Dear blog, this week I did a good job in networking. Last week I realized how limited my network was as most of the people are off during the summer course, and those who were here can be counted with my toes. So I challenged myself to expand my network in 5 days from Monday - Friday this week and until today (final day) I managed to hook up with 7 new people of different networks.
بروني دارالسلامBrunei Darussalam
Friendly folks if you ask me, easy to open up. I got a few top tips from this Bruneian girl I just met on the things to expect when I go study in Oz.
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MalaysiaYou'll never get enough of your fellow countrymen lolz. They all know the s*it and stuff you're experiencing in the country. But yeah they are helpful in studies, since we all have this "don't leave a man/woman behind" spirit in this mini global environment. Always 'gotong-royong' in doing projects and assignments, you know what I mean lolz...
ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމުހޫރިއްޔާRepublic of Maldives
Amongst the first few foreign network I established with way back when I'm in my Foundation times. If you ever want go to Maldives for a vacation, have them show you around the islandsss. A good place for a honeymoon or retirement if you ask me. Heck, they even have an underwater Hilton resort there, uber nice.
中华人民共和国People's Republic of China
I networked with them only recently since one of my buddy's girlfriend is from the Mainland. Too bad I'm not fluent in the Mainland slang, maybe I should also get one Mainland girl to help me to network with them lol just kidding. They tend to stick to themselves, but when they do open up and welcomes you prepare to meet the rest of the big family, and their slang. 你好? :)
جمهورية العراقRepublic of Iraq
Despite the war back home, I admire these guys' determination to continue their studies. Most of them are adult students, and this new guy I hooked up with is 32 years old. Like they always say "It's never too old to learn". Really friendly folks after a quick 5 minutes intro, and the West can't be friendly with them after the long 5 years war.
اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستانIslamic Republic of Pakistan
These guys also came from a country with fresh turmoil after Bhutto's assassination last December. They're willing to share stories about the internal conflict, and I feel their pain. Imagine you're here sitting comfortably in the air conditioned case study room while back home your family is living a state of emergency with riots just outside your kitchen window. Few Pakistani buddies came back for the studies, I hope they're doing alright.
இலங்கை ஜனநாயக சமத்துவ குடியரசDemocratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
My first Sri Lankan connection that I made before the last challenge day ended. I like the dude, he shares a common insight as I do on government oppression on the economy. I'm surprised he assimilated to our local slang of adding 'lah' etc because none of the foreign students I know would do that, and this is only his first year. I see him as a potential neo-economist to work with when the West goes into a recession, soon.
So far so good, these new networks should be beneficial for me later. But next week I should expand it again during before the summer course ends, I have no connections to the Koreans and Vietnamese students here, maybe because there is only one student from each of those countries. They're all female some more, so you know how most girls would react if a guy suddenly sit with them for lunch at the cafeteria out of the blue and says "Hi :D". I won't worry much about this problem, since it was mentioned in the Hofstede cultural dimensions itself. But that's just another challenge that I have to find a way to counter wahaha...
Hey any stories on your networking experience you like to share? Drop it in the comment, will ultimately be useful for us students everywhere :)
8 comments:
Eh now I remmbr, I did hef a Vietnamese but somehow he disappeared. N dats the strangest thing, ppl tend to disappear every semester... and with each passing semester more n more ppl disappeared but were quickly replaced wif new ones.
some sort of 'x-file' going one? hehe
no singa or indo friend?
hmm... network as if no always have to be super close is it since i know people from Brunei, Singaporean, Thailand, Korean, China, Hong Kong, Macao, Indonesia, Sri langka, Turkey, Italy, German, Vietnam, and few others middle east country which i forgot which and which since am not particular close with those few classmate as they tend to speak arabic language among themselves, we are smile, hi, finish hw? kinda relation.
ahh.... forgot to mention the major one despite leaving there for almost a year, New Zealand and Australia @_@ how could i live it out, esp Nz! I am quite close with 10% of the hostel girl, have small talk with 20% of them and have hi and play together b4 relation with the other 20%, the rest is either too proud, too mean, too racist to say hello to us Asian.
oh yeah Malaysia count as well is it? hehehe
wat x-file? wat moi means?
no s'pore here, but yeah got indo friend but they are not here for the summer course. The new network adds up to my current network of nippon, filipino, nigeria, zimbabwe, ozzies n others.
Its the exp wif them makes u forgot abt them. So i heard some of the ang mo are racist when we are at their place. But at least i feel good im not racist wif them here. But then again i oso heard fellow asians in Oz oso sombong edi to other asians, esp Msians residents there. Wonder wat happened to them.
Yesh, Msians count, its a big country wif many sub-networks ^^ So wat abt ur Msian network?
Oh yeah! japan too, just happen to meet some, nice people but not very clsoe since they r either my housemate church (which i don't go to that church since am lazy to go most of the time + her church is far and mafan to get there hence me go to the other church
Some ah mo is racist and those in my hostel, aiyo those 5th and 6th form should be shame of themselves (their form at that time and many mean people r from this age group) 3rd and 4th form treat us nicer, even younger child know the basic politeness of not to cincai look down on others, in fact i think they should respect us, people who afford to go there study like us must have a bit $$ too, otherwise family can announce bankrupt lol just paying the school tuition fee! We r people who supplied $ to their country as well by paying i dunno X time more in the school fee then they did.
M'sia people leh, hmm strange that i actually didn't get very close with them. Guess i didn't meet any nice m'sia people that get along well with me oversea. Naturally when u said u malaysian, m'sia people will be happy and said really!? then ask where r u from, saying sarawak they will think kuching, said sibu they just oh... then move on with other conversation. @_@
I also meet some m'sia who are from bigger city in west m'sia like KL, penang, etc I duno is it that they think sarawak is remote place, plus me come from place that i bet some of them didn't even know hence they start giving me this annoying bandar kids feel. They are acting as if they r more high and mighty than i do, know m'sia so much better than i do and somehow in the certain point give me a feeling that they wanna said their hometown is better, i have this classmate back in auckland, kl people, she's goes to NZ since form 1 even say it aloud, kl better lah!. and talk to me with that i-know-m'sia-better-than-u lah tone. Naturally as much as i hate the mafan of making enemy, my scorpion gene start get annoy and say "so what, not as if you live in m'sia as long as i did" to shut off her think-she-know-better attitude and another "i don't even give a darn that kl better than my hometown or not, all i care is my life have been very happy in sarawak" she's wise enuf not to try 'argue' with me since i am intend to say mean stuff as draft in my mind that time, anyway since she shut off her big ass mouth i might as well spare her from that.
OO later after that me got go back curse her and talk behind her lah haha, human nature after getting annoy confirm got complain it to close friend.
Then again can't blame those bandar kids lah, it's edi very hard for them to even know how we go on without having jaya jasco, Tesco, 7-11, burger king, starbuck here, they need to get out from their narrow world and come see we people here survive just fine without it. I used to tell my housemate i pity u kl people lah, man she go tuition ah, let said want tuition physics form 4 at this super famous teacher house lah, she need to go register with that guru since form 2, some more that teacher will tell u u r no.87 in the list, after 100 no more accepting. Unlike us, just go enrol when u feel u need to tuition that sub, most of the place still accept even though the class is full edi, few will reject but then they might open another new class for u to fit in again.
the theory is, us non-big city ppl will have higher mortality rate should aliens invade and destroy everything. think abt it :)
and well, no comment on the racism. Its evywhere coz evyone got stg and someone they distaste.
oh n tc when ur goin bk to Oz k? being discriminated is ntg, we've exp shittier things b4, so ganbate neh? n this time dapao me a wombat haha
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