Japanese grads are Second Class?

I had a hectic schedule last week. 22/12, immersed in marking and grading, 23/12 attended meeting with JICA consultants-Pusat Inovasi Kolaboratif-UKMTech in the morning and then off to Look East Policy Symposium at PWTC. 24/12 submitted grades, 25-26/12 participated in Malaysia-Indonesia International Conference on Economics, Management and Accounting. The schedule was so hard I had to send my kids to their grandmother's.

Oh, back to the title. This was a part of a speech by a minister who officiated the Look East Policy Symposium. He mentioned that there is this perception that students who are sent to Japan are second class students, but actually it is not. Whomever gets a scholarship to study abroad are equally excellent; regardless of where they go. 

But in reality, I think it is true. I am not saying that Japanese grads are of second class, but the perception does. Why do people think so? The reasons might be

1. UK and US are always the first choice. The rich and famous send their kids there to study, so if you are selected to go there, you must be the luckiest person on earth.
2. UK and US have the top (or should I say toppest? :p) universities in global ranking, but Tokyo University, the toughest univ in Japan never topped the chart.
3. UK and US grads are the nation's decision makers. Japanese grads? Do tell me if you know anyone.

Based on my experience, I applaud those who have successfully graduated from Japanese universities. Can you imagine, with zero knowledge of Japanese language, you have to master it in less than 2 years before entering a university that teaches everything (including English) in their language? Not only that, your actual purpose is to master the knowledge but how can you master the knowledge before mastering the language? At the end of the 2nd year of matriculation we had to sit for the  highest level in Japanese language proficiency test (JLPT1) before sitting for another 2-3 exams before qualifying ourselves to enter a university. It was quite painful, but what I learnt from this experience was that we should never underestimate the ability of our brain. All we need is patience and persistence.

On the other hand, those who are sent to English speaking countries are just so lucky. You have learnt English like your entire life and then just learn new things, new technology there. Your probability of passing with flying colors are higher than ours! But this is just a minor concern.

The real issue for me is the third one. Although the program to Japan started in 1983, only 27 years ago, Japanese grads have yet to appeal their presence to the society. We have yet to become the nation's key decision makers. Not many of us are entrepreneurs; what more technopreneurs (the nearest field besides being a technical person at the shopfloor). That is why people think we are of second class.

That is also why I would try my best not to turn down important invitations by the alumni (I belong to JMC/JAD* Alumni). I remembered the first one was to give a motivational talk to JAD first year students who were camping at Gombak (near Perkampungan Orang Asli) and the second one was to attend the symposium as participant cum interpreter. I believe a strong alumni will further enhance the capability of the graduates.

My dream is to see the Japanese grads stand tall, as tall as other overseas graduates and of course local grads, and together contribute to the country. We should be everywhere, just anywhere; private or government, manufacturing or service, having a boss or being the boss, and from there, little by little we should climb that ladder to the top.

None of us are second class unless we tell ourselves that we are. Full-stop.

Meeting sambil berdiri..Ada berani??

Meeting and eating has become a regime in government departments. You can get a full meal if your meeting stretches the whole day. Meeting rooms are so cozy, you can doze off if the meeting is boring.

This culture has never been a practice in a Japanese company (oh should I mention, manufacturing company).  When I was working as an engineer in a Japanese MNC, meeting is usually conducted in meeting rooms in each building you are in. RF Design section was in Building 2, which has 1 meeting room. Meeting is done accordingly, short if everything is ok, a bit long if there is a problem. But never it surpassed 2 hours.

And, eating? NEVER. We were not even served a cup of coffee. If you have a meeting with customer in Building 1, where the General Manager is in, then you will be lucky enough to be served with one. Other than that, you bring your own mineral water la.

You knowla how the Japanese companies are very particular about "Muda" (wastage).They will try their best to reduce wastage in terms of money, energy, time and whatever.According to my husband, the company now is moving a step forward.

To reduce meeting time, make faster decisions, meetings are done standing.The meeting rooms are now locked, only opened for trainings for new staff.Another meeting area will only have a table, if they need to use projector and laptop.And this includes managers meeting which is held every Wednesday. (No wonder my husband looks so tired after work on this day).

They have been implemented this kaizen for about  a couple of months now. I am not sure how they quantify the results of this kaizen effort, but I am pretty sure everybody would want to end the meeting quickly.

Who wants to stand up and argue for more than an hour??

It is time for new DIARY!

Today we spent some time at Low Yat and KLCC. Had lunch at KLCC and then singgah PetroSains, then off to Kinokuniya.

As usual I will go to the stationery corner first and then only the book section.

Hah! The diaries & schedulers for 2011 is out!

Only God knows how fussy I am about diaries. Well, I used to keep the 365days diary during my early years in Japan. Later when I got busier, I turned to scheduler, in which I will plan and record my daily activities.

In Japan, scheduler is a must for nearly everyone. Even the teenagers keep their scheduler. And the new designs would come out as early as October, because usually the calender will start from December the previous year. And the design...oh...just can't help it. Sooo many!! A variety of choice on the sizes too! ( I will upload the photos of my previous schedulers later..no time now lah)

So, what is the design of my choice? Whatever the cover is, the internal part must have

1) Large monthly view, where I can see my overall schedule of the month (this is the reason why I don't use scheduler provided by UKM)

2) No week views. No need for that. I plan by month

3) Ample pages at the back to jot down prompt ideas.

