8 Romances

By Chor Hoong

The title 8 Romances immediately conjures up images of 8 love stories. So, is 8 Romances a collection of 8 love stories? Yes and No ...

8 Romances is the author's love affair with 8 issues of GLOBAL interest ... issues that universally impact happiness and everyday living ...

Chor Hoong calls for a quickening of the pace of the environmental movement in her home country ...
She has ideas on how to strengthen one's national identity and how we can be more socially gracious citizens ...

She shows concern for the worldwide phenomenon of a weakening of the institution of marriage. She calls upon graduate women to fall in love, to be married and to have children. She shares her own rewarding experiences with romance, marriage and parenting ...

She calls for positive thinking ... She advocates living life to the fullest by injecting a stronger dose of PASSION in everything we do, with the motto: Anything that is worth doing is worth being passionate over !

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Jul 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781482879438

Chor Hoong

Chor Hoong is a Management Consultant. Educated at the National University of Singapore - BEE (Hons) & MBA Corporate- and Quality-trained by Texas Instruments Singapore Founder of www.tqmconsultancy.com, Chor Hoong is a specialist in the application of Statistics in Manufacturing and R&D, and a strong advocate of business process reengineering. US-trained in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, Chor Hoong has devoted herself to assisting industry in their quest for Quality supremacy, over the past 2 decades. Married with 3 lovely children, she loves life and lives life richly. Outside of the training room and corporate meeting rooms, you can find Chor Hoong on a tennis court or on the dance floor! Writing is yet another of her passions. A bilingual writer, she has published 3 books in 2 languages. Believing in giving back to industry what industry has taught her; in giving back to society what life has so kindly enriched her with, she shares her passion for her professional work and for life in her books.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 Chor Hoong. All rights reserved.

ISBN

978-1-4828-7943-8 (e)

Photos courtesy of :

1.    YOKA Bridal Photography

2.    Glamour Studio

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

07/05/2018

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Contents

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction

1 This is Our Home

1.1 We have come a long way …

1.2 Heaven on Earth

1.3 Social Grace

1.4 Strengthening the Singapore Identity

2 Beauty in a Language

1.1 My learning journey

1.2 My love affair with the language

1.3 A higher agenda for romancing the language

1.4 Mandarin without tears

1.5 How I think Chinese should be taught

3 Romancing Romance

3.1 Besotted by Romance

3.2 First love: Sweetest & most memorable?

3.3 Men: God’s greatest gift to women

3.4 The PEA Theory of romantic love

4 Marriage, Choice Lifestyle!

4.1 Marriage: A dying fad?

4.2 Pursuit of life-long happiness

4.3 Women in marriage

5 Romancing Monkeys

5.1 Mischievous monkeys; boisterous monkeys

5.2 From monkey-resentment to kid-loving

5.3 Kids: Trouble or joy?

5.4 National campaign for babies

5.5 Parenting makes one a better person

6 Love Life, Live Life

6.1 Living life to the fullest

6.2 Living FOR others: Meaningful Life Index

6.3 Healthy lifestyle

7 A Passion for Passion

7.1 Passion: The mark of a Quality person

7.2 Passion: The panacea for our ailing service industry

7.3 Passion: Character trait of high achievers

7.4 Passion makes THE difference!

8 Save Our Only One Earth

8.1 The Ozone hole

8.2 Global Warming

8.3 Waste management

8.4 Waste reduction

8.5 The Environmental movement

Dedication

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This book is a long-overdue dedication to my beloved parents …

    Tan Loke Buay 陈绿梅, who left us on 3 May 2016

& Ng Gek Sim 黄玉芯, now in her nineties …

I want to thank them profusely for their unrepayable 养育之恩 …

Mother is the traditional classical 贤妻良母 who has dedicated her entire life selflessly to her husband, children and family, to this very day …

Father was the sole bread-winner. Single-handedly, he slogged to provide for a family of 7 … Life was not easy … but, the rice barrel was never empty and the dining table was never short of fruits in the evening … The leaky attap house was full of warmth and love, manifested in ways too many to recall …

Friends and family always say I have a heart of gold … I know where that comes from … from my father …

My brother did not have a lot of formal education (due to understandable circumstances), but, his EQ is simply awesome … I know where that comes from … from our father …

As parental role models, they have set the bar so high, it is a major challenge for us to emulate …

About the Author

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Chor Hoong holds a degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering (Honors) and an MBA (majoring in Marketing), both from the National University of Singapore.

