TRUNG HỌC DUY TÂN - PHAN RANG

[Bi]

THE SEMINAR, THE TACIT KNOWLEDGE OF CANADIAN EXPERIENCE, THE DISAGREEMENT, and THE UNHAPPY ME
(All the names of individuals in this paper are deliberately withheld by me to reserve my respects for them and to not create a confrontation in which I am not ready in a position to challenge a debate)

THE SEMINAR:

On Friday, October 14, 2011, the seminar on “Tacit Knowledge, Immigrants, and the issue of Canadian Experience” was held at ‘UofT’. The issue of Canadian Experience was a central theme and was done by a core research team and carried out in collaboration with immigrant serving agencies. Its aim is to understand Canadian experience in terms of unspoken knowledge. Its focus is on soft skills i.e. the tacit dimensions of Canadian workplace culture. Its intent is to help Newcomer Professionals to understand and overcome major barrier which is Canadian Experience, in finding employments in Canada.

The A.P. introduced the topic that is of her interest and work in the last 5 years: Canadian Experience. She emphasized the important of soft skills embedded in Canadian Experience that needs to be understood, learned, and possessed if immigrant professionals want to obtain employment in Canada. Her research team employed a new technique that is art-based performance or readers’ theatre to inform the audience. Readers’ theatre is a play in which actors take turn reading the scripts held in their hands.

The speaker from A.A. addressed the work at her organization in helping Newcomers, in supporting immigrants facing barriers, especially in finding jobs. She acknowledged that there are systemic barriers for visible minorities, and health and income decrease with time whereas knowledge increases in the new environment, and therefore Newcomer professionals need concrete knowledge about legislature, laws etc. She said A.A. has tried to integrate the finding of systemic barriers into its immigrant programs. She explained anti-racism and employment equity works at A.A. even though facing funding cuts from sponsors etc. Finally, she said employers must know the problems and should help solve them. She ended with a phrase “It is critical time to tackle the issue of systemic barriers because of its impacts on immigrants”.

THE TACIT KNOWLEDGE OF CANADIAN EXPERIENCE:

The arts-informed research project then performed a play that was the main part of the seminar. The play – readers’ theatre – was about 3 Newcomer professionals from different countries in the world representing a large number of new immigrant professionals who had hard time to find jobs in Canada and faced many problems in the job interviews etc.; and there was another character acting as voices for Canadian employers who said out loud during the play the reasons why they refused to employ Newcomer professionals. The reasons could be summed up as because they lack Tacit Knowledge of Canadian Experience.

After the act, the research team and the A.P. handled the questions and comments from the audience. There were many comments and few questions from the audience elaborating on Tacit Knowledge; all was entertained. I had a comment “In the past, I often heard the term Canadian Work Experience, not Canadian Experience. When I was at the job interview, I was often asked whether I had a job in Canada before, and the employer never asked me how much I know about Canadian Culture. It is useful to talk about Canadian Experience, but it is a vast issue. If we could narrow it, the Canadian Experience, down to Canadian Work Experience, it will be more helpful and we could come up with some solution in advocacy such that Canadian employers will be more willing to hire Newcomer professionals to help them getting Canadian Work Experience. To get a job, one needs to have Canadian Work Experience, to get Canadian Work Experience one needs to have a job. It’s like chicken and the egg, which one comes first? If we talk about Canadian Experience, it will become a much larger problem of the chicken and the egg.” My points were stated clearly and understood by all. Some in the audience nodded heads.  The play team leader looked at the A.P. and the A.P. did not address my comment. A man behind me interfered with his comment toward me “That’s why it is called Tacit Knowledge” and commented out loud that he wanted to inform the Newcomer professionals not to think that they come to Canada a day and get jobs the following day immediately; and then he left. After that, the rest of questions from the audience were answered.

After the question period, the most respected S.P. spoke. She said she had many of her Ph.D. students working on this complex issue of Canadian culture. She stated that in a complex situation such as at the job interview it involved many much more complicated factors one needs to understand, and she used the board behind her to draw many circles intersected on one another or influenced together on the complex situation. She did not have much time to talk on it because of the schedule.

After that, the play team leader stood up, repeated the question that was repeated a few times during the play, and looked at me (or I thought so): “Remember this question: Do we trust you?”. That question means whether Canadian employers trust the immigrant professionals. The seminar and the Tacit Knowledge of Canadian Experience ended with the comments sheet handed out to the audience. At that time, I left without leaving comments.

