WHY EAST AND WEST OR

NORTH AND SOUTH

SELDOM TANGO WELL TOGETHER?

Superior-complex factors involved?

Is piano teacher a snobbish status-oriented career?

Written by Siwen Wong

   Recently due to Chinese New Year, my ‘part-time’ student returned from Kuala Lumpur visited me, I brought her for breakfast and began my ‘two hours long nagging session on topic of a career piano teacher’s requirement’ on her, because I know that Chinese with ‘no wanting face’ species is almost extinct, but she happened to meet one perhaps due to her parents’ continuous prayers.

(1)    Piano teacher career is a very highly social oriented profession:

In early 90s I was living in Texas, happened there was an evening I was having dinner with one of the most famous and experience piano technician and his family with the presence of also my piano professors, I always remember he told me a phenomenon happened very sarcastically in the music teaching world:

    “You don’t need to be a very qualified, don’t need to be a very good pianist to be the most famous, the most sought after and the most demanded piano teacher, and yet who has most piano students in the whole city!”

This veteran piano technician gave me the example of a piano teacher in the city hold a music degree with mediocre standard of playing piano BUT she married a very prominent husband hold a high position in a government office, and she became the most sought after piano teacher in the city during that era. Even my concert pianist professors wouldn’t have that many students but only in an exception, my professors would attract an exclusive group of professionals like surgeons and pilots either drove or flew in from far away just to learn authorized piano playing skills and interpretations from them and since I wore a wreath of laure from my famous professors, in that era, I actually taught piano to kids of who’s who in the campus too.

    I taught piano since I was 15 years old, in old days I lived in small town where almost everyone in town knew my reputed dad in educational service, so when my sister left to study in Australia, I never had problem to ‘collect’ piano students, they came to me even without any advertising, in those old days I was too young to aware the snobbish world kind of agenda and I didn’t know why all those who’s who in town all came learning piano from me. Others would pass the words around that I taught piano,  not from the mouth of my conservative educator-parents, neither me or my relatives.

In early 90s after I returned from overseas, I started to have very hard time to begin my piano teacher’s career in Miri town, where nobody knew me as it was not my hometown, also it is too far away from my hometown and I only have a distance uncle who married a Miri girl to move there, and actually we hardly visited each others that not many people knew that an ex-YB was my uncle’s brother-in-law and neither he knew who I was until many years later when I moved to Kuching, ended we always encountered each others in the airport terminal.

Many people in that era didn’t know that to pursue a piano degree needed to go to a university or conservatory, many musical illiterates in the town would think that piano teachers’ career would work as similarly as a seamstress, hair salon operator or females’ clothing and accessories trading company. What do you feel when you were accused as someone’s mistress to enable you to open a music school but actually  the capital was saved by my piano teaching in Brunei, where money was doubled?

Troubles all started from dirty minds or superior-complex individuals out there who wanted to destroy my career in Miri where they simply speculated I didn’t have any background to support my standings, sometimes I lamented, “If I was million dollars income star, I don’t mind gossips and defamations, but I was merely a poor piano teacher who cares about the playing standard of the whole Miri when students and teachers came to me.”

I always appreciated so much of a retired Miri RTM broadcaster and few veteran newspapers reporters and editors who helped to promote me during my difficult days. As Miri is a border town, an oil town where people come and go frequently, I just went to overseas for 10 months, I found out Mirians had began to forget me.  Sometimes I felt I could hear, “You are from a small town, you come Miri just to earn your living?” I trained more than two dozens piano teachers during past two decades, amongst them I had 6 piano teachers (5 from Miri and one from Kuching) who got trained and fostered under me later all left with students taken from my business to establish their respective music schools without starting from zero like me, thus I told people I was not worried when I was left with seven students by my two ex-students/staff (a Miri and a Kuching girl plotted that) in early 2000 to start all over again.