She brings with her more than 11 years of Quality Management expertise from Singapore’s first SQA (Singapore Quality Award) winner, Texas Instruments Singapore (TIS) and years of invaluable Customer Relationship Management experience, in her capacities, first as Q&R Engineering Manager and then, as Total Quality Manager of the American MNC …

As the central focal point for all of TI Singapore’s key accounts WORLDWIDE (US, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific), Chor Hoong was responsible for coordinating customer visits/audits, working with customers on quality issues, problems and complaints as well as proactively visiting regional customers regularly to promote the Singapore operation’s Quality branding.

Chor Hoong is very well versed in the Singapore Quality Award and the Business Excellence frameworks, being US-trained in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award framework, around which our own is designed.

Through her work with the Service industry, she has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that Quality is a universal discipline. Her clients in the Service sector include Ascendas, Sunway Bhd, Shell, HP Sales, Mount Elizabeth and East Shore Hospitals, SAP Asia, Monsanto Far East, EGS (a Shell subsidiary), SPRING, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, The Port of Singapore Authority, Singapore Housing & Development Board, The Ministry of Defence, National Association of Travel Agencies Singapore, EU Holidays and Samsung, just to name a few …

Her work with the Service industry is focused on Service Excellence, Customer Satisfaction management, Process Reengineering and the DESIGN of KPIs for performance excellence.

A pioneer in Business Process Reengineering (BPR), designing work processes that deliver customer value effectively and efficiently is Chor Hoong’s forte. She will show you how Re-engineering can deliver QUANTUM LEAP improvements in ALL KPIs in one fell swoop.

Yet another rare competency, Customer Satisfaction Measurement (CSM), is derived from the powerful synergy of her MBA Marketing Research background, combined with her expertise in Statistics.

Chor Hoong was a key contributor to the NATAS Group Customer Centric Initiative (CCI) in 2010, being the mastermind behind the design of the Travel Industry Customer Satisfaction Index for the Mega-project. And, in 2015, she brought well-known travel agency, EU Holidays, to the Singapore Quality Class in just 10 months.

Chor Hoong has consulted and trained in two languages, English and Mandarin, in the following countries outside of Singapore: Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Australia and as far away as the USA.

Her appointments by James Cook University (JCU), Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Nottingham Trent University to deliver the Total Quality modules for their respective Master Degree Programs, are definitely endorsements and recognition of her expertise in the Quality disciplines. She was also engaged by SIM (Singapore Institute of Management) University from 2008 through 2012, where she delivered Business Statistics, Quantitative Methods and TQM for its Business School’s Undergrad programs. 2017/18 finds Chor Hoong teaching Statistics & Analytics and Business Operations at Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University.

A bilingual author, Chor Hoong has published The 8 Habits of Quality People (2004), 8 Romances (2009) and 网球场上的恋情 (2010). Fore-worded by the distinguished Dr Ahmad Magad, ex-Member of Parliament, 8 Habits (not related to Steven Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, in any way whatsoever), is the crystallization of three decades of extensive and intensive industrial and consulting experience. From her books, it is crystal clear what Chor Hoong stands for - a Customer First mindset, thinking out-of-the-box, a tenacious pursuit of impossibilities, stronger, more impassioned corporate leadership and a burning passion for excellence! These publications are available in e-book stores worldwide.

Chor Hoong is ACTA (Advanced Certificate in Training & Assessment)-certified by STADA, the Singapore Training & Development Association and a PMC (Practicing Management Consultant)-certified by the Singapore Business Advisors & Consultants Council.

TQM Consultancy’s Service Spectrum

Inspired by famous American Quality consultant, Dr. Juran, Chor Hoong started TQM Consultancy in 1990 to assist local industries in their quest for Quality supremacy.

The competitive strength of TQM Consultancy lies in Chor Hoong’s extensive industrial experience and many years of Total Quality practitioning.