THE DISAGREEMENT:

1. Chicken and the egg
The seminar had put up a very large frame: Tacit knowledge of Canadian Experience, and then inserted in it the problem of Newcomer professionals having hard time finding jobs in Canada. It fits nicely, of course. Any other problems of immigrant professionals (or just immigrants) would also fit in it perfectly. Whether immigrants having hard time finding new friends or/and social life in Canada; immigrants having hard time finding love in Canada; immigrants having hard time to adjust and integrate into Canadian society; and any problems one can think of and know about immigrants facing new lives in Canada; they will all fits very well in that large frame. The Canadian Work Experience is a part of the Canadian Experience, and so is the problem of immigrants having troubles finding jobs in Canada part of the Canadian Experience!

The soft skills – understand Canadian cultures at workplace, know how to interact with people there, know when to say and what to say and how to say it, learn to ignore and be ignored at workplace, learn to wear mask (sic) etc. - suggested from the seminar requires that immigrants live in Canada and work long enough in Canadian companies in order to acquire them. Everyone knows that! And it sounds like teaching new immigrants how to become perfect subordinates in new life! I want to believe the seminar wants to inform and educate immigrants about soft skills so that immigrants can understand, learn and have them before going to the job interview and to workplace. The problem is whether new immigrants can learn those soft skills without actually being at workplace, and how long it takes them to really learn those soft skills through workshop provided there are workshops at some serving immigrant organizations with knowledgeable professionals to teach them. It will then become another problem that we need to train a large number of professionals and send them to organizations to teach new immigrants about soft skills. Can we afford doing that? If not, can new immigrants stay home alone and learn those soft skills by themselves?

The Canadian Experience or Tacit Knowledge was effectively reduced to the soft skills in the seminar to match the intended message: informing new immigrants about the Tacit Knowledge and educating them how to overcome that barrier. But, how do new immigrants overcome the problem of the chicken and the egg, first?  To understand Canadian Experience (or Tacit Knowledge), one needs to have soft skills; and to gain soft skills, one needs to understand Canadian Experience!

I would rather go back and face the smaller problem of the chicken and the egg of mine earlier: to have a job and to gain work experience. It is much easier to solve. Therefore, if we could break down the Tacit Knowledge of Canadian Experience into smaller components, identify each component properly, and then try to find an easier solution for each component problem!

2. The paradox
The Tacit Knowledge of Canadian Experience, from the seminar, suggested that newcomer professional immigrants should learn soft skills in order to get jobs. Soft skills, in turn, suggested newcomers should learn Canadian culture by observing, understanding, and learning cultural interactions at workplace. I can’t think of anyone who can accomplish such a challenging task: bypassing the job interview/selection, going into some company to work and learn those soft skills, and then coming back to finding jobs armed with soft skills!

There is one probable explanation for that paradox: the A.P. and her research team must have been so deeply involved with the research on soft skills that they couldn’t tell which is which.
3. Mocking
Watching the readers’ theatre, I could not help but sadly said to myself “Oh, my Gosh! They are mocking Newcomer professionals.” Luckily, I am not one of those. The play intended to mock Canadian employers but in my view it was a backfire. One has to be there to feel it my way – supposed one is immigrants and has lived long enough in Canada.

4. Silly question
One question was repeated many times in the play, and even after the question period, that is “Do we trust you?” meaning Canadian employers might not trust new immigrants. I could not help but lamented “How silly that question is!”.

Imagine 1/ a Chinese professional just came to Canada, could not find a job, and then faced that question “Do we trust you?” from someone who happens to be foolish. I bet he would want to go back to China facing the old life where he was trusted and at least had an odd job to survive. If the Chinese government has done something harmful to the international community, would the Canadian government ask the Chinese counterpart “Do we trust you?” or keep doing business with them ? Why does an innocent Chinese man/woman face that question in finding a job in Canada? Imagine 2/ a female professional from Pakistan coming to Canada in the hope to have a better life with better women rights, while having trouble in finding job, suddenly facing that question “Do we trust you?”. She must have burst into tears. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Canadian Multicultural Act can’t help her. Imagine 3/ I escaped from communist Vietnam 28 years ago as a refugee boy, lived in refugee camp in Malaysia for 3 years, have now lived in Canada for almost 25 years, look a real Vietnamese in appearance but inside feel more Canadian than Vietnamese, consider Toronto where I have lived the longest time in my life as my hometown, am still having problem in finding jobs, and then face that question. I would like to ask why I am not trusted in Canada.

Canada accepts immigrants for mutually good purposes, not for posing that silly question to immigrants to make them feel down. Don’t ask immigrants that silly question, seminar. Don’t cry for me, Canada.

