Teachers are the engineers of the souls in society. The souls are also the mental development of children apart from knowledge. This is a sacred job. One step wrong and a child’s future will end at the hands of the teacher. Hence, working in this education industry, we do not forget the noble aspiration, and that is why I pay a lot of attention to Yelaoshr’s teaching quality.
Headquarters and teachers, a two-way communication
When I was designing the educational system, I knew that the time children spent at Yelaoshr are very limited. Therefore, our job is to grasp hold of every step in teaching in that limited amount of time so as to not waste any of this precious time. We will not let our teachers do additional things, and try to be accurate in the methods individualised to each child’s needs. If there are teachers giving feedback regarding some materials or courses being ineffective, we will modify and amend it to be near perfection.
The ultimate purpose of Yelaoshr is to teach children to understand and not to finish the syllabus on hand. We do not want to see children understand superficially where after months and months, they did not learn anything. If teachers find that progress is slow, they need to adapt and modify their teaching methods. Of course, based on our experience, 80 per cent of the children are able to follow the lessons in our courses partly because we have been in the industry for years. Those 20 per cent are children that are extraordinary and require extraordinary attention in teaching. Extraordinary meant special need children, slow learners, children with a more stubborn personality etc. The direction of our training for teachers existed for this purpose.
A perfect system, quality assured.
As our franchise expanded in numbers, I am leaning heavily towards the part of training and coaching our teachers. The number of teachers is increasing steadily and slowly, I am unable to guide each and every teacher. The efforts we have put in over the years have made our training module near perfect. We want to focus on the teaching methods and the building up of the mental aspect of our training. Once the techniques and methods are mastered, we can present these techniques wholly in our classes to the children. If we encounter extraordinary children, we need to have great wisdom, immense patience and love to utilise another way to teach them.
Yelaoshr teachers will participate in training at the headquarters or at the centres they work in. Before being able to participate in teaching, teachers will be guided by the supervisor of the branches and they will need to be evaluated and validated at the headquarters later. If a teacher can fully understand and accept our teaching concepts, then she is able to answer all questions. However, if they do not pass the validation process, supervisors will subsequently assist and follow up. Teachers at other centres will also be audited for the quality in teaching as headquarters will send auditors to check on teaching records and observe the situations during classes.
To recognise our teachers’ hard work, we will issue a Certificate of Completion to those who can fully master certain subjects. If a teacher can excel in a subject through results and progress, or to reach a level of expertise, we will issue a Certificate of Achievement and some monetary rewards.
Yelaoshr has established for 13 years and till today, we have 55 centres all over Malaysia. All the branches’ are through joint ventures which means the entrepreneurs are mostly teachers who served in Yelaoshr prior to this. They are evaluated for their attitude and teaching concepts by headquarters before being authorised to open their own Yelaoshr Learning Centre.
We pray that the Yelaoshr franchise can move forward one step at a time to the ambition of being ‘engineers of the soul’; to allow children to learn happily and fall in love with learning from the world that is full of knowledge and information. This is what children of this generation needs, and it is also my heart’s desire to see this wonderful picture.
We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.
Life is like a game. Turning points in life come unexpectedly, just like how Shelly, who was once a TV series producer and executive director did not really expect she would be in the education service. The passion just keeps on burning and her job smooth-sailing.
Left 1：Shelly
“My friends were totally shocked as to why I would suddenly go and teach children!” – Shelly
Shelly loved her work with media, but due to conflicts with people made her realised that “the adult world is too complicated”. From there she encountered Yelaoshr and delved herself into the job.
“Actually, prior to joining Yelaoshr, I was also leading a new batch of freshies, guiding them in their work. Teaching children at Yelaoshr, I realised that they are like white papers, allowing us to draw the sun and rainbow. It felt wonderful.” – Shelly
Shelly said that adults have a mind of their own. They are harder to teach and guide compared to the little children. The children may be mischievous, but with love and care, the naughtiest child can be taught. This is Shelly’s understanding after many years of teaching.
Shelly shared a story when she first worked in Ampang. That was a four-year-old child; because he conversed in English at home, he was very unfamiliar with the Chinese language.
“When this boy first came to Yelaoshr, he could only learn one Chinese word per day.” – Shelly
After some time, Shelly started to doubt if this is a waste of time. Shelly’s boss at that time (also her current business partner) comforted her, “These children will have their minds opened and developed some day.” Lo and behold, after not giving up for a few months, the boy was suddenly able to learn four Chinese words per day! This made both Shelly and the boy extremely happy, even the grandfather who fetched the boy was surprised, which gave Shelly a boost of confidence.
