Guaranteed

One Friday night, just before we went to bed, Vivian said, “I have taken half day off tomorrow morning. Need to go to the bank and settle some minor problem.”

“Em…” I wasn’t really paying any attention.

“I wonder if they are going to sell any new financial product to me.” She went on.

“Alas, do you remember what happened ten years ago?” I raised my eyebrow.

Of course my wife knew. Shortly after we got married, she was persuaded to invest on something that she perceived as Principal Guaranteed Fund (保本基金). The result? I consider the name of the fund that my wife heard was an abbreviation – the full name is Principal Guaranteed to Vanish Fund (保證蝕本基金).

“Alright. If anything of that kind happen tomorrow, I will get the information and walk away.” My wife said.

“Let’s see…” I said to myself.

Logical

While talking about elementary logic that should have been taught in high school, I met J – an eminent professor who has a number of influential research work in his field.

“Szeto, do you have any protected time in your calendar?” He asked.

“No, not during the office hours.” I said slowly, “What’s up?”

“You know, several junior academic colleagues of my department come to me and complain that they have no protected time to do research.” J explained.

“I must say I agree with them. That doesn’t sound right. After all, they need quite a bit of research work to renew their contract and apply for substantiation.”

“But they are clinicians and are supposed to be doing clinical research! Shouldn’t they be interested in seeing patients?” The professor seemed a bit annoyed with my answer.

“My friend, the argument isn’t logical. They have the interest of seeing patients is very different from using all the time for clinical duty.”

Alas, good clinicians and scientists are not always logical.

Logic

I hesitate for a long time about writing this blog - not because of the content, but because I'm not sure it should be written in Chinese or English. There are times when explaining in Chinese would be more influential and comprehensible. For obvious reasons, it depends on the quality of your audience.

With that consideration, I decide to write it in English.

Here you go:

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Opposing Occupy Central (佔中) does not mean opposing Civil Nomination (公民提名).
Opposing Civil Nomination does not mean opposing Universal Suffrage (普選).
Opposing Universal Suffrage does not mean opposing Democracy.
Opposing Democracy does not mean opposing your country.

And, last but not least, opposing Occupy Central does not mean supporting Anti-Occupy Central (反佔中).

Skill

To be fair to Masaru Sato, a small but critical part of his book is about the technique of reading - and it is very well written.

The theory of Sato is simple. First, one has to distinguish between reading well (熟讀術) and reading quick (速讀術). Second, one needs a considerable background knowledge to be able to read fast and comprehend. If you do not have the necessary background, there is no point to flip through the pages quickly - you are merely projecting images to the retina.

The most insightful and important observation of Sato is, except for a few exceptionally gifted, most of us cannot remember the content by reading a book just once. For that reason, we must develop a system to read a book at least twice (the actual advise of Sato is to read it three times) if our judgement is the book should be read well. The result (in terms of retaining information) is much better to read a book quickly for a few times than to read it once slowly and thoroughly.

The analogy is simple: It is more warm to wear three thin T shirts than a thick one.

Go read A Hundred Thousands of Why (十萬個為什麼).

Technique

Talking about suitable books for my princesses, my recent leisure reading is The Technique of Reading (閱讀的技法) by Masaru Sato (佐藤優).

Frequent visitors of this site would know I have a particular interest in the method of reading and time management. The first book of this field that I ever read was Speed-Reading published by Reader's Digest, and my favorite author for a long time is Yasumasa Kurukawa (黑川康正), which I alluded to some years ago (see http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2008/11/kurukawa.html).

However, Sato's book is quite a misnomer. The author, in reality, used to be diplomatic officer of the Japanese government, specialized in the relation with Russia and Eastern Europe. For that reason, over 80% of the book is about the history and origin of racial conflicts in that part of the world, as well as the actual practice of communism in Russia (before the time of Vladimir Putin, of course). Sata also uses a considerable length to discuss the causes and consequences of the assassination of Inukai Tsuyoshi (犬養毅), as well as the reasons of invading China from the Japanese perspective.

A good read to widen my view.

