So Sweet.....and Lovely....."Love" At First Sight

I was just chatting with one of my dearest Taiwanese friend Sandy Hong on msn, and she changed her msn picture when she saw mine. Yes it is this cute and sweet little girl that we liked so much. "Love" At first sight hehe. Just look at Liv, Sandy, myself taking photos with her while her parents were busy attending a wedding in the hotel we were staying at IPM in Romania.

Sweetest with Sandy

Sweetie and me

Sweetie and Liv

Taiwan Commonwealth Magazine Article on Asian Top 6 countries and territories youth

DNA of Future Talent: From Asian to Global Citizen

Have you ever wonder what would be the DNA for future Asian Talents?

I have finally finished reading Taiwan Commonwealth Magazine that interviewed me back in April. Yes it means AIESEC in Singapore’s name is also in the article. All thanks to Vega who brought back a copy of the magazine for me. Here is the website http://www.cw.com.tw/ sorry dudes, it’s all in mandarin.

I would like to share some parts of the article with you. Yes translated into English to the best within my capability =P

In the magazine, it has featured the 6 top Asian countries and territories youth and their mindset facing globalization, internationalism. The 6 countries & territories that were closely examined were; Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In the article, Singapore was discovered to be the top in investment in education from the government followed by China. The China has provided their youth with a boost to motivate them in going international with the invite of Western students to China to learn mandarin. This platform of interaction has been effective because many of the universities students are venturing into the global arena be it for higher education or profession. Taiwan on the other hand was reported to be lacking in the international platform for their youth to realized their potential within the country, this has resulted in Taiwanese youth only performing within their cultural platform, thus has not been able to receive enough opportunities to widen their horizon. Singapore has been inviting a lot of foreign talents for the working class and the students; daily interaction is like the Mini United Nation and AP in class and at work. Chinese and Korean youth generation has been concluded to be the most determined group of people as compared to the rest of the 4 countries.

There are more to the article, but it has derived the conclusion regarding the DNA of future Asian Talent. To be considered a talent from Asia, one must possess the following DNA;

1) The ability to internationalize: Including the understanding of the languages & world affairs.

2) Mobility: The ability to move to various countries to carve their success. This is because competition has long not been differentiated by country boundaries.

3) Adaptation: Refers to the adaptation to the various cultures in order to be able to succeed in the international platform. This naturally comes with the sense of urgency to grab hold of foreign opportunities.

4) Vision and Value: Apart from competency, vision and value plays a very large part to determine whether you will be successful. You are encouraged to be a dreamer, to be far-sighted and to be able to widen the width of your life and vision. The future competition is no longer around IQ but EQ. The people with higher EQ will be the survivors of the future.

5) Courage to throw yourself outside of your country. Yes in short, step out of your comfort zone like what has becoming a “IN” term used in Singapore.

So do you have these DNA to be the future talent? To Quote " True that you can choose not to move and still be comfortable. However, the rest of the World is moving, if you remain stagnant, you will eventually lose out"

7-UP!!!

Recalling one evening after one AIESEC meeting, we were in Christopher a.k.a Yiren’s car waiting for him to return with supper bought.

Out of boredom, one mf my MC teammate Fida had decided to ask Yamini and me a question.

Fida: “ What happen when the 7 dwarfs see Snow White Naked?”

Both Yamini and I took sometime to give it a thought but yet we cannot answer the question.

Yamini: “So Fida, what’s the answer?”

Fida:” Hehe, 7-up!”

Yamini burst into laughter while I was trying to find logic in the answer.

Cheryl:” What has the softdrink 7-up got to do with the question?”

Yamini/Fida:” hahaha, yeah 7-up is a drink but the answer is not related to the drink but something else…do you get it?”

Cheryl:” No……”

Yamini/Fida:”Ok Cheryl, what would happen when 7 dwarfs see Snow White naked? What would go up?”

Cheryl:”erm….Adrenaline?”

Yamini/Fida:”Yeah Adrenaline and……?? Think the other way round, be a little more visual.”