After teaching for some time, Shelly realised that Yelaoshr’s teaching methods are very good and she thought of bringing back this set of techniques back home to Muar. Finally, on the 3rd of September 2016, Shelly opened her own learning centre in Muar and is opened for registration.
“There were of course struggles in the process. Some friends felt that this set of techniques are only for city children but I feel that in every location, there will be children needing help in this aspect. Even though not many people know of Yelaoshr in Muar, I believe if you use your heart to teach, your reputation will become great.” – Shelly
To Shelly, the challenge of entrepreneurship is not the recruitment of students but to look for a good teacher. For this, she thinks that she is very fortunate because her teachers are devoted to their job.
“While training our teachers, we used the methods taught to us by Headquarters. However, whenever I observed their teachings, they would actively come up with new, creative and effective ideas to teach the children. This just proves that they put in the effort and details in teaching.” – Shelly
She reminisced, her pronunciation on Bahasa Malaysia was not strong. Because of this, she lacked confidence while providing training to teachers. Subsequently, I called up an ex-colleague from Penang, and she taught classes through the phone.
“This may sound like an awkward idea, but my teachers not only did not reject the idea, they still pay full attention in learning. I felt very comforted as this was a rare sight.” – Shelly
Teaching at Yelaoshr, only teachers who learn and teach wholeheartedly can go further.
Two years in Muar, Shelly also encountered a few situations that touched her heart. She revealed, “Even though Yelaoshr is opened for children ages 3-12, but I made an exception to take in a child in Peralihan. In his entire primary school life and even UPSR, he failed his Bahasa Malaysia. His father once scolded, “I do not have such a child poor in studies!” thus worries his mother immensely. With a nervous heart, the mother brought this child to Yelaoshr early of the year. In classes, I realised that he is a very obedient child. Even though he is much older than the other students but he can learn with other children and pays much attention in class. At the year-end exams, he scored 80 marks in his Bahasa Malaysia paper. His mother was very touched and kept thanking us profusely. What I want to point out is that this child does not hate studying but he just lacked the suitable methods all these while.”
Returning home to build a business, Shelly noted that it is not as easy as she thought will be.
“Many people may think that going back to Muar and opening up a centre is an easy task because it is a place I am familiar with. In reality, for me, who worked in KL for 10 years, I needed immense courage to get it done.” – Shelly
Even though I have my doubts and worries, yet a few reasons made her pushed forward and completed what she ever wanted to do.
“Two years of Yelaoshr in Muar, I realised that all these years I did not accompany my family. All of my time was used on work and travelling. Coming back to my birthplace allowed me to spend more time with my family. Besides, I wanted to do something that can make a difference to the place I called home since young. Through shaping a happy learning place to grow, I had brought in the excellent teaching methods. These are just some things that I can contribute back to my hometown.” – Shelly
We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.
Before I tell you their story, about the two partners of Taman Mastiara’s Yelaoshr Shi Lin and Hui Xian, I will tell you of their age first – 23 and 25 years old. At such a young age they are already into entrepreneurship, they will have doubts due to their age. Apart from our readers, I am afraid that there are parents who feel the same. Do they have enough experience? Are they matured enough? These are some of the doubts they are faced with in the past.
Both Shi Lin and Hui Xian do not have any university education, but it also meant that they have joined Yelaoshr as teachers for a number of years. Shi Lin recalled that when she first encountered Yelaoshr, the advertisement says “You do not need to have a degree, just a learning heart will do”, thus bringing her to the interview. The same sentence had also moved Hui Xian, “I just graduated and have no direction, I just wanted to accumulate some working experience and decide thereon and I went for the interview.” The two of them got to know each other while working at Laman Rimbunan, Kepong. Because they get along very well with each other, they became great partners at work over time.
From left: Hui Xian, Shi Lin
Two individuals of contrasting backgrounds working together closely
Shi Lin used to work in the beauty sector and has an outgoing personality while Hui Xian worked in a management company as an administrative stuff. The centre’s person-in-charge saw this special combination of an outgoing and a more reserved personality. Subsequently, they were tasked at different natures of jobs – Shi Lin is responsible to meet the parents while Hui Xian is in charge of training the teachers at the centre.
Shi Lin revealed that even though the person-in-charge gave her this mission, but to her, she personally felt frightened and stress.
