Cambodia: Keo Kalyan. former Fulbright Scholar

Cambodia: Keo Kalyan. former Fulbright Scholar

An email interview:

Q: Would you please tell me more about yourself?
A: I was born in Ta Khmao, Kandal province; but I grew up and started school in Phnom Penh. My father works at the Ministry of Education, Youths and Sports and my mother is a seller. I am the only daughter and also the youngest one in the family as I have two elder brothers.

I finished high school in 2001, and at the same year I passed a scholarship to study BBA, majoring in Accounting, at the National University of Management (NUM). In 2002, I started another degree, B.Ed, majoring in TEFL, at Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL). In 2004, I was selected as one of the four Cambodian fellows to join the SIF-ASEAN Students Fellowship in Singapore for 20 weeks. During that time, I was also taking some Accounting courses at Singapore Management University (SMU). Two weeks upon my return from Singapore, I flew to Australia for an exchange study under the Peace Scholarship Trust, initiated by IDP Australia. I spent 2 semesters studying at University of Tasmania (UTAS) in Hobart, Tasmania. Recently, I have just graduated from IFL and NUM.

Beside academic study, I have also been very active in participating in a number of extracurricular activities, community services and voluntary work. I am one of the founders of the Volunteers Without Borders (VWB), established by the Cambodian Alumni of the Fellowship in Singapore. I am also a member of the Australian Alumni Association (AAA) in Cambodia. Currently, I am also a teacher at New World Institute (NWI).

Q: Recently you have passed Fulbright scholarship’s preliminary exam, what have you done to prepare yourself for this?
A: To get a scholarship, it is important that your academic background, particularly your study records, must be outstanding. I have always been one of the top students since primary school. When I was little, I would always have an ambition to pass the scholarship to study abroad - the US, the UK or Australia. Thus, I told myself to study hard and paved my own way to get to my ambition. I knew that the first step was to enhance my English proficiency and accuracy. Then, beside strong academic background and English, I also had to broaden my general knowledge and being active in participating in any extra-curricular activities in schools and in any community services or voluntary work in the community. And finally and foremostly is to improve my personalities and communicational skills. To get the scholarship you need to be interviewed and during the interview, personality is one of the crucial criteria in judgment.

Q: Any thoughts and advices for younger Cambodians to prepare for such a significant advancement?
A: As mentioned in the previous question, academic background is very important because they will ask for a submission of your transcripts. Thus, if you aim to get a scholarship, as I have already mentioned, you need to study hard and be an outstanding student. Also, it is important to start early! I mean shape your path to your aim very early. You need to know what you want and then try to find ways how to achieve what you want. Draw a milestone for your future.

Beside strong academic background, you need to be very active in helping the community by participating any extra-curricular activities or voluntary work in the community. This also helps build your communicational skills and personality, especially in teamwork.

One more thing is that you need to be knowledgeable in various issues in the world. Being an outstanding student, it doesn’t mean that you should only focus on one issue that is your major or specialization without caring to know other issues associated with or even not associated with. It is important to broaden your general knowledge, especially about the outside world and more importantly widen your network.

Q: What is your opinion about the younger generation of Cambodia?
A: Nowadays, young generation can access to better lifestyles, in particular there are more opportunities for them such as better education and more scholarships being offered. However, I can see only a few of them realise are trying hard to grab these opportunities. On the other hand, most of them are being too much entertained by the pop cultures and pay less attention to school work. I have observed so far that the quality of education among the young generation has significantly decreased. However, I am still optimistic that the future is not going to be worse. I believe that those young people are very bright, creative and enthusiastic. They have more access to new technologies, better health care and resources. I hope that one day they will change their attitudes and realise the opportunities they can grab for their future.

Q: Coming to blogging, you started to blog back in March 2005, why did you start having your own weblog?
A: At first I was introduced to weblog by my friends in Singapore, and that was back in 2004. However, at the time I was not very interested in blogging as I was at the time also designing my own website using frontpage and flash media with the help from my senior in Singapore. Besides, I was busy with the fellowship program. However, when I was in Australia, I was getting a bit bored, so I usually went online and browsed through this and that. I came across a few nice blogs of Cambodian students overseas, so I got interested and also my website was not hosted yet as I couldn’t find any free web hosting for my website. By finding out that blog is just like a website and it’s very easy to post and upload pic, so I decided to give it a try. Since then, I forget bout my website and I have developed my blog and it’s been very popular. ;-)

By having this blog, I can share my daily activities and thoughts with my friends and with other people around the world.

