People who feel afraid of failure will never be winners (Htet Zaw Htoo)

People who feel afraid of failure will never be winners

'Winners are not afraid of losing, but losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success'. It is one of the greatest quotes said by Robert Toru Kiyosaki, an American businessman and author. As he said, it is winners who never feel afraid of losing or failure. Almost all of the winners have faced failure at least once in their life. However, they dealt with those failures successfully and made good use of them to result in success finally. It is winners who never give up their effort and go to the ends of the earth although they become unsuccessful in their attempts. Losing or failure will never be disturbance to their way to success, but be the driving force behind their success. As Winton Churchill once said, "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm".

Therefore, it is indispensable to go to the ends of the earth with sheer determination and full of courage so as to get success as expected. Thomas Edison, who is regarded as the greatest inventor in the world to the end of time, was first said to be too stupid to learn. Moreover, he failed in his experiments many times. However, he went on hold more than 1,000 patents, including the phonograph and practical electric bulb. His greatest invention, the electric bulb, owes much to the well-lit world today. His success was due to his perseverence in spite of losing which he faced at the very beginning. As he said, he had not failed; he had just found 10,000 ways that wouldn't work. In addition to his own failure, he also thought only positive when his assistants make some mistakes. The bulb he had first made broke into pieces by one of his assistants. Edison tried making a new one instead of blaming his assistant for his clumsiness. He said that he never blamed his assistant because he would never do the same mistake again and learn from that mistake because he had made it once. Thus, losing or failure is just the opportunity to begin again more intelligently and better. Failure is not an end and we can learn best from that failure; we can learn from our mistakes. Oprah Gail Winfrey, an American media executive, actress, talk show host, television producer and philanthropist, is best known for her talk show 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' but she was fired from her first TV job as an anchor in Baltimore. She never felt afraid of failure, so she created her own TV channel and her talk show became the highest-rated television program of its kind in history. Moreover, she was the richest African American of the 20th century and North America's first black multi-billionaire. In 2013, Oprah recounted her experiences during a Harvard commencement speech. She said, "There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction". Her huge success was due to her courage and perseverance. Needless to say, sheer determination, perseverance and courage are all vital to the way to success because we can realize that by reading the biographies of successful people.

There are lots of successful people who can persevere with their work and deal well with losing or failure. It is impossible to write all of their successful stories in one sitting. However, they all have a common  quality on their way to success. They all never gave up their effort and desire in spite of difficulties and failures. As a Japanese saying goes, failure is the stepping stone to success. Therefore, we ought to make good use of losing or failure and learn from them. We should hope for the best but prepare for the worst. The way to success is surely rough and we will get some pains. However, as one lyric from the song named 'Believer' by Imagine Dragons, those pains will surely help us become believers and go-getters. Therefore, we should be ready to face any losing or failure and be never be afraid of losing or failure to become a promising winner. 

Htet Zaw Htoo (SUOE)

University Life & Extra-curricular Activities (Kyal Sin Phuu)

University Life & Extra-curricular Activities

We normally go to university to continue tertiary education. In my view, it is not worthwhile going to university with a mere purpose of getting a degree. We should go beyond the confines of the classroom to spread our wings. In other words, we should not be bookish at all times like we used to be in high school. Apart from pursuing academic qualifications (hard skills), we should partake in extra-curricular activities to equip ourselves with soft skills such as interpersonal skills, leadership skills, problem-solving skills, etc. that can hardly be acquired in the classroom.

       During our salad days at university, we have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of extra-curricular activities – from sport, music and dancing to personal development and community service programs. We can choose the activity that suits our pastime. For example, if we are articulate and fond of engaging in debate, we can join a Debate Club. Through volunteering activities, we have a chance to meet new people of different personality traits and diverse backgrounds. So, we can build up friendships outside our usual circle and expand our social network. We can also learn how to interact with others effectively, how to establish harmonious relationship with them and how to team up with them for the sake of common welfare. In other words, extra-curricular activities instil the spirit of cooperation in us and cultivate the habit of building unity in diversity. Simultaneously, it helps us understand the saying “Many hands make light work”.

          Furthermore, getting together with many people makes us feel a sense of belonging and boosts our confidence to assimilate into our community. It combats loneliness and depression as well as paranoia. It encourages us to be compassionate and considerate towards others, and respect different viewpoints of the others. In this way, we can improve our communication skills that are essential to live in concord with different types of people in our society.