“I was only 19 then and was very much younger than I am now. I also lack the confidence in my work. At that moment I was unable to successfully recruit any students, in my heart the pressure steadily raised.” – Shi Lin
She said that the person-in-charge will listen to her conversations with the parents, and then advised her on some technical skills and correction of her verbal tone. After a few months, she was some distance behind the target set for her. She was given a one-month grace period and if she did not improve, she will be demoted back to a teacher.
Shi Lin set her mind to work harder and put in more effort. She started looking for opportunities to observe the conversations between the person-in-charge and parents to pick up some ways and techniques to be applied in her own conversations with the parents. It was as if she was given a magic pill to make her understand things and within the grace period, she successfully recruited 16 students. You can say that she improved rapidly. This greatly increased her confidence, giving her a boost to help her get through.
Hui Xian is responsible for coaching the teachers and supervising their teaching quality. She knows how to teach students but coaching teachers is another set of new knowledge.
“Initially I was too enthusiastic to share my innermost thoughts with the teachers. Therefore, no matter educational backgrounds or information, I would say what I wanted to in one shot. The result was that some teachers do not understand what I was conveying. At that moment I only prepared the content I want to say but I did not consider that some individuals cannot absorb.” – Hui Xian
Later, the person-in-charge taught her a way that she can fully enjoy; that is to learn how to analyse the different characters of each and every teacher and from there match them with different teaching techniques. Hui Xian started to organise her coaching materials to enable teachers with different needs to be able to utilise the skills that are most suitable to them. This also greatly improved Hui Xian’s guiding skills and she was more confident with her coaching job.
After years of working together, when the time was ripe, Shi Lin was encouraged to open her own centre and she found herself the best partner Hui Xian to the joint venture.
The responsibilities of enterprising are greater, actively work to become your better self
Entrepreneurship signifies a new beginning to let Shi Lin and Hui Xian start from zero again and to start learning how to manage their own centre. From recruiting teachers, electricity and water supply to recruit students etc. They had to learn it all. Fortunately, these do not stop them in their tracks but they were enjoying the process and feel grateful for the opportunities to learn. April this year, Shi Lin and Hui Xian opened up their doors at Taman Mastiara. The cooperative structure of the Kepong branch was their reference; one dealing with the inside and one on the outside.
In the beginning, just like what this article mentioned earlier, many parents who saw that there were no students and teachers in their newly established centre and moreover noticed their young age do not really trust them, resulting in no students signing up for classes.
“While working at the Kepong learning centre in the past, they did not need to focus on business performance and only focus on teaching. Now that they are independent, they need to take care of many more tasks. What if there are no students? We can only use the free time to distribute brochures and flyers.” – Shi Lin and Hui Xian
They responded honestly that as teachers it felt awkward to distribute flyers. However, for the centre, despite facing wild dogs and hot suns, they persevered on.
The best response to doubt is to be yourself
Hui Xian said that they were unable to stop others from doubting them, so they could only use their performance to make people change their minds.
“The most important thing is to continuously develop ourselves, to raise our own value. Only then people will have confidence in you and trust that you can do a good job.” – Hui Xian
When they started recruiting students, Hui Xian noted that they used their heart to teach the children and additionally report their progression to the parents to let the parents see the growth in their children at Yelaoshr.
To make herself look more mature, Shi Lin purposely wears formal attire to work. Of course, when the first impression is settled, she has to use her experience to persuade the parents to trust them.
“Some parents will ask about Yelaoshr’s teachers’ qualifications, and I will patiently explain to them the training process of Yelaoshr. It does not matter if they have qualifications or teaching experience. To become a Yelaoshr educator must undergo training to ensure the concepts and methods are unified.” – Shi Lin
Through professional and confident conversations, the parents became their ears and mouth, spreading a good name to build up their centre.
Encountering endless honing, Shi Lin and Hui Xian start to taste the sweetness of success. To understand our own strengths and weaknesses, in addition to seamless teamwork, allowed them to draw closer to times of harvest.
We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.
Counting back, I have already been in the education line for 13 years. Till to date, if you are to ask me, “What is the most needed in the education sector?” My answer will be – the passion to persevere on and to teach according to the abilities of the children.
Being a teacher is different from the common office work of white collars. Each and every day, we face very lively children. If on any day you do not have any mood for work, you can be inattentive at work and finished off the basic tasks. However, being a teacher you are unable to do so. If on any day your attention is elsewhere and work is not of no interest, classes for the children that day is doomed. They will lose a day of opportunity to learn and improve. Therefore, it can be seen that the educator’s profession is such a noble one.