Cheryl:" Oh, Little Brother……”

Yamini:”Oh my goodness, look at how innocent she said it. Well done Cheryl!”

Yamini and Fida burst into laughter uncontrollably.

Fida:” Wait a minute, Cheryl do you know what does the rollcall from Canada all about? “Circle, Circle, Dot, Dot, AIESEC Western What you’ve got? Boobies, Boobies….”

Cheryl:” What is the Circle and dot all about then?”

Fida/Yamini:” Oh my goodness! Cheryl…..look….”

Fida literally drew in the air circles circles dot dot and asked me what do I see.

Cheryl:” Oh ok I get it now”

Conclusion, Fida and Yamini has the most innocent MCP, they have set their personal goal within the team to corrupt my mind, train me up with joke.

Well I did try my best to learn telling jokes. Usually, I would start with “ Guys, let me tell you a joke……” They will all start laughing at me:” Cheryl, when you tell a joke, spoil the joke by telling them that you are telling them a joke at the beginning!”

Alright, another try. “Guys, let me tell you something……” ( much better BUT I started laughing at the joke that I was about to tell) Yeah, I spoilt the joke again!

It’s alright actually, the idea is to make them laugh, be it laughing at the joke or at me, there is no difference to me, because I did achieve the objective; ie; making them laugh.

500++ AIESECers at International Congress 2004 at Hanover

Life of AIESECers, High Adversity Quotient

A Chat with Maggie, AIESEC in HongKong’s MCP 2004-2005 has given me some inspiration for writing this blog at 2am in the morning!!

AIESEC 6 values:

Activating Leadership
Demonstrating Integrity
Living Diversity
Enjoying Participation
Striving for Excellence
Acting Sustainably

What I would like to share most about is the value on Acting Sustainably, a little more into financially sustainable.

The following incidents that are mentioned, is common among some AIESECers around the World.

1) Going for Fulltime International employee in a National team another AIESEC Chapter with limited pay – Walked past an ice-cream shop, saw her favourite ice – cream, opened her purse to grab some money for it, counted my money and decided to save the money for my next meal.

2) Going for meetings after school, knowing that the meeting will end late, decided to cut lunch to save up for the taxi fare back home after the meeting. What a most effective way of losing weight. AIESECers can have 5 meetings each week after school.

3) AIESECers attending conferences, flying from Asia to Europe will cost a total of 2200 Euros. Member Committee Presidents will have to attend 2 each year, that means 4400 Euros each year. For AIESECers in Asia, where their own education are not free, they are already taking loan for the studies ( Singapore, loan per year is about 3000 Euro ), busy schedule in AIESEC while studying does not really allow Asian AIESECers to have the luxury of having a good partime job during the holidays to earn for their conference, thus some have to take the loan from AIESEC to fulfill their role in AIESEC attending the conference. Conclusion: AIESECers full of debts after graduation.

4) Attending welcome dinners of trainees in town, it would mean skipping dinner at home, extra expenditure. Sacrificing the next lunch for the cultural rich interactions.

5) AIESECers, on the last day of the conference, hanging on to the hunger during transit before boarding the plane for the meal.

6) AIESECers, did not get the understanding of parents of why they are so into this organization, have great disagreements because their parents would want to see them graduating early and lighten the financial burden.

7) AIESECers, seeing their trainees and fellow AIESECers off at the airport, experiencing many moments of sadness, not knowing when will they be meeting again.

8) AIESECer, telling me that she will be selling off some of her unnecessary things before she go to Thailand as a country coach for AIESEC in Thailand.

9) AIESECers facing emotional ups and downs when working as a team meeting deadlines and achieving their targets while their classmates are shopping in the mall, talking about Brad Pitt etc.

10) AIESECers usually have less than 6 – 8 hours of sleep each day. 8 – 9 hours in school, 8 – 9 hours to finish the forever unfinished tasks in AIESEC.

