The 5 things I've learnt by attending a course

I've attended another course this Thursday and Friday (it was a two-days course). It wasn't as pleasant and as exciting if compared to the first course I've attended.

Nevertheless, some interesting findings during the course:

1) Singaporeans, and only Singaporeans, loved the term "Irregardless".
Come to think of it, how come nobody ever doubted the term Irregardless?
When we criticize somebody for not being responsible, we say that he is irresponsible. When we tell somebody that the information he given was not relevant, we tell him it is irrelevant.
Now, what do you mean by irregardless? It meant a "Not" + a "Regardless", but what they meant was actually "regardless"!

This was fully documented in dictionary.com, please see the quote below:


Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.

2) People like to doze off during courses
There are hyper-active participants during the course, and as the trainer efficiently used her dull tone to its maximum effects, these hyper-active participants began to allow their mind to wander to outer spaces... Subsequently dozing off.

Do not get me wrong, anybody who dozes off during a class/course/training program is totally unacceptable. Why do I bring this up? Its because I've heard some of them saying "I have learnt nothing during the course".

Another unacceptable excuse. You fell asleep, didn't you?

3) Working Overtime (OT) is a sign of hardworking
I'm a follower of its opposite theory -- Working Overtime is a sign of working deficiency.

Humans are programmed to work 8 (the most 10) hours a day, anything beyond that will result in slowed reaction and erroneous outputs. So why still work OT?

The trainer brought up a good point: Singapore is way too competitive. If you don't work hard, somebody else at a cheaper price may takeover your place.

How sad, isn't it? Well, I still hated OTs, and I've not OT for like 3 months, heh heh, maybe boss is already thinking of replacing me. Well, my company is very well known for hell-like working hours.

4) We all behave like students
The trainer's emphasis was to "Throw away your outdared mindsets as a student, learn new skills from scratch, learn the skills, not the information. Do not give me academic answers."

She also mentioned "There are no right or wrong answers, in fact, many questions have more than one appropriate answers".

And this is what happened, we weren't active at all in answering questions, as we fear that it might be the wrong answer... (Isn't it normal? However, its not a good sign of learning... and whats worst, the trainer reminds me of a very fierce secondary school teacher I had, so I had problem throwing away my student's mindset in front of her).

There was this brave guy (or girl, I forgot) who actually attempted to answer some of the questions, in a very timid voice of course...

And obviously that was not an appropriate answer... judged by common sense.

And the trainer just bursted out: "No!!! That is totally wrong!"

Wait a minute, I thought somebody just told me there were no right or wrong answers???

After that , the class became dead silent, prompting the trainer to comment "You N*S people are too quiet and obedient".

Ahh, whatever.

5) Courses aren't important from a boss' perspective
Picture this, our big big big boss (read: CEO) emphasizes that courses are important in building up an efficient team, adding values to professionals in stress management and interpersonal skills. I couldn't agree more.

And that is why new staffs had the chance to attend professional (and sometimes certified) courses for FREE. I felt grateful.

And yet our supervisors doesn't think so. Take this for example:
My mobile phone rang 3 times during the courses, just because my supervisor had something to ask; I had to sacrifice my lunch time to return to office, just to discuss something; I was called back to office for 1 hour during the course.

Why can't they just leave me alone? I'm officially on course, why call me back???????

Ah well, typical Singaporean company. Courses are important, but you attending courses are not important.