SYUTBAI

The library is one of my favourite places and one of the first places I visit when I am in a new city. I used to read the encyclopaedia on China for fun because I didn't get the information through my high school courses!

I am capable of focusing my attention to read textbooks, where my preference for learning is to first absorb theory from a textbook before tackling problems, projects or labs.

I often find myself digging through various scientific research journals, magazine publications, language papers, and web content. I like to collect multiple sources of information and extract information to critically analyse and synthesize. Having written numerous papers and reports in academic and work, I am well aware that there are always assumptions that govern data collection and statistics.

My favourite periodicals include Harvard Business Review, the Economist, and Beijing Review. Online, I like to read the Globe and Mail, blogs on start-ups and entrepreneurship, global trends, language learning strategies, psychology, and human development.

When reading through articles, my learning strategy is to take notes and annotate, reflecting and recording my own thoughts and questions that are inspired from the works. Having built a nice collection of notes and thoughts, nowadays, I seek to discuss these various issues with other people.

My strongest skill for communication has always been writing. I enjoy sitting down, thinking, sorting out my thoughts, and presenting my ideas in a manner that is organized and effective.

I do a lot of informal writing where my thoughts are very chaotic. Paper and notebooks constantly clutter my room: I am constantly writing in some form or other. Recently, I am working on organizing my writing more so that they are less chaotic and I would be able to share them with others. I've finally realized what I've been missing: feedback and bouncing my numerous ideas off of other people.

My mother tongue is Khmer (Cambodian). I started learning English when I entered Kindergarten. I took French in school from grade 4 to grade 10. I have native fluency in English although my knowledge of French is limited to basic verbs, vocabulary, and grammar.

I have been self-studying Japanese and Chinese languages simultaneously since I was 17 years old. My life has been busy, but the languages are usually prioritized just below my academic studies and work term responsibilities. After work, in between studies, and on weekends, I squeeze time for textbook reading, grammar reviews and flashcards. I always have at least half a dozen language books near my desk at all times, whether I’m on an academic or work term.

Reflecting on my life the last 5 years, I realized that foreign language study has constantly played a big part. My internal compass has always biased towards learning Mandarin or Japanese, whether through attempts at translating visual novels, listening to Dramas, learning song lyrics, reading about the history and culture, and the list continues…

Learning Chinese was a childhood dream of mine and learning Japanese was a teenage dream of mine. As for foreign languages – that’s an adulthood dream of mine. Once I become competent in Mandarin and Japanese, I’ll readily shift the focus to other foreign languages although I’ve already started dabbling Cantonese, Korean, and French. On top of that, I’ve also decided to finally learn the fascinating Khmer writing system from my parents.

I am building up my business acumen to accompany my technical skills. I've managed my own finances since I was 17 years old. In addition, I have been funding my own way through University.

I have been doing my family's tax returns since I was 16 years old. I study the basic tax forms each year, for changes as well as new circumstances. For instance, I will be looking more into taxation rules for self-employment this year.

For the last 8 months, I've been tutoring English to an Actuarial Science graduate student and the information I absorb from him is fascinating: discounted cash flows, DB and DC Plans, IASB and IFRS standards, longevity risks, among others.

I self-taught myself HTML back when I was 15 years old; however, I had always been picky about content and graphics, so I never really got a website off the ground. That same year, for a school project, I also learned Flash in one week with limited knowledge of actionscripting. Recently, I finally got myself to figure out CSS style sheets – fun stuff! I’ve also touched on Ajax javascripting, XML, and PHP/MySQL scripting. My approach to web development has always been to learn as I go since there are abundant resources available on the web.

For me, software development started when I was 16 years old, a year after getting our first family computer. I took grade 11 computer science class which taught Visual Basics 6.0. Thinking back, it’s ridiculous how much I struggled with the concepts of variables and loops at the beginning, although I quickly mastered the basic programming concepts as I grabbed top marks in the class. After an awful experience tutoring programming and dismal career prospects for software (outsourcing and monkey-coding), I scrapped the plan for Software Engineering at UW that I had for two years.

Software still fascinates me, especially with its application in machine intelligence and soft computing. In the end, I chose to specialize in software, which does not come as a surprise =)

I first entered the Cisco Certification track in grade 11. By the time I graduated high school, I had completed the Cisco Networking Academy courses for CCNA and passed the CCNA exam in October 2003.

After almost three years, I renewed my CCNA in August 2006 by passing the CCNP-level exam, BCMSN: Building Cisco Multi-layer Switching Networks.

I got two work terms working directly with networks using Cisco switches and routers. Networking is on a different level from software, but I found I really enjoyed the architectural design. I've found my networking background an asset in my work and studies, so the intense studying was definitely well worth it although I do not see myself continuing on the Cisco certification track. Nevertheless, I am happy that I got some networking work experiences to complement my Cisco certification.

Whereas my passion is foreign languages, my first love is sketching. I have a talent for art and an eye for design.

I love sketching people, basing off a single photograph or a set of photographs. My acute attention to detail, unbreakable focus, and patience are required as one sketch usually has me spending countless hours in one sitting to complete.

I refuse to draw the same thing twice: It drains too much energy and my concentration and interest never reaches the same level.

I believe food is the key to a healthy and energetic life. I love the culinary arts and like trying new things. I especially like cooking and baking with others - it’s so much more fun!

I grew up with Chinese herbal medicine and natural philosophies, but I am getting myself acquainted with the concepts of western nutrition.