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Because of one
school
teacher...
Because of one
A
2002
2009
2009
The Malaysia
Book of
Records for
Largest English
Class
SME Recognition
Award Series
for SME Social
Responsibility
Excellence Award
Golden Bull Award
– The 7th Malaysia
100 Outstanding
SMEs for Outstanding SMEs Winner
s a wee lad, Eric Chong was brought
up in a hard core Chinese speaking
family. He attended a Chinese primary school and went on to a Chinese
independent high school. It would
be safe to say that Eric Chong, CEO
and founder of Erican Education Group, had a background that was grounded in Chinese through and
through.
Not surprisingly then, he grew up hating the
English language and wanted to have nothIs there anything
ing to do with it. As a result, at 16, all Chong
Eric Chong cannot do?
could manage was a smattering of English.
CHARLOTTE ROBERT
That was not the worst of it as well!
Being a bright student, Chong started
finds out that once this
off his academic life brilliantly. In priresilient man sets his mind
mary one, he was the top student but
from there his academic performance
on something, nothing and
spiralled downhill. By the time he was in
no one can stop him. And
primary six, his position was in the 60’s.
his message to everyone
Why? “I was not motivated and had no interest in learning at all,” shrugged Chong.
is, if Eric can, so can you.
While his peers were poring over their
school books, Chong could be found at video
arcades or reading kung fu novels and Chinese
love stories! Finally when he was in form three he resolved to quit studying once and for all.
With his mind made up, the 15-year-old communicated his decision to his father little expecting the
response that his dad, a Chinese school teacher and
a firm believer in education would give him. His father suggested he continue his education abroad so
he could ignite the passion for studying once again.
“When my father said study overseas, I thought
wow, sure. I was ecstatic. Then he said Singapore and
my ecstasy fell flat. However, I knew my father was financially not well off, and for him to suggest I study in
Singapore when he was probably earning about RM600
a month must have been a sacrifice for him. So I found
myself saying yes, all ready to begin the next chapter of
my education in Singapore,” recalled Chong.
With his feet firmly landed on Singaporean soil, an
optimistic Chong approached the best school in Singapore, the Raffles school, but the standards were so
high there he found he could not even get through
the door. A little daunted but largely unperturbed,
he then tried the River Valley High School. This time
he got through the front door but failed the entrance
exam and was refused admission.
At this point, his father felt perhaps he was fated
to go back to Ipoh. A young Chong accepted his fate
and thought if he was not good enough for Singapore, maybe he should go back indeed. Then as luck
or fate would have it, they bumped into Chong’s father’s friend who suggested they try the Monk’s Hill
secondary school which is precisely what they did.
The entrance exam that Chong sat for at the Monk’s
Hill school comprised of English, Chinese and Mathematics. With the results in his hand, the principal of
the school spoke to Chong’s father and declared that
Chong was a genius.
“I was overwhelmed that someone actually called
me a genius. I had 100% for Math and Chinese but
only 30% for English. Based on my English results,
the principal did not want to take me in, genius or
no genius. My dad pleaded with him to help and the
2010
2010
principal finally said he might be able to give me a
MRCA 8TV
place based on two conditions.
National Mark
Entrepreneur
of Malaysian Brand
“Firstly he said the school was extending their liAward for Top
for SME Corp
brary and needed funds to buy new books. He was
15 Nominees
and SIRIM
hoping my father could help out with a donation of
S$2,000 to the school library and S$4,000 to the Ministry of Education. The exchange rate then was 1:1.
The second condition was he wanted to demote me
school
teacher...
because I was not qualified to join students of my age.
“I said no problem, I don’t mind being
demoted for a year, but he said it was not
a year but two years. Desperately wanting me to be accepted into the school,
my father agreed to the principal’s conditions and sold his car to come up with
the donation money. And that was how
I found myself being placed in secondary two with kids two years younger
than me.”
The first day of school for Chong
turned out to be THE day that changed
his life forever. It was a day that a most
terrible ordeal happened.
“I was waiting for the teacher to come
in and being the new kid, I had no
friends. The teacher walked in and she
knew there was a new student in the
class. She asked: ‘Will the new student
please stand up?’ I did not understand
much English so I just sat down.
“The teacher got irritated and raised
her voice and asked twice again: ‘Where
is the new student?’ The guy sitting
behind me kicked my chair and said
in Chinese: ‘The teacher wants you to
stand up.’ So I stood up.
“Then the teacher asked me: ‘What is
your name?’ and I replied: ‘Huh?’ By
now I knew she was really angry but I
was not doing it on purpose. I really did
not understand what she was saying. In
a very frustrated voice, she said: ‘I am
asking you what your name is?’ At that
time I thought I understood her question
but she was talking so fast I still could
not get what she was saying.
“Then she said something that
changed my life forever and she said it
in Chinese. ‘From which village are you
from? Why can’t you speak a word of
English?’ All my classmates burst out
laughing. You must understand that this
was the worst class in one of the worst
schools in Singapore and I was two years
older in a class of outcast and these guys
had found someone more stupid than
them. I guess they had a really good
time watching someone like me in action,” recalled Chong.
At the lowest point in his life, amidst
all the jeering and laughing around him,
Chong felt something strange streaming
down his cheeks. He touched his cheeks
and discovered that it was his tears.
“Guys like us don’t cry. I was rebellious and naughty and in fact I never
cried since I was a baby. When I failed
my exams I didn’t cry, when people beat
me I didn’t cry, when my parents scolded me, I didn’t cry; but that day I cried.
