Shaun T. Dy's Business & Economics Perspective Blog

The Chinese New Year's first day is over but for China, it's until Day 15.  I feel like visiting a childhood trauma (which I laugh at now while remembering all the failing marks I had) because the whole program was based on parroting over understanding (read here ). I even wrote about how the old Chinese textbooks can't be used  for teaching  Mandarin . Good thing that these dreaded textbooks are now out of print .  My memories are Grade 2 Chinese was strict and Grade 3 Chinese was even stricter . The Grade 3 Chinese teacher got the nickname of either Teacher Turtle or Teacher Fierce . Grade 4 Chinese teacher was also called Teacher Minus because she often said in Hokkien, "I will minus!" That threat came every time the class would misbehave. If I'm not wrong, I tried getting a minus 20 (for always talking) which caused me to fail another quiz. Some people would move out of a Chinese school when their child fails either Grade 2 or Grade 3. In our case, Grade 3

Today is Valentine's Day and also Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday doesn't have a fixed date since the Lenten season depends on the Jewish calendar's cycle. Back on topic, I wrote about Filipinas marrying foreigners to escape the hardships of life . Eventually, I followed it up by writing about how the IBON Foundation possibly views FDI  followed up by how Migrante Internation possibly views FDI . With those two organizations in mind, I wonder if their statements state that the late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. allegedly opened up the economy to foreign investments all the more (which is a lie ) may have also included Filipinas dating foreign males of different kinds. Sure, the correct word for the English is Filipino woman but I prefer to use Filipina because of my status as a Filipino citizen .  I have nothing against Filipinas dating foreign men if it's done out of love. However, I can't help but notice the crude jokes that are written against FDI. Some economically ignor

It's going to be the Chinese New Year. It's very easy to think for some people to go to a Chinese restaurant. A post I wrote earlier was about teaching Mandarin through meaningful conversations, not parroting . It's a typical sight for any Chinese teacher to complain or get mad at a student reacting to the memorization. The real constraint is systemic in nature. Chinese teachers are being forced to teach Chinese the way they know how. Hokkien was used as a medium of instruction. If a person didn't come from a Chinese-speaking home, they were actually going to have a much harder time in a one size fits all arrangement.  Now, it's time to talk about conversational again. Sure, this looks like the bon toi (question and answer) found in the Chinese classes. The only difference is with Chinese taught as a second language --it would give students fewer reasons to cry while memorizing Chinese phrases.  This time, the "bon toi" here is more than just a question an

I noticed that Facebook users have given Hilario G. Davide Jr. the nickname Hilarious. The 88-year-old guy has grown old but has been opposing the badly needed economic amendments. He was already known to have said during former president, Atty. Rodrigo R. Duterte, that there's absolutely no need to amend it, because it's the best constitution in the world, it's the only constitution that's supposedly this and that. I want to say, "What?!" to that. It's because he spoke like he already read every last constitution in the world. Did he read the American Constitution? Did he read every constitution in ASEAN for a start? Did he read the Singaporean constitution? As a former UN diplomat, it's amazing Davide Jr. said what he said! Examining Davide Jr.'s latest warning today  No different than what Davide Jr. said last 2018 , it's really no surprise that he's quoted by pages like La Verite, Lupang Hinirang (full FB title is too long), Silent No M

I could recall all the insecurities I had back in school.  There was a short time when I forced myself into the honor rank (but was at the bottom 10). However, the time came when I realized that my aim to become the world's greatest genius failed . One of the conversations I had with someone was that I wanted to become a robot . With those recollections in mind, it would be best to ask, "Are we educating students, or are we automating students." Automation is a language often used in science fiction when it comes to robots. That's why I picked it as the title.  I wrote about why I hated school because of the grades over learning approach . I cited this article written by a certain  Pritika Nair  though I'd like to cite the first two areas: 1. Children are treated like robots or machines The amount of homework, notes to be copied, coupled with home assignments and related activities can get overwhelming for both children and parents. And this trend starts as early

Sometimes, much truth can be told in fiction, right? Talk about how the great Jose Rizal revealed much truth in his fictional novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo . The digital age today would create more entertaining media. I may encourage book reading over movie watching. However, some movies may do more than entertain. They can also address a real issue. It was said that a cheating scandal in China inspired the producers Jira Maligool and Vanridee Pongsittisak to create the film  Bad Genius . Right now, there's even a TV series presumably because a movie can't always deliver the message one wants. How does the whole thing go? I was inspired to watch this film because of comments from a Facebook friend's post. The post also talked about how students cheat because the system cares more about grades than learning.  As the world becomes more global, exposure to Thai cinema is definitely not surprising. Sure, one can talk about the South Korean wave or the increasing