but, nvmyou know you love me