AIESECers are amazing aren’t they? For the Vision of Peace And Fulfillment of Humankind’s Potential these excellent youths has really live the life that are different from the rest of the student population. Working in AIESEC is like working fulltime in a corporation and yet they have to balance as a student. Some AIESECers have even gotten Insomnia, gastric problems after their AIESEC career. Despite all the great challenges, AIESECers is who they are, where they are today, driven by their PASSION. Hail the AIESECers! I’m proud to be one too =)

Simplicity Versus Complexity

A random thought……

Have you ever wonder what is your life all about? Achieving your ambitions? Satisfy your needs? Making the people around you happy? Yes, all of them? Some of them? Or is it more?

Let us take a journey back the time when Adam and Eve were there, that was the times where you can see life as simple as a process of eat, work, sleep. Today, we can see the World resulted from the Worldly desires of Man; wars, competitions, technology evolution and globalization etc.

Have you ever thought that Man could have been forced out of their old land and lead the life of nomads every now and then? Are they moving out by their freewill or are they forced to do that? Perhaps some people chose to pursue their career in the other to country that has a new culture that keeps their life excited, although some may eventually back home. This eventually motivates them to move on the life process. Yes, that’s right; it is the new element that they have been constantly looking for to drive them on. In such a complex World today, with the growing complexity in Man’s mindset, we can say, life used to be simpler on Earth.


I have told you that it is a very random thought. It actually came from a comment from a chat with my friend in Australia who is originally from Singapore. “It’s the same shit, just that he is doing in a different environment”

Yamini, Fida, myself, Triin and Didi Can you see the 48 year old worth of candles on the table? Am I that old?? Make a guess =p

The ULTIMATE Respect On My Birthday

A continued story on my birthday celebration.....

On this special day once in a year, I have received many well wishes from many cool friends, some of them you would have seen in the comments on the previous blogs; Steve, Ying, Shahrin. Long distance sms from Vega from Taiwan , Tanya my Singaporean friend from AIESEC in UK, Weaw gave me a warmth call and sang the birthday song over the phone. Thanks to all my friends who made my day.

As some of you might have seen from Triin's blog, my some of my MC teammates have organised a mini birthday celebration on that day during the monthly Teajoy ( monthly alumni and AIESEC members gathering on every 1st Friday of the month). Thank you Didi, Yamini, Fida and Triin, along with Vani, Ying, Cecilia with all the efforts.

These thoughtful folks had put in great efforts to make it so wonderful for me, pampering me with my favourite food; sushi. A nice chocolate cake, party hats with clown faces, not forgetting the freshest flowers that Triin has chosen, yes, the 3 stalks of chrysanthemum that Ying enjoyed peeling their petals off. Passerbys looked at me strangely when I was carrying the flowers on the street at night for the second part of my celebration in a pub.

Surprises on my birthday that shows their ultimate respect all the way to my future and after life are:

1) Candles on sushi – usually the Chinese will put candles on buns or rice balls and offer them to their ancestors during the Qingming festival when they clean their ancestor’s tomb

2) Yellow Chrysanthemum flowers – usually used by Chinese to offer to Buddha as a symbol of showing the holy respect or used as offerings to the dead during funerals, especially the white ones.

Yes, from Triin’s research on the flowers, in Ancient China there are 3 types of flowers and 1 leaves; Mei Lan Ju Zhu ( Peach Blossom, Orchid, Chrysanthemum and bamboo leaves) that are famous for their charisma, they indeed have many positive meanings, in fact all flowers do =) The only thing that made Chrysanthemum’s meaning differ from their positive meanings in some sense is the occasions they were offered with the knowledge of the traditions to be taken note of.


Thank you folks for the ultimate respect you have shown that made the alumni’s and some customers in the Teajoy enjoyed a great laugh on the cultural ignorance. Don’t worry, you guys are still cute in my eyes =) In Mandarin, there is a saying, the ignorance is not to be blamed.

Interesting, Chrysanthemum on birthday! Thank goodness they are not white in colour

Fasinated with my first snowball in Romania 

Cheryl on the right and Wing on the left 

A Journey Ahead, A Step Forward

Who is Cheryl?