Though it is tough, I am not bitter about it but I am happy with it.
We encounter different children each day, answering the questions they ask, feeling the joy when they learn and even laugh uncontrollably at the jokes they make… You can say that every day is a fresh one. When these children grow up, there will be a new batch of students coming in and that is totally a brand new page to write stories about. How interesting it is!
Facing different students, we cannot utilise the same old teaching methods because not everyone can be applied with the same methods. Teachers have to use limitless creativity to cater to the children’s foundations and personalities to ensure that they will learn something and grow. While guiding children to use their intelligence, we as teachers also cracked our brains immensely.
Nevertheless, we see that teachers in schools are faced with the progression of the syllabus and challenged with the Ministry of Education’s standards; hence, they are unable to be a hundred per cent sure that every student understands the whole chapter before proceeding to the next. At Yelaoshr, teachers are not limited by these restrictions and challenges. We can teach one chapter for a week, ensuring that they learnt fully before moving forward to the next chapter. Due to situations like this, teachers are responsible to the children and parents, not losing consciousness, and so reaped great satisfaction in their work. Yelaoshr provides teachers with the freedom in their teaching to allow teachers to recollect their confidence and the passion of education for the next generation because the line of work they are doing are the things that they should be and want to do.
I am fortunate to meet so many fellow educators
The annual training, 2008, approximately 10 teachers; 2018, over 230 teachers
Yelaoshr is established for 13 years, my teaching audience changed from students to teachers. In order to be certain that Yelaoshr’s teachers are one in mind, we bring forth many training courses and activities for our teachers. One of the main focuses is our teachers’ attitude and teaching techniques. With only passion and no skills, or have excellent teaching skills but without patience cannot effectively educate the children.
All this training are also a time for teachers to present the best parts of themselves. I always hope that the children can unleash their potentials and it is also the same for the teachers.
Through the training, we can always get to know more about each and every teacher. If we meet people who are not suitable for the job, we will not approve them of teaching. There are some teachers who worked for one or two years and lost their passion will leave on their own. Just like what was mentioned earlier, this job as a teacher cannot be forced. A common white collar can still produce work even though they do not like their job; however, if you do not like children, you are really unable to proceed in this field. The children cannot learn anything from you and the satisfaction from your work is no longer there.
Apart from training, we can understand if a teacher’s teaching methods are working through the progress of their children because, at the end of every phase of learning, the children will have tests. If a teacher is unable to teach them, the children will not pass the tests. At Yelaoshr, every teacher is unable to zombie around as they really need to teach their children well. At schools, we can say that with such a big class it is impossible to take every student into consideration; at Yelaoshr, with the one-to-one teaching, there is no such excuse.
I am very fortunate. After experiencing all sorts of challenges, most teachers still stay back at the end. These teachers truly accept Yelaoshr’s educational concepts and have requirements for themselves. Every now and then, they will use their creativity to produce better teaching methods. These are not the things required by the Headquarters or by the boss, but it is of their own initiative. I always instilled my teachers with a concept – this job is not just working for the boss but for themselves. Teaching the children is like accumulating blessings for themselves. Blessings will come naturally when you have a pure heart to educate children, and not just being indifferent to the profession.
On this road of education likened the spring breeze and rain, I am immensely blessed to have so many walking with me.
We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.
To enable children to learn new information, to equip yourself so that you can lead a team efficiently, how much effort are you willing to put in? How much are you willing to sacrifice? Elva, from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, East Malaysia, has been flying back and forth to West Malaysia every month just to participate in training programs. Such frequent travels she did, all because Elva did not forget that first heart in education.
In 2014, prior to exposure of Yelaoshr, Elva was the Creative Mind Training Centre’s joint partner. The centre uses mind mapping techniques as their teaching methods and students’ participation ranges from primary 4 to university students. However, in the process of teaching, Elva realised that although the students have the ability to analyse important points, they have a problem with recognising words.
“To solve this issue, I started to google up about educational bodies that teach words recognising and I bumped into Yelaoshr.” – Elva
In order to gain experience from Yelaoshr, Elva negotiated many times.
