I am a sucky writer

I suck. Well, not really, not even in my deepest doldrums will I ever admit that I suck. But according to a 'reputable' and 'authoritative' person, I do, at writing no less. That's right, my MUET (that's English to those that do not have to take this moronic exam) teacher gave me a Band 3 (out of 6) for an essay. Granted, I didn't really put 100% into this bastard child of an essay, but I didn't think I deserve to be labled 'modest user, fairly fluent, usually appropriate but with noticeable inaccuracies' and 'able to understand but with some misinterpretation' and 'able to function but with some effort' either.

Anyway, here's the offending piece.

Nowadays, the job market has become increasingly competitive. Paper qualifications just could not meet the tough demands of picky employers. Young people need to equip themselves with soft skills to make themselves marketable. Unfortunately, in our structured education system, these skills are precisely what is lacking. Therefore, I suggest that both parents and schoolstake a more proactive role in developing them.

Time is a very precious commodity. In spite of this, youths have a tendency to mismanage it. Perhaps they are not disciplined enough, but the structured school life should be sufficient to rectify this, with a few more adjustments of course. Structured should not mean boring, fun can be injected every now and then, to ensure students do not resent the system. If this discipline is cultivated from young, it will become an integral part of the lifestyle of our youth. Hopefully, they will transfer their time management skills to other aspects of life.

One of the chief grouses of interviewers is that our youth fail to communicate effectively, though they might be intelligent and qualified. I would attribute it to the cyber age that we live in. People are more inclined to use electronic tools to do their "talking" for them, to the extent that it is not uncommon to find youth with "best friends" they have not met in person. While it is easy to say something when you have the confort of your computer or cellphone to hide behind, it is an entirely different proposition when it comes to face to face communication. Confident Lotharios on the internet might turn out to be stuttering, awkward mice in person. How do you expect this person to present himself well to a future boss then? For starters, parents can make their child more sociable by actively encouraging him to go out and interact more. They can also impose limits on computer and cell phone use. CHildren are naturally shy, but if given encouragement, they will move out of their shell. As time goes by, the children will build meaningful friendships, and learn to manage them well.

For all the talk about the importance of good minds and engaging personalities, they will come to nought if you are too sick to use them. All the same, employers will also be less inclined to employ someone if they feel he will have too many sick days. In their paper chase, young people often push healthy living to the bottom of the agenda. This is also exacerbated by distractions like television and computers. It is a curable problem though, with both schools and parents capable of supplying the antidote. School authorities can give exrcise a more central role, instead of obsessing about paper grades. I am sure a period or two of the more mundane subjects like History and Moral Education can be sacrificed to make way for morning exercise. The students probably will not mind too, since they will be nodding off anyway. School is one thing, but students spend a lot of time at home too. To take advantage of this, parents can constantly impress on them the importance of healthy living. Parents can start by cutting back on the oil and salt when they cook and exercise instead of watching television with thier offspring. Sure, all this might not make them popular with thier children at first, but subconciously it will be drummed into them. By laying down the foundations, our young people stand a chance to make a difference.

Soft skills might be underrated, but it is definitely time for us to focus on them. Stoic efficiency is just not enough, especially since our current economy is shifting more and more towards knowledge based services.

There, this is the offending piece. I admit I strayed a bit from the main subject which included giving reasons. But the teacher derided this essay as being 'narrative', bastard child of an essay this may be, but it is still my child. And to add insult to injury, she casually mentioned that we(the students) are too used to writing 'narrative essays'. Well, if anything narrative essays are the way to go, lest we want to bored our audiende to sleep. Heck, what I learned here through trial and error, will always be infinitely better than what she can teach in the classroom.

Before I end, I feel obliged to leave a line about Ju Ping, who also fell victim to the POC(prudish old crone, in his own words). He had it worse that I did, if anything, he got a 'low band 3' and before that, he was roundly screwed in the recent MUET test.