4) The scheduler must be easily opened, meaning that it is flat when I am writing on it.

Oh ya, back to the Kinokuniya story, too bad the imported diaries and schedulers from Japan are way too expensive. And the locally produced ones, not attractive at all. I will wait  until more designs come out (which is unlikely for the local product) tapi takpelah.

Uhh..tak sabarnya nak dapatkan scheduler 2011. New scheduler will bring new spirit of the new year..:))

Program Knowing ASEAN+3, Tokyo-Yokohama 2009 (PART 1)

I was called to our Centre Chairman’s room a few months before to help the students finding funds for this project. The project, Knowing ASEAN, is a program where students travel to ASEAN countries to establish network and learn more about the country they visited. This year, they are extending it to Japan, so that is why it is called Knowing ASEAN+3 (+3 is Japan, Korea and Taiwan). And when it comes to Japan, there is none other in the centre but me ;).

This program was realized last week, after rigorous efforts made by the students (and me, lol). Finding fund was so difficult in this time of economic crisis, so besides cutting the itinerary short, I have asked Matsuzaka-san, one of my good friends in Fukuoka, to introduce me to someone in Hatobus (he worked in the company before). So he introduced me to Yoneda-san whom later I realized is one of the managing directors of the company. Yoneda-san really listened to our needs, and even gave us some discounts on the whole charges. Matsuzaka-san told me that Yoneda-san arranged everything on his own-which task he can always handover to his staff.

So, there we were, on a plane to Narita, on 6^th Dec, 2009. For many of the students, it was their first trip overseas-and of course, their first flight. For me, it was a homecoming, although I only spent 3 months of my total stay in Japan in Tokyo.

We arrived at about 7.30am in Narita, but the immigration queue was so long we finally got out at about 8.30am. After buying Tokyo Metro Pass which is cheaper for Narita users (Yen710 --> Yen600) and rented Japan sim card for 105yen perday (which is much cheaper compared to roaming), we took off to Tokyo Keizai University(TKU) by Hatobus. We were very fortunate because the weather was very clear we could see Mt Fuji from afar.  We finally arrived at TKU at 11:20am due to the traffic jam. Prof. Tajima and his colleagues welcomed us with a speech and a lecture on SUICA-how it helps in retaining customers. Then we went on a campus tour and lunch with the Japanese students. There was an “ikemen” in the group and I saw how interested the girls were on him ;). Finally, we moved on the next destination, ASEAN-Japan Center. Like others, I was so tired but the topic presented during this visit was very interesting to me because it was quite related to my phd research proposal theme. Obviously, most questions during the session came from me. Oh, I just wished I had more time there. The session ended at about 5pm and as we went out of the building we saw Tokyo Tower standing proudly not far from us. Apalagi, keluarlah semua jenis kamera!

Finally (nilah baru final), we arrived at Ginza Capital Hotel for check-in. The room was small, as expected, but for me, ok aje. Sangat letih, but I wanted to wait for SMAPxSMAP at 10pm. Meanwhile, as usual, there was Hey3x and on that day it was ARASHI special. At 9, I could not bear it anymore so I thought of getting a nap for an hour before 10. Bangun-bangun aje dah 1am…Missed SMAPxSMAP..GERAM!!!   

Majlis Perjumpaan Maahad Muar OB/OG 2009- A lesson to learn

Kenapa Maahad Muar? Bukan takde kena-mengena ke?
Heheh..well, I was a Sharodzian & SMAPKian, but my husband was a Maahadian (mls nak tulis pjg2) before he became a SMAPKian.It happened that my sister-in-law and her husband were also former students of this school.


So, last weekend all of us + the kids went to this event held at the school. I have been here once before, on a debate competition.


Not many people came, because there was another gathering by one batch of ex-students yesterday. However, what I noticed was that those yang dulu nakal-nakal are now heading the committee. In spite of carrying a title of 'bekas pelajar sekolah agama', they were all gila-gila, and the meeting was alive, but they still buat this one tradition (xtau namanya) they usually do in Maahad.
And without them knowing, I quietly sit at the back of the hall, jotting down a few things & ideas brought forward by the committee & members of the floor.


Last week or so, Cikgu Shimah, my teacher in SMAPK asked me to revive our alumni. There are so many things I would like to contribute to the school, but it happened that after the initial meetings, nearly all of the committee members went overseas to further their studies. And next year, who knows I would not be here to help them?


I think it is time to let the energetic youngsters to take over. We have been wasting a lot of time doing nothing while we are actually capable of helping not only our brothers and sisters in school- the alumni should also look after the kebajikan (tak terlintas pulak english wordnya) of the teachers. And I believe, each batch has their own strong connection - they must be meeting elsewhere, informally - well, at least through facebook.


