STORY OF APPRECIATION

One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company.
After he passed the first interview, the director did the last interview and will make the last decision.

The director discovered from the CV that the youth's academic achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research,
Never had a year when he did not score.

The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarships in school?"
The youth answered "None".

The director asked, "Was it your father who paid for your school fees?"
The youth answered, "My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees”.

The director asked, "Where did your mother work?"
The youth answered, "My mother worked as clothes cleaner”.
The director requested the youth to show his hands.
The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect.

The director asked, "Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?"
The youth answered, "Never. My mother always wanted me to study and read more books.
Furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me”.

The director said, "I have a request. When you go back today, go and clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning”.

The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back, he happily requested his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to the kid.

The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother shivered when they were cleaned with water.

This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes every day to enable him to pay the school fees. The bruises in the mother's hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his graduation, academic excellence and his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother's hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office.

The Director noticed the tears in the youth's eyes, asked: "Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?"

The youth answered, "I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes'

The Director asked, "Please tell me your feelings."

The youth said,
“Number 1….I know now what is appreciation. Without my mother, there would not the successful me today.
Number 2…By working together and helping my mother, only I now realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done.
Number 3….I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationship.

The director said, "This is what I am looking for to be my manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired.

Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team. The company's performance improved tremendously.

*Point to ponder......

Taken from Psa London

The vocabulary we have does more than communicate our knowledge; it shapes what we can know’.Evaluate this claim with reference to different areas of knowledge.

Yes, true indeed. If we have narrow range of vocabulary, we cannot really explore what the knowledge is without helps from dictionary tools either manually or electronically. For example, if we are learning knowledge such as history, ethics, human sciences and arts which vast reading sources are in languages which needs us to know more bombastic or higher level vocabulary, obviously we have to be advanced in that language first. People who are lazy enough to improve their language ability or checking Thesaurus or dictionary must have then lacked in knowledge. Language limitation or language barrier may as well be a factor to shape things we can know. So, we shall be looking at various areas of knowledge (mathematics, natural sciences, human sciences, history, the arts and ethics): their distinct natures and methods of gaining knowledge, the types of claim each makes and the issues to consider.

The situation changes in comparison with knowing about natural sciences. Sciences have their own terms and vocabulary in conveying the facts and ideas implied behind phenomenon they are revealing on. Random common word may not be suitable to use when describing particular scientific matter. If we do not work hard enough to learn all those vocabulary, we cannot proceed to the next depth of knowledge. Things will go in depth when we fully understand the matter itself. I have spoken to my housemate which also is my country mate, talking about our ability in understanding lecture notes or academic journal given by our lecturers. As to compare her Biology degree course with my Engineering degree course, her reading materials which are all about biology related, are more complicated to understand than mine. At least, in engineering, most of the knowledge are based on mathematical formulae and we can kind of easily relate them if we know the elements in the formulae. The mathematics knowledge would be more easier to get as we do not use artistic words as Shakespeare has ever used. Basically, our vocabulary level should be improved to uphold a better depth in understanding.

By definition from so called uncle Google, arts are works produced by such skill and imagination. I choose to elaborate more on visual arts, i.e taking movie appreciation as a subject. Spending time in a room on sunny Sunday is not a good idea when living in such a unstable UK weather, so I went to Empire cinema to watch The Dark Knight Rises. We went there a bit late and I, who knew nothing about the first sequel, Dark Knight seemed clueless at first. Added with Bane, who talked through speaking-aid and sounded like a machine made me even more confused of what he said. Obviously, when we do not really understand what they speak, that means our vocabulary is not wide enough. We all pretend to understand everything when aid by sense of sight as we assume what they mention through actions. For example, there is a scene in an open court where Dr Jonathan Gray leaves two choices for the guilty person, either dead or exile. I did not know what exile meant until I checked the dictionary back home. During the show, I assumed exile meant to be deport to the foreign prison where there is no exit except through the roof. So, true indeed the fact that vocabulary shapes what we can know in the knowledge of arts, or at least understand the message which is conveyed through the film.

Another area of knowledge that needs to be looked at is ethics. Ethics are moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior. As religion is a belief which govern a person's faith, it also falls under this area of knowledge. All religions must have their own holy books which guide them to the beliefs. But, to what extent does a believer fully understand the meaning of stories in the holy book? According to Islamic belief, guidance has been provided by Allah to humans primarily in the form of the Qur'an and there is a beautiful story   on  'Why do we read Quran, if we can’t understand a single Arabic word?'. 

Each morning Grandpa who was an American muslim got up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Quran. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could but he could not understand it, and what he did understand, he forget as soon as he closed the book. Then, the Grandfather said, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.” The boy did as he was told repeatedly, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house even though he sped up. Out of breath, he said, “See Grandpa, it’s useless!” The old man said, “So you think it is useless? Look at the basket.” The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out. The Grandfather added, “Son, that’s what happens when you read the Qur’an. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Allah in our lives.” 

True, Allah may ease everything if the way we use is noble. But, as wise man says, doing without knowledge is wasting too, so we have to have both knowledge and doing to get the better result of understanding of the Holy book.From only reading Qur'an plainly, the urge to know more will definitely come at later days, so more effort to find the translation and 'tafseer' shall be put by the believer. Hence, common vocabulary may have a hidden double meaning thus concluded that vocabulary is again important as it shapes our knowledge in our religion.