5. Unmentioned implementation
To help and train Newcomers professionals to acquire soft skills, the seminar didn’t mention how. I would like to ask: who has the courage to claim that s/he has possessed sufficiently soft skills and had competence to train Newcomer professionals to overcome barriers? I am waiting for the answer. I am waiting. I am still waiting…

6. Implementations mentioned
However, things are not so bad in Canada at all. I can look around and point my fingers to reliable services/sources/organizations/institutions for help. There are so many various workshops/seminars helping people in practicing to handle job-interview techniques and to answer tough questions at the job interview. They are all free of charge; and one can pay to some private offices to get better services. The same help one can get in polishing resume and cover letter. There are services where one can pay $400 to attend 3 seminars, 2 hours each, to be taught about professional manners in professional environments - how to greet, talk, walk, look, sit, eat, work, interact etc. One can pay another $200 to learn how to wear outfits appropriately at workplace, for example what types of clothes I should wear, as a Social Worker Professional, to best suit with colleagues and to not frighten clients who are in need of helps. There are services that train people how to dine, to socialize, to behave in public and at different workplaces etc. There are countless helps in learning appropriate manners that are similar to soft skills, and those services/organizations/institutions have been operating for decades already.

Yet, my intuition tells me that my raw manners are more liked by many people; my explicit talks are more receptive than implicit talks; and my hard skills are preferred to soft skills.

7. Can Tacit Knowledge be communicated?
The Tacit Knowledge is tacit, of course, and implicit, implied etc., if I understood it such that. Somehow, the readers’ theatre said out loud some meaning messages from it. When I followed that play to state it, then I was reminded it is tacit!

When something could not be stated properly and clearly, then that something must not have been true or it must have hit taboo.  If soft skills operate normally at workplace and one can learn them from there, they can’t be taboo. If soft skills are true and need to be learned, then by which communication channels can we convey, train, and teach soft skills, Tacit Knowledge of Canadian Experience, and whatever which is tacit?

THE UNHAPPY ME

Why then, there exists, on this earth, the unhappy me?

Some 5,000 years ago, when asked, a Chinese artist said “Drawing person/s is difficult. Drawing ghost/s is easy.” Person is seen and can be described thoroughly; pictures of persons are easily identified as fake or real etc. A few people claim to have seen ghost, but each of them has a very different picture of ghost even though some has similar features. More importantly, we can’t tell which picture of ghost is true. Ghost is so incomprehensive and therefore it has various characteristics. Ghost seems to be everywhere, but also be said to be very much different from one another everywhere.

Each workplace has its own culture, and each workplace culture is different from the others despite of some similarities. Soft skills or Tacit Knowledge of Canadian Experience is such some ghost. It can be tiny, small, vast, huge, unseen, untouched, tacit, implicit, etc. and everywhere. Some place forbids people to talk about or mention ghost while some artist tries to draw or research on it. I am unhappy with the Tacit Ghost.

CONCLUSION

Life is changing (and evolving). Technology is changing. Culture is changing. So is so-called Tacit Knowledge of Canadian Experience or soft skills, or everything else. How much more time and resources will the A.P. and her team put into research and study in order to have a whole clear picture of it, to be able to identify it easily, to communicate about it explicitly, and to implement it properly ? I wish to have those time and resources allocated to better use.

Everyone can easily acknowledge this: immigrant professionals in finding employments must have professional skills (which happened to be called hard skills) and personal qualifications (which happened to be called soft skills) and those two sets of skills must be proven to be workable by some means/methods/assessments. In the seminar mentioned in this paper, soft skills suddenly change characteristics to become the culture of workplace and thus create fears for Newcomer professionals who never worked in a Canadian workplace before. Soft skills, for that reason, are not helpful for immigrants at all; on the contrary, they become very good sources of explanations for the problems that new immigrants are facing. Not to be sad without having jobs, immigrants, it is your faults, not employers’ faults!

I refuse to believe in Tacit Ghost. I refuse to wear masks  at workplace as suggested by soft skills. I will live up to what I believe and believe in what is proven to be true and helpful.
One final problem: I suggest that the A.P. and her research team go to work in big corporations or transnational corporations - be it in the U.S. or in Canada - for some time. After then, they will understand why soft skills or Tacit Knowledge never exists there. It is just not there for one to learn! If they don’t believe me, I would like to know where they have conducted tacit research.

END
(Toronto, October 21, 2011)
My Critique on the Research on Tacit Knowledge