Conversations with PRCs.

Speaking with PRCs (people from the Republic of China) in English, can be an illuminating practice. Indeed, it can be quite astonishing what they say.

Recently, I spoke to a PRC woman.

"What would you say if the person next to you, on a bus, started smoking?"

"Off your cigarette.", she replied, quite sure of herself.

I didn't smile, though felt like it. I continued to speak with her.

"What do you think of the welfare system?", I asked, somewhat later in the conversation.

There was a little pause, then she seemed to nod to herself.

"She is a beautiful girl, kindful and friendfully...and she helps me do my homework."

I had no words in me sufficient to reply to such a wondrous statement, so I just nodded, as if I understood what she was trying to say.

Perhaps, at this point, a little background on this young woman would be appropriate. She is a mainland Chinese woman, studying English. She is the best student in her class, in written work, but clearly has some trouble with spoken English.

I just thought that her example of incomprehension of spoken English would put into perspective the Singaporean practice of importing large numbers of PRCs, as cheap labour. I can only foresee a myriad of problems, arising from this.

She said something else which is so off the wall that I cannot even write it, without offending some people. Let us just say that she misunderstood an ordinary word to be a reference to certain illegal practices between people - and then launched into a statement in defense of people's choices in such matters. Yet, I had not even mentioned the subject at all. I suppose it would have been hilarious, if it wasn't so worrying.

Perhaps the people who import PRCs should try to speak to them in English, before offering them a job. They might just then have the kind of experience I have, when I speak to them.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Brown Rice Paradise - or is it?

Brown Rice Paradise is an organic food shop in Singapore. Until recently, it was also a shop which my wife frequented in her search for suitable gluten-free foods. However, after recent experiences she is no longer a customer.

Brown Rice Paradise was, for about six or seven years, my wife's first choice for gluten free goods, in Singapore. Brown Rice Paradise is to be found in Tanglin Mall, though it is a new shop from its original location. In all that time, Syahidah would make a couple of trips a month to Brown Rice Paradise. She was one of its more loyal and reliable customers. She was a "member" and was accorded discount privileges in thanks for her regularity of custom. Yet, something happened to change all that.

Brown Rice Paradise was taken over by new management. The new team spoke of wanting to engage the customer...but in reality nothing could be further from the truth. Syahidah found out that something was wrong when she came to the counter to make her purchases one day. She gave her membership details, as usual, but was refused a discount. The fellow behind the counter was rather impolite and said that Brown Rice Paradise was not going to accept any of the previous memberships until they "proved themselves". Every former member would now have to "show their seriousness", by buying 500 dollars worth of goods in one month - and keeping the receipts to prove it. Then they would be allowed to reactivate their memberships. Syahidah was flabbergasted. She had been a loyal customer for over half a dozen years...and was now being asked to prove her loyalty! This was bonkers.

It is pretty difficult for a family of ordinary size to spend 500 dollars in one month on gluten free flour and related goods. It was, in fact, a mad request.

"You are going to lose a lot of customers with this new policy." Syahidah observed to him.

"It doesn't matter. We will get other customers.", he replied, with a dismissive shrug. His attitude was rather arrogant and not a little rude.

Syahidah had had enough - she left the shop.

Syahidah decided to use reason. She emailed the store explaining the situation. The reply refused to acknowledge the silliness of the situation and reiterated the conditions of continued membership. She then called the shop, and the man on the phone explained that all former members had to prove their loyalty before being reactivated. Syahidah repeated the tale of the 500 dollar per month requirement and the man made but one concession: that it could be, instead spread out over three months.

Syahidah wasn't having any of it: why should she strive to meet a particular spending target, now, after being a consistent, reliable customer for six or seven years? On top of that was the attitude of the staff: they seemed to have contracted a strange snobbery in which, if the customer was not a high-spender, they were not regarded as a customer at all. This strange superciliousness was combined with a rudeness towards all who would not meet their odd demands.

