Dear Thai Heng
Your pen tells us not only a "foreign-language" learning experience
over the past decades but also the personality of a gentleman who has
accomplished much in life.
You write excellently especially when you are in no hurry to send in
"a piece of news to your editors". Your flow of thought is presented
unequivocally, without any floral envelope or veil. A gentleman of
sincerity and honesty does not color his writing instrument to show
the world of different scenario from what he sees and thinks.
I have learned much from you since we first met in December 2005.
All the best.
Regards Kia Ger
Ah, I really did not expect some of my chitchats could become material for pubication in this blog! But Cheong Hiang has called me and asked me to write some of my experience so that the younger generation can learn from me.
Honestly I do not write the best English, my training as a journalist in The New Straits Times has schooled me to write simple English easy for as many people to understand as possible.
I have stuck to that style ever since
Where did I get this interest to study English harder than the rest?
In a way I have to thank my English teachers at Chung Hwa, from primary school to high school: Mr.Chan Tat Ming, Mr.Yen Chee Ren , Mr.Zen Wen Jin, Mr.Dai Yee Fat and Mr.Wong JIn Fook. 詹達明、顏其仁、鄭文津、戴益發和黃金福老師（右下）
I was lucky to be taught by them, they were all good teachers: competent, serious and dedicated to their jobs.
I was not outstanding but I liked their English classes and I really paid attention to them.
I also have to thank Khoo Yik Tung （邱奕銅）who happened to be my best friend and I followed him almost everyday after school.
So we read The Straits Times together and we enrolled in an English school in Jalan Maharani for the afternoon session. It was tough but we had some good time there.
I was admitted to the National University of Taiwan but my wife who had just become my fiance objected. Haha! that was the advantage of getting engaged so soon!
It was too late for me to apply to Nanyang University then. So I decided to spend the one whole year studying by myself and during that year I did nothing but reading English newspapers,magazines and books in my kampong house at Pagoh.
I went to cinemas to see English movies and I paid close attention to the Chinese translation on the screen. Sometimes I saw the same movie a few times over.
My favourites were Gone With The Wind and Tarzan. I read Gone Wtih Wind about 15 times.
The next year I was enrolled in the Modern Languages Department of Nanyang University to major in English.
There I was fortunate to meet young poet Michael Thorpe from London, he taught us English poetry. He was really good and inspring.
I did not become a poet but I learned to appreciate the good things of English literature :English as an art and language.
I thought I had learned quite a bit of English until I started to work in The New Straits Times as a journalist.
There in the newspaper office in Kual Lumpur for more than five years I really went through the mill of writing everyday English for the common people.
There I must write and rewrite until my seniors or my news editors were happy with the style , simple and precise.
A newspaper does not have space to waste, you just have to do it right.
After leaving the newspapers I spent another 11 years working for the former President of MCA, Tan Sri Lee San Choon （李三春）as his political secretary.
I did not leave alone, I persuaded my colleague Mr.Hng Hung Yong to join me . （方漢勇）
Mr.Hng is no ordinary person, after graduating from London University and Harvard Unversity with degrees in political science and law, he came to The Straits times to write editorials . We became close friends.
So he became the special advisor to Tan Sri Lee preparing many of his speeches and project papers in English. Many of the papers I translated into Chinese to be delivered by the President at party assemblies.
(Mr.Hng later became managing director of The Star, continued to write his popular editorials and turned The Star around from heavy losses.)
We shared the same office and I had a good chance to learn English writing at a different level from him at close range .
But I do not treat learning English as a chore or a burden, I treat it as an interest, it helps me make many friends, commnicate with many people and enlarge my knowledge.
I am not perfect, I know, I am not the best, I know . Once in a while someone will tell me: Lui, you write well, that still makes me happy, I have my weaknesses, I know.