essential life skills

reading my blog title above may give you the idea that I am about to expound on one of my numerous random (chim*) theories again..

truth is, the idea for my blog entry today really stemmed from a much more basic and mundane incident (though honestly speaking, most of my other blog entries tend to as well, even if I seldom say so..) I was hungry and I was looking for food. Standing in front of the racks of groceries and shelves of canned food in NTUC Fairprice this evening, it dawned on me that I had seriously limited ability when it came to cooking.

Because of my mother’s superb culinary ability (which many of my close friends can attest to, having been to my house for one of my casual festive get-togethers), I seldom find myself in any real need to cook anything, other than the occasional packet of instant noodles, cup-a-soup and fried egg or fruit salad. My last real cooking experience was way back half a dozen years ago, while I was in London studying and had to take care of myself else I starve to death or survive on yucky Chinese takeaways everyday.. then, I could cook up curry chicken, hainanese chicken rice, fried noodles, spagetti, rojak, and even soups with the finesse of a cook’s apprentice.. my flatmates and i even threw parties inviting other home-sick Singaporeans to try out our cooking.. Yet, this evening, I stood in front of the shelves and didn’t know what to do… what to cook, how to cook.. I realised how useless I was.. after all, isn’t cooking an essential life skill?

I came back and decided to find out what others thought of this concept, typing “essential life skills” into Google.. here’re some interesting ones..

Someone wrote:
- Reading at a level that permits following directions (e.g. recipes, prescriptions), reading contracts (e.g. leases), and generally interacting with the world at large without having to request the help of another person to read for you.

- Writing at a level that fulfills the minimal needs of an adult such as signing contracts, writing a simple note.

- Enough math to use money and determine whether you are paying a fair price for goods and services.

- Sufficient social skills to interact with other adults on a level expected by people one must come into contact with in order to provide for basic needs such as food, shelter, and employment.

- And the skills to find your happiness while maintaining satisfying fulfillment of physical needs.”

Another wrote:
“Enough critical thinking skills to be able to make relatively independent and intelligent decisions.”

And yet another summarised:
“Caring. Common Sense. Cooperation. Confidence. Courage.Creative and Critical Thinking. Curiosity. Effort. Flexibility. Focus. Friendship”

and this very very comprehensive one breaks it down in terms of skills that schools need to teach students (teachers: find PowerPoint here.. very much like what our Education Ministry is trying to do now....Digital Age Literacy, Inventive Thinking, Effective Communication and High Productivity)

for me personally, the main ones I consider "essential" are:
- ability to swim, to cycle and to drive
- ability to cook
- read & write (level depends on how much enjoyment you want to derive from these activities)
- communication (listening and speaking)
- socialising & teamwork
- selling
- basic financial and business skills
- adaptability and flexibility (i.e. survival or crisis-coping skills)

guess the list would vary from person to person. What are yours?

*for the uninformed and unsingaporean, this is pronounced as 'cheem', it means profound or difficult to understand