Asians for English

In my personal experience in teaching, I find that nothing guarantees results in school or in life more than an alignment of action to purpose.

There are many factors which discourages a person in their path towards learning English. On top of that list is not having a strong purpose of why they are signing up for a course or class.

Throughout my lessons, one of the themes I will talk about is SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING or autonomous learning. This idea has been around for some time but like with every idea, it requires a gestation period.  But here’s the good news: With more and more universities opening up (Open Universities, University of the People, MIT’s Open Courseware, etc) and as technology becomes the catalyst of high-speed change, the idea of LIFELONG LEARNING (which includes distance learning) has become a reality of everyday life.  Together with the acceptance that an undergraduate degree (an extension of schooling) is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of the Information Revolution, SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING has become A NECESSITY for lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is the driver’s license towards living a life of opportunities and exponential fulfilment.

Throughout the process of learning English, we will also learn that it is important to PREVENT wrong learning and ideas from happening in the first place rather than fixing them just too little too late sometime in the future. Think about it this way: Imagine you got a new car. Is it better to learn how to drive and take care of it OR to spend a lot of money and time to repair the car after it is damaged? Sometimes, if we don’t understand that there is a direct connection between our state of mind and our driving abilities, serious or fatal “vehicle collisions” can happen.  The word “accident” to describe vehicle collisions due to driver or vehicle inadequacies is wrong.  Something is not an accident if the knowledge of it is already out there but it is our own ignorance that causes the problem in the first place.

There are many things in our life which are not accidents; the failure of students to learn English after 11 years of schooling, for instance.  If a person doesn’t know much about handling a car nor understands the performance ability of a car, yet chooses to drive full speed ahead OR tailgate someone, what happens is not an ‘accident’. Choosing to be ignorant, you cannot call it ‘bad luck’.  So if anyone fails to learn at a level required by the evolution of the world by the time they finish school, it is not an ‘accident’ or ‘bad luck’. One of three things must have happened:

(1)    The Vehicle (schooling, teachers, and curriculum) did not have the ability to perform at a level of the driver’s understanding (teaching in the way people learn)

(2)    The driver (students) did not know the purpose of schooling or what they want to make of their lives

(3)    There is a misperception between what the driver and vehicle are expecting on the road and what the ACTUAL ROAD CONDITIONS are really like.



There are many analogies I can use but I chose driving because, apart from learning English, learning to drive is the one thing on a lot of young people’s minds these days. I could be over-generalizing but I think Asian people are exceptionally bad at driving! As a Malaysian I can bear witness that my country has a disproportionately high level of vehicle collisions every year!

I remember asking my students one day, to imagine holding up a bow and arrow. And then, release it. Without setting an aim or target, are they likely to hit it? Without having a purpose on why they chose that aim, is there fulfilment or pride in hitting one’s target? However, that is how many people approach the learning of anything, including English. They have a general target, “I want to improve my English.”  But for what?

Without a clearly defined purpose or target, your hands are bound to shake as you hold up the bow and arrow. Without a great story that shows your mind how to aim for what you want, not just with your eyes, but also with your Mind’s Intelligence, you are unlikely to hit it. Ask any professional archer or shooter.

Your confidence in being able to successfully learn and use English in your life is directly related to how clearly defined your purpose or target is. If you’re shaky, you’re unlikely to hit your target. The story you tell yourself to get you there is equally important; Is your story about Fear of Failure in a Life full of competition and scarcity or a story of Great Fulfilment and Abundance?

As a young person, which world would you like to help create? I propose that one of your aims for learning English is to see it as a SKELETON KEY that will open up many avenues of WEALTH CREATION.



I love the Chinese character “Fook”. It sums up the drive behind many of us.  Western people sometimes misunderstand our Asian drive for wealth-creation. I had a European friend who said, “You Chinese, always money, money, MONEY!” I learned that in Western societies, many hold the belief that “The Love of Money” is the “root of all evil”. 
I found an explanation how BOTH can be right at the same time. But you would have to stay tuned to find out why THE LOVE OFMONEY is NOT the cause of EVIL – it is the LACK OF MONEY that is!

The surest way to get into an ‘accident’ is to drive while looking through the rear-view mirror.  I suggest that until you learn what it means to drive your life with purpose, you allow others who already have, to be your guide.