Being Marlin of Finding Nemo

I had an interesting bantering with an old friends of mine from high school. I was a little taken aback on how some just couldn't see what many of my like-minded friends would have seen after this decade of globalisation. I, too, have come to a realisation how much my mentality had changed over the years, shaped by the travels and conversations with the global community due to my study requirement.

Source: http://soezooscope.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/nemo-1.jpg

Indeed, some people just can't see it at all. I don't blame them all together for not seeing it. Maybe less exposure to global community is equivalent to less understanding of global job market and its trend these days. Being in our comfort zone forever also brought us more disadvantages by blinding our eyes to see what's really the truth. I used to be in my comfort zone, until I decided to follow God's call to explore the deep waters and swim with the sharks. While writing this, I am reflecting on my life for the past 12 years since I left my family home to embrace my personal journey of young adulthood. And I would liken myself to Marlin in Finding Nemo for now. If not because of a changed circumstance, Marlin would not have embarked on a journey to find Nemo, and he wouldn't have met Dory, and every other sea creature who he spoke to and befriended. And he wouldn't be who he was by the time he returned home with Nemo (and Dory tagging along).

Let's go back to the bantering topic:

Source: Facebook page of JUICE Singapore

Quoting a friend's response to this picture: Why must fluency in Mandarin be important? Our national language is Bahasa Melayu, and the international language is English. Stupid racist people...

My response to this topic stands as my very personal opinion, and I don't wish to be quoted by any format of journalism, especially by The Star Malaysia. If I found my opinion being quoted by any journalist, I will take legal action this time. The Star Malaysia has a couple of journalists who aren't very ethical, so I am stating that I DON'T WANT to be quoted and I DO NOT GIVE CONSENT to be quoted by anyone.

Firstly, national language and internationally accepted languages are two different cases. For certain countries, their national language is also an internationally accepted language used for trading, e.g. English and Spanish. Thank God! Unfortunately, some countries would only have national language which is spoken mainly by that country, or maybe another two other neighbouring countries, e.g. Malay Language is mainly spoken in my home country, Malaysia, and other branches of Melanesia languages spoken in Indonesia and Brunei. Similar, yet different. It is natural to be fluent in the national language of our own countries, because we live in that environment since forever! If we're not, then perhaps we should take a look at how we perceive our own country. Honestly. One of the emerging economic giants is China. With a huge population, and the booming economy, Chinese from PRC are the global target of consumers. There is nothing racist about picking Mandarin as a foreign language.

Secondly, if I were to be an employer, my first thought when I need to employ new staffs is the ability to cater for both local communities and international working relations of my company. If I also have possibilities to collaborate with organisations in PRC, I'd look into employing people who could cater for the needs of my local community as well as my collaborators (or potential ones), which means ability to speak the language of my collaborators. If China is an emerging economic giant (which is already a fact readily accepted in the Western world), shouldn't I be equipping my organisation with employees who could readily speak Mandarin? I didn't see how important it was to be fluent in speaking Mandarin since I grew up speaking all three main languages in Malaysia fluently, until I started working as a marketing executive and my clients comprised of local community with a sprinkle of international walk-in customers. Despite the ability of local customers to speak English, but since their first language was either Mandarin or Malay, indeed, they prefer us to serve them with their preferred language. Many excellent service-based companies provide a preferred language option in their forms so that customers' needs could be fulfilled. There's nothing racist about requiring someone who speak Mandarin in the organisation. It only helps to improve the organisation's image of being global.

Thirdly, there are various definitions of "being fluent in so-and-so language". According to Oxford Dictionary:

fluent

Line breaks: flu¦ent

Pronunciation: /ˈfluːənt 

  

/

ADJECTIVE

1Able to express oneself easily and articulately:a fluent speaker and writer on technical subjects

1.1Able to speak or write a particular foreign language easily and accurately:she became fluent in French and German

1.2(Of a foreign language) spoken accurately and with facility:he spoke fluent Spanish

2Smoothly graceful and effortless:his style of play was fast and fluent

3Able to flow freely; fluid:a fluent discharge from the nose

It is a logic (unless you're some schizo dude who is illiterate), that the first definition is applicable to my statement here...

In this case, it is Mandarin. Sometimes, one is both a fluent speaker and writer in a subject (could be a technical subject, e.g. Science, or a language, e.g. Spanish). Or he/she could be only a fluent speaker, but read nothing of that language. For many years, I could only speak Mandarin fluently but read only very few words (e.g. my own name, the names of my immediate family members, big 大, small 小, middle 中, that's about it...). Of course, over the years, I found my special delight in learning languages, and now I could read Chinese (with slower speed) too. So, why not publish a job employment opportunity in a non-Chinese newspapers? Putting myself in the shoes of the employers, I would need workers who could converse fluently in the foreign languages of my collaborators to keep them happy and well-communicated with the things they need to know, and if the worker is unable to prepare the paperwork related to the project because of his/her inability to write in that language, I'm sure my company would have another worker whom I can distribute this task to. If I can afford it, I could send those paperwork (prepared firstly in English) to professional translators who would do the task properly and professionally. Honestly, no big deal if the company is established enough.

So now, if I recount my own language abilities, I speak and write fluently in English, Malay and Mandarin, able to hold rather fluent conversation in Cantonese. I picked up a bit of Spanish, Japanese and Korean along the way too. I guess I could consider myself a linguist. Perhaps one day I will improve the other three languages which I started to pick up as a young adult. I use my abilities to my own advantage, really. I know I could at least read scientific articles written by Chinese scientist published in Chinese journals because I could read it. I wouldn't worry buying a foreign product without English instructions because I can always decipher it as long as it is available in any of the other languages which I am fluent or semi-fluent in. Oh well...

My take home message for you guys out there are these:

• Why should you despise people who could converse fluently in another foreign language?
• Why should you place the "racist" label on those who require employees who are fluent in another foreign language?
• Are you sure you're not the one who is racist?

Source: http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/43820342.jpg

It's not about calling potential employers "stupid racists" when they specifically looking for people who could speak these languages which would benefit their companies, it should be about US MAKING OURSELVES EMPLOYABLE if you are seeking for employment. C'mon, we're not living in stone age where the demand for workers is more than the job vacancies. You should know by now how competitive the job market is like out there.