Today, TQM Consultancy (www.tqmconsultancy.com) is delighted to offer the following spectrum of training programs and consulting services:

Consulting

1. Singapore Service Class certification

2. Singapore Quality Class/Star certification

3. Winning the Singapore Quality Award

4. Winning the Singapore Service Medallion

5. Designing KPIs for Performance Management

6. Productivity Improvement

7. Business Process Reengineering

8. Customer-Centric Initiatives

(funded by SPRING Singapore’s Capability Development Grant)

Training

1. Go-the-Extra Mile Service

2. Service Leadership – Building a Customer-Centric Organization

3. Strategic Planning & Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Management

4. Designing KPIs for Organizational Excellence

5. PDCA Problem-solving & Decision-making

6. Business Process Reengineering

7. Managing Personal Productivity

8. Statistics for Engineering and R&D

9. Statistical Process Control (SPC)

10. Design of Experiments (DOE)

11. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)

12. Transforming data into Decision-powering weapons

13. Conducting Productive Meetings

14. English for Effective Business Communication

TQM Consultancy’s Customers

TQM Consultancy’s customer list is an interesting mix of the following familiar names, from both Manufacturing as well as Service, public as well as private sectors:

✓ Agilent Technologies S’pore (HEO)

✓ Agro Bank, Malaysia

✓ AlliedSignal Aerospace

✓ Apple Computer

✓ Amtek Engineering

✓ ASM Technology Singapore

✓ Ascendas

✓ PT Astra Honda Motor, Indonesia

✓ Avago Technologies

✓ The Attorney-General’s Chambers of Singapore

✓ Bank Islam, Malaysia

✓ Ban k Simpanan Nasional, Malaysia

✓ BAX Global Pte Ltd (now part of Schenker Singapore)

✓ Becton Dickinson Critical Care Systems

✓ Brunel International SEA

✓ CAS technology

✓ Carpe Diem Holding

✓ Centenial Business Suites

✓ Cerca Insights Sdn Bhd

✓ Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing

✓ Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS)

✓ Compaq Computer

✓ DBS Vickers Securities

✓ Dr Who Global Watertech

✓ The Dreamcatcher Group

✓ Dyson Manufacturing Sdn Bhd

✓ EG&G Heimann Optoelectronics

✓ EU Holidays

✓ F5 Networks Inc.

✓ Finest Gold & Silver Refinery

✓ Gemalto

✓ HDB (Housing & Development Board)

✓ Hereaus Materials Singapore

✓ Hewlett-Packard Business Printing Division

✓ Hewlett-Packard Singapore (Sales)

✓ HNS (Hitachi Nippon Steel) Semiconductor

✓ Horizon Singapore Terminals

✓ IdeasThatWork

✓ II-VI Singapore Pte Ltd

✓ Jinray Electronics & Mecba Technology

✓ Keysight Technologies Malaysia

✓ LiuGong Machinery Asia Pacific

✓ mDR (Operator of Samsung’s Service Centers)

✓ The Matsushita Group of Companies

✓ Microfits & Advanced Systems Automation

✓ MINDEF Centre for Management Development

✓ Mind Stretcher Education Group

✓ Ministry of Manpower

✓ Monsanto Far East (S’pore, Thailand, Taiwan, HK, Australia)

✓ Mount Elizabeth & East Shore Hospitals

✓ Motorola Solutions, Malaysia

✓ MSIG Holdings (Asia)

✓ MUIS (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura)

✓ Murata Electronics

✓ NEC Semiconductors Singapore

✓ NATAS (National Association of Travel Agents Singapore)

✓ Nippon Paint Singapore

✓ NLB (National Library Board)

✓ Northcroft Lim Consultants

✓ NTUC INCOME

✓ Philips (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia & China)

✓ Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) Corporation

✓ Redimed (Australia)

✓ SAP Asia

✓ Shell Group of Companies (Singapore & Malaysia)

✓ Showa Denko HD Singapore

✓ Singapore National Heart Centre

✓ Singapore Cables Manufacturers

✓ SONY Display Device

✓ SSMC (Systems on Silicon Mfg Co.)

✓ STMicroelectronics

✓ ST Aerospace Supplies

✓ ST Assembly Test Services (STATS)

✓ Stratech Systems

✓ Sumitomo Bakelite Singapore

✓ Sunway Bhd

✓ Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore

✓ Tan Tock Seng Hospital

✓ Team Metal Singapore

✓ Tokio Marine Life Insurance

✓ Tote Board, Singapore

✓ Wison Offshore (Shanghai)

✓ WTS Logistics & Trading

✓ YGP Pte Ltd

✓ Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) University

✓ James Cook University

✓ Nottingham Trent University

✓ Queensland University of Technology

Acknowledgments

✓ Foremost, my heartfelt thanks to KT Low, a wonderful friend, for gracing this publication with a most fabulously written foreword, which has caused him quite a few sleepless nights. Being the great friend he has always been, so supportive and appreciative, he would have nothing but the best when he undertakes a task like writing the Foreword for a friend’s publication. I know he has cracked his head and pulled out some hairs agonizing over it! Yet, he tells me it has been an exciting and enjoyable experience …

✓ A second big thank you hug goes out again to KT, for so kindly and graciously volunteering to read through the draft of this book a second time, after he’s gotten the foreword out of his way; this time purely for the purpose of helping me proof-read it. In the process, he has given me plane-loads of constructive, encouraging and quality feedback. A couple of later additions to the original draft have been inspired by some of his invaluable suggestions. Thanks a zillion again, KT. Friends like that are indeed few and far between.