         When we take part in extra-curricular activities, we have to balance our time to study and to engage in activities on regular basis. Thus, we can enhance our time management skills and get to perceive the value of time. If we run a club as organizers, we have to tackle the challenges to promote reputation of the club and to fulfil members’ expectation of the club. In this way, we can gain hands-on experience of leadership skills, problem-solving skills and negotiation skills. Moreover, occupying in such leadership positions reinforces a sense of responsibility in us and enlightens us about the qualities of a good leader.

         Nowadays, the job market becomes highly competitive. Thus, only academic achievement is not enough to project ourselves as ideal candidates among the sea of applicants. We need to showcase a range of best traits over and above our academic qualifications. Here, we can apply the aforementioned soft skills and experiences we have gained from extra-curricular activities to create an impressive CV.

          To sum up, in the springtime of life at university, we should get out of our comfort zone and attempt to discover our potential by participating in extra-curricular activities rather than fiddling around and wasting our precious time.

                                                                              Kyal Sin Phuu

Rudeness: Is it the main reason to lead downfall? (Htet Zaw Htoo)

Rudeness:  Is it the main reason to lead downfall? 

When it comes to a work, everyone might have experienced both success and failure. There are many reasons why we get success or failure. When it comes to failure, there are also a number of reasons why someone fails. If a person does not try hard enough and they have no sufficient knowledge and proficiency either, never will they get any success. However, they are the common reasons which we hear over and over again. In addition to these reasons, there are other reasons to lead failure.

(1) Not listening to others patiently

Nowadays most people tend to talk a lot about their plans, idea etc but in listening to others' they are rarely interested. This is the main reason of conflicts. Actually teamwork is very important to get success. Therefore, we need to pay attention to other subordinates' ideas and opinions. If a person always decides what to do one-sidedly, it is sure that he or she will never be successful in their particular work. Even when they sometimes get success, neither any colleague nor subordinate will respect them as a leader. Accordingly, not listening to others is one of the main reasons to lead failure.

(2) Not Having Mutual Respect

Respect is a two-way street. People like working with and helping those they respect. People have to live in the society and have dealings with others. Therefore, we need to respect with each other in the society. Mutual respect is fundamental to be successful in whatever we do. A person who is not given any appreciation or respect by others may feel dejected and depressed; he or she would not love to try more and get any success.

(3) Not Following the Previous Ways

Creativity or making our ways to do something is good. However, we should not disregard the previous ways the older people, our seniors, have used when they are appropriate to our needs. We cannot deny that experience is the best teacher in whatever we do. Therefore, we ought to apply the ways more-experienced people use if need be. Even if we do not follow directly their ways, we should take the ideas of the experienced.

(4) Speaking impolitely and giving one-sided orders

Speaking fairly is very important in the society. If you are a leader, speaking fairly and politely is very important and if you are a follower, it is important too. If you give rude orders as a leader; here maybe when you give orders to your students as a teacher, they may obey your orders and put up with your aggression and unpleasantness. However, they never feel happy and end up with resenting you. And, as a result, they will likely not put in their best work for you. They probably won't put their heart into it, either, and without passion and heart, things become very average, very quickly. However, time always changes and table turns. Therefore, the time when you are in need of help or follow others as a follower. At such time, the very colleagues or followers or students you have ever worked with might become alienated by your past poor behaviour. Being rude is one of the ultimate ways to lose your friends and allies. Without any good friend or ally, it is difficult to get success by yourself.

When it comes to rudeness, there may be other different factors to describe rude behaviors according to different societies. However, the factors mentioned above are very important for successful living in the society. If a person is lack of patience; does not listen to others, has no mutual respect, always the ways the experienced have used and speak impolitely, it is impossible for him or her to get success. Even if they succeed in what they do sometimes, they are not stable and cannot last longer. Therefore, it can be said that rudeness is the main reason to lead downfall because of these reasons.

                                                                                                   Htet Zaw Htoo

Questioning is the tap root of education (Phyo Wai Aung)

Questioning is the tap root of education

As soon as we had came out of the mother's body, we met questions of heat, coldness, warmth, hunger, dissatisfaction and our new world. Our response to these questions was crying with a high voice. Since then, questions had increasingly moved towards our life. Whenever I cried with the loudest voice, my parents always asked me why-questions. Moreover, when I entered my school, my classmates and I asked a lot of questions to one another. Then, my teachers always put several questions to me daily when I attended the class. From that time on, it dawned on me that questions and questioning almost always occupy my everyday life, my environment, my society and my small world. However, these questions and questioning are usually straightforward and sometimes personal.