Syahidah was not alone in encountering this problem. Many of the friends she had introduced to Brown Rice Paradise over the years, were also snubbed at the counter, when they sought to use their memberships. As a consequence, all of them...every single one of them...have changed stores: they now travel further afield to shop in other organic stores across Singapore. What Brown Rice Paradise's new management haven't realized is that people will go out of their way to avoid ill-treatment when they receive it. Many people would rather travel twice as far and be treated twice as well - than travel half as far, and be treated half as well.

Having tried her best to reason with the unreasonable new management team at Brown Rice Paradise, Syahidah did what her friends had done before her: began to shop elsewhere.

It will be interesting to see just how long, or short, a tenure the new management at Brown Rice Paradise have. Surely, any team that manages to offend, wholesale their long term customer base, is a team that cannot be doing the best by their business.

Customer service disasters, such as this one, at Brown Rice Paradise, are not uncommon. They differ in the details, but the underlying theme is the same: utter contempt for the customer. They seem to believe that the customer is so sheep-like that they will accept any ill-treatment and still return begging for more. It never occurs to them that Singaporeans have voices of their own and are prepared to use them, in defense of themselves, when they feel wronged. It never occurs to them that every act of poor customer service, breeds word of mouth, telling and retelling the tale again and again until its reputational effect is amplified beyond calculation. It never occurs to them that the first role of any shopkeeper is to keep the customer happy, to keep the shop at all, if you know what I mean. The shopkeeper who looks down on his customers, as Brown Rice Paradise clearly looked down on my wife and her friends, is a shopkeeper who soon won't have any customers to look upon at all - down or otherwise.

Brown Rice Paradise was a great shop for the first six or seven years that my wife treated it as her local store for her favourite goodies. Now, Brown Rice Paradise is not a good store. It cannot be a good store when its management are so customer unfriendly. Brown Rice Paradise is where my wife USED to shop - but no longer. I wonder how much longer they will be under this particular management team? It seems to me that it might not be long.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Tiarnan's BS detector.

Today, we sat at the dinner table, having our evening meal.

I looked around the table and let my eyes settle on Tiarnan, three, who seemed to be particularly enjoying his food. He was oblivious to his surroundings as he ate.

"Who is my biggest little boy?", I asked, to the room.

Without a pause, Tiarnan looked up at me and called out: "Nonsense!"

It was funny. Tiarnan had seen my meaning for what it was: a load of contradictory nonsense. He had also known, at once, whom I spoke of.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

The Lost Room - a lost sci-fi TV series.

The Lost Room is a great, relatively unknown, sci-fi tv mini-series. It is relatively unknown for a reason: the Sci Fi Channel pulled the plug after just six episodes. Their decision is baffling from an artistic point of view.

The Lost Room is quite simply the most absorbing and intriguing television mini-series I can recall ever seeing. Normally, I am not one to watch much television - indeed, I avoid it as much as I can - but, on borrowing the DVD for The Lost Room mini-series from our local video store, I found myself enchanted by a most unusual storyline.

The Lost Room relates the tale of a strange event that brings many indestructible, everyday objects with magical powers into being. The story sets up a mystery as to where these objects come from and what they do. One key object to the tale is, well, a key, that opens any door, onto a motel room in a parallel universe. From this parallel universe, the key bearer, can re-enter our world, at any location, through any door. It is, if you like, a modified teleportation device.

The central character in the Lost Room is Detective Joe Miller, a homicide detective, who stumbles into this strange world of bizarre objects and the shadowy organizations that hunt them down, while investigating a murder. His life becomes decidedly strange overnight, filled with unexpected occurrences and magical happenings. Though played in a low key fashion, Peter Krause, (Nate Fisher from Six Feet Under) makes the lead character sympathetic for the audience and draws us into his world, his situation and his dilemmas. It is interesting to see how an otherwise ordinary, but fairly intelligent man, copes with his world suddenly being transformed into one where strange powers abound.