✓ Next, my heartfelt appreciation goes out to Singapore Flyer Pte Ltd, for graciously approving the use of the fabulous picture you see on the cover of this book.

✓ A special note of thanks must go to the wonderful readers of my first publication, The 8 Habits of Quality People, readers who have taken the trouble to text and email me to give me their very encouraging and appreciative feedback on how much they have been inspired by my book or how much they have enjoyed reading it, edging me on to publish a second … Amongst them, I can count Mr Patrick GK Chua, Managing Director of Chua Chuan Leong & Sons, Mr Tan Ka Huat, CEO of CEI Contract Manufacturing, Mr Tan Khan Aun, all the way from Northern Malaysia, Mr Ng Chee Ho, Henry, Eric, Ms Julie Loke, Ms Sheila Damodaran and the very lovable Ms Dong Xiaowen, who has since moved back to her homeland, China.

✓ A very special note of thanks to Dr Gan Kok Wee for his gracious permission to quote a part of the very inspiring talk on The well-meaning, bad parent - Are you hindering your child’s future success?, which he presented at Raffles Junior College on Oct 31 2009. The talk was organized by the Raffles Institution Parents’ Association. I am also indebted to Ms Ho Siew Fay from the Association who has been so gracious and helpful in connecting me to Dr Gan. Thank so much, Siew Fay.

✓ I want to thank Mr Johnson Lee, VP, Singapore Book Publishers Association and Director, MarketAsia Distributors, for his wonderful service in distributing my first publication and for his strong encouragement to publish a second.

✓ Last but not least, a publication, no matter how good, cannot be a success without you, my most wonderful readers. So, to you, my prospective readers, I would like to dedicate a very special note of thanks, for your interest, your confidence and your support.

Foreword

Hundreds of new titles hit the book stores every week. Perhaps a third are fiction; the rest fall into 8 or 10 different categories of Non-fiction. In which category does this book belong? By a rare and happy coincidence, we stumble onto this book that defies stereo-typing into any specific genre, a book that is bursting at the seams with so much wisdom, telling colorful stories that come from the heart and from life, stories told masterfully, with sincerity, sensitivity, humor and intellect, and with great passion! We no longer care about genre. We just want to read, learn, enjoy, and travel with her, non-stop … till the end of the last chapter …

8 Romances is such a book, following from her maiden publication, The 8 Habits of Quality People.

In "8 Habits" you would have encountered Chor Hoong’s unquenchable energy in evangelizing and championing the Quality cause, Quality from an engineering perspective, Quality from the TQM and Malcolm Baldrige tradition, leading edge Quality philosophy anchored in actionable reality, and Quality with Passion as an approach to life and living. Till then, not many of us realize what a giant and pioneer in the field of Quality we have here, in Chor Hoong, in Singapore.

8 Romances transports us beyond the professional realm, into the real person, into life in society, into our roles as citizens of our Nation and of Mother Earth, while retaining the passion so characteristic of the author. In this writing, we are treated to the creative, personal and poetic side of Chor Hoong.

The book endears us to our nation, Singapore, with genuine pride for our humble achievements, but with outright truth-telling about our flaws. It enlightens us about the Chinese language, tantalizing us to be curious, to explore, to learn, to apply it, to take pride in it and to love it. And it chronicles the life of a most interesting lady, from her youth and education, to her romantic life, to marriage and motherhood, to all things that make life meaningful. You will discover her compassion for Mother Earth, how it is being wounded by mankind, and what we can and must do about it.

In every corner of this book, you will encounter anecdotes that fascinate and inspire us. And being the master educator and coach that the author is, she creates ways to transform them into pearls of learning. You will enjoy learning patience and forgiveness from monkeys. You will be deeply drawn in by the intimate confessions of a passionate young romantic; and yet be amazed by her intellectual ability to draw lessons of wisdom from the science of love.

In the end, perhaps we too can be as fired up as she is; to love life, to care for things and people with great intensity, to pursue excellence in our aspirations, to be completely unselfish, and to find the courage to live out our dreams.