New

There are two layers of my bitter feeling that may skip your eyes. Yes, I am slightly annoyed with our great great ancestors, who are obsessive with moral and would never miss a single chance to teach us to become a saint. (Alas! See what saints they were able to cultivate in the past 3000 years!)

However, I am even more disappointed when I ask: Why couldn't we - modern Chinese - think of some funny stories for our children?

You see? In the English world, there are classical ones (such as Hans Christian Andersen and Brothers Grimm), but we also have in the past twenty years the refreshing Biff and Kipper, Dr. Seuss... and, most recently, Anna and Elsa. (Oh, that's a movie, I know. But the idea is there.) For Chinese, on the other hand, the stories that I mentioned yesterday (about a poet, an elephant, a frog, and a silly man - in that order) were already for there hundreds if not thousands of years. What new stories do we have for our own children in the past 100 years? I cannot think of any.

And we call ourselves a strong country with an astronomical market.

Lesson

In my opinion, the major problem of our Chinese children book is not the lack of material with the appropriate level of complexity, but the quality of the stories.

You see? We Chinese are just too keen to teach our children a lesson. There must be a motto after a story, and the virtue is then emphasized once again after the story is finished. We have Turning the iron rod into a needle (鐵杵磨針), The blinds feeling an elephant (盲人摸象), Watching the sky from the bottom of a well (坐井觀天), The silly man who tries to move the mountain (愚公移山)... and what not.

Yes, they are all brilliant stories. However, when I was a kid and heard any story that ended with a description "The lesson that we learn is...", I always shivered and sneered and thought to myself, "I'm not that thick. I know what I am supposed to learn." The feeling is, alas, somewhat similar to what you feel when you see all those product placements (植入式廣告) while watching Transformers 4.

But, now, my feeling is different. I would say to myself, "Why couldn't they think of some stories just for fun?"

Book

I should have made myself clear and said yesterday: It is not easy to find suitable Chinese books for our children to read.

In fact, it is no news. It has nothing to do with language and I am sure all parents in our city have the same experience. There are several series of excellent English books for children - The Oxford Reading Tree, Step into Reading of Random House, Dr. Seuss... to name just a few frequently read by Euterpe. All have eye-catching pictures, attractive stories, and text from simple to complex. Any junior reader would find these books interesting. They form a habit of reading and learn bit by bit.

And, what do we have for our own language?

Very limited. True, there are comics (with very few words) and short stores (with pages of loaded text), but nothing (in terms of complexity) in between. For a child of 4 to 10 years of age, who know one to two hundreds of Chinese words, there is little easy and attractive material.

Reading

Adler is turning into a K2 student this September. A few weeks ago, Vivian attended a preparatory seminar at our princess’s kindergarten. One of the major changes that we foresee in the coming year is Adler has to read a book everyday and put down in the record.

This is no news to us. We had that experience with Euterpe three years ago. I shall not discuss the longs and shorts of reading a book each day. (See http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2011/09/tiny.html) However, the advise from the kindergarten is slightly different this time:

Try to use more Chinese books for this daily reading project.

The rationale, of course, is obvious. English is comparatively easier to learn. Phonics is a simple skill, and, once mastered, even if you encounter a new word, there is usually no difficulty in figuring out the pronunciation - and probably the meaning. On the other hand, Chinese words need to be learnt one by one. Many primary school children can only recognize a few dozens of  words, which is grossly inadequate for daily communication (and for the understanding of their examination paper).

Nonetheless, it is easier to be said than done for a child to read Chinese books.

SWOT

Met my friend L again while I was leaving the hospital on a Saturday.

As always, he was having a curious smile. After exchanging hello, I pointed at the thick folder in his hands and asked, "What's up?"

He showed me a blank sheet of paper and said, "I am asked to complete this form for the SWOT analysis of my team. You know, this is the third time in the past 6 months!"

I nodded, for I have the same experience. For those who are fortunate enough to be lack of such an experience, SWOT analysis is a structured method that evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an organization.

"My friend, doing a SWOT may take up your time and be inconvenient, but it helps, doesn't it?" I asked.