“It was a very unfamiliar feeling. In
Chinese we have a saying — You can kill
a soldier but you cannot humiliate him. I felt
humiliated. Right after school, I ran all
the way back to my apartment, locked
the door and cried without ceasing. I
think I shed all the tears that I never shed
in my life before. After crying for a few
hours, I made a vow to myself.
“I pledged that I will seriously learn
this language and master it. If I don’t
I will have to change my last name to
something other than Chong. In the
Chinese culture changing your sir name
is worse than death. You just never do
it. That is how serious the consequence
would be if I failed to do this one thing
in my life. If I failed I felt I no longer deserved to be called a Chong.”
The journey towards mastering the
English language then seriously began.
Chong spent the next three months
memorising all the words in the Oxford
dictionary non-stop. It was almost as
if he were trying to gobble up the language. His dedication and perseverance
took him a long way.
He became the best student in his class
and one of the top in the school. His English marks were pretty good. Within one
short year, he found he had improved by
leaps and bounds. His pursuit to master
the language was relentless.
He was absolutely passionate about
it and achieved tremendous breakthroughs. He was a student leader and
involved in public speaking and debates. His impressive grades ensured
him a place at a top Anglican school to
pursue his high school education. The
pursuit for academic excellence just got
more impressive from there. The determined young man was admitted to
the best junior college in Singapore, the
Hwa Chong Junior College where he
was the classmate of the son of the then
Deputy Prime Minister and later President of Singapore, the late Ong Teng
Chong, who often spoke to him about
life and success. Chong then went on to
the University of Wisconsin, in Madison
United States, one of the top 50 universities in the world.
When graduation was a whiff away,
Chong got to thinking about his career
plans. “I decided to do something that I
was passionate about. My life changed
because of my deficiency in the English
language and I understood the impact
that mastering a language could make
to someone’s life. So I decided to start
a language school. There was one snag
though, I had no money. So I went to
New York!”
In New York Chong went into real
estate as he reckoned it was one of the
fastest ways to accumulate some capitol
so he could return to
Malaysia and open his
language school. Even
in that, Chong excelled.
It really seemed like
there was no stopping this man.
He quickly became one of the top
salesmen selling up to six plots of
land in a month!
Within a year he had saved up sufficient moolah to start a language school.
In 1990, the first Erican Language Centre
was born. If you haven’t figured it out
already, Erican stands for — if Eric can
so can you.
One of the things Chong quickly discovered was that the majority of the
Malaysian population could not speak
proper English then; he figured the only
way for Malaysia to move up the next
level is for people to converse in good
English.
“I started stressing the importance of
learning the English language. I felt Singapore was doing so much better than
Malaysia because they are good in English. I told people how easy it would be
for them to master the language if they
could just put their heart and soul into
it,” said Chong, 44.
By spreading the importance of learning English, Chong established a strong
positioning for himself. He held road
shows, seminars and was described by
The Straits Times of Singapore as the rock
star of the English language. He would
go as far as singing and dancing for his
audience so he could get them fired up.
“Now I am a sage who speaks calmly.
But I used to hop around,” he laughed.
Chong also worked with the Ministry
of Youth and Sports to encourage young
people to pick up the language. He was
invited to do radio programmes on the
Chinese radio. He taught English in
Cantonese and Mandarin over the radio.
He wrote for every major Chinese newspaper. He was everywhere but with a
very strong focus on the non-English
speaking market.
“I created new strategies of learning
which I called the participative learning
method (PLM). And that was a very effective concept because it was not about
just boring classroom listening but it
was engaging courses.
“Our core business was language
training, 90% in English and 10% in other languages like French, German, Japanese and Mandarin,” explained Chong.
And so they did very well and very
soon Chong started Erican centres
throughout the country doing the same
kind of work with absolute passion
chalking up 20 years of history till today.
Presently there are 30 Erican centres spread all over the peninsular with
150,000 learners. “We are now very focused on training teenagers and children
because I believe there is never a better
time to learn a language than when you
are still young and can build a strong
foundation.
“The young English speaking parents
of today who are sending their children
to us were the once English speaking
students of the early 90s. They come up
to me looking older than me and saying
when I was a child, I used to study in Erican and it has really helped me.
“I am glad I have changed some people’s lives. I believe that sometimes in life
we need someone to tell us something
that we could not see for ourselves and
did not believe in ourselves and if we are
able to take a leap of faith, our lives can
actually be changed forever.
“That is why I do a lot of social work. I
spend the bulk of my time making myself
available for social causes,” said Chong
who is married with two children.
He opines that in live, money is just
money. “Once you have the first million
the rest of the millions will not give you
the same excitement. Acquiring them becomes a routine. But making a difference
in someone’s life; now that really gives
you a kick in your life.”
Erican is at the point where they are diversifying into other areas within the education boundary. “We should be starting a tertiary arm next, god willing. With
the language centre our vision is a global
one. At some point hopefully we will
frog leap and I think it will be a proud
moment for us if we can do that because
then a Malaysian company will be teaching English all over the world. There is a
sense of readiness now.
“We are basically a very ambitious tiny
little fish. I think one should not be confined by their physical presence or size
at the present. You need to be visionary,
and see what perhaps others cannot see
in you. You should know yourself better and know what you can achieve,”
stressed the exemplary leader. As for the
teacher who asked him which village he
was from, Chong is still looking for her to
say Thank You.