Source: 

A Yardstick of Quality: Attention to Detail

I have a confession to make. I am not a kind of person who makes meticulous decision and pay much attention to detail. For example, I put my maximum speed to finish a task, say, a writing. So what I was taught to do is to proofread your writing for any mistake and correct it. But in quite many occasions I also speed up the proofread part and lose sight of some errors which would not happen if I have proofread it carefully. There are some times that I somehow know it is a mistake, but I won’t make correction since I do not want to check other reference for the correct way. To put it in a worst possible man, I may be labelled as a “reckless” person. This is not such a good thing when I am learning to be a responsible and proactive man.

A Wake up Call

Recently, I have moved my house to live somewhere a bit far away my previous home. It is around 3 or 4 km away from my previous location. The house is recently built and all of our family members fall in love with the house and I wish we would continue to cherish the new place where we call home. I enjoy looking around the house and view the ceiling, the light, the door, the floor and wall tile and many other things in the house. And what really bothers me is the fact that there is some little attention detail which may make the house perfection. This is when I start to strongly believe in attention to small detail.

I truly want my house to be perfect in every possible way. Let’s put things into perspective. If other people want to receive a product/service from, they will trust that I will put my utmost effort into the task and produce a perfect result. If I ever want to succeed in life, attention to little detail would satisfy other people, including my clients or/and my boss, thereby enhancing trust and connection.

Source: http://sexualityinart.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/steve-jobs-be-a-yardstick-of-quality-copy.jpg

A Yardstick of Quality

To quote one of the most successful technologist of the internet era Steve Jobs, the co-founder and former CEO of Apple, “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” This quote pretty sums up the life of the legendary Steve Jobs. He was a perfectionist, notoriously workaholic who would make the impossible possible. This is not something easy to be done and to habitualize, but let’s try and make it happen.

Microsoft acquiring Nokia - Explained

Why Nokia??

The announcement of Microsoft acquiring Nokia may cause some eyebrow raising from the public - a company known for its software is entering the consumer device market. So why does Microsoft decide to buy Nokia at nearly 7 billion US dollars. The answer is simple: they have no choice but to do so. But why is it so? The answer comes down to Windows Phone OS for smartphone. Ever since the release of iPhone, technology has shifted its trend from PC to mobile phone and tablets. The top two contenders in mobile OS is iOS and Android with ## % market share respectively. Windows phone is the number 3 mobile platform and is playing catch up lagging far behind competitors. If it had not been for Nokia dissing its Symbian OS for Windows phone, Microsoft's Windows Phone would never hail the number 3 position in smartphone. In fact, Nokia dominates the Windows phone sale, capturing almost ##% of market share of windows phone sale.

The fear of Nokia jumping ship

Nokia is the undisputed king in the smartphone business in the world of windows phone, no doubt about it. As Nokia is relishing growth, what if Nokia has a plan B and partners with Android? This scenario would be a total catastrophe for windows phone, because without Nokia, Microsoft has to rely on HTC, Samsung and Huawei. But the prospect looks bleak, as Samsung almost spend nothing to market its Windows Ativ phone line. HTC and Huawei is not a strong OEM to compete with likes of iPhone, Samsung Galaxy or LG phone. Nokia is the only company that Microsoft can rely on to turn around its mobile platform. In other words, Nokia is the hope that gives them another shot to steal the market share of the big and keep Microsoft relevant in the coming year.

Nokia's people and infrastructure

- Supply chain

- Manufacturing facility

- Nokia brand value

- Nokia patents

Character Ethic vs Personality Ethic

So I read 7 habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey 3 years ago up until Habit 3 and I stopped. It's no surprise that I stopped reading the book, since I'm the kind of guy who are only enthusiastic about a particular thing for 2 or 3 months and then my enthusiasm will change again. That being said, I started to read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People again and this time I am telling myself that I definitely will finish it at all cost despite my understanding of the book. So that's a vow and no one breaks his own vow.

I went through a couple of pages last night and I feel like I should write about it, since it is an effective means to revise what you have learned. So they key to learning is 3R. Read, Revise, and Review. Right now I am at at the second stage: Revise. I have a strong perception that the more you share what you learn, the longer and better you remember it. Also it's boring just to read it all by yourself with having no discussion with your friend. Enough of the introduction.