"Help what? This acronym gadget is often the romantic idea of those who pretended to have an MBA degree,” my friend suddenly became serious, “SWOT is useful for company or personal review, when you try to figure out the further direction of development. However, when your aim and direction is already fixed, SWOT doesn’t really tell you how to get there. What I am seeing is the CEO of a company has a clear aim and direction and asks his subordinates – section leaders or whatever – to come up with execution plans. What these middle level leaders do, however, is asking each and everyone of their team to submit a SWOT analysis of the organization, which are compiled and submitted.”

“I know how we call this tactic,” I laughed, “They need activity. It is their substitute for achievement. My friend, you should read Yes, Prime Minister!”

Sticky

On a recent occasion, I was wandering in the ward like a demented patient.

“Dr. Szeto, what are you looking for?” The ward manager found that I was lost.

“Oh, nothing,” I blushed a little, “I’m just trying to find some scrap paper to make a brief note to the students.”

“You know, after the accreditation exercise, we are not allowed to keep any scrap paper in the ward,” she opened a little drawer and took out a pack of A6 size 3M Post-It® Notes, “All we have is paper of this kind…”

“I do not have to stick it anywhere. However, this change really reflects what's going on in the Hospital Authority - or our government in general,” I paused for a moment and then went on in Cantonese:「就係將啲有用但唔多合規格嘅淘汰，換過啲睇落好靚但其實黐嘅。」

Silent

Discerning visitors may note that I do not consider the theoretical possibility that she is against the idea but is not allowed to say so. To me, the scenario is somewhat like this:

A young man comes forward to a pretty lady and asks, “Shall we watch a movie tonight?”

“Em… my mother wouldn’t allow…” The girl hesitates to reply.

**********************

What do I think?

First, it is tyranny to attack the others who do not support your view. But, more importantly, why is it necessary to ask everyone to express their opinion? Silence is, after all, an opinion. If you do not respect the right of the others to remain silent, how could you claim yourself to be democratic?

Response

While I was reflecting how the general public treat our First Lady, another probable case of cyberbullying became hot in all social media.

The happening was simple. When being asked about her opinion on the Occupy Central (佔領中環) campaign, one of the schoolgirls who had the top score in the recent DSE made a curious comment: My school suggests I should not answer this question.

I shall not discuss what I think about this question. In contrast, I would like to list what was in the mind of this brilliant girl:

1. She supports the idea but is not allowed to say so.
2. She supports the idea but does not wish to declare it to the public (and therefore shift the responsibility to her school).
3. She is against the idea but does not wish to declare it to the public (and therefore shift the responsibility to her school).

Bully

Shortly after finishing with a book that I disagree with, I found myself discussing with Vivian a famous Mrs. Leung.

“I really cannot understand why she comes out and makes such a fuss of the columnist,” my wife began, “I read through that article several times and it has nothing against her daughter. Well, it may be pointing a finger to our Chief Executive, but who doesn’t? The reality is, no one paid any attention to that article until our First Lady came out and, judging by the effect, made an advertisement!”

“My dear, you are absolutely correct,” I made a default response, “I must say our First Lady could hardly be considered charming, and there is no reason to be forgiving to her inappropriate behaviour. Nonetheless,  I feel slightly uneasy after reading hundreds of comments and criticisms and jokes about her. If I were asked to give an example of cyberbullying (網絡欺凌), this is a perfect illustration!”

Read

I finished reading The Magic Mountain on my way to TST.

To be specific, I saw the death of Hans Castorp at Tai Wai while waiting for the connection train.

Believe it or not, I managed to read two small books during the rest of my journey. They are:

1. Zhuangzi in Comics (漫畫莊子) by Tsai Chih Chung (蔡志忠); and
2. Wrongdoings of the Pseudo-Democratic (偽民主派賣港實錄) by Wong Yuk-Man (黃毓民)

Don’t ask me why I read such unrelated books. They were just there in my Nexus. Handy and ready. After all, it is always relaxing to read a book that you enjoyed very much twenty years ago. On the other hand, you’ve got to go through the argument of the other side.

As the old English sayings: I want to know what I am disagreeing with.

Symbols

Seriously, The Magic Mountain is slightly boring to me.