“The common rule was that to be an entrepreneurship partner requires training at the Yelaoshr Learning Centre, to learn the full set of teaching methods after some time. Due to me living in East Malaysia, I was unable to cooperate and was rejected about five or six times. They told me the reason why I could not just undergo training and straightaway open a Yelaoshr Learning Centre in Sabah. I totally understand their concerns. However, after pleading for many more times, Yelaoshr finally made an exception to allow me to train in a week, then to open up a new centre in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.” – Elva
Reminiscing, Elva thinks that they finally understand that both have similar educational concepts and both parties felt like they have met a friend on the same path, thus, creating the opportunity for Yelaoshr to make an exception.
“My centre and Yelaoshr’s educational concepts are the same. We focused on building up our students’ foundation.” – Elva
Hence, since establishing the Yelaoshr Learning Centre, whenever students have a problem with recognising words at the Creative Mind Training Centre, they will join the classes at Yelaoshr in order for students to fully accept these teaching methods.
This exception has not made Elva felt lucky whereas it turned into a type of motivation, prompting her to be much more diligent than others.
“Everyone trained and taught for a much longer period than I did, and only half a year to a year later opened their centres. I only trained for a week, so whenever there are Yelaoshr training programs conducted in West Malaysia, I would attend them. – Elva
Elva notes that although the program contents are somewhat similar, yet the sharing by many teachers had benefited her.
“Every person’s personality, values and experience are different. Listening to the sharing of experiences by others always gave me new ideas.” – Elva
In addition to participating in the programs organised by Yelaoshr, Elva would take the opportunity to sign up for other courses when she comes to the west. For instance, the NLP program (neurolinguistic programming), leadership-related and communication courses. Currently, Elva flies over for about two times per month.
Elva believes that continuous learning is an educator’s persistence.
Humbly, Elva notes that her learning abilities are weaker than others. Moreover, she was not keen on learning in the past; hence her educational level is only until Form 5 level. To be able to stand firm and set a foothold in the society, she understands that she needed to work harder, to sacrifice more energy to equip herself and not give up learning new things. There are many successful people in the society. Even if her career is on its tracks, she learns continuously, and this is our example.
When asked if she feels tired or numb due to the many courses she attended, Elva replied that in every stage of her life, everything she learnt and experienced is different. She believes that if she stops learning because her centre is doing well, or the number of students reached its target, she will not reach the peak of her life. Furthermore, Elva said that besides attending courses, applying the things she learnt on teachers, students and parents are also a part of learning. An example she pointed out was, “In these recent years, one thing that I love to encourage was ‘to start from myself’.A lot may comment that what he or she should do but I feel the need to start from ourselves to slowly influence the people around us. It does not matter if it is the implementation of a new technique or to quit some bad habits, the effects will be better than just giving advice or criticising others.”
Gaining experience from the grandmaster.
Instead of saying Elva learnt many leadership and education ‘skills’, but to her, what’s most precious is the experiences after implementing information she listened and learn from class into real life. From Elva, we can deeply understand the true meaning of ‘there’s no end of learning’. Hey, isn’t this the “to start from myself” concept Elva shared working?
(Because of Elva, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah has its first Yelaoshr Creative Learning Centre, allowing local children with needs to benefit. Soon, this coming October, Elva will step foot in Miri to bring quality education to children there. We hope that more children will build their foundations strong in recognising words and love learning even more!)
We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.
From time to time, I would think that the moment that parents most trusted their children is during the infancy period. We believed they can learn how to eat, walk, talk… However, what is the reason that when children stepped into the school, they started to lose trust in their children? That is because we adults started to compare. Xiao Ming from the house next door has such excellent results, but my child just barely passed… How did this happen? We started to question if our child is less intelligent, less hardworking… All sorts of negativity will be added on the child.
The course at Yelaoshr is a children-centred education system. Only when children truly understand the things they have learned, we will then proceed to the next step. Just give your children some time and patience; we have confidence that we can teach them to recognise words, even if they are three or four years old. Nevertheless, parents will feel that their children have wasted the tuition fees and disappointed them when results were not seen over time just because they do not believe that their children can do it.
As parents, we need to learn to accept our children for themselves. Many a time, when our children are unable to catch up with the syllabus set in the school, parents will start to be worried and afraid and they start to reproach their children. My child was in primary 3 and sometimes he does not know the multiplication table. Honestly, I can accept it because he does not understand why he needs to memorise the multiplication table. What is the function of the multiplication table? Of course, I will help him to learn how to memorise the multiplication table and not blame him on what he cannot do just because other children can. Because this is my child; this is he himself.
