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From our newsletter (Vol10No4):
A Gift Letter from Jinn Jinn
It is Christmas again. Christmas is about
gifts rather than obligatory tokens given in exchange. Gifts
usually come from the depth of some divine well, not only bought
in shops and stores. Whilst in Malaysia recently, I received
one such gift a letter from an ex student of one of my Accelerative
Learning camps for teenagers. Jinn Jinn was a young Malaysian
Chinese student living in Kuala Lumpur when she first attended
an Accelerated Learning camp that my girl friend, Evelyn and
I ran in the early 90's. Then she attended one in Australia.
In many senses, Jinn Jinn is an AL graduate from our workshops
for children and teenagers. Soon after that, her father died
when she was still in high school. That meant her mother had
to support her and her brother. Jinn Jinn, truly a child with
a strong Confucianist upbringing, worked hard at her studies
and earned money through giving piano lessons, managed to win
a scholarship into the Dental School at Singapore University.
You have to be super brilliant to do that. At the same time,
she was also accepted into the Medical School at Monash University.
Jinn Jinn came to Melbourne and taught classes at ACCS for a
short summer in Melbourne, attended some classes at Monash University
but sacrificed all her dream to be a doctor for the sake of her
brother's future. Studying at Monash meant less money for her
brother's studies. She returned to take up her scholarship in
the dental school at Singapore University. This synopsis of a
young Chinese girl's experiences shows many elements of the Confucianist
ideal that I have often talked about. I would love to share her
story with you.
Jinn Jinn wrote a heart moving letter to Evelyn and me recently
and I want to give this to all of you students, family,
friends and supporters of our projects for Mirabel. Here is Jinn
Jinn's letter Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Dear Aunty Evelyn and Aunty Moni,
It's been years since I attended the
last Accelerated Learning camp. However, what I discovered was
that things that I learnt way back then never lost its significance.
In fact, as the years went by, they became more and more relevant
to me as I had to shoulder more and more responsibilities.
Last year (2001) was an awfully traumatic academic year for me
in Dental school. On top of having to juggle all my tons of schoolwork,
I had to manage my ECAs in order to collect sufficient points
to stay back in the Halls of Residence. There came a point where
everything was just going downhill, and nothing in life seemed
to go on properly. Not only did I find myself falling sick easily,
I found my grades plunging. For the first time in my life, I
failed every single test and I gradually found myself losing
interest in my work to the extent of having wanted to give up
at some point or another. I locked myself up in the room frequently
just to try to "sleep away" the problems.
I realised soon enough that doing all that wasn't going to get
me anywhere, except into further trouble. Therefore, I had no
choice but to sit down one day, and to get a hold of myself to
think about what I actually wanted in my life.
Firstly, I needed to get myself out of the dumps. My self-esteem
had suffered greatly and every time I took a test, I prepared
to fail. I began to feel that I wasn't well-liked anymore, and
that I probably couldn't do anything significant. Therefore,
each day, I focused on telling myself in the morning that I must
not take all the bumps and knocks in Dental school too harshly.
I willed myself to smile even if I didn't feel like it. Slowly,
it became a habit, and soon it became natural. I took a positive
outlook towards learning, especially with regards to my labwork.
Everytime I made a mistake, I would tell myself that "Hey
look at the bright side, at least you're making the mistake here
in the pre-clinics and not in your patient's mouth.".
Exercise became very important as it is my form of stress release.
I took to playing sports very rigorously and soon started finding
my skills improving. Whenever the exams were near, I would change
to do breathing and relaxation exercises.
Then where my studies were concerned, I sat down to examine what
went wrong. I found out that one of the reasons why I lost interest
was because they didn't seem to have much significance to me
during the learning process. It just wasn't fun anymore, so I
naturally rejected everything that was taught. Falling back to
basics, I recalled that we once took a test to determine our
learning styles, and that I was both a visual and kinesthetic
learner. This made a lot of difference, because instead of just
mugging in the room or library, I took time off during the holidays
to visit my dentist at his general practice and watched him at
work. I got him to prompt me questions and to discuss all his
cases with me. That way, I was learning the practical way. Everything
made so much sense, and suddenly all the theories started to
mean something. On top of that, I modified the use of mind-maps
into flow charts and graphs. I drew a lot of my notes instead
of writing them. I kept to a strict timetable, never skipping
meals. I made sure that after every 2 hours (which is my max
concentration time-span), I took a short 5-10 minute break before
continuing.
Suddenly, all the things that I was taught during the holiday
camps made a whole lot more sense than it ever did previously.
What I found out was that Accelerated Learning is not just about
speed-reading, breathing exercises, mind mapping etc. It encompasses
a group of techniques devoted to maintaining the total well-being
of a person Mind, Body and Soul. Learning is a life-long
process, where techniques learnt will always be there to aid
in the process, but need to be modified where and when necessary.
Ultimately, it boils down to making learning significant, acceptable
and fun for yourself to take in the subject matter, such that
learning no longer becomes a mere task, but an enjoyable process.
Thank you very much for giving me these lessons early in life.
They now mean a lot more to me than before.
Jinn
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