Traditionally, the book is regarded as an excellent summary of all contemporary schools of philosophy around the time of the First World War. During his stay in the Davos Sanatorium, Hans Castorp met a number of symbolic characters. Through the conversations and interactions with these people, Castorp was able to compare and consider what greats European minds were thinking in those days.

The timing of how these characters appear is also illustrative. Lodovico Settembrini (humanism) and Leo Naphta (radicalism) are the two conflicting principles to begin with, while Mynheer Peeperkorn (the Dionysian principle) comes to the stage later but soon becomes the dominant speaker.

Nonetheless, if we consider Kafka’s Castle as the symbol of heaven, The Magic Mountain must be our world. Castorp came for his cousin Joachim Ziemssen (who represents duty) but the stay was unexpectedly long for Clawdia Chauchat – love and temptation on earth.

This is probably another book that I need to come back and read again some time later.

Mountain

My recent leisure reading is Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain.

I heard of the story when I was a medical student, but my interest was certainly aroused after watching The Wind Rises (風起了) of Miyazaki Hayao (宮崎駿). Who could resist a story of philosophy? As soon as I left the cinema, I decided to play Hans Castorp for once  and meet all the mysterious people in the Davos Sanatorium.

To me, the source of this (electronic) book is also remarkable: This is the first book I bought from Google Play – an experiment that I tried after years of being a loyal customer of Amazon. No, there’s nothing wrong with Jeff Bezos. The book is available from both stores. The Kindle version is more expensive, but it has a very much better interface for zooming, bookmarking, and electronic dictionary. All I want to do this time is to try out the Google system of electronic reader, and the overall experience is not bad.

PS. A major edge of the Google bookstore is there is a huge collection of classical Chinese books. As a lover of Chinese astrology, I could even find Mathematics for Dummies (蠢仔數纏度) of Shao Yong (邵雍)!

Hijack

Recently, the term hijack (騎劫) has become very popular in our city. Let me show you the Chinese story of Hijack as a person:

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趙惠文王以相國印授樂毅。樂毅於是並護趙、楚、韓、魏、燕之兵以伐齊，破之濟西。諸侯兵罷歸，而燕軍樂毅獨追，至於臨菑。齊湣王之敗濟西，亡走，保於莒。

樂毅留徇齊五歲，下齊七十餘城，皆為郡縣以屬燕，唯獨莒、即墨未服。會燕昭王死，子立為燕惠王。惠王自為太子時嘗不快於樂毅，及即位，齊之田單聞之，乃縱反閒於燕，曰：「齊城不下者兩城耳。然所以不早拔者，聞樂毅與燕新王有隙，欲連兵且留齊，南面而王齊。齊之所患，唯恐他將之來。」於是燕惠王固已疑樂毅，得齊反閒，乃使騎劫代將，而召樂毅。

《史記卷八十樂毅列傳》

（田單）宣言曰：「吾唯懼燕軍之劓所得齊卒，置之前行，與我戰，即墨敗矣。」燕人聞之，如其言。城中人見齊諸降者盡劓，皆怒，堅守，唯恐見得。單又縱反閒曰：「吾懼燕人掘吾城外冢墓，僇先人，可為寒心。」燕軍盡掘壟墓，燒死人。即墨人從城上望見，皆涕泣，俱欲出戰，怒自十倍。

《史記卷八十二田單列傳》

齊田單後與騎劫戰，果設詐誑燕軍，遂破騎劫於即墨下，而轉戰逐燕，北至河上，盡復得齊城，而迎襄王於莒，入於臨菑。

《史記卷八十樂毅列傳》

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See? When the moderates do not appear to be successful, hijack usually appears from the evolution of aggressive extremism, and the result is often a tragic failure.