   Superior complex always happened to this world, if you are from small town, there were always someone ignorant thought that you were naturally not better than people from bigger towns. (In an exceptional case if you are medical doctors, specialists or surgeons)

   When a parent sent a kid to learn piano with a KL piano teacher, she would never suspect of his/her academic qualifications and abilities but as an east Malaysian from one of the smallest town in Sarawak, many students and parents were suspicious of my qualifications, my teaching abilities and my artistic attained standard. They suspected of my elite techniques taught, my aesthetic skills taught and my particular ideas of playing piano on keyboards, so they would ask all over the world if their kids’ playing were correct or not!!! It would be quite unfair for me, if the kids only took just a short while lessons from me right? They would always wonder, if I am really that great and that good, why they never read of me in those famous magazines, national newspapers and lastly, why they never seemed me doing any performance? But always the world is just too small, when the word passed back to me, ended I became quite hurt yet had to keep wordless.

Only after almost four years later now of my moving from Miri to Kuching, where nobody knows me and my musically illiterate husband, then I learned ‘why’ in a very painful way – get real, I heard the following kind of remarks from different peoples with their shinny proud facial expression on here in this Kuching city, “Oh, my daughter is learning piano from  $^*%$#  Normah Surgeon’s wife!”

“Oh, do you know Datin J C? My friend was learning piano from her when she was young!” Someone was informing me of a deceased piano teacher in Kuching with very obvious proud face turned on, although that’s her ex-classmate! I always wonder if this Datin was never a Datin, would anyone in Kuching still mention of her since she passed so long ago?

“Oh, this surgeon bought a long grand piano for his wife to teach piano!!” I was informed by a tuner; I could tell he felt so prided to be their tuner!

“My ex-piano teacher’s dad was the famous Datuk W, I even didn’t know it until I was invited to their house during Chinese New year!” I heard this back in early 80s.

“Do you know your ex-staff now got so many piano students at home? Now almost everyone in JKR send their kids to her. ” She married to one of the head of JKR, but now many people knew that I was the witness for her marriage, I am glad that she got married to ‘someone’ instead of ‘nobody’.

“Oh, I send my kids to YB L’s niece!” Do you know that she is our Catholic Church father’s sister?”  Oh yeah, her aunt also the Catholic Church ‘s nun… dudes…. Hmm…. they didn’t know that I fostered her few free diplomas, prepared to path her to be a professional piano teacher and since day 1 she came under my wings, I gave her stable income while she was merely a student learning under me. But they didn’t know this YB’s niece whom I entrusted so much ended up left me seven piano students when I had my confinement in overseas to start out her own music school. So please don’t tell me Mary or Jesus!

“Do you know so and so piano teacher? Her dad is so and so big takau owes so many supermarket chains and her husband is a Chinese Doctor?”

There were more mean remarks from an older piano teacher attacking other piano teachers, “…… Huh Chinese doctor!  My daughter studies in Russia will be called a true doctor, or like my brother!”

“Huh that CC, she can’t teach good piano and she has poor standard! Her husband has a mistress out of town and he hardly cares for his first wife and the family!”

“That piano teacher’s father-in-law I know him, they are very poor people!”

Only many years later, someone told me the piano teacher who made these few mean remarks, her husband also has a mistress and she actually never even earns any Gr. 8 music certificate. I think the world clock should change to 13 hours!

“Do you know so and so wife, she is also teaching piano?”

Nobody talked about qualifications of different piano teachers, but they merely talked and compared piano teachers’ connection and relation  to either  their high status oriented husbands, grandfathers, uncles,  aunties, fathers, sisters or brother!

(2)    Psychology behind the teaching scene:

Students usually only choose to listen to a teacher if he/she respects or admire him/her. If students’ parents are not in aware of this psychology happened behind the educational scene, they better keep quiet avoid making any bad or snobbish remarks of a teacher in front of their kids lest that their kids shut off their ears from a teacher’s teaching.

    I remember I usually would give lazy students more time and did more practices on the piano during piano lesson!  Then one day a little boy suddenly asked me, “Teacher, my mum said you must have too much time to give me all this extra time!”

   Parents better give positive feedback to their kids instead of negative feedback of a teacher, if such parent told her son, “Look! Your teacher gave you so much extra time, which meant she cares of your improvement and she cherishes you!”

    I was glad the boy passed the Gr.8 but I thought he should be one of amongst that many distinctions! One thing I never understand was his mum was a college’s lecturer, why she never learns this basic psychology!