I found the whole show spellbinding - oddly compulsive viewing. The story has about it the peculiarity that makes for cult following. It is the sort of show that people remember many years later and talk about and debate with each other, for long months afterwards. It is, in a word, a show with depths. Yet there is the problem, I feel. We live in a time in which anything with depth is likely to be scorned and shunned. These are shallow days in which Mankind becomes ever more trivial in heart and mind, outlook and occupation. This is, I feel, the explanation for something unexpected about this show: the internet is filled with people raving about how wonderful the Lost Room was, there are many thousands of fans writing the most awed of reviews of it - yet, the ratings in its first showing were poor. How is this so?

Well, it is simple. Those who love the show are, I would suggest, smarter than the average person. The Lost Room is a show that will appeal to people who like something with a little complexity, something with layers, something with surprises and endless possibilities. The Lost Room is, however, a show that some people will not like for precisely the same reasons: they will find it beyond them, they will find it a little too complex, or they will find that it requires too much imaginative engagement to accept the premises of the world on offer. In short, bright people will love it - and dumb people will not.

The tragedy of the world is that dumb people far outnumber bright people - this particularly applies to television audiences. Thus, one can expect that a show that appeals to bright, imaginative people (that is, a GOOD show), will not appeal to the mindless bulk of the audience. Thus, such a show may get indifferent viewing figures, even when it is, in fact, quality fare.

I enjoyed the Lost Room so much that it was a great disappointment to learn that the first series was the only series. I have never actually wanted to see more of a TV series before. Usually, I want to see LESS of a tv series (since they usually go on far too long and exhaust the possibilities of their premise and unique worlds long before the end of a run).

I have also never seen a fan base react to a series, as those who enjoyed The Lost Room have reacted to it. There are so many people online demanding that the series be revived - and so many people talking of what could happen in such a world. It seems that the series, brief as it was, touched the imaginations of many people.

However, it is unlikely that the Sci Fi Channel will revive The Lost Room despite the growing call for it to do so - for the Sci Fi Channel is very viewing figures driven. They only put out the lowest common denominator - the crap that the lower bulk of people want to watch - rather than seeking to create the best work that they can and appeal to the more sophisticated audiences of the present and the long-term future. The Sci Fi Channel is not interested in creating classics, but only, apparently, in showing wrestling, because the viewing figures are great.

Fans of the Lost Room have started an online petition demanding its return. So here is a suggestion: why don't you borrow The Lost Room from your video store - and watch it. If you are imaginative in any way, I would be very surprised if you do not enjoy the Lost Room (I have left a lot of details out so as not to spoil your enjoyment). Then, if you liked it and would like to see the series continue (since there are a lot of loose ends left over for a sequel to tie up), go to the online petition - and sign it. Who knows, perhaps your name will be the one that tips the balance and brings back an eminently enjoyable, fresh and absorbing TV show.

The petition is here:

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/the-lost-room-second-season.html

I have never linked to a petition before - but I feel it appropriate to do so now. The reason is simple: I don't believe that ratings alone should dominate the choice as to whether a tv production is made, there should also be a regard for "art", for the quality of production, its potential for bringing enjoyment to the more sophisticated of audiences. There should not only be television for the masses, but television for those who demand a little more. The Lost Room is one such production (by Lionsgate Productions) that appeals to those who like something a little more complex.

Talking of complicated, it was very telling of the world in which we live, in that the show was criticized by some (not very bright) critics, for being "too complicated" and "bizarre" or "strange". These critics seem to have a view that all that is on television should, therefore, be, "rather simple", "mundane", "everyday". Their criticisms only have meaning if their reference is that all should be normal in the televisual world. I find that somewhat tiresome. The world of art - and television can be an art, at its best - is such that it SHOULD be "too complicated", "bizarre" and "strange". If it is not complex, to a degree, or bizarre, to some extent, then it cannot challenge us in any way, nor will it be new. Not all critics felt this way, but quite a few of them did. This tells me that they lack imagination and intelligence - for if you have either, you would not see this show as complex, nor as "bizarre" - you would see it as interesting and novel.

Anyway, why not treat yourself to an enjoyable six hours of unusual television programming, by renting The Lost Room? When you have done so, if you liked it enough to want more...just go to the petition and ask for it.

Happy viewing!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)