教育

各位同學，我相信大家今日都非常開心，因為小學畢業咧。不過，好快開心就會過去。幾日之後，升中派位就會放榜，再過幾個星期，大家就會由一間學校裡面最威、最高班嘅學生，變成全校最細個、最低班、最容易俾人蝦嗰哋。而同樣嘅情況，喺將來仲會不停出現。中學畢業升入大學係咁。有冇讀大學都好，出嚟做嘢你又再發現，全間公司、全個機構，最低級、最細個嗰個就係你。好快你就會唔記得小學時發生咗乜嘢事。可能直到好多好多年之後，你先至好似我咁，開始記得翻哋。

舉一個我自己嘅例子。由於職務嘅關係，我經常都有機會到世界各地唔同嘅地方，尤其係唔同嘅機場。不過我嘅問題係我認路非常之差，經常都會喺機場盪失路，成日我都擔心會趕唔切班機、去唔到要去嘅地方、返唔到屋企。不過，通常我嘅擔心都會好快過去，因為機場一般都有好多路牌，我望吓望吓，都會搵到我要去嘅地方。喺呢個時候，我就會好懷念我嘅小學同中學，好慶幸我有機會接受教育，能夠睇得明哋路牌同指示。學校冇話俾我聽每個城市嘅街道、每個機場嘅結構，佢冇話俾我聽應該去邊度，或者應該點樣去，但係佢教識我辨別方向、點樣睇路牌，等我可以搵到我要搵嘅路，去到我想去嘅地方。呢個，就係教育嘅真義。然後，你就會好似我咁，滿懷感激，好多年之後，返嚟呢度，同各位老師講：多謝大家。

邊間

各位，我唔係講笑。我自從小學畢業，升上中學，升上大學，出嚟做嘢，從來都冇人會問我：「喂，你邊間小學㗎？」係，到依家我經常要接觸啲醫學生，或者初級嘅醫生，我間唔中真係會問：「嘩！你邊間學校㗎？」甚至「嘩！你邊間醫學院㗎？」

我諗，大家都可以想像，我其實唔係想知佢邊間學校畢業，而係佢嘅表現已經好有問題。我哋唔會因為一個人喺間好出名嘅學校畢業，就會覺得佢好叻，亦都唔會因為佢喺一間冇咁叻嘅學校畢業，就會睇佢唔起。一個人嘅名聲、成就，係因為佢嘅能力同埋付出，同佢邊間學校畢業冇乜大關係。

相反，一間學校嘅名聲，就係完全視乎佢嘅學生嘅成就同埋作為。所以，我希望大家喺將來能夠注意，唔好做啲嘢令到自己俾人問：「喂，細路，你邊間小學㗎？」咁樣，就已經係一個小小嘅成就。

講辭

Recently, I had the privilege to give a small talk to a group of graduating primary school students. Here is what I said.

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校長，神父，各位嘉賓，各位老師，各位家長，各位同學，大家好。今日好多謝校長俾我有機會返嚟自己母校同大家見面。我係1979年畢業，係，35年前，嗯，大家都大概估到我幾多歲。

其實我畢咗業之後，都未有返過嚟。喺我嘅記憶入面，我母校仲係以前舊慈雲山村16座隔籬嗰個又細又舊嘅校舍。今日我返嚟，其實係要多謝我一位舊同學。早兩個月前佢搵我，同我講校長想搵一個舊生返嚟幫手頒畢業證書，我當然係飛身應承囉。不過跟住佢又話仲要講啲嘢去勉勵啲學生，我就開始有的擔心。我問佢：「咁即係講啲乜？」

依家諗返我都有啲傻。其實我同學自己都冇乜經驗，又點知講啲乜？不過果時我又冇諗得咁仔細，凈係覺得我同學係知道嘅，所以就問佢。佢就話：「嗱，你就同佢地講，第日升上中學、出嚟社會，都唔好自卑。我哋學校雖然唔係最有錢、資源最多、設備最好、又或者係最出名嗰間學校，但我哋有好好嘅老師，好好嘅教導，都好值得自豪㗎！」

我諗諗，字面上我同學都講得啱嘅，於是就「哦」咗一聲。其實我心諗：「唓，邊有人理你邊間小學㗎！」

Details

For obvious reasons I do not agree with my princess and am a lot more critical to the movie.

Well, to be fair, the film is entertaining. A considerable amount of detail is added to describe what kind of person Maleficient is, her relation with King Stefan, and her ambivalent feeling towards Aurora. Her interaction with Diaval is a brilliant addition to the original story because we could see the personality of the black witch from an entirely different angle.

