PDF handout of the 32 Powerpoints - Mark Fullmer

6/5/2012There are many job openings. A collegedegree is not enough. Very often goodcommand of the English language is anecessary requirement. It should have beendeveloped during the early years of schooling. Agood reading habit really helps. To the Romans,reading was a fine art. Early on, the Romansfound that if the read it took them to differentworlds.Reading is to the mind what exercise is to thebody. The importance of reading cannot beoveremphasized. Christopher Morley wrote,“When you sell a man a book you just don’t sellhim twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue –you sell him a whole new life.”Thomas Jefferson was more emphatic: “I cannotlive without books.”The Chinese proverb however has someallowances: “After three days without reading, talkbecomes flavorless.”At a dinner party in Paris when BenjaminFranklin was one of the distinguished guests, theAbbe Raynal asked, “What kind of man deservesthe most pity?” Franklin answered, “A lonesomeman on a rainy day who does not know how toread.”John Wesley, an English preacher and evangelistand founder of the Methodists, said: “ReadingChristians are growing Christians. When Christianscease to read, they cease to grow.”Way back when, I worked in a big bank, ashead of personnel. I used to join the head officeteam to evaluate the performance of theprovincial branch managers. Aside from thereview of financial performance andadministrative matters, one of the little thingswe looked into was the back table of themanager. Did he display good books andinformative magazines? Did he readnewspapers at all? There is a strong connectionbetween one who reads and being a success asan executive.According to Charles W. Eliot, “Books are thequietest and most constant of friends. They arethe most accessible and widest of councilorsand the most patient of teachers.” It wasdifferent however with my English professor incollege. He typified well the saying, “Knowledgemakes a bloody entrance.” In front of the wholeclass, he would mimic my Cebuano accent andmake fun of my bad grammar and sentenceconstruction. My classmates always had a goodlaugh at my expense. In the end, I was gratefulto this sadistic, hard-driving professor. MyEnglish improved a lot, and he brought me to ahigher level—to love books and reading.I still remember one of my classmates in thecollege seminary. He was really addicted toreading—a bookworm. Even after lights out atthe dorm, he continued reading under the thickblanket using a flashlight. Once, he was deeplyengrossed reading a book. But he needed torelieve himself. Instead of entering the toilet, hewent into the shower room. When he tried toflush, he turned on the showers!I still read a lot, two or three books a month.But books nowadays are expensive. Thealternative is to go to the discount section ofNational Bookstore or the little bookstoresalong the alleys of the malls. They have books atPHP 100 or less.As we wind up, letme mention a longshot, perhapsextravagant, predictionthat in the future therewill only be threesurviving languages:English, Chinese, andthe computer. TheChinese, however,because of globalcompetition, aresending their young tolearn and speak English.3