   “This piano teacher is not rich, look at what lousy car she is driving?!” Many parents weren’t in aware such a simple snobbish remark would alter their kids’ altitude towards their teachers, especially for those kids who were taught to aware of materialistic way of life earlier than other poorer  or insensitive kids.

   Once my 17 years old piano student ran in told me excitedly, “Teacher, teacher, is that teacher F’s boyfriend is very rich? I saw he drove a Mercedes!” I felt it was a time that I had to teach this very pretty and clever, one of my favorite students an awareness of luxury items.

    “Darling, do you know how old is that Mercedes? Your mom Proton new car costs more than it, do you know that?” Then I taught her to judge a car not on its logo but its age or vintage, another dimension of her brain was being awakening after this incident.  I was actually felt grateful she was an innocent, incomplicated student and thus she was cheerful, humble and learned well.

 I found out usually humble parents produce humble kids, it is always better to leave the kids live humbly in their tender years, but teach them to aware of good things around them when they have more control over their EQs.

(3)Piano teachers need to speak and write good commands of English:

I was educated in Chinese, that’s my parents’ choice I had no way to escape; I wonder in such case why they never sent me to study in China then! They cared of their children’s racial origin more than their dwelling locality to seek better future. I blamed that they were not flexible, they only cared for themselves and racial origin, not the country they dwelt in and they were not as far sight as my most respected political figure Lee Kuan Yaw.  I dubbed those stuck up people as Chinamen! However in some cases, we can’t blame those Chinamen, because Chinese race was once being “snubbed” as low class junks everywhere in the world and Chinese were hated by many countries as communists before China turns now to a rich country. People only see $$$$$ signs, Snobbish in short ….. Now many people begin to learn Chinese! WHY?

Why I said good commands of English is important? I experienced great frustration when I was sent to study in USA, I neither wrote well and spoke well in English, it was pain in ass, then I realized students from bigger cities due to exposure of more English crowds like students from Kuching or Miri's Chinese school could command their English speaking and writing well beyond a very small town folks like me. Not a single American would understand my English speaking except Chicanos within my first year studying there, luckily music was the universal language I didn’t have much problem when I pursued practical side of music.

Many year ago in Miri, I witnessed a piano teacher who speaks good English although she studied overseas but she never even earned any music degree, yet I saw a phenomenon that even doctors and lawyers would send their kids to learn piano from her, based on her good command of spoken English, the ways she talked to people, they really thought that she is a very qualified piano teacher but they never learned that she goes to Church every week and has cheated everyone even up to these days!

I knew one of my ex-staff who laughed at my command of English behind my back as she was a purely English educated student, but she can’t even read or write many Chinese words, may be just a primary 1 standard. Yet she could laugh loudly behind me just because my command of English grammar is not as good as her.  True enough in later years she just used me to pursue her ambition but she never respected me as a teacher.

I remember there was a staff who was graduated from a Chinese private secondary school, it was such a frustration in Miri, where English is still the major language in the musical scenario, I could see how she was snubbed by some parents or students, so eventually when Curtin started its English program, I sent her for English course to learn 'speak better and write better', very obviously I found out her confidence was boosted immediately.

Similarly, I have seemed those piano teachers who were educated from Britain due to their commands of British English is far beyond other teachers, they have greater pride and airs, Malaysian piano students would prefer to learn piano from them than other more qualified piano graduates from other countries.  The reason returns to colony issue and brain washing again. My famous media friend one day asked me, “I tell you I really don’t like those classical musicians, why they look so arrogant and stuck up in a style?”

“Don’t know!”

 I only knew it when I returned from Poland, my cousin who lives in Penang asked me, “Why on the earth, there are so many countries you could go to pursue music, why you choose a communist country, Poland? …. I heard the country is very poor right?” My cousin sent almost all her entire brood to study in Britain, why I have to reply a person who still remains their “British superiority awareness” in the subconscious realm, I won’t spend my time to crack any old coconut as long as British pound still retain the highest!  You don’t talk technologies to these old folks, because they only understand $$$ signs.