However, the details are all limited to Maleficient – or Angelina Jolie. For the other characters, there are a lot of omissions about the details, so much so that some of the happenings appear irrational or, to say the least, inexplicable. For example, why did King Henry begin a battle with the Moor? A treasure was mentioned but it never appeared in the movie. Why did Stefan cut off the wings of Maleficient rather than killing her? Was he seeing the black witch his lover? Well, he was making plans to kill Maleficient two-third of the time in the movie. Why couldn’t he be consistent with his ordinary self at the only moment when he could make his plan successful? And, finally, why did Aurora accept Maleficient without a question after King Stefan (that is, Aurora’s father) died?

No, none of these omissions is crucial or irreparable. One could easily think of a dozen ways for solving each and every of them. However, I am particularly disappointed because all these defects are easily rectified but no effort is made for them.

Maleficent

Watched Maleficent with my princesses.

Believe it or not, Euterpe, 7 year-old by now, was the first one being attracted by the advertisement in the underground and suggested that we (I mean Vivian, Euterpe, Adler, and myself) should watch it together.

However, like all young girls, by the time Vivian felt sufficiently interested and decided to go ahead, Euterpe hesitated. She was worried about all the monsters and scary witches that she might see.

And she was right. During the show, her eyes were hidden behind Vivian’s back much of the time. In contrast, Adler just sat there and laughed and cheered and yelled. Except for the first 10 minutes, she didn’t even need to hold my arms.

“What a good show!” My younger princess said when we left the cinema.

Alas, there is a whole lot of difference between brave and fearless.

Early

The mother was obviously not too happy with the criticism, “My dear, that’s your problem. I mean, you ask for it.”

“What!?”

“Don’t you remember? When I gave you another puzzle last year as your birthday present, the pieces came in packs grouped by colour. You had to finish with the pack for the starry night, followed by the one for the grassland, and finally that for Pooh and his friends. Do you remember what you said? Right. The puzzle was too boring. What’s the point of putting up all the effort for the sky and grassland? You want to see pieces of the cartoon characters early – the company should put a few pieces of Pooh or Piglet into the first and second pack so that you know from the very start you are dealing with an attractive picture.”

“Mum, can I have a picture with only Pooh and his friends but no starry night or grassland?”

“My dear, that’s quite impossible. All pieces in this puzzle are related. See? The hand of Rabbit is pointing all the way into the starry night, Tigger is burying part of his legs into the grassland, and so forth and so forth. Although you may put a few colorful pieces together and make a small patch, this picture is fragmented – it cannot stand or hold water.”

Puzzle

(Another conversation that I recently overheard between a mother and her son.)

“Mum, my birthday present is really tough.”

“Why? The puzzle is suitable for your age, isn’t it?”

“So is it written on the box, but I’m not so sure. You know, when I open the box and start to put the pieces together, none of them seem to appear at the right time.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mum, the pieces come in several packs and I have to open them one by one. Let me show you the problem. Look, Pooh and piglet are standing at this corner. This is the only place with bright red and orange. But, when I open the first pack, there are only three or four orange pieces. The same problem happens with the brown pieces that correspond to Roo and Tigger. It is quite useless to give them to me that early – without a background of similar pieces, I can’t really fit them in to the whole picture.”

Apology

(An apology letter I received recently from a professional organization.)

Dear Colleague:

The abstract submission process for our coming conference failed to meet your, the organization's, and my expectations. Our organization is committed to making every aspect of the conference as flawless as possible, and we failed to meet our own standard.

I apologize.

The organization's leadership, staff, and I have already started to address the technical and process challenges that caused the problems we experienced this time. We understand what went wrong, realize that it can't happen again, and will fix it. If you have suggestions for improving the process, please email them to me at xxx@yyy.

Thank you for your patience.

Sincerely, et cetera.

**********************
Sincere, eh?

Yes, very sincere - without saying anything solid. I am almost coming to the conclusion that the mail is written by the Chief Executive of our city.

Translation

First, let me show you an English poem that Vivian drew my attention to recently:

You say that you love rain, but you open your umbrella when it rains.
You say that you love the sun, but you find a shadow spot when the sun shines.
You say that you love the wind, but you close your windows when wind blows.
This is why I am afraid – you say that you love me too.