Just give it a thought, if no one sets a rule that primary 3 students need to memorise the multiplication table, will you feel it as a problem if a primary 3 cannot memorise it? You do not find it a problem, yes? We are always being fixed into the frames of society and forgot to give our children space to learn what they love; to follow their own interests and learn and grow. Even if a child reaches an age of 12 and their minds mature and can memorise the multiplication table, it is still a celebratory event, because he finally understands it!
To me, these are not some new and fresh educational concepts. I just feel that these are natural events. It is time we place our focus on our child instead of other children, school teachers and even tuition teachers. A child’s every step in growth, be it fast or slow, is worth celebrating!
We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.
Sisters Crystal and Zi Ling are considered to be Yelaoshr’s seniors in the early days of establishment. Currently, they own four Yelaoshr Learning Centres at USJ Subang, Kota Kemuning, Bukit Tinggi and Bandar Parkland in Klang Valley. It seemed like a very successful business but who would have thought they used to face the challenge of having no student, no income and no ability to provide payrolls?
Today, we interviewed the elder sister, Crystal. When she finished her SPM at the age of 18, she enrolled a course for air stewardess. As they were available positions in the flight company she desired after finishing her studies, she brought the attitude of “I’ll do this for the time being” and joined Yelaoshr. Fate is so amazing, this ended up being her job with Yelaoshr for more than 10 years.
“I got the opportunity to teach some very special children at that time. They can just roll under the table because they do not want to study. However, through Yelaoshr’s teaching methods, I told them stories and built a relationship with them. Ultimately they actually quietly sit down to learn. This not only gave me a great sense of achievement and it also filled me with the joy of helping them to learn.” – Crystal
About a year later, Crystal was provided with the opportunity to manage a centre. She laughed, “I was teaching at the Sri Petaling Yelaoshr’s first learning centre. I performed exceptionally well with another colleague of mine at the centre, so the founder, Carol told us that ‘One mountain cannot hide two tigers’, and she decided to arrange me to Mahkota Cheras to help an investor manage the centre.” A very cheerful Crystal did not think much of it at that time; she just felt that if Carol gave her this mission meant that she was trusted to be able to handle the task. Hence, she was position as a centre’s person-in-charge from teaching.
“Later on, Carol gave me a mission to open a new learning centre.” – Crystal
左一：Crytal，Carol；右下：紫玲
Crystal, who had only worked for two or three years, where did she get the capital to establish a new centre? She applied for a personal loan, with additional support from her family finally managed to gather enough financially to open a centre. She brought her sister Zi Ling together to Subang Jaya to establish her very first Yelaoshr Learning Centre. Crystal was in charge of management while Zi Ling did the teaching. The efforts and plannings did not bring them off to a good start. In the first month, they were unable to recruit any students, did not have any income and could not even afford the payroll for the staff.
“It was truly a tough time. Yelaoshr was not very popular at the beginning and not many people will come to us.” – Crystal
Crystal described the situation as ‘setting foot into the business’ and could only persevere ob despite the hardships. Subsequently, they went to schools and homes to pass out brochures, telling themselves that they will have students, utilising the ‘Law of Attraction’. By the second month, they have recruited enough students to balance off the expenses and they finally passed the storm.
However, the events that happened later are enough to prove that Crystal’s positivity. Five months after establishing their first Yelaoshr Learning Centre, Crystal opened up her second centre.
“I was thinking that I have me and my sister; since the first centre is on its tracks, why not try to expand with a second centre? – Crystal
Crystal decided to joint venture with a colleague from Sri Petaling and opened her second centre at Kota Kemuning.
“I believe that where there are students, there is a need for Yelaoshr.” – Crystal
With such a simple belief, it allowed her to subsequently open her third (Bukit Tinggi) and fourth (Bandar Parkland, Klang) Yelaoshr.
Do not deter from that first purpose because of the workload
Crystal’s positivity and optimism, allowed her to lead a team of excellent members, helping countless students.
At the moment, Crystal goes back and forth between the four centres. She teachers if they are shorthanded in addition to most of the time communicating with the parents. To this she expresses, “From a business perspective, the parents are our sources of income; but we cannot bring forth this attitude to meet with the parents as this concept will affect the communication between us and the parents. Why so? Because I have done it before.”
Crystal revealed that she would not recruit just any student. Only students who undergo the test and require help will be accepted. Students who have a high ability to learn are those Crystal would not recruit. From a business perspective, this practice will definitely affect business performance.
