Hmm, a memory. I’m not exactly a person who can remember a lot of things vividly, probably because I keep questioning myself and what I remember. Maybe that’s why I constantly seek new information. So, instead of literally remembering things, I can just find the logic and understanding.
This reminds me of how I’ve always been a curious kid, but a careful one. You know that kind of quiet kid who doesn’t like to dive into the crowd, never likes the spotlight, or interacts too much with other people, but she can be left alone with a book and be perfectly fine, whether it’s a book for her to read or draw in. She listened so well that people would be a bit shocked when she actually could speak. That kid is probably how I looked like. Not the smartest, nor the quietest, just the reserved one.
When I was 5 years old, I remember my family had a Nokia 3310 back in 2000-2001. At that time, phones looked more like a toy to call someone, to play games, set an alarm, and count numbers. So, my parents gave it to me and let me tinkered with what’s inside. Later, they asked me, still a 5 year-old kid, how to turn the alarm on/off and turn the volume up/down. That’s probably where my teaching skill was sparked.
Four years later, I started teaching younger kids in my neighborhood and sometimes helped them with their homework. Not because I’m smart, but because I wanted to figure out the feeling of making kids smarter by giving them the knowledge I already had.
Around the same year, in the 4th grade, my grandpa bought me a laptop, an Acer Aspire 4530. This gadget really satisfied my curiosity, I learned internet troubleshooting from a portable modem. Maybe a lot of kids my age can do better than I did, but among my peers, I couldn’t find anyone who understood what I said about the problem I was facing, except this IT unc, my aunt’s husband who got us the portable modem.
I used to be the tech person at home, until we grew up and my family started relying on my brother because “He’s a boy/male, he must’ve understood tech better than the girl (me).” So, I gave him the spotlight and let myself be the observer, I only take an action when needed. It sounds cool, but really, not at all, because now my brother can actually understand tech the way I did. So, I let him take over, and I’m not really interested in improving my skills in that area anymore.
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Growing up, I liked to observe things like nature, people, or even dogs’ behavior, as well as learning languages and understanding the culture behind each language. For example, do you know that the letters in Hangul are grouped into little blocks? So you can basically write the sounds of words from other languages using Hangul. The reason is because King Sejong (the guy who invented the letters) wanted to replace the difficult Chinese characters. I totally understand the reason. But unfortunately, I really could’ve got the opportunity to create a secret language with my friends using Hangul when I was in high school.
Also, Norwegian language apparently has 2 kinds, Bokmål og Nynorsk. I learned Bokmål because it’s the mostly common language spoken in Norway. And while Nynorsk translated as “New Norwegian”, the words are using Old Norse with a mix of Norwegian dialects.
OMG I just can’t let you leave without telling this one. In some languages I studied, the word “Chocolate” sounds almost the same:
- English: Chocolate
- Indonesian: Cokelat
- Norwegian: Sjokolade
- Welsh: Siocled
- Korean: 초콜릿 (Chokolis)
I still don’t know why. Maybe there are some other words that sound similar, but I only found chocolate so far. Wait, lemme grab a bite.
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This post doesn’t seem like a writing about a memory anymore. But alas, maybe the only thing I really remember from these memories (because I got the logic) is the pattern that shows I’m still that curious kid.
I learned about cloud hosting, website building, and basic SEO so I could teach people through my writing. I learned how to write press releases by reading examples and understanding the patterns. And it turned out that it became a part of my work too.
From a curious kid to a constant learner, I’m grateful that I still got a lot of willingness to learn new things and get excited about it. I don’t know for how long, but I hope it’ll be long enough for me to pass on the knowledge and the learning spirit I have to the people who need it the most.
Also! This pic sums up what I meant by being “a curious kid”:
