Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s Eve has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, forward to the coming year. It’s a time to reflect on the changes we want (or need) to make and resolve to follow through on those changes. Did your New Year resolutions make our top ten list?

1. Spend More Time with Family & Friends

Recent polls conducted show that more people vow to appreciate loved ones and spend more time with family and friends this year. Make plans to meet up with friends for an evening of camaraderie at a favorite restaurant or take the family to one of these popular places for family fun. Work shouldn’t always come first!

2. Fit in Fitness

The evidence is in for fitness. Regular exercise has been associated with more health benefits than anything else known to man. Studies show that it reduces the risk of some cancers, increases longevity, helps achieve and maintain weight loss, enhances mood, lowers blood pressure, and even improves arthritis. In short, exercise keeps you healthy and makes you look and feel better. Why not make this the time to start getting in shape?

3. Tame the Bulge

Over 66 percent of adults are considered overweight or obese by recent studies, so it is not surprising to find that weight loss is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Setting reasonable goals and staying focused are the two most important factors in sticking with a weight loss program, and the key to success for those millions of people who made a New Year’s commitment to shed extra pounds.

4. Quit Smoking

If you have resolved to make this the year that you stamp out your smoking habit, over-the-counter availability of nicotine replacement therapy now provides easier access to proven quit-smoking aids. Even if you’ve tried to quit before and failed, don’t let it get you down. On average, smokers try about four times before they quit for good. Start enjoying the rest of your smoke-free life! More cities are trying to go smoke-free, and it’s taken them a few tries as well. Locally, there are a variety of free support services, hotlines and smoking cessation classes to help you kick the smoking habit.

5. Enjoy Life More

Given our hectic and stressful lifestyles, it is no wonder that “enjoying life more” has become a popular resolution in recent years. It’s an important step to a happier and healthier you! Consider healing centers for products designed to bring balance to your body, mind and soul. Or just get out and try something new! Take up a new hobby or try your hand at skiing. Go to a theater performance, or head to the local spa, which offer a wealth of artistic and recreational activities to meet just about anyone’s wishes.

6. Quit Drinking

While many people use the New Year as an incentive to finally stop drinking, most are not equipped to make such a drastic lifestyle change all at once. Many heavy drinkers fail to quit cold turkey but do much better when they taper gradually, or even learn to moderate their drinking. If you have decided that you want to stop drinking, there is a world of help and support available. There are also a number of treatment-based programs, as well as support groups for families of alcoholics.

7. Get Out of Debt

Was money a big source of stress in your life last year? Join the millions of people who have resolved to spend this year getting a handle on their finances. It’s a promise that will repay itself many times over in the year ahead.

8. Learn Something New

Have you vowed to make this year the year to learn something new? Perhaps you are considering a career change, want to learn a new language, or just how to fix your computer? Whether you take a course or read a book, you’ll find education to be one of the easiest, most motivating New Year’s resolutions to keep. Most local colleges and universities offer distance and adult education programs. Or if the arts are more your thing, there are places that offer adult studio classes.

9. Help Others

A popular, non-selfish New Year’s resolution, volunteerism can take many forms. Whether you choose to spend time helping out at your local library, mentoring a child, or building a house, there are many nonprofit volunteer organizations that could really use your help. One way is connecting volunteers with projects to fit practically any schedule. Or if your time is really in short supply, maybe you can at least find it in you to donate the furniture, clothing and other household items that you no longer need, rather than leaving them out by the curb to fill up our landfills.

10. Get Organized

On just about every New Year resolution top ten list, organization can be a very reasonable goal. Whether you want your home organized enough that you can invite someone over on a whim, or your office organized enough that you can find the stapler when you need it, these tips and resources should get you started on the way to a more organized life. Reduce the clutter in your life and find peace in your home.

Revolutionary Road: A Review

It’s hard to ignore the Oscar polish involved in Revolutionary Road; an Oscar-winning director, Sam Mendes, reunites the stars of the Oscar-gobbling Titanic. To that end, Mendes does his best to make the film look serious and prestigious. And if you give it a cursory glance it’s possible to come away with the impression that it is indeed a great and important film. But overall, it was grim and needlessly pointless.

