Hi everyone, I'm Joanne Missingham. A Taiwanese six-dan Go player.
I'm glad to be here to share my story.