When my wife finds interesting is its Chinese translation in the style of the Classic of Poetry (詩經):

子言慕雨，啟傘避之。
子言好陽，尋蔭拒之。
子言喜風，闔戶離之。
子言偕老，吾所畏之。

Sounds good, eh? But I suppose it could be further polished:

君言慕雨，啟傘避之。
君言好陽，尋蔭遠之。
君言喜風，閉戶拒之。
君言偕老，奴有慮焉。

PS. The origin of this English poem is unclear. It is widely claimed to be written by William Shakespeare, which seems rather obviously not the case.

Appropriate

(While we were all laughing, PL continued to tell his story.)

"You know, my houseman was absolutely confused and asked what and how he is expected to teach. Since I was in a hurry, I just told him to do whatever he likes and feels appropriate. I really feel sorry for my house officer."

At the back of the conference hall, I smiled and shook my head.

Although I am sure our professor of surgery meant good, I could not agree with the presumption that he could give a better tutorial than his house officer.

Oh, don't get me wrong. If it was a session on some topics about surgery or anatomy, there is little doubt than PL is way better. However, when it comes to the technique of getting an informed consent from patients (and most likely one for a bedside procedure or minor operation), the situation is entirely different. Just consider this: Who is usually responsible for getting a consent for hernia repair? The house officer, or the professor?

And that's a general principle: We do not need the most senior professor to do all the teaching. In fact, that's not only a waste of effort, but a mismatch of expertise. 

Front line clinical tasks are best taught by (good) front line doctors.

Behalf

During a recent meeting on some academic affairs, PL, our professor of surgery, said with a tone of disappointment, "I must say many a time the arrangement of clinical teaching for our junior medical students are very rigid and not entirely satisfactory. You know, many of my colleagues are busy surgeons and may be called for urgent duties even if they are not on emergency call. A fixed time of clinical teaching would easily end up with no show from our side."

We all nodded. I must say physicians - and obstetricians and pediatricians and many others - have the same problem.

"Let's take myself as an example," he went on, "A few months ago, I was assigned to do a session on communication skill. Well, it is about obtaining informed consent. Just 10 minutes before the session, I was urgently called by the operating theatre to help out for a difficult surgery. I don't even have the time to ask someone else to take up the session!"

"So, what did you do?" Someone asked.

"Alas, I asked my house officer to go on behalf of me!"

Train

(Dialogue between the reporter [R] and the defected ballet dander [D].)

R: Your performance is gorgeous. In fact, I think it is even better than those you did when you were in Russia. How could that be the case?

D: You know, in America, I have a lot of freedom to modify my show, get it polished, and add to it my personality. In Russia, ballet performance is tough and rigid from the fist day we entered the dancing school.

R: Do you mean our country has a better system for the training of ballet dancers?

D: Oh, no. Quite the opposite. As a student of dancing, Russia is the best place to train the basic skill. The teaching is tough and rigid, but that’s all you need at that level. Creativity and personality, which American dancers are so proud of, only come after your basic skills are all in place. That’s the reason why, despite all the freedom and creativity, local American dancers do not go very far – they need a better elementary training before they could shine with their personality!

PS. The sobering truth is, creativity is more trendy than rigid training. When students are free to choose, they would certainly go for the former.

Ballet

On a recent occasion, our dean made a curious remark that in terms of their method of teaching and curriculum, the two medical schools in Hong Kong are frequent viewed as USA and USSR in the eyes of our students.

(I suppose it is plain obvious which is which.)

I shall not discuss how the analogy comes along, and whether it is just. What comes through my mind is, rather, a story I heard many years ago about the difference in training of ballet dancers between the two superpowers.

It goes like this: A few years before the Berlin Wall fell down and the iron curtain was torn, a famous Russian ballet dancer defected to America. (In fact, there were many.) After she settled and resumed her performance, her fame boomed. In short, her amazing skill and meticulous technique were highly praised by all audience. As you would expect, she was soon interviewed by a famous magazine.

Let me tell you what she said tomorrow.