Mendes keeps his tone very serious and very gray, with no humor whatsoever and lots of pauses in the awkward conversations. Normally, I like this kind of ebb and flow in films, but Mendes conducts the rhythm not as beats (up and down, with rest spaces in-between) but as dead spaces within the same dreary, constant tone. The movie provides the gray, flat cinematography, which used weather and textures to enhance the story. Then we have the performances, which, in their seriousness, will probably earn a few awards. But DiCaprio seems too baby-faced for this grown-up era, and far too aware of his performance. Winslet now seems much older than him (she’s a year younger), and their Titanic chemistry is all but gone (not that this movie was going to attract many Titanic fans anyway).

It’s puzzling to consider that Mendes tackled very similar themes in American Beauty (1999), making tons of money and winning an Oscar. But American Beauty was at the very least smart and snarky and funny with a few genuinely lovely and/or sexy moments thrown in. When Lester Burnham drops out of society, it looks like fun. And yet, at the end of the movie, it clearly conveys the same ideas conveyed here (you can’t drop out because society disapproves). Revolutionary Road fails to make the idea of dropping out either attractive or relevant. It fails to find any humor, tension or release in its situation. It fails to make this family and their friends feel plausible. The only thing it does really well is create a feeling of suffocation. Which leads to an idea: if you can’t drop out of society, you can a least find happiness by dropping out of this movie.

Synopsis:

April and Frank Wheeler are a young, thriving couple living with their two children in a Connecticut suburb in the mid-1950s. Their self-assured exterior masks a creeping frustration at their inability to feel fulfilled in their relationships or careers. Frank is mired in a well-paying but boring office job, and April is a housewife still mourning the demise of her hoped-for acting career. Determined to identify themselves as superior to the mediocre sprawl of suburbanites who surround them, they decide to move to France where they will be better able to develop their true artistic sensibilities, free of the consumerist demands of capitalist America. As their relationship deteriorates into an endless cycle of squabbling, jealousy and recriminations, their trip and their dreams of self-fulfillment are thrown into jeopardy.

Lego’s TM Battle

I was looking for Christmas gifts and I thought “Lego” would be wise. I like “Lego” and it was a part of my childhood.

While browsing the net, I happened to read an article about the famous company and it’s sad fate.

The Danish toy maker Lego has just lost a court battle over a trademark on its bricks. For fifty years, it has enjoyed protection from rival toymakers. Lego had a copyright on the shape and design of its small bricks and blocks. This stopped competitors from making the same size and shape blocks. However, rival toy company Mega Brands started fighting Lego’s trademark in 1999. For almost a decade, Mega Brands has battled Lego’s lawyers in the courts. Lego argued its iconic bricks were unique, and different from others around the world. It said the design and size of the studs on top of the bricks meant it could be copyrighted. The judges disagreed and decided that the shapes of Lego’s bricks served a clear and useful purpose and could not be protected. They were too ordinary to deserve a copyright.

Children have been playing with Lego for over half a century. The bricks are a permanent fixture of all kids’ bedrooms, school activity areas and department store play rooms. It all started in 1958 when Lego launched its first red bricks. These have changed over the ages into fantasy figures, space stations and motorized models. The popularity of the colourful blocks has led to theme parks around the world. A Lego spokeswoman, Charlotte Simonsen, said the company was disappointed with the judges’ decision: “We at Lego are convinced in our belief that we are right in our views on trademark legislation,” she said. The new court ruling could pave the way for more competition. A “brick war” between Lego and Mega Brands could see cheaper prices for kids and adults.

In your viewpoint, should Lego be allowed to keep its trademark on the size and shapes of its blocks? What do you think of the judges’ decision?

True Meaning of Christmas

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them,

Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. –

LUKE 2:8-14

Is This the Right Person for Me?

“How will I know when I meet the right person?”

I often hear this question and I find the answer fairly complex.

There are four different reasons that people have for wanting to get married i.e. love, validation, security, safety,   and to share love and to grow emotionally and spiritually.

People who feel insecure and alone are likely to look for someone who will fill the inner emptiness and give them the love they are seeking. They want to find someone who will complete them and make them feel adequate and worthy. The problem is that no one can do this for another person – it is something we each need to learn to do for ourselves. Since we are always attracted to people who are at our common level of woundedness or our common level of health, a person looking to get love will attract a person also looking to get love. Each person hopes to get filled from the other, not realizing that each feels empty and really has nothing to give. Therefore, no one is the right person when the intent of getting married is to get love and security rather than to share love and learning.

Instead of asking the question, “Is this the right person for me?” why not ask, “Am I being the right person?” Am I being a person who comes to a relationship filled with love to share, or am I being a needy person hoping to get love and validation?

The main reason that many relationships don’t work is because each person is disappointed in not getting what they expected to get from the other person. But when a person does not know how to love and validate themselves and create an inner sense of safety and security, they certainly can’t do this for another person. Yet this is what each person expects of the other. It’s like trying to get water from a rock. What do you have to give when you feel empty within and want to get filled through another’s love?

It is actually fairly easy to know if this is the right person for you when your intent in being in a relationship is to learn together and share love. A person who comes from a full place within finds it easy to discern when someone is empty inside, and will not be attracted to the empty person. A person who is practicing Inner Bonding and is truly open to learning about themselves, to growing emotionally and spiritually, to taking responsibility for their own feelings of safety and security, worth and lovability, will not be attracted to a person who is closed, controlling, and just wants to get love.

Knowing if this is the right person for you does not happen instantly. It takes months to discover whether or not a person is who they say they are. You cannot really know who a person is until you have conflict and find out what this person does in conflict. Some people can appear very open and loving until a conflict comes up and then they get angry, withdraw, resist or comply, closing down rather than staying open to learning about themselves and the other person. An important question is, how does this person deal with conflict and how long does it take them to open up if they do close in the face of conflict?

Since none of us enter relationships fully healed, it is very important to know that your partner is willing to explore conflict rather than just protect against it with controlling behavior. Conflict occurs in all relationships, and if both people are not open to learning about themselves and each other within the conflict, the unresolved conflicts will eventually destroy the relationship.

If you are a person who is open to learning and wants a relationship in order to share love, there are three essential ingredients that need to be present for the person to be the right person for you:

1. There needs to be a basic spark of attraction. If you do not feel physically attracted to this person within the first six months of the relationship, the chances are this attraction will not develop. It does not need to be instant, but it does need to be there at some point.
2. Both of you need to be capable of caring, compassion, and empathy – to be a giver rather than just a taker. If this person just wants what they want and doesn’t care about what you want, they are not the right person for you. If you just want what you want and you don’t care about what the other person wants or feels, you are not ready for a relationship.
3. Both people need to be open to learning in conflict rather than just wanting to win and be right. If both people are open to learning in conflict, conflicts will be resolved in loving ways, but power struggles will result if one or both of you are intent on controlling and winning.

Other ingredients, such as common interests and values, are also important, but without the above three ingredients, they will not sustain the relationship.

Robert Pattinson: What’s All The Fuss About?

If the throngs of teenage girls are to be believed, Robert Pattinson is Edward Cullen, the vegetarian vampire he plays in the recently released Twilight movie.

After all, Pattinson the man is still a relatively unknown 22-year-old British actor most famous for playing Cedric Diggory in two of the Harry Potter movies. So what’s all the fuss about? The fuss is about Edward.

In mall appearances across America, Pattinson has been causing a Beatle-esque frenzy. One girl in San Francisco even suffered a broken nose when the vamp-loving crowd got particularly rowdy.

According to Robert, fans aren’t able to distinguish between him and his on-screen persona. “The connection that I am an actor playing this character is sort of skipped.”

To millions of girls–and, oddly enough, their mothers–Pattinson is the perfect blood-sucking boyfriend. Vampires haven’t been this sexy since Brad Pitt.

And ladies, he’s single.

Born 13th of May 1986 in London, England, he grew up being an English actor, model, and musician. His mother, Clare, worked for a modeling agency, and his father, Richard, imported vintage cars from the U.S.

He had supporting roles in the made for television film Ring of the Nibelungs in 2004, and in director Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair, although his scenes in the latter were deleted, and only appear on the DVD version. In May 2005 he was slated to appear in the UK premiere of The Woman Before at the Royal Court Theatre, but was fired shortly before the opening night and was replaced by Tom Riley.

Later that year he played Cedric Diggory in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Consequently, he was named that year’s British Star of Tomorrow by Times Online. He also has more than once been touted as the next Jude Law.

Pattinson appeared in the advertising campaign for Hackett’s Autumn 2007 collection. Pattinson plays Edward Cullen in the movie Twilight, based on Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling novel of the same name, which was released on November 21, 2008 in North America. According to TV Guide, Pattinson was initially apprehensive about auditioning for the role of Edward Cullen, fearful that he wouldn’t be able to live up to the “perfection” expected from the character.

He has lead roles in the the forthcoming feature films Little Ashes, in which he plays Salvador Dalí, How To Be, a British comedy, and the short film The Summerhouse. In January he will begin filming a project called Parts Per Billion, which he calls “one of the most lyrical scripts that I have ever read in my life”. – wikipedia.com and limelight.com

A Few Small Business Ideas

Putting up a business is a constant desire. Most people with larger capital delve into franchising. Others shell out thousands to rent their own place
and buy necessary equipment for the business (do not discount the hard facts of marketing). But if you are just a regular Juan dela Cruz, who earns a typical
amount as a regular (or worse, contractual) employee, would this mean that putting up your own dream business is obviously out of your league?

The answer is NO.

As a matter of fact, there are a lot of ways to start a business without the headache of renting a place  (admit it… it will take a  big bite from your moolah), and without the right marketing style, you are expected to hit the ground the earliest possible.

Here are just a few business ideas that require only a considerable amount of money. Capital needed to set it up may range from P5,000-P10,000… so start planning now.

A sari-sari store. The basic. As
long as you have a small place in your home that needs a little bit of
cleaning, then putting up such a business is a breeze. All you need to
do now is to buy all the stuff that you need, and voila! You have an
instant sari-sari store. You don’t even have to put up your own sign,
as long as everyone who passes by takes notice of all the stocked goods
in your place.

A tutoring center. Just like a
sari-sari store, you don’t have to rent a place for this. A vacant room
in your house will do and I’m sure you also have stocks of books (from
elementary to college) in your house that you can use. The only thing
that you need to invest here is a couple of chairs and tables for your
tutoring center. Plus, marketing is very important. But in this age of
technology and computers, you can have all the marketing you need in
just one click. You can also post your ads in newspapers, free of
charge.

A cellphone load business. It’s high time you use your phone to good use. Your phone doesn’t have
to be of the latest model . It could just even be the phone that you
threw away because the numbers seem to vanish, or the phone that you
got tired of because it took a long while for your message to be sent.
And then just buy a special sim card for the phone loading business.
Put up a card outside your home to announce your business and there you
have it… hard-earned money right at your very home.

Cake and pastry business. For
those who love to bake, bake, and bake, this is the job for you. The
ingredients don’t cost much, and the only marketing style you have to
do is to have your family and friends taste the one-of-a-kind cake that
you created. The business works through word-of-mouth. By the end of
the day, I’m sure you will have your orders filled.

A small school supplies store.
Just like a sari-sari store, you just need to clean up a small place in
your house, buy all the school supplies that you need and put up a sign
on your gate to advertise you new business. Or better yet, go around
your neighborhood and put up the sign near a school, a church or the
marketplace. I’m sure, you’ll have students trooping to your store
before the end of the day. – www.magnegosyo.com

A Healthy Relationship

Do not expect anyone to be responsible for your happiness. Accept yourself. Respect yourself. Love yourself first. Take good care of yourself.

Make and keep clear agreements. Respect the difference between yourself and your partner. Don’t expect he or she agrees with you on everything. Reach mutual agreement or plan, and then commit to it.

Use communication to establish a common ground to understand different points of view and to create a mutual, collaborative agreement or plan. You can either choose to be right, or you can have a successful relationship. You can’t always have both. Most people argue to be “right” about something.

Approach your relationship as a learning experience. Each one has important information for you to learn. Let go of a relationship that no longer serves us. A truly healthy relationship will consist of both partners who are interested in learning and expanding a relationship so that it continues to improve.

Tell the unarguable truth. Be truthful to yourself and your partner if you want true love. Many people are taught to lie to protect someone’s feelings, either their own or those of their partner. Lies create disconnection between you and your relationship, even if your partner never finds out about it.

Do not do anything for your partner if it comes with an expectation of reciprocation. The things you do for your partner must always be done because you chose to do them and you wanted to do them. Do not hold your “good deeds” over their head at a later time. Keeping score in a relationship will never work: a person is less likely to notice and value all the contributions of their partner as much as their own.

Forgive one another. Forgiveness is a decision of letting go the past and focusing on the present. It’s about taking control of your current situation. Talk about the issue and try to reach a mutual agreement on how to handle the situation in the future and then commit to it. If you can’t reach an agreement, it’s a bad sign.

Review your expectations. Try to be as clear as you can about any expectations – including acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and attitudes, especially attitudes towards money. Make sure you don’t expect your partner to fulfil every need in your life. One person cannot be everything to you.

