LEARN, UNLEARN and RELEARN

Many people at my age (I will be 57 next month), having worked for decades want to believe that they know everything under the sky. The experiences they went through, the people they have met and the things they have learned throughout the years made them think that they know almost everything. They walk as if they ruled the world … there is a joke for this kind of people.

A wife (or vice versa) puts up an advertisement :

I am sure you have met people like this and heard them brag to younger people … “young man, what do you know … I eat salt more than you eat rice”. Sorry for the broken English, it’s a direct translation from Cantonese. I am sure you can understand what it means.

But really … how much salt have you eaten?

Let me use my late father as an example … look, I am not trying put down my father’s work, he was a great person but this is a fact. My late father was a mechanic … he started to learn about cars and lorries at the age of 16 and worked for 39 years before he retired. Really … he can just listen to the sound of the engine, smell the exhausted smoke and more or less he can tell you what is wrong with it. And he was right 9.9 out of 10 times.

Now did my father really have 39 years of experience on cars and lorries? NO !!! Why? He may have worked 39 years as a mechanic but he only worked on the same type of engines with the same mechanical process. So, really … he repeatedly did the same thing over and over for 39 years. Did he really know a lot about cars and lorries? NO, he did not … he only had experience on a certain type of engine in cars and lorries. My father did not move with the changes in automotive industry, he did not learn as the industry progressed and changed … so, even after 39 years as a mechanic, his experience was only limited to old combustion engines.

My point is … we may have worked for years … living our lives for decades, doing things day in, day out and yes, we gather years of experiences on things … but did we really LEARN as we move on? Unfortunately, many did not. Many were repeatedly doing things over and over again.

I don’t like it when I hear the elders bragging to the younger people … “I eat salt more than you eat rice” … I respect the elders for what they have been through, experienced and for what they have learned. But I think one must continue to LEARN and must be able to UNLEARN and RELEARN … not being stuck at a point repeatedly doing and telling people the same things over and over again.

So, what to learn, unlearn and relearn? There are many things we can work on ... it ranges from attitude to thinking to beliefs to logic.

First of all … it is not how much you have experienced … the attitude of “I eat more salt than you eat rice” must to be dropped. The elders now have to learn from the younger people. What you may have taken 30 years to accumulate can now be absorbed by the younger generation in just 5 years. Yes, it is that fast and if you are still repeatedly telling people what you did 30 years ago, you are already obsolete.

Next, the thinking … our thinking must move progressively. Many of us are still very “old school” in our thinking. That is not wrong … we can be sentimental and appreciate some “old school” ways doing things but don’t confuse it with the “old fashion” ways of doing things. But very sadly, in today’s modern society … there are still some “old fashioned” parent who practice gender bias among their sons and daughters. I called them SLITS … “Still Living In The Sixties”.

Then the beliefs … and this is my personal opinion. Many don’t want to unlearn what they were told in their beliefs as written in a sacred book and it is what their fore fathers have followed and it cannot be questioned. They have been told that it is the right thing and it has been like that for many years.

But the reality is … as more and more revelations from science and historical facts are accepted … many beliefs have been questioned. Scientists, historians and researchers have revealed many facts that contradict certain beliefs. In many modern countries … their people, especially the younger generations are doing away with many beliefs ... including some with religious notions.

Last but not least … the logic (or rather the lack of it) … in the world of new and modern thinking … I like to question the logic of certain practices. For example … some of my relatives burned fake paper-made smart phones to their great grandparents who died long before Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Some told me it is the tradition while other said that it is their beliefs … but to me, whatever it is, there is no logic really … it doesn’t make sense at all.

Now, maybe you will disagree with me on certain things that were mentioned, that is absolute OK but I think we can all agree that we must continue to learn … very likely we will learn a lot more from the younger generations. Then there are also things we must unlearn … things that used to be true but have changed, that will significantly affect our decision making as we progress forward. And of course, there are things that we must relearn based on new trends, new facts, new findings and acceptable logic.

So, how much salt have you eaten? Really, we will never have enough salt … we will continue to eat salt … until the day we become a “harm yu” (salted fish) … pun intended ... for those who don’t know, “harm yu” is a Cantonese pun meaning a dead person.