“Initially when I was helping an investor to manage the centre, the investor would constantly tell me that our business performance is poor which caused me much stress. It led me to see the parents as a source of money, constantly persuading them to send their children here to study.” – Crystal
Quickly, Crystal realised that she violated her own and Yelaoshr’s professional standards. She reflected her opinions to the investor, noting that they should not blindly use sales to evaluate the performance of the centre because this concept will change Yelaoshr’s education beliefs.
“I believe that being loyal and true to the first purpose we establish Yelaoshr and to the attitude of education, the parents will feel the difference because only with the right attitude will more students enrol.” – Crystal
To Crystal, the most challenging aspect of expanding Yelaoshr was not teaching, and not encountering the parents; but it is to find the teacher with a heart for children and is willing to teach them.
“Teachers with both qualities are few in number.” – Crystal
Every so often, whenever Crystal realised that some teachers only bring in an attitude of a worker or when teaching gets tough and tiring, Crystal will always discuss with them regarding their career prospects and direction.
“I personally think that if you truly have the heart to teach a child, you will not feel exhausted. If you feel exhausted, perhaps the methods you used are incorrect or your attitude and personality do not suit the job.” – Crystal
In that way, Crystal feels it is better for both parties because there is no need to force the stay of teachers, making them tired as she herself also feels tired when seeing situations as such.
“If you do not suit the job, just let go! There is no wrong in it.” – Crystal
Barely approaching her 30s, Crystal is very satisfied with her current situation.
“I have family members who are very supportive and they shifted from one place to another a few times just for me. My four centres only require a highway to commute which makes it convenient. This year-end or early next year, Yelaoshr will be expanding to Putra Heights and I look forward to the future.” – Crystal
Bringing forth a childlike heart to help children with a passion and to solve the frustrations of parents are the secret keys to Crystal success. These stories may sound like nothing but they are the stories that inspire Crystal’s soul; they are the motivations that keep expanding the Yelaoshr franchise. She only has one goal – that is more people will benefit from Yelaoshr.
We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.
As parents, we would pay special attention to our children’s big and small issues. Especially after establishing the Yelaoshr Learning Centre, sometimes hearing the educational methods of some parents to their children, my heart felt pride. Everyone, please lend me some time and listen to what I’ve got to say!
The most frequent thing I have heard is that parents are disappointed and furious because the studies of their children are not as expected. Some would even go as far to say, “I’ve spent so much money, sacrificed my time to fetch you and you’ve repaid me with this kind of results!” Similarly, if their children produce good results, parents would reward their children, showing that they love them even more. Between parents and the children, this situation whereresults are used in exchange for love has indirectly caused harm to the children.
I believed that not one child does not want to excel in their studies. Many times, they do not even know what problems they are facing in the process of studying. “Why can’t I understand even if I’ve studied it back and forth? Why does the teacher give me so many exercises, but I still cannot understand what it is about?” Before the challenges faced are even resolved, the children already hear their parents’ scolding. Now, the children will receive a message – it is my fault, I am not good enough, and sink into a perception that they are stupid and useless. What a depressing phenomenon this is! Only with excellent results, then I am accountable to my parents, then my parents will love me… is this truly “love”?
Nowadays, capitalism is the way of the norm, many parents are both working in the society, and have also accepted rules in the business society; that is, how much you deserve depends on how much effort you have put in. At some of the Yelaoshr Learning Centres, I have heard parents calculating, “In this course, how many words can you let my child learn? RM400 can learn 800 words, meaning one word costs 50 cents?” If the amount of money is paid and the child does not learn the fixed amount of words, it seems as if Yelaoshr is a scam!
In truth, there are many factors that affect a child’s results. In addition to their own qualifications, they also require time, encouragement and support from others, the physical and mental state of the child on the exam day etc. This is not a business, but an education. We cannot use the standards of business to fit on a child.
Another thing I have frequently heard is, “I know that your courses are great, but I think my child cannot do it.” They said that they have watched the videos posted on our website and are confident in our teaching methods, but they are just not confident in their children. Frustratingly they totally do not believe that their children have potential, simply saying that “My child is a slow learner, very hard to be taught.” Even if children have an opportunity to learn, they still carry a doubtful attitude, feeling that their children cannot succeed.