A lady who was born in a small country Singapore on 3rd June 20 odd years ago. She came from a family of 5, is the eldest among the 3 siblings. She is someone who is known to be very hardworking and determined. Well she has to be so because she is not too bright in some sense.....take for e.g: she will never be able to catch the dirty jokes without having her friends who cracked the jokes explaining to her......

What is the ULTIMATE thing that will make Cheryl happy?

That will be the smiles and happiness present in her friends and family around her. Yes! Even if she is not able to comprehend the jokes that were cracked usually, she will still enjoy participating in the happy environment and feel happy when she sees how happy the people around her are laughing at the jokes or her innocence about the jokes.


Yes it is 3rd Of June Again! This very moment is very special to me. The reason is that I have proven that I have overcome a few months of procrastination in writing something for myself in my very first blog!!

Well……for the past 20 odd years in my life ( I am not revealing my exact age because, usually age would be a secret of ladies, thus the last thing that one should ask from a lady is “ How Old are you?” =P )

Anyways, for my past 20 odd years, I have been living in this small yet one of the busiest business hub in Asia that is Singapore.

By nature, I am of a rather introvert nature. I have gone through primary, secondary and Junior Colleges known as teachers’ favourite student because of my obedience. Perhaps this is why some of my classmates has looked upon me as alien among them because of my thinking……that more similar to that of the teachers instead of them. Early maturing syndrome?? Maybe…haha

I am a final year student in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, currently enrolled in the faculty of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. For the past years in my University life, I have experienced the greatest enjoyment and challenge.

The greatest challenge would be that I am being haunted my mathematics, formulas, unknown programming languages that I have to figure them out every semester and sit through the exams. To some of you, perhaps this means nothing to you. However to most university students here in Singapore, engineering course in NTU is known as the toughest course here. In comparison to other universities in Singapore, it traditionally produces highest number of students having to retake modules again and again. A few main reasons that has resulted in such situation are the presence of uncertainties in the course as it has been going through a series of changes in the curriculum for the past years and unfortunately enough, I am the first batch of guinea pigs for the new curriculum since 4 years ago until they switched back to the old curriculum a year ago. The other reason could be due to the presence of cross cultural communication barrier between local students and professors from India and Mainland Of China. Let’s just say that they are really talented ACE students but perhaps not ACE teachers.

As for my most enjoyable experience, I would think that it is my time in AIESEC, “The International Platform for Young People to discover and develop their potential” present over 80 countries and territories. Through this organization, I was able to realise my potential and have a really enriching learning experience. Through AIESEC, I got to participate in overseas conferences in Japan, Sri Lanka, Germany and Romania. Never in my life would I be able to get to travel overseas by plane for such great learning experiences. This is because; I came from a family that is just able to sustain our daily expenses. My mother did not even get to travel by plane, you can just imagine how exciting it would be for her to do so for her first time in her whole life. The furthest she has gone is up North to Malaysia across the causeway. Therefore, each time I returned from my overseas trip, she would be all ready to listen to my stories about my experiences in another country, the culture etc......with all these, she is easily satisfied and is happy. As for my father, he bought 1st luggage bag for my immediately after knowing that I am attending a conference in Japan. It was this simple action from my traditional father that touched my heart. Let me just conclude, I think I have great parents, who may not understand what is it really that I am currently doing with AIESEC, not even knowing what I really wanted in my life but yet supporting me with the best they can by performing their role as father and mother very well in providing for my daily living. Letting me choose whatever I would want to do, yet ready to let me fall back into their arms when I am facing challenges. Even with generation gap, there is still the presence of love that made everything possible!


Today is my birthday; I have received wishes from my great friends Yingying, Christopher, Liyan, David and many more. So touched :)

I do have many birthdays ahead. Having paused for awhile and reflecting about my family, friends and past years. I guessed I have a greater understanding of who am I. Truly a journey ahead, a step forward.