As we all know that classrooms should be like Hluttaws, our classroom of today should be filled with agreement and disagreement as well as asking intelligent questions. Here, Edison, for instance, asked many questions to his teachers not because he did not understand the lessons very well but because he really wanted to know thoroughly how things happen or work. Yet, his teachers thought that he is a slow learner or low-achieving student. In this way, his questions were killed, but he himself tried to discover the answers to his questions by studying at home. Later, he was able to invent the electric bulb after doing laboratory experiments many times. Consequently, our world has been shining the whole night. I believe Edison showed that questioning is not a job of lay men, but of wise men.

Since I was a high school student, I had also enjoyed questioning like Edison. I like to understand very well what the concept of the lesson is. Certain teachers were ready to welcome my questions including my friends'. Unfortunately, some teachers pay too little attention to my questions. Nor do they themselves ask their students, either. Nevertheless, it is true that questioning is an important aspect of students' and teachers' work in the classroom.

According to Charles Kivunja (2015), questions fall into four main categories: convergent questions, divergent questions, evaluative questions and reflective questions. Convergent questions are questions whose answers are known and expected from the students. If students give any response which is not what teacher expects, it is considered. An example of such a question is ''When was Hellen Keller born?" The next one is divergent question which is an open-ended type designed to give the students the opportunity to uncover the deep-seated meaning of the concepts rather than simple yes or no answers. For example, such a question is ''Why should we preserve endangered species from extinction?'' The third one is evaluative question which is similar to divergent question in that it deals with matters of judgement, value and choice. A brilliant example of this is '' If the Ayeyarwady river is dammed up, how would this affect Myanmar?" Last but not least, reflective questions give students the opportunity to reflect before they respond and to be promped to expand and extend thinking through follow-up questions. ''What are your opinions, ideas and  beliefs about the party politics and what implications do they have for our future Myanmar?" is one of the reflective questions. 

It is in our classroom that economic, social, political, educational, cultural, religious and environmental factors of Mynmar must have been discussed by teachers and students. Therefore, not only should questioning be welcome in our classroom but it is vitally important for teachers to be proficient in asking students these types of questions in a proper and intelligent manner. In 1971, Rosenshine stated that questioning is one of the oldest instructional strategies used by teachers and it is sometimes referred to as the Socratic method. According to the findings of research studies, an average teacher spend between 35 and 50 per cent of teaching time on asking questions to students. It is an unforgettable fact that although teacher questioning is essential, teachers should prepare questions to be used in the instructional process before entering the classroom. 

By summing up, questioning can facilitate learning by students and can extend as well as deepen their understanding. So, let's paint together our classrooms questioning colour.

Phyo Wai Aung

Youth & Social Media (Kyal Sin Phu)

Youth & Social Media

Everything has pros and cons, especially social media. So we should not blindly say that social media is either fruitful or deleterious, because it depends on the individuals and how they use it. In other words, it is beneficial to us if we use it productively, and it can bring undesirable consequences or can put a serious damper on our life if we use it improperly.

Among social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Viber, Facebook is the largest and most popular social networking site in our country. It is prevalent among youths, some of whom use it for more than just posting selfies and keeping up with friends. Facebook offers valuable sources of information on assorted fields such as education, economics, politics, and technology.

Via Facebook, they can gain once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, such as studying at prestigious universities abroad through fully-funded scholarships, information of which probably would never have been seen if not of the popular social media site. Such an opportunity is like a divine gift from the heavens for an impoverished youth with great passion to pursue a quality education abroad. Moreover, through information from Facebook, underprivileged youths can apply for stipends and continue their tertiary education. For some youths, Facebook becomes a place to search for information about free seminars, talks, workshops and online courses. Some of the youths who have a thirst for knowledge read local and international news from the official pages of media companies and keep abreast of the latest developments in technology and hot issues of the world. Some are seeking jobs on Facebook, where various types of jobs in a wide range of industries are disseminated by companies large and small.

On the other hand, the drawbacks outweigh the advantages for some youths who use Facebook in the wrong way. Some encounter cyber-bullying and security attacks. Others become distressed, depressed and discontented when they compare their lives with those of others that they can so easily see on Facebook. Some teenagers allow Facebook to take up too much of their time, and thus have less time to study and to engage in face-to-face communication with their beloved ones. As a result, they often suffer academically, and their physical interaction with others gradually fades away. What’s worse, some teenagers spend their time cyber-chatting with strangers they have never met. All too often, they find those strangers charming and admirable. In some cases, they fall in love with them without considering the potentially disastrous results of committing yourself to someone you have seen only on the screen of a smartphone. This impulsiveness can put them in danger. In these kinds of undesirable cases, social media can be a source of trouble.

 In a nutshell, the use of social media can result in harmless fun, but also in serious danger. So, being human beings with sapient brains, we should aim to be the masters, not the slaves, of social media, by availing ourselves of the ample opportunities they offer.

Kyal Sin Phu