I guess one good time to do a gathering, informal pun takpe, (potluck pun ok ape-kita datang bukan utk mkn), is during the university students' semester break after the final exams which is around the corner -definitely after SPM (around 16/12-20/12 ke). Yang penting, we get to know new friends and meet our old friends & teachers AND serah kuasa kepada yang muda.


As for the database I keep from the first meeting, it is still with me. Softcopy I am not sure where, tapi hardcopy ada lagi.


So SMAPKians, WHAT SAY YOU??


Oh ya, kawan2ku of Sharodz, this idea applies to all of us too. Selalu lalu kat tepi bukit dok tgk jela ke atas. Rindu pulak nak menjenguk masuk!


p/s We were served with nasi lemak before meeting and nasi beriyani after the meeting. Semua termasuk kuih-muihnya sangat sedap. Taukehnya warden Maahad sekarang and dia cerita nasi beriyani & kuih2 nya dapat tempahan dari Sultan Johor!

Prof Shutto and the gang at my house!

The most awaited day finally arrived.
Last Saturday, I received a visit by my supervisor when I was in QBS, Prof. Shutto to my parents house in Melaka. He came with 2 of my seniors from the same course, Nagano-san and Kashiwagi-san. They have been planning for this trip since a month ago.

I booked them straits view rooms at Holiday Inn Melaka and reserved a car with driver from my uncle's. It happened that my aunt who was the driver that day, but we didn't tell our guests about that because we wanted to keep it professional :p

They departed at 10am from Ritz Carlton KL to Melaka, as planned, and arrived at about 11:45am. My aunt brought them to a curry house for lunch and searched for stalls selling durians (upon their request) but could not find one. I went there at about 2pm and we quickly went on a short course around Banda Hilir.

Firstly, we went on a riverboat cruise along Sungai Melaka. Basically I would recommend a night cruise because it would be hot during the day, plus you won't be able to watch the beautiful illuminations only available at night. Anyway, kudos to the guide, Mr Bernard whose explanation on the historical buildings was very comprehensive and interesting.

Then we went to a nearby spa, which I recommended them to try fish spa. First time, so they were quite excited. Yang kelakarnya, the spa is surrounded by glass walls so people outside the spa can see us with our kaki dikerumuni oleh ikan-ikan tu..heheh.

Later we took a beca ride to A Famosa. Kesian pakcik yang kayuh beca Prof & Kashiwagi-san, dahle inclined road, pakcik tu tak larat terus turun and tolak beca tu.

After A Famosa, we went to the Independence Memorial Building. I told Prof that there was a painting that really touched my heart: people in UMNO general meeting giving away whatever they have-money, jewelleries they wear and put it on a big white cloth tied to the piles of the building- to support Tunku Abd Rahman expenses to London in his quest for the country's independence. We went in and searched for the painting while learning about other things/events leading to 31/8/1957. I was surprised to learn that these guys do not know about the duit daun pisang (or the Japanese notes in Malaya during occupation). Prof also revealed that he was in Indonesia, as an expatriate in 1970s and know very much about Soeharto and Sukarno.

5.30pm, I brought them to Pasar ramadan Telok Mas. Thought of Pasar Ramadan Taman Cempaka, but I am afraid if any one would get lost in the midst of the crowd, it would be hard to find them. It was quite an experience to them..Yang kelakarnya, everybody noticed that they are foreigners. Twice they got free kuih just by watching it being prepared..heheh. I met my class teacher, Puan Hamidah - which was a big surprise because we both are working in UKM but never stumble upon each other.

Nearly 7, we reached home. Finally Prof got to see Nani, but she didn't remember him! Then we buka puasa together with chicken rice (mak buat), some kuihs and fruits like durian, duku and langsat. I hope they enjoyed the meal.

Later, at about 9, we went to Tesco. It was quite crowded. Seemed like a new experience for them because shops in Japan close after dark. Did some shopping, we went to Secret Recipe for coffee. Prof ordered a durian cheese cake-not for him but for the other two to 'taste' for him because he was already full!.

At about 10, we sent them to the hotel and headed home.

Next day, we went to Holiday Inn again to say goodbye and pass some souvenirs for them. Prof promised me invitations to AdAsia09 (http://www.adasia09.com/) -yess!!

Hopefully I would be able to visit them in Tokyo this December on a project with UKM students.

And I hope they would come to Malaysia again some time.

Ramadhan - my favorite month

It's Ramadhan again! I was a little anxious about how the fasting month in Malaysia would be after 3 years experiencing it in Japan. Would it be hot? Would I be eating more than I should?

The 4th day now, and alhamdulillah, the weather is not too hot, rainy at night, breezy during the day. I had a terrible sorethroat since the last few days so I didn't (couldn't!) eat much.

The first day was in Melaka, had an all-red (chilli-based) break-fast. Appetite was happy but the throat suffer. Second day, we break-fast in Muar and again..all hot and spicy. A painful headache started to develop on this day and it is a good sign, my body is fighting the toxic accumulations and perhaps trying to get rid of them.

Today I feel lighter and happier- no more headaches, relieved sorethroats..

Some quran readings at work also make things work out.

By the end of the month, I expect a healthier me (physically and spiritually) with a reduction of 2-3kgs of body weight.