 I believe if my parents sent me to English school, today in my family we might have at least 4 medical doctors or 4 lawyers, instead of merely many engineers. Be a good doctor or lawyer needs very good commands of English, besides good in biology or history. I found out most Chinese school graduated lawyers whose English are not that great would usually resulted to work as contract lawyers instead.

   We are a British ex-colony, our people still has great admiration towards Britain even after 50 years of independent,  when I was working in Brunei, I found out they have even “greater sense of patriotic” towards Britain as they won their  independent from Britain just merely for 3 decades.  People from India, Singapore, Malaysia, Burma and Brunei feel proud to study in England, they feel proud to send their kids to study in England, they feel proud their kids speak like a British and they even feel more proud that their kids are working in Britain now!

In short, if you want to work a high caliber Piano teacher in Malaysia or any ex-British colonized country, make sure your English speaking is impressive enough to attract students, don’t let your students speak better English than you, or else hardly few of them would end up respecting you! Or they have no face to even join your facebook all because once they were making fun of your English speaking or writing!

(4)Piano teacher’s nationality and locality placed one in an advantage:

Singaporeans and Bruneians’ music school hire many Malaysia piano teachers; these teachers told me how they were snubbed by someone who has great superiority over their own nationality. Who asked our Malaysian ringgit is lower than theirs, and how about when our own Malaysians snubbed and bullied those Indonesians, Burmese, Filipinos or Thais?

I found out for more than a decade staying and teaching in Miri, never once I was invited to any music festival or activity in West Malaysia or overseas, except invitations were sent out to those music teachers who were graduated from England, although my exam student or ex-students who won ABRSM International scholarships, highest scores in LTCL or some even won their Youth competitions in overseas. It took me great determinations and it was hard for me to work diligently under unrecognized and ran an ultra lonely journey to push the standard of Miri piano students' standard, in imparting my piano techniques and believes where once 10 out of 10 piano students had weak fingers and in its old days' music scenario, where once there was no orchestra, just left alone not to talk more of those nightmares of gangster threatening, business rivals wrongful accusions and unreasonable defamations done to me. 

There is not a single good recording company in Sarawak state at right moment which can record a professional recording for a piano student to submit a good audition tape to a competition, a poor quality recording really can’t beat those professional recordings submitted by those big cities students. Just recently I told a part-time teenager student who wants to join an international competition to go directly to Singapore for recording an audition tape instead of wasting her money and time flying herself to the west where she informed me that she was not treated fairly, she said some elite piano teachers would deliberately ostracize other piano teacher’s student either in a competition, workshop or master class and important informations and benefits would be kept by themselves only.

So I finalize the future for this little talented girl, it is better for an isolated and ostracized small town Sarawakien young pianist to perform more solo recitals rather than joining many competitions, where our limited resources, tools and financial situation may trigger the success. Once she gains experience in solo recital, she has accumulated a good profile enough for her to pursue ambition to study in a famous young talent music school in overseas.

Usually people would recommend a student to take a piano master class or clinic in KL, Penang, Singapore or JB, they wouldn’t recommend someone in another way round, to ask a West Malaysian or Singaporean to learn piano techniques in Sarawak from me, even if they can’t find someone who can specially teach piano techniques and give training in aesthetic perception. Once my fortunate teller read my palm, he immediately told me, “You will achieve very successfully if you dwell in a very city!” Am I now staying in a big city, where Chinese said, “The place where bird doesn’t lay egg?”  As for three years, as an experienced and qualified piano teacher, just because I don’t advertise in newspapers, (sometimes reporters can be very snobbish too) I live anonymous, as a nobody and I am a jobless piano teacher in Kuching!

Few years ago, when a piano teacher from Sibu heard that I would move to Kuching, she told me flatly, “It will be hard for you to find students in Kuching, because nobody will know you there and they can’t pay you as much as you requested.” Yes, I was charging my techniques and aesthetic clinic as one of the highest in east Malaysia or even in Malaysia, but there was always room for bargaining due to my soft heart. Ouups ….. I have almost forgotten that my husband is not a Datuk or Surgeon, as I always thought Sarawak state is so big, bigger than West Malaysia that I become jobless piano teacher in Kuching for more than three years!

It took a great cultivated, well-travelled and open-minded people to discard discrimination to enable seeing treasure and potential of an individual.