However there is only 1 main government/official level Wushu school in every province, run and administered by government officials that are recognized. This is to make sure that lower level people who pretend to teach Wushu does not teach lousy martial arts and then mislead students by telling them how easy it is to learn martial arts and then collecting hefty fees every month. The student will know how their standard is when they get beaten up in a street encounter with another person.
In China there are 34 province-level administrative units in China, including 4 municipalities, 22 Provinces, 5 autonomous regions & 2 special districts. The most popular national school in China is the Beijing Wushu School. That’s where Jet Li comes from. He is also a number of times all China Wushu champion.
Now are we all the level of the Beijing team or one of the many provinces? What is your aim in the course? Are you happy that you are just a basic member of a unknown provincial team or that of the elite Beijing Team. You tell me.
When you signed up for PID, you sign on for a career course. It is not a basic O Level or or level that whole of Singapore takes. PID is a specific type of course that needs specific skills you need to be equipped with so that you can at least begin to be a able to do a job when you finish from NS. Don’t kid yourself, no one will give you a designer job straight away. You will be the new guy in the company and start from scratch. No one will allow them selves to let you work on a client’s project from the start. Some of you say you have put in a lot of effort to make the model but it’s not what you wanted in the end. I have this to ask – did anyone touch up their model lamp ? Did anyone bothered to go to the workshop when free to hone your skills so that your next model is going to be better?
Our job is to make sure less people fail the exams without compromising on established standards. Make no mistake. The Beijing Wushu School will never allow itself to be lowered to a provincial level school for anyone. To do so will be self defeating and irresponsible. If it means we have to be harsh, then it has to be. It is difficult to be nice and at the same time allowing students to know the exacting standards expected of designers out in the real world. Besides, 5 staff members including Mdm Tia was there to assess you. If you are not totally satisfied with the outcome, you must ask yourself how 5 qualified designers and also architect decided that your proposal is where it is at. Is the opinion of 5 experienced people more accurate or one student ?
If your wonton mee tastes terrible, no one will buy from you. You will lose money and close shop. No one will know that your car broke down and you had to cycle to Johore Baru to get your new batch of noodles and that along the way the rain fell on the noodles and made it soggy. What consumers want are the final goods. What matters is that you learn from the mistakes and shortcomings and improve yourself. Plan your routine, work around it or make new arrangements. My classmate spent 6 years in the course and could not graduate but he finally became a technician in the workshop. Is he going to grumble that he has been super hard working and did not graduate ? He did not , as he realized that he just did not have the aesthetic feel for the job and became a technician instead.
I had to work part time as a dish washer in a Nonya restaurant in Melbourne when I was a student. I had to do the daily laundry, ironing clothes and cooking and marketing. I had a school workshop that never opens after 5 pm because Australians do no cater to such request in my time. I had to put my big projects at night in a abandoned house next to my campus because I did not have a proper place to store big items. I did not have parents who can drive me to school if I had projects to bring and could only put it under my arm as I cycled to school on cold winter’s mornings. I cannot afford a taxi because those nice uncles charge a bomb for every mile. I even had to cut my hair in my toilet every month because I cannot afford the expensive barbers there. I don’t think there is many of you who have to go through much of these as a student doing a diploma course.
On top of that I had to do a degree in PID. Maybe I should just go emo and blame everyone else or throw up my hands in despair and give up? Better still, blame the top students in the class for spoiling the market. But I chose to do the course and by hook or by crook I have to complete it.
In the first year I was middle of the class. Not bad for a foreign student not used to the education system and strong Australian accent.
In my second year I was in the first few at the top.
In my final year I obtained a degree with distinction. You can see the picture below where I was awarded the Holden General Motors Award Prize along with my classmate BJ and we were given a tour of the extensive factories and lunched with the directors there. I was the first Asian to win this prize and as far as I know, no overseas student has won it since. Holden is the national Australian car manufacturer. Their factories run for miles and in 2007 they have 6500 employees. Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden
That’s the Chief Designer of Holden Philip Zmood on left and Dean of the Uni Faculty at right.
When I applied to study in Australia, 4000 people applied at the same time. Only 200 were given places in Australian Universities. I was lucky they liked my portfolio I sent. Being one of the 200 means that I don’t have to pay school fees. Free , courtesy of the Australian government. Nowadays many people study in Australia. They have to pay heavy fees like $14 000 for a basic course right? Do you know why ?
Life is full of tough expectations. The earlier you are exposed to it and know the harshness of some aspects of life the better. The SIP will be a turning point if you do not get engaged by the company because you have a weak portfolio. This will happen next year. You really do not want to wait till then to realize that. You really have to start doing up a good portfolio. Sweating more in training means bleeding less in battle. The enemy will give no quarters and you cannot say that well I did my best and hope for the best. You need to have a frame of reference, a comparative study. You need to match yourselves to a marker and work at that. Use Johnathan from the recent graduated batch to measure yourself against.
Ke Li’s model fell to piece as we talked that day. We will have to look at it strictly and adjust the marks. If we don’t do that, we may get more double sided taped models in future. Alvin has been given a talking to and will work on his model and promises he will be punctual at the next crits. We need to do the bad guy job if the whole class is going to be alingned and move in the right direction. If it makes me popular on the bogs, can’t help it. But please can you also continue to work at your projects and make yourself better. Facta Non Verba.
I am still going to help San Roye repair his watch and promise not to mess it up.
kh
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