Be Responsible. Here’s a new definition: Responsible means that you have the ability to respond. Respond to the real problem, to your true needs. It does not mean you are to blame. There is tremendous power in claiming your creation. If you’ve been snippy to your partner, own up to it, and get curious about why you are jealous and how you might do it differently next time.

Appreciate yourself and your partner. In the midst of an argument, it can be difficult to find something to appreciate. Start by generating appreciation in moments of non-stress, and that way when you need to be able to do it during a stressful conversation, it will be easier. Be sensitively aware so you don’t have to be sugar-coating anything.

Admit your mistakes and say sorry. Right after a misunderstanding or argument, tell your partner to give you some time to think of the wrong and right things that you and he/she did.

Spend some quality time together- No matter how busy you two are, there is always an excitement when you do something together, when you share your precious time.

Skip Bond and see Bolt

I got the opportunity to see this for FREE (courtesy of my aunt). I am NOT into 3d-animated-cartoon-whatever thing!…. BUT… I was very entertained. Great plot, great animation and the 3D was amazing. Sometimes I felt like Bolt’s head was towering over the audience. Good thing he didn’t drool!

All the characters were great. The pigeons were great comic relief. It’s amazing the amount of detail the animators put in. Watching the way the pigeons moved their heads was entertaining in itself. Rhino and Mittens were also hilarious while having more depth as well. A lot of Rhino’s great lines were in the preview but didn’t exactly play out in the story the way they seemed like they were going to. Even with that, he was hilarious.

Obviously the plot is predictable but it’s a very fun story. We were laughing out loud throughout this movie. I’m looking forward to another good film like this.

Synopsis:

Bolt tells the story of a dog who is convinced that his role as a super dog is reality. When he is ripped from his world of fantasy, and action by his own doing. His own obsession with his owner and keeping her protected from the green eyed man of the television show he works on completely absorbs his life. This takes him to the point of no return when he believes that she has been kidnapped, and he accidentally gets packaged and shipped to New York city in pursuit of his owner. This is when the story unfolds, and he goes through a transitional period where he learns that he is as super as every other dog. His disbelief of his abilities being non existent fuels a lot of different emotional changes, and eventually comes to a reality of who he really is. This all culminates when he finds his owner and reunites with her in the action packed climax of the movie.

What Will Be a Hot Business in 2009?

For some time now that I have been looking ahead into 2009. What will be a hot industry to get into? Last week I think I finally found it.

Last week I read the book “Why You’re DUMB, SICK, & BROKE . . . and How to Get SMART, HEALTHY & RICH” written by Randy Gage. In this book Randy Gage explains why the corporate world, traditional businesses, and the Rat Race will keep people dumb, sick, and broke.

In this book he devotes a chapter to some of the hottest businesses today and they are:

1] Real Estate
2] Network Marketing
3] Information Entrepreneur

There is much to talk about the first two but I would like to focus on the third option – becoming an information entrepreneur.

The beauty of an information entrepreneur is that anyone can become one. The concept is that everyone knows something about something. So why not turn that into a profitable business?

What are the steps that an Information entrepreneur needs to take in order to become known, accepted and successful?

1] Today in the world of Social Media it is critical that you set up a website or blog promoting your ideas, promoting your information. The more information you share the more you will become known and focus your efforts on building an audience. You audience are those who will be coming back to your blog or website for more of your information. They are thirsty for your information.

This will get you credibility on the World Wide Web.

2] Never ever leave out your local market. Work local – think global. For an information entrepreneur it’s always good to start from home/ local area and then to work your way out. Becoming known in your local market will help you reach other markets.

How can you become known in your local market?

- Start meetings
- Promote your self as a guest speaker
- Volunteer to speak!
- Start mastermind groups
- Business cards
- Brochures
- Consulting services
- Coaching programs
- Public seminars

Your success in your local market will much depend on how you brand yourself. Do you have the best customer service? Do you dress properly? Are always prepared? Be creative!

3] Developing products is also an important tool when building your information business.

Product ideas include:

- E-books
- Magazines
- Cd’s
- Videos
- Use your imagination!

Once you have developed your product – it is now time to promote it. Learn how you can get others to promote your product [affiliate marketing]. This is very important as it will give you the leverage that will help you increase sales.

4] Most important: You need to spend time on a daily basis educating yourself and staying ahead of the curve in your field. As you are establishing yourself as the ultimate expert it is critical that you be up to date with the latest news, changes and developments in your industry.

At the end of the day your goal should be that people will see you as the ultimate resource. You will see that the more up-to-date you are the more people will see you as the ultimate resource in your field!

