Internet Marketing Seminar
I went to the Asia Internet Academy in Aryaduta Hotel this afternoon where an internet businessman named Fabian Lim hosted a free seminar abt internet marketing.
I firstly guessed by his name that this Fabian Lim guy was a typical Chinese Indonesian who started his business from the bottom where he scraped money for a living in a Warnet (net café), but it turned out that my guess was utterly wrong… He’s a true-blue Singaporean!
Even from the time he spoke any word of Singlish, I already knew that he’s either a Singaporean or a Malaysian: he’s a Chinese in his 30s with a darkened complexion.
From my experience of living in Singapore for 2 years and meeting Chinese who hail from different countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Taiwan, and even PRC, I know very well that it is rare to find a Chinese ethnic with a darkened complexion who was raised outside Singapore and Malaysia.
It’s as if the characteristic of being a “Chinese with darkened complexion” is indigenous to both
By the time he spoke, I knew that he’s a Singaporean and not a Malaysian. Singlish and Manglish (Malaysian English) are very similar in their deteriorated grammar aspects, yet I always know how to differentiate both of them. Their difference is very subtle, soooo subtle that even I myself am unable to explain in words what it is.
Fabian Lim’s accent was also the first Singlish accent I’ve ever heard in the last 10 months… Well, I had watched the Singaporean movie “I Not Stupid Too” on TV, but still, hearing Singlish accent directly always bring me back fond memories abt my ACS(I)…
It was as if I was back listening to Joseph Wong’s Social Studies class… or Chem lecures by Lydia Ho (before I eventually dropped it, hehe…). How nice reminiscing my good old schooldays in
Anyway, back to the topic.
The seminar was supposed to take 1.5 hour only, yet it took nearly 3 hours to finish…
Why?
They used a translator’s service, for goodness sake!!
Lols… That translator was an Indonesian some more, whom I’m sure, had never spent more than a year of his life in Singapore grappling w/ Singlish like the way I had. Fortunately for the translator, Mr Lim tried his best not to speak any term of Singlish… Had he spoken any Singlish slang the translator unable to translate, I could’ve volunteered myself up front to replace him, hehehe…
About the Internet Marketing lesson thingy, I learned some useful bits abt how to start an online biz… I kept some scribbling w/ me.
Alas, he focussed on giving us the basic lesson only on the 1st half of the seminar, w/ the 2nd half he focussed on promoting to us to join the Rp 6.5 million rupiah internet bootcamp he’s gonna conduct in late October next month..
If only I could join, yet Rp 6.5 million is very pricey! The basic prerequisite is to bring our own (or borrowed) laptop some more, which made me quite turned off for the rest of the free seminar.