I came across this topic here: Character Ethic vs Personality Ethic. What Stephen Covey means here about Personality Ethic is the external side of you and what you are trying to make others see of you. The example of Personality Ethic is about getting people to like you. The examples are trying to smile will bring more friends, positive attitude brings you to high altitude, saying kind words to other people, developing a common interest with someone. These are all techniques to win people around you. Although it may guarantee you success, the techniques are of course never without flaws. You might win people in the short run, but it is not a sustainable way to guarantee that you will win them in the long run. As times pass by, if your character is not sincere and with flaw, they may realize that the techniques you are using with them are manipulative and you try to take advantage of them to do something for you. As a result,

Memorable Quotes from Dear John

1. I have no idea where you are out there in the world, John. But I understand that I lost the right to know these things long ago. No matter how many years go by, I know one thing to be as true as ever was - I'll see you soon then.

2. The problem with time i have found, whether it was the first two weeks i got to spend with you, or the last two months i got to spend with him, time always runs out    

3. "Being in love, I find myself smiling for no reason at all..." 


4. I love you, not just for now, but for always, and i dream of the day you take me in your arms again.


5. When you're struggling with something, look at all the people around you and realize that every single person you see is struggling with something, and to them, it's just as hard as what you're going through. 


6. And when her lips met mine,I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever.... 


7. Love meant that you care for another person's happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.         

NOKIA Made a Comeback

About 7 years ago Nokia was hot in my country. Many people hold a Nokia whether it was black & white phone or colorful smartphone. The Smartphone at that time was not the kind of Smartphone you have in mind right now. It was not touchscreen and there were not many applications. Nokia N Serie was a big hit, likewise N73, N76, N90, N95 and other models like 8800. There was even 8800 Gold, Sapphire which was the top-end phone at that time. Phone likes N95 represented the status of the users as a luxury and expensive product. After iPhone become popular, however, Nokia is lost in the dust. Nokia products were no longer cool, so consumers switch to other cool smartphone brands: Samsung and Apple.

It felt like Game Over for Nokia. Although many people believe so, one man disagreed and called on the company to change its direction. That man is the new CEO of Nokia (I forgot his name lol). He dared to take the unpopular approach which not many analysts believed will be the next move of this Finland company. The new CEO changed the direction of the company by dropping its Operating System-Symbian and joined hand with Microsoft's Window Phone OS. This move was so controversial because Nokia had invested an enormous amount of money with Symbian and now it has to bury its own creation and choose another company OS. This move was set to determine the destiny of the dying Finnish phone maker.

How did it turn out? It turns out to be quite an improvement in the global interest from consumers toward Nokia. The Nokia Lumia serie is more or less a hit, although it doesn't match the success of the Galaxy family or iPhone. Nokia manages to sell a significant amount of smartphones. With the newly unveil of Lumia 920 including the wireless charger and unique design language, the overall review has been positive. Some consumers may have been bored with iOS and Android platform and may want to jump ship to Window Phones which provides something new and of course a totally different experience. Isn't this all about technology? Technology is supposed to be trying something new and innovative. We still do not know how success the Lumia 920 will be, since it is not on sale yet. However, given the market reaction and review, I reckon the Lumia will be a success story which could sell more than 4 millions unit. From this stage on, there is no going back. Nokia will put more steam and committed to going forward to regain its number 1 spot back from Samsung. So Samsung, watch out!!!

Money vs Job Value

For the time being I really want to talk about my recent experience that give me a new perspective of life. I find that life is such an amusing journey in which I have learned quite many things and gain a lot of experience. I begin to understand about the taste of life more and more after embarking on a new chapter in life: life after university. I would like to bring up this topic: Money vs Job Value.

By Job Value I refer to the contribution of your work toward the society. It maybe relates to playing a pivotal role in assisting poor people to be able to earn a comfortable living by themselves or educating rural people to understand about personal hygiene. From my perspective community work is of highest value and merit. To see that they are capable of lifting themselves from the pit of poverty with gleaming smile on their faces is such a wonderful moment to cherish. Community work is built around the idea of reaching your hand toward those who could not make it and support them so they can make it too. Community is made up of the people within it. Therefore, whenever the people are empowered, the community will in turn be empowered too. A prosperous and safe nation will be accomplished too. However, from what I observe, there is one thing that discourage people to work in community development. It is about the money. Starting a business and generate money is not a selfish thing to do. Look at it this way, by starting a business and employ many workers and reward them with sufficient salary, this is also a way to support community. I really do not know which path of life to choose from this perspective, whether choosing to directly involve with the community or become an entrepreneur by initiative a new business.