Greetings from La Salle Brothers’ Residence, Petaling Jaya. Peace and Joy is within you.
I returned to Malaysia on 15th Dec for my annual end of year holiday to catch up with family,
friends, former students and fellow Lasallians. At least once a year, I want to reconnect, to
renew ties of friendship and to thank everyone who has been journeying with me in Project
Mission China at La Salle Study Centre,Changjiao in Meizhou, Guangdong, China.
 

Looking back a little, as usual, registration for LSSC weekend tuition classes was held on the
2nd weekend after schools reopened and that was on 12th and 13th September. With the help of
Lucy my assistant and a team of regular students, the registration of students went off smoothly.

On the first day, there were a few parents/grandparents who insisted that their children of
primary 2 or 3 were able to follow our classes and when we tested their Pinyin (Romanized
Chinese) they failed as I expected. A few were able to get it correct on the smart phone or
computer because of the built-in multiple choice features but had problem writing it. I am
always very concerned that students in China first master the skills of Pinyin so that they can
efficiently write Chinese on their smart phone or computer before they learn our Pinphonics
which is based on Pinyin principles but modified to enable them to read and write English well.

Our weekend classes for the new academic year 2015-2016 began on Saturday 19th September
and ended on 25th October as I began my preparations to return to Hongkong and my assistant
Lucy got ready to go to Guangzhou to find a job and begin to build her career.

I must put on record my gratitude to Lucy for her 3+ years of service at LSSC as a capable administrator and a very efficient and versatile teacher. When I visited Guangzhou in early November she already found a teaching position and had begun working. My local team of weekend stay -in
volunteers and I will miss her when I return to LSSC in January 2016. God is with you Lucy.
Remember Jonathan Seagull … believe in yourself and free yourself to chase your dream.

In my 3rd Q report I wrote about the problems of getting the villagers to work together in order
to bargain for better prices for our pomelos. I hope what I said to them based on their recent
experiences will enlighten them and motivate them to be more cooperative in future.

Meanwhile because of the scarcity of labour, it is no longer economical to hire casual labour
and so I made a trip to Meixian to look for farming machines that are suitable for small plots on
hill slopes and we were very fortunate to find a diesel engine that digs trenches costing
RMB6800. Casual labour to dig trenches for 1500 trees cost about RMB3600 a year and s o a
once off investment can be recovered in 2 years and the machine should have another 8 years of
useful life. News of our machine spread like wild fire and we had farmers coming from all over
to see our “iron man” at work! I think I should get in conta ct with the manufacturer to bargain
for a better price as many farmers are interested to buy one when they have cash in hand after
the next harvest.

I had the honour of hosting my niece from London, Josephine and her husband Michael in
November. They were on their on their around-the-world one year tour and choose to spend
some quiet time with me at LSSC. Michael is an IT man and he helped me to put together the
songs that we often sing into a karaoke format whereby I can easily replace the background
photographs easily. Singing is crucial in learning how to pronounce and we also sing to learn
sentence structures and engage in Q&A activities. I want to express my thanks to Michael for
making things easier for me.

We were also honoured by the visit of Lasallians and friends from Malaysia and they are
Michaelians from Ipoh: Lee Ngeow Seng, Lee Nyit Hian, Lee Oi Hian, Lee Sin Hean, Lee
Choon Hian, Lee Sei Fah, Tan Mee Su, Shirley Siew Kean Lee, Joseph Michael Lee,
Hew Choy Kon, Cheah Ban Foo. Thank you for coming as your visit gives us “big face” in the
eyes of the local government.

Finally, and definitely not the least, Mr Wang Chee Seng, a 4 times summer volunteer and the
keeper of our website www.lasallechina.com, returned to LSSC for a visit and he encouraged
me to put our Pinphonics English Reading method into smart phones apps so that we can better
popularize Pinphonics as an alternative English Reading System for students in China via the
social media. We spent many hours together trying out prototypes of apps that will enable
students to learn to read English confidently on a self-taught basis.

This is my final report for this year 2015. I thank God for the many blessings of this year in the
form of my students at LSSC and the support of all of you who accompanied and walked with
me in this wonderful journey of service and discovery.

God is with us – God is within you

Greetings of Christmas – Peace and Joy be with you.

Take care and God bless. Please keep me in your prayers.

As always with love in the service of youth and nation through DLS,

BDLiao
La Salle Brothers’ Residence
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
23rd Dec 2015