I always tell my fellow teachers that we have to continuously do what we do to prove to the parents that their children can do it. This is truly the biggest wish and motivation of Yelaoshr’s teachers. We may recruit children of larger ages and they may have some temper and attitude in the beginning and teaching them can be tedious and tiring at times. Nevertheless, when we are able to teach team, allowing their parents to change their opinions, the effort and time we have put in are worth it. In schools, you may probably hear of the teachers complaining about your child, saying that they are not focused, or not completing their homework etc;at Yelaoshr, we will tell you – your child can do it!
We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.
There is a saying that goes, raise a child for 100 years, worry 99 of it. However, parents similarly also have stress and emotions. No matter how much you keep holding on, there will be much needed time to rest and relax. This article is for parents who relentlessly work hard to raise their children. Open up your heart to read Sg. Chua’s Yelaoshr Learning Centre’s business partner cum person-in-charge – Wendy’s story.
The first is about a mother of a seven-year old girl; a story about being in extreme stress when her child goes for exams.
Wendy revealed this mother is a working adult who comes home rather late from work. Due to her job, she can hardly find the time to revise with her daughter and because of this gets very worried about her daughter’s exam results. During a recent mid-term test, she confessed to Wendy that she does not have enough time to revise all of the chapters with her daughter, causing her to worry. This mother regards Wendy as a true friend, so they chatted via messages till 11pm late at night. Wendy does not see it as a trouble.
“I usually treat the parents like my friends. Additionally, my daughter is also the same age as hers and they are both going through this mid-term exam. Hence she would tell me about these things as I understood how she felt.” – Wendy
Honest to speak, Wendy feels that this mother’s daughter does quite well in her exams. It is just that sometimes she will make some careless mistakes when answering the questions. Wendy comforted her; telling her that her daughter is doing better than average, and tried to convey a message on the attitude a parent should have.
“Exams are a part of a child’s learning process and the results are not important.” – Wendy
Wendy says, just like adults, there is no book that teaches us how to become mothers or teachers, we learn step by step. It is the same for exams. Children have to experience a few exams and they will begin to grasp a few exam answering techniques such as after finished answering they should recheck etc. Wendy also points out an important aspect, which is the parents’ emotion.
“If parents show that they are overly nervous during their children’s exam period, children will indirectly feel that exams are very frightening, thus causing them to be stress. We should learn to let go in order for our children to grow. It is still something I have mentioned – the results are not everything.” – Wendy
After advice from Wendy, the mother was calmer. When her daughter’s results were revealed, indeed her child did well and the best subject – Bahasa Malaysia even got a 99.5%! There is still room for improvement due to careless mistakes, but after learning a lesson, she will definitely become better!
To fully understand children’s learning progression is one of the ways to supervise their studies. The other option is to encourage and trust in your child. This is another story Wendy wants to share with you.
December last year, a parent brought her seven-year-old to Wendy’s centre. After some tests, the child was determined to only have a five-year-old level in Bahasa Malaysia and a six-year-old level in Chinese. The learning centre was on holidays at the end of the year, so the child only started his classes in January the following year. Wendy said that the parent was very worried and helpless. For one, she knows her child’s language proficiency is not at par; secondly, she does not want to send her child for tuition at a young age of seven. Wendy then comforted the parent, telling her that Yelaoshr is different from tuition centres. We will let children learn in happiness, boosting their interest in reading and to build their foundation as a forefront direction.
After listening to Wendy’s explanation about Yelaoshr’s teaching methods and concepts, she agreed and is assured to let her child learn at Yelaoshr. To build up and strengthen language foundation requires time and it the results cannot be reaped in a short time. The parent was not anxious in her child improving at top speed because she trusts Yelaoshr, but she trusts her child even more. After half a year of guidance, on the open day of Yelaoshr, Wendy reported the learning progress of her child and this parent gave lots of assurance and said that her child has learnt many words now and it very positive in wanting to learn more.
“In the past, she has bought a lot of reference books for her child but would never want to read them; now, the child would take the initiative to ask for reference books and exercises.” – Wendy
Currently, the child has progressed from suku kata to words in Yelaoshr’s Bahasa Malaysia class while in the Chinese language, he has completed the primary 1 syllabus and is moving forward to the primary 2 phase.
Wendy says that she understands that parents may be anxious about seeing the growth and improvement of their children and this is very normal. However, do not be frustrated; we need to have a positive and healthy attitude and method to guide the children and not be overly anxious which will affect the passion of a child towards learning. She also points out that some parent will blindly send their children to different tuition centres, filling up all the time. If a child has a weak foundation, tuition will not help.
“We need to find the root of the problem, accept it and solve it.” – Wendy
We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.
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