Book Review: The Culture Code

I know I'm suppose to write a review on the note taking book I have read. I know there are some of you who are waiting for it. 

But I haven't found the time yet! That book is so rich and packed with good stuff that I will need time to get back to the notes I have taken to write a fair review.

Moreover, I have not really figured out the numbering system yet, if ever.

In the meantime, this is the second book I read using the Slip Box notetaking method and I was enjoying reading and notetaking so much that I finished the book last night and slept at 3am as a result.

The Slip Box really works. I finished the book at about 2:40am but my brain was so busy thinking and connecting ideas that I had to force myself to think about other things in order to fall asleep.

Well, I did take a cup of tea during dinner, without thinking, that caused my insomnia. And of course I took notes of the connections and ideas before I slept at 3.

Anyway, I was looking for a book to fill my brain with some language and thinking in the line of a company culture to help me get a deck done up for work. 

Which was when I found this...

The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

by Daniel Coyle

...and it is an excellent read.

The book is segregated into 3 sections with the first about creating a safe environment in an organization, then about being open and vulnerable with each other so that change can happen and finally gathering together to focus and work on a common purpose and direction.

I learnt that it is not about putting together a group of people with good individual skills to perform, it is not about sitting together to merely come up with a mission statement, it is not about strategizing and coming up action plans to implement them.

It is about using subtle patterns of small behaviours to build a safe environment, it is about giving and receiving honest but sincere feedback, it is about being tough but caring to drive results.

The book is packed with so many good stories that I can really identify with and learn from.

And it's good that my Slip Box is now full of stuff to work on.

pearlie

Beautiful Accident ★★★☆☆ and Wonderful Nightmare ★★★★★

I was watching some music videos when I found this original sound track with some movie clips done for a Taiwanese movie, Beautiful Accident.

It looked interesting and so I watched it, the movie. 

It's about a lawyer who didn't have time in the world for anyone else but her own success and career. Until she got into an accident, accidentally died, and the heavens needed a week to get her life back. So in the meantime, she is required to fill in as a wife and mother of two.

Beautiful Accident (2017)

It was only later when I discovered that it was a remake of a Korean movie, Wonderful Nightmare. 

This is like when I discovered Miss Granny and 20 Once Again and watched both in sequence. I found their similarities and differences very interesting and wrote about it here. 

And obviously I watched Wonderful Nightmare too.

Wonderful Nightmare (2015)

My take? 

I find the Korean version very much better than the Taiwanese one. 

For one, when I was watching Beautiful Accident, I was griping on fact that with only 7 days it was too easy for the lawyer to get into her new life. I think it probably only took her 4 to 5 days and she was already comfortable in the role of a mother, caring and standing up for her kids. Impossible. And getting too comfortable with the husband in that short time.

The original Korean version is more realistic, albeit being a fantasy. She had one month and even at the tail end of the month, she didn't really settle into her new role and her reactions were more natural. 

And I prefer the Korean ending of the movie. 

I shan't give out any spoilers. 

If I got you interested, watch them. And I'd recommend the original one first, then the remake. Of course. 

pearlie

Book Review: The Korean Mind

The Korean Mind, Understanding Contemporary Korean Culture

by Boyé Lafayette De Mente

I was looking forward to digging into this book when I laboriously finished the last book I was reading, except that I am very, very disappointed with it. 

I have only just begun reading it and I already have four reasons to stop reading but I'm still hanging on, for now.  

One, for a book that is about the culture of the Koreans, I wasn't happy that the author decided to print names in a westernized way, first name and then last name when all Korean names begin with the surname and then the given name. This really irritates me. Thankfully, there aren't many names used, so far, but when they do appear, I keep having to take note and make effort to read it in the proper Korean way. Come on, it is a book about the Korean culture! 

Two, the book presents the subject using distinctive Korean words following the Korean alphabetical order. Well and good except that it would be much easier to read if it were thematic instead. For example, I was reading the section on 암흑기 (am-heuk-gi) The Dark Period and the next section is on 아내 (a-nae) Wives: The Inside People. My mind has to take a few minutes to make an adjustment to move from thinking about the dark ages to thinking about wives. 

