Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails....

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

何谓 PROFESSIONAL?

I used to think that teachers or instructors are generally considered professional in their field. But as years goes by, it seems to me that no one has a proper definition or category for 'professional'.

According to the Oxford Dictionary:

professional
• adjective 1 relating to or belonging to a profession. 2 engaged in an activity as a paid occupation rather than as an amateur. 3 worthy of or appropriate to a professional person; competent.
• noun 1 a professional person. 2 a person having impressive competence in a particular activity.

Being in a particular field, leaning on a skill certainly doesnt make you a professional.
Graduated from a field or having experience in the field too doesnt make one a professional.

But sometimes, people just feel that being in the field some time = experienced = professional

which i certainly do not agree.

A piano teacher may have the experience in the field, but it doesn't mean she/he is professional.
A dance teacher can teach dance but doesnt mean she is a professional dance teacher.
A Maths teacher can teach Maths but does it mean she is professional?

To me, i felt that a professional should be able to bring insights to an amateur and provide solutions to 101 problems in as many ways as possible.

It means, instead of knowing the wrong and correct way of doing things, a professional should be able to provide feasible solutions when an amateur is faced with a difficult situations, and accept different working methods to it.

And not:
- To criticize that you are not doing something correctly without being able to provide reasonable reasonings to the wrongdoing.

For instance:
A: This photo is not nice.
B: Why?
A: JUST NOT NICE.

And the person thinks she/he is a professional cuz she/he has been experimenting in the field for a few months.

So experience is important...

But then having experience so what?

A person can be in the field for 10 years, but does that make her/him a professional?

For instance:
A: This is not the way to be it. You must like this, like that...
B: How?
A: Just feel it. / According to experience, it is like this, like that...

Got say isnt it equivalent to no say?

Well, if a 'professional' cant able to help u to achieve a certain goal and merely gives out 空头advice (ie telling u that u are wrong, but doesnt tell u how to make it correct), i feel it just make her/him an experienced person BUT NOT a professional.

What's your take on this?

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