I am reminded of Marva Collins’ poem, I am Excellence:

" … I stir ambition, forge ideals and create the keys that open the door

to worlds never dreamed of."

From my short 15-month friendship with Chor Hoong, during which I have grown to know her pretty well, I think these words describe her perfectly. She is indeed my door to a different world, an enlightening, enriching and exciting world. Welcome to that world.

K T Low

Founder, Trusted Coaches Pte Ltd,

Principal Consultant, ServiceWorks Pte Ltd,

Formerly, General Manager, Asia Pacific Solution Centre,

Services Division, Hewlett Packard.

Introduction

I just love the title I have given to this book - 8 Romances … so heart-warming, so lovey-dovey, so romantic … But, every time I mention it to friends, I have to quickly add that it is NOT a book with 8 love stories. Much though I am a self-proclaimed die-hard romantic, I am not sure I have that many love stories to tell! Rather, 8 Romances is about my love affair with 8 issues of current national interest …

Foremost, I am a die-hard loyal fan and citizen of this Little Red Dot; a proud Singaporean. Proud of its many astounding superlatives, its many outstanding achievements, its highly-regarded standing in the global community … But of course, we have our problems, our weaknesses, our not-so-hot sides, with lots of room for improvement … we could do with a little more effort to enhance our social grace; we can do with a stronger national identity; we can do with a little bit more passion in our customer service culture … these are my messages in the opening chapter.

One of the distinctive characteristics of the Singaporean identity is our multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-lingual culture. For more than three decades, we have pushed earnestly for a bi-lingual education policy. In particular, we need some bi-lingual and bi-cultural Singaporeans to engage with the newly emerging economic power in the Orient, but our journey to train such scholars hasn’t been a particularly smooth and easy one. Minister Mentor Lee has alluded to the fact that it has taken us three decades to learn how to get our bi-lingual education policy right.

In Chapter 2, I share my humble learning journey, a life-long effort to try and master my mother tongue. I conclude that if the language is treated as just another subject in the school curriculum, we will never be able to achieve the very high standard we set out to achieve. I have enjoyed my learning process and benefited tremendously from it; it is akin to an artistic pursuit for me. I have pursued it with great fervor because I am besotted by the subtle beauty in the language, having been enriched by 5000 years of cultural and literary heritage.

Besides soaking in the aesthetics, I would also like to think that my exposure to the teachings of the language has been instrumental in molding my ethical and moral values. We will be missing the essence, if we treat Chinese as just another economic language, for the best part of it lies in the moral teachings intrinsic in this wonderful language. Chapter 2 has the story of my love affair with this language, a subject which makes many of our school-kids develop an aversion to school! In it, I share some tips to enhance the learning experience of a language considered by most to be a very difficult one to master …

For years immemorial, hardly a National Day passes without the Prime Minister going on National TV to urge young Singaporeans to get hitched, get married and have babies! I have always encouraged everyone in my life circle to do the same … I had been hurt badly by my first relationship; yet, I have not developed an aversion to romance. No one else should. Kids were boisterous monkeys to me when I was a young adult, but when I tied the knot, I knew I wanted three kids, not one less; and it has been a point of no return and no regrets … My three angels have been a great source of joy and motivation for me. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 have the stories of my affinity to romance, marriage and kids. I have enjoyed all three profusely and I hope you, my readers, will too, after reading about my romantic journeys with these three quintessential phases of life …

Love life and live life to the fullest has always been my motto … Sleep is a waste of time … I need all the waking hours. Even those are not enough to pursue everything I want to pursue in life … Why would I sleep my limited invaluable life away? I have been asking Heaven for more time, more life … another life! Chapter 6 has my ideas on how we can all keep healthy so as to maximize the longevity of our lives and more importantly, enhance the quality of whatever limited time we have … I propose a Key Performance Indicator, the Meaning Life Index (MLI), to measure how well each of us impact others’ lives besides our own.

Passion, the most beautiful make-up for a woman, the fuel that drives motivation is unfortunately, sorrily lacking here in Singapore, as evident from our perennial struggle to improve customer service, nation-wide. Hence, my dedication of Chapter 7 – a passionate call for more passion in everything we do, because, anything that is worth doing is worth being passionate over, is it not?

And last but not at all least, as we enjoy our good lives, let’s spare a thought for posterity. Let’s do our part to protect and preserve our only one Earth. The local environmental movement is making slow and steady progress, but, wouldn’t