On Upgrading Yourself
April 24, 2015Every Monday, we have a sharing session in the office where we update everyone on what's going on, what we are working on, the progress, announcement and everything. The update can be just a one liner or something that involves a presentation. Then, at the end of the session someone will present about a topic that interest him/her, and it can be about anything, doesn't have to be about work at all. Recent topics included:
- How to survive a horror movie! haha, this one was hilarious.
- Bagaimana supaya tidak terkena begal. This one was important but the advices were amusing
- Kiat supaya bisa bertahan sampai gajian berikutnya :D
- 10 ways to stimulate your brain
- What your body language says about you
- Top mispronounced words in English
Last Monday, Manda was sharing about a topic that is soo dear to her heart :D , what else but Bahasa Indonesia. Judging from the emails I receive everyday sadly there are more people who are clueless compare to those who use Bahasa Indonesia properly. And they are professionals, college educated and all. As a former proofreader and editor, she makes it her mission to make everyone in the office know the difference between Rubah vs Ubah.
She started with this image:
It's Rubah, an animal. So if we want to say something to imply a change, it's ubah. Mengubah, not merubah, unless you are talking about the animal
Of course I'm still far for perfect when it comes to writing, be it in Bahasa Indonesia or English. But you know what, at least I'm always trying to improve my writing skill. If you read my blog from the very beginning, dated back to 2001, you'll see how much I have improved since then. I remember writing for Female Daily blog without using proper capitalization. I used to add a dot after question or exclamation mark. I didn't know there are two ways of using the word 'di'. And I don't know why I liked to use lots and lots of dots in between words or paragraph. It embarrasses me when I read my old writing because I sounded so..ignorant and uneducated.
I want to improve my writing skill because of a lot of things. First, I own a media company. True, I can hire Editor in Chief/Managing Editor and editors who know more about language than I do but there will be times when I have to step in and proofread everything before I hit the publish button. How do I measure the editors work if I don't even know if they are using the correct structure or not? I know readers are more forgiving now because they are so used to read junks all over social media. A lot of people don't know which one is correct, which one is wrong. But as a media company, it is our responsibility to spread the beauty of using proper language. We want to be a part of the solution, not the problems.
Second, well..because I want to improve and upgrade every aspect of my self and my life, no matter how little it seems. I believe every little thing counts. If we can't improve the little thing how will we achieve the big thing, right? Improving, learning and growing should be a lifelong pursuit.
Second, well..because I want to improve and upgrade every aspect of my self and my life, no matter how little it seems. I believe every little thing counts. If we can't improve the little thing how will we achieve the big thing, right? Improving, learning and growing should be a lifelong pursuit.
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