Hillel is the founder and developer of http://www.iyazam.com

Hillel has been working in marketing for several years learning many valuable lessons along the way, the fruits of which appear on his website. Hillel lives with his wife and toddler in Israel.

I am One-Proud Niece

Come December of this year, my aunt, prime mover Fe Gimarino-Kim, will be receiving The Banaag Award as an achievement of the Filipino-Korean Spouses Association. The Banaag Award is given to Filipinos and foreign individuals or associations for advancing the cause of Filipino communities overseas or for supporting specific sectors or communities in the Philippines.

SEOUL—PEOPLE WHO HAD known Fe Gimarino-Kim as a mere housewife of a Korean electrical maintenance engineer would certainly wonder how she became a faculty approval specialist in the Pacific Far East Campus of Central Texas College in Incheon, South Korea.

As faculty approval specialist, Fe screens, evaluates and reviews the qualifications of American applicants for teaching jobs in this prestigious school before the deserving ones are finally selected by the campus dean for employment.

Her astronomical rise to this sensitive position came in 2001, after having been promoted from various posts in a span of only two years—from transcript clerk in July 1999 to payroll clerk and later administrative clerk in 2001.

But even her initial employment as transcript clerk was a big surprise, if not a miracle. She was the only Filipino among 12 applicants. The rest were Koreans, three of them graduates of US universities. What made it surprising? Fe was not eve computer literate.

Yet she got the nod of the five-member screening panel, all impressed by her attitude. When asked how well she could handle the computer, Fe honestly admitted her inexperience, but quickly added: “Just give me a month because I learn fast.”

Filipino wives to Koreans

Now Fe is also founder-president of the Filipino Korean Spouses Association (FKSA), whose mission is to help Filipinos like her who are married to Koreans and are living in Korea. Like others before her, communication was the main problem between Korean husbands and their Filipino wives, apart from their cultural differences.

Thus Fe looked for an organization willing to provide free Korean language lessons to various nationalities married to Koreans. In return, Fe teaches them English.

In June 2004, three years after founding the Filipino-Korean group, she petitioned the Philippine Embassy in Seoul to ask the Korean government that foreign women victims of domestic violence be accorded permanent residency status should their husbands divorce them. Her petition was not only acted upon by the Philippine embassy but also enacted into law by the Korean government.

“The Korean government also provides assistance, in cooperation with non-government organizations, in providing counseling services before, during and after inter-racial marriages. Both marrying couple must respect and adjust to each other’s culture for them to have a happy and lasting relationship,” explains Fe, who apparently knows whereof she speaks.

Successful marriage

Fe herself has a successful marriage. “Indeed, I am grateful to my husband for supporting me in helping our less fortunate kababayan (compatriots) in solving their marital problems,” Fe points out.

She says her husband even acts as interpreter and goes out of his way to give advice to his fellow Koreans.

Few knew, however, that she also once had that foreign language problem. Through self-study, she learned how to read and speak Korean, starting in 1997, only a year after she settled in Korea with her husband in 1996.

It was oceans and decades away childhood in Cebu from her humble beginnings in Asturias, Cebu where she was born to poor parents in 1958. Her father was a carpenter with not enough income to send all the children to school. The fourth in a brood of nine, Fe dreamed of finishing college to have a decent job and a better life for her family.

In her young mind, poverty could never be a hindrance to success in life. So she proceeded to work as a sales lady in a watch and jewelry service center in Cebu City, when her parents migrated to Davao City to look for a better life.

She later joined them in Davao, and worked as a photocopier operator. She still had that ambition to finish her education so in June 1978, at the age of 20, she enrolled in first year high school and attended evening classes.

The following year, she took the Philippine Examination Placement Test, an aptitude exam for those deserving to go to college without having to finish four years of high school education.

She finished Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in Accounting, at the University of Mindanao in Davao City in October 1984 and landed a job in an accounting firm and later at a congressional district office in Mati, Davao Oriental.

In June 1989, Fe took up law and finished the course in 1993-94 but failed to take the bar examination. She was already managing her own business at that time and doing voluntary missionary work with the St. Mary’s Caritas Davao until she met and married her Korean husband in 1996.

The marriage didn’t dampen her passion for missionary work. Obviously, Fe brought it all with her all the way to Korea.

This fighter for foreign wives’ rights is a Cebuana – By Joy Gador, Inquirer – http://globalnation.inquirer.net