I have not been diligently counting my blessings, but that does not mean I abandon it altogether when I have time. I name it “3-2-1” for one of the activities I learned in CU4A of ACTA, which is used to help learners retain learning.
3 Blessings
I was part of the working team for my company’s SOAR Awards. It was an event that recognises service excellence within the company.
The unparalelled experience aside, it was really heartening to see how an organisation could invest so much in recognising the best deeds in her employees. It reminds me of Richard Branson’s saying, “Train them well so that they could leave you; treat them well so that they don’t want to leave you.”
“Attended the opening of the 4th French Animation Film Festival at Alliance française de Singapour, which is also part of the Voilah! 2015.
‘Les 108 Rois-demons’ is a French adaptation of the Chinese classic ‘Water Margins’, dubbed in English.”
I really felt honoured to be at the event; 20 years after learning French, I have never imagined myself to be working so closely with Alliance française.
The other ceremony I attended was the graduation of a batch of German language-qualified crew at Goethe Institut. With zero experience from the start, they spent weeks in a crash course just so they they could service German-speaking passengers on board. Although their service would be most obvious on flights plying Germany, other German-speaking passengers on other sectors could potentially benefit if they were on board.
This is especially so, when thinking in broad terms, that despite English being the most-spoken business language in the world, many people are proficient in French and German. With the proficiencies of these crew, the business potential is large and ready for us to tap into.
2 Learning Points or Achievements
This job actually allowed me to work with many vendors from different industries. One of them were from the catering business, and I engaged them because of the good feedback and that they touted themselves to be on the finer side of service.
Amazed I was.
The set up was intricate and detail-oriented; even the way the forks and spoons were placed had an SOP and the delivery man, a rough-looking guy, was trained and well-versed in it. The company had also embraced technology, which required the delivery man to take photos (the views had been set by SOP) of the final set up and upload into the system. Even a delivery man have to submit progress reports nowadays!
If anything, my knowledge of wines, a dearly embraced product in the world, have increased many folds in the past few months. That is nothing compared to what official training would imbue in me, but is definitely an eye opener for me to the world of wines and spirits.
I had many opportunities to taste wines of different regions. My limited knowledge meant that many of the wine were wasted on my untrained taste buds, that they shall not be sacrificed in vain! Hopefully, in the days to come, I can up my knowledge and train them into appreciating the reds and whites that so many people adore.
1 Application for Next Few Weeks
There is nothing I appreciate more than the value of networking.
In my current work, we had to work with so many people from diverse backgrounds, that I must really work hard on retaining my knowledge of these new people I meet, so that I could better appreciate their work and leverage on their expertise to help me in my work!