Three, the spelling of Korean words in this book is atrocious to say the least. The author made a mistake right at the very beginning in the first chapter when he wrote about fathers. The right spelling is 아버지 (a-beo-ji) but the author spelt it 아보지 (a-bo-ji), which is incorrect. In writing the previous paragraph above, I just found out those two words are also spelt wrongly. I have spelt it correctly above: 암흑기 instead of 암훅기 and 아내 instead of 안애. This is really unacceptable. Would you read a book in any language with multiple spelling errors? 

Four, the author is not accurate in his writing and presentation of facts. He wrote, "This was the infamous k’ou t’ou (kowtow) long associated with China. K’ou means “head,” and t’ou means “bump” or “knock”". He got it all mixed up. In actual fact, it is k'ou that means to knock or to bump and t'ou means head. What other inaccuracies are there in the book that I don't know about, which will cause me to learn the wrong things?

This is the first time I have ever come across such a badly written book, and I should abandon it already. 

pearlie

Guilt and Shame Culture

I have been exposed recently to the concept of guilt and shame culture of societies and I found it both fascinating and disturbing. I am only beginning to grasp the concept and finding it quite a deep subject to consider. 

It all began when I encountered a person who is steep in the Chinese culture and I thought since I need to understand him better, I started reading a book on Confucianism (which I need to get back to as I only just read the first few pages!)

I also began reading Korean Mind: Understanding Contemporary Korean Culture by Boye Lafayette De Mente, and there is this brief section on the Shame Culture, where "The one transgression that Koreans cannot accept is being shamed."

I see that quite a lot in the few Korean dramas that I watched and being brought up in a Chinese family, I can see it prevalent in the Chinese culture as well. 

However, I am not a very Chinese person to begin with, if I can say it that way. I was not schooled or brought up strictly in the Chinese way of life. I take on a more westernized way of thinking as I exposed myself to their writings and thinking, albeit still from an Asian perspective. 

I am also brought up in a Christian family and from a very young age, I am more exposed to the concept of guilt rather than shame. 

So when I am now reading and thinking about the shame concept, I am a bit disturbed about this way of life. 

I found this an interesting article, Guilt and Shame in Chinese Culture: A Cross- Cultural Framework from the Perspective of Morality and Identity by Olwen Bedford and Hwang Kwang Kuo, National Taiwan University. 

It is a long and technical paper and it is not an easy read. But it made me realize that I am probably a hybrid of having both guilt and shame culture. 

There are many questions swimming in my head right now that I am not even able to articulate. I need more time to think this through and a lot more reading to do. 

But more importantly, does the Gospel sound different to each of these cultures, guilt and shame? 

pearlie

Picture from The Good News for Honor-Shame Culture

Confession time (not a very serious one)

Okay, I must come to a confession. 

If you have not already caught some hints here and there, I have recently caught on to the Korean drama bandwagon. I once did not understood why on earth would people get so addicted to these dramas, now I know why. 

And with that I began to appreciate the language, the music, the culture. Maybe it is also because I never knew much about the country and the people (though I did have a penchant to read stuff about the mysterious North Korea and I still do) but when I got to know more about them, through books, movies, TV and even a couple of Koreans I came to know, I became intrigued. 

Here is a song I kept listening to today. It's amazing I am beginning to appreciate rap but it's the haunting vocal part that I love. 

pearlie

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

 

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

by Lisa See

One of my favourite movies is Memoirs of a Geisha though I only gave it a 3-star (out of 5) when I last read the book.  I wanted to look for a good novel along the same genre and so I opened up the Memoirs of a Geisha page in Amazon and scrolled through the list of "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" and found this book: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See.

I finished it in one day today, with it being an off-day from work. The book is good. 

The story is about 80-year old Lily who wrote about her life right from when she was five, growing up in remote 19th-century China, in the Hunan province. She was matched with another girl, of the same age, to become a lifetime friend, a laotong, or literally "old same". 

"A laotong match is as significant as a good marriage," Lily's aunt had explained. "A laotong relationship is made by choice for the purpose of emotional companionship and eternal fidelity. A marriage is not made by choice and has only one purpose – to have sons." 

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is the story of such a friendship.

I find it very interesting to learn about the life of girls, how they grew up and lived as women. It was fascinating to know a bit about the life in China when women had their feet bound. Small bound feet were seen by them to be of exquisite beauty. I think it is an awful practice but it was the culture and life back then in China. I did begin to imagine how it would be for me had I been born in China then.

The other interesting thing I learnt was about nu shu, or literally "women's script". 

It was regarded as women's secret writing...men’s writing is bold, with each character easily contained within a square, while our nu shu looks like mosquito legs or bird prints in dust. Unlike men’s writing, a nu shu character does not represent a specific word. Rather, our characters are phonetic in nature. As a result, one character can represent every spoken word with that same sound. So while a character might make a sound that creates the words for “pare,” “pair,” or “pear,” context usually makes the meaning clear. Still, much care has to be taken to make sure we do not misinterpret meaning.

I was glued to the book the whole day until I finished it this evening. 

pearlie 

Postscript 25 Sept 2016: I watched the movie several days ago. Verdict? Again the book is way, way, way better than the movie. I agree with Roger Ebert that the movie is way too sappy. And most of the important parts of the stories, like the development of their relationships, the exchange of letters in nu shu, the many evening gatherings of the women of the house, the development of supporting characters, which from pillars of the stories, were missing. But what was interesting was the inclusion on an additional modern story of the two women's offsprings not featured at all in the book. 

Book Review: How Music Works

I was having breakfast with my son this morning in the mall when I got distracted by all the noise around me. I was reading a book and I so wished there were quiet corners reserved just for those who'd appreciate a quiet meal but nope, my desire for tranquility was beleaguered by screams, loud chatters and guffaws as wells as shouts of anger of a mother to her poor daughter. I don't blame them for the cacophony. It's a public place after all.

I remembered then that I have just downloaded an app in to my iPhone, Cello Classic. I popped on my earphones and started listening to it. The problem that arose next was that I could not continue reading. I was totally mesmerized by what I heard. It was Bach's Suites for Solo Cello No.1 Prelude. It was so beautiful. I tried to go back to reading, but it was a lost cause. I closed the book and closed my eyes to just listen. I was thinking that if I were in a concert hall listening to that, the surroundings, the sound, the acoustics, the emotions would be enough to make me weep.

It was then that I remembered coming across this book that I have put in my wish list.

How Music Work by John Powell
A listener's guide to harmony, keys, broken chords, perfect pitch and the secrets of a good tune.

When I found it Amazon.com though, the subtitle that got me attracted was different: The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds, from Beethovan to the Beatles and Beyond. I wanted to know what made me feel like weeping when I listened to Bach in MacDonald's.

I checked and confirmed that both books are the same one, and bought an electronic copy. It was such an interesting read that I finished it in a day, and I have never had so much fun reading a book in a long, long time.

For one, the writer knows his stuff, and he writes with humour, though I feel some of it is kinda corny but found it so hilarious that he referred to Beethovan's Fifth Symphony as "the one which goes Da Da Da Daah! Da Da Da Daah!".

I followed his advice in reading the book with access to YouTube. I had my iPhone fitted with my X-Mini speaker and listened to the examples he quoted. I found some of the most amazing music ever written, even one piano piece that was named The Devil's Staircase written by György Ligeti that was quoted as an example of what he called "really anxious chords". It is not an easy piece to take in but it is definitely a piece to behold.

I am not really a musician, though I do know some basics after attempting to study the piano for several years in my younger days. The thing is I learnt quite a lot of things reading this book. I just found out you can actually play Amazing Grace by just using the black keys on a piano. Never knew that. And now I know how those 12 notes in a harmonic scale came about. And I learnt what London and the year 1939 and perfect pitch have to do with each other.

Today is a good book day.

pearlie

My day of languages

If I were to mark each day of my life with a theme -- well, I actually have been doing that in a sense with the title of my daily posts -- then today will be the Day of Languages.

It began when we had a discussion among my colleagues about the Malay language - one of them commented that it does not have an original word for "bag". It uses a loanword: beg.

Later, I remembered Pastor Marvin (of Pantai Baptist Church or PBC, where I am attending for now) had announced that he will be speaking on the topic of the Bible this coming Sunday, in conjunction with the 400th year of the publication of the King James Version of the bible. I am looking forward to hearing it. Other than its spiritual aspect, the history and the technicalities of the Bible takes a very special place of my interests.

It reminded me of two books I have read before -- The Story of English by Robert McCrum and In the Beginning: the Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture by Alister McGrath -- that the work of both Shakespeare and the KJV bible is "regularly singled out as one of the most foundational influences on the development of the modern English language" (1). As such, the King James Version serves as a polished jewel in the crown of English language and culture (2).

However, I began to think that with the mark of the 400th year of the KJV, wouldn't the modern version of the English language be considered a very young language? What with the Chinese language that I believe is more than a thousand years old? And I have always thought that the Malay language is a very young language, but English too?

I do know that the modern English language has its origins in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, which began in the early 5th century.

I shared this with a friend who goes to PBC too and he did not quite believe me when I told him he would not understand Old English. So I showed him The Lord's Prayer in Old English (3):

Original and Translation
Fæder ūre þū þe eart on heofonum
(Father of ours, thou who art in heaven,)

Sī þīn nama ġehālgod.
(Be thy name hallowed.)

Tōbecume þīn rīċe,
(Come thy riche [(kingdom])

ġewurþe þīn willa, on eorðan swā swā on heofonum.
(Worth [manifest] thy will, on earth as also in heaven.)

Ūrne ġedæġhwāmlīcan hlāf syle ūs tō dæġ,
(Our daily loaf do sell [give] to us today,)

and forgyf ūs ūre gyltas, swā swā wē forgyfað ūrum gyltendum.
(And forgive us of our guilts as also we forgive our guilty)

And ne ġelǣd þū ūs on costnunge, ac ālȳs ūs of yfele.
(And do not lead thou us into temptation, but alese [release/deliver] us of [from] evil.)

Sōþlīċe.
( Soothly.)

So in that sense, English isn't so young - it has been evolving for 1500 years till what it is today. A fully developed and perfected language takes a very long time.

A perfected language is one that has a letter of every single sound, one with words that are very original and one that has a wide vocabulary to cover a wide scope in the articulation of meanings. I do not think the Malay language is that fully developed, not even English but it is better, comparatively. I am not sure about the other languages, but I was told that the Arabic language is considered a highly perfected one, as well as Korean.

I went to check out the ages of language and found quite a comprehensive list here in Wikipedia. And I am surprised to find out that Old Malay is as old as Old English, 683AD and 650AD respectively.

Here some familiar ones:
* Greek - 1425-1375 BC
* Old Chinese - 1200 BC
* Aramaic - 950BC
* Hebrew - 950BC
* Korean - 100BC
* Arabic - 512AD
* Old English - 650AD
* Old Malay - 683AD
* Japanese - 700AD
* Old Hindi - 769AD
* Old French - 842AD
* Italian - 960AD
* Middle English - 1066AD
* Thai - 1292AD
* Korean (modern?) - 1446AD
* Early Modern English - 1470AD

Modern English is almost at the last of the list, albeit incomprehensive. And I did not realise that the Greek language is so old, older than Hebrew. But of course that will be Old Greek as compared to the current Modern Greek, which has evolved from Koine or Common Greek, what is used during the New Testament time, i.e. the language of the written text of the NT extant that we have now.

Indeed, a very interesting day of discovery for me.

pearlie

(1) Alister McGrath, In the Beginning, (New York: Anchor, 2001): 253
(2) http://www.sovereignword.org/index.php/defense-of-the-traditional-bible-texts-and-kjb/233-thomas-holland-crowned-with-glory-chapter-05-the-english-jewel
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English

The Story of the Nation

I attended "A Conversation with Professor Anthony Milner" on the topic of "Constructing and Contesting Malaysian History: Towards Responsible Writing and Teaching of History for Nation Building" organised by Kairos Research Centre this evening. It is a discussion based on the recently raised concerns when the Ministry of Education requires students to obtain a compulsory pass in History in the national Form 5 examinations, SPM.

History never held an interest for me until several years ago when I felt that my lack of knowledge in it resulted in a pallid understanding of events of the world. In my schooldays, I studied history in a rote manner and only of the Malaysian history, not anything beyond that - I never knew much about the enlightenment, the various inquisitions, or the wars. Only as I grew up and began to read more serious works had I realise that I lack in the understanding of the stories behind the times and the events as I encountered them.

As such, I attended the session with a sense of unfamiliarity. I had problems trying to take in and digest the horde of information and dialogue that went on. However, I came away with a renewed interest to ensure that my son will have a better exposure to the subject of History that I did. But I am not sure yet what I can do.

Firstly, I think I should get myself up-to-date with regards to the History textbooks in our national curriculum. For one, the textbooks do not favour an inclusive history and concentrates much on just one race, the Malays. We need to have textbooks that tells the story of the nation in an inclusive manner that will ignite an emotive fervour in all students of all races in Malaysia that will work towards nation building. We need an inclusive story of our nation that is respectful to the Malays, Chinese and Indians.

Secondly, I need to find out how the subject is being taught in schools, but I wonder how I can make that happen. A proper teaching of the subject can provoke passionate and emotive discussion about not only what happened but what it meant to the students today. We need more than rote and flat learning, without getting involved in the story of the nation. This reminds me of an excellent movie I watched some time ago, The Freedom Writers. It is based on a true account of a new and enthusiastic teacher who was placed in a classroom to teach kids from the ghettos and gangs. The classroom was akin to a world with borders drawn between the Hispanics, Asians, Blacks and one white student. She had to engaged them, she needs to teach them. She finally succeeded, by touching their lives with the stories of people in similar situations as they were. She used the Hollocaust event, brought them to visit the Hollocause museum, have them meet survivors of concentration camps and had them read The Diary of Anne Frank.

We need a more inclusive account of our Malaysian history and we need a more involving approach to teaching it. Only then will we build our youngsters with a sense of love and pride for the country from the stories of heros and heroines of all races.

pearlie

Office Space...What Space?

The term "office space" has now become an oxymoron. How so?

I was reading a book that included a section on office space that intrigued me. Let me quote:

In an article for Fortune (March 22, 2006), Julie Scholosser reviewed how cubicles were faring thirty years after Robert Propst released his prototype for the enclosure. The article, "Cubicles: The great mistake," noted that Propst, like investors of tools used in warfare, despised the office culture that grew out of his contribution. Scholsser compared the cubicle to crabgrass that persists in growing despite its lack of popularity:

Reviled by workers, demonized by designers, disowned by its very creator, it still claims the largest share of office furniture sales -- $3 billion or so a year -- and has outlived every "office of the future" meant to replace it. It is the Fidel Castro of office furniture.

I started working since 1991 and have worked in many different forms of office. I have had my share of cubicles in several offices...


...and whilst I still prefer the room, of which I had two in my working life...


...it got down to hot-desking, but everyone claimed our place religiously and thus goodbye to hot-desking...


...but it got worse and I ended up with just having a space in a conference table packed with 7 other people, all working closely together, elbow-to-elbow proximity-wise, all in different areas of work...


...and all I would ever dream of, is a home office...


...although I don't think I will survive with the television and refrigerator so close by.

pearlie

Source: Laurie Helgoe, Introvert Power, Sourcebooks, 2008

In a different culture

I had some time to spare today before Grace Notes rehearsal at 7.30pm and so I thought I'd pay a visit to a saree store. My colleague will be getting married this weekend and it would be nice and different, for me, to turn up in a saree, except that I do not have one nor have I worn one before.

So off to the store I went and I had such a great time, albeit alone. The store was full of saree cloths for sale as well as ready made Indian and Punjabi suits. I walked back and forth the shop many times looking at the various designs. The storekeeper brought out so many for me to view that if I did not stop him, he could have brought down the entire store.

I finally settled on this one. I love the colour combination of light green and navy blue, and especially the flower and scroll design.



We live in a multi-faceted country with various beliefs and customs that it is a challenge I find sometimes to live a faithful Christian life whilst still maintaining good relations with friends of different faiths. The wedding ceremony will be held in a Sikh temple this Saturday and all ladies are required to cover their heads. I was not too sure what the act would denote and initially I wasn't too comfortable with it.

What I did was this: I went to her and explained to her that being a Christian, there are some things I can and cannot do. I asked her to explain to me the purpose of the head covering. She told me that it was in respect of their holy word that is displayed at the front of the temple. I thanked her and told her I will do as required.

I reasoned that in covering myself with my own shawl, I am not performing any acts of worship but an act of tolerance and respect to the beliefs of my friend. In fact, I am looking forward to attend the wedding ceremony this Saturday to see the significance of the marriage ceremony to the Sikh belief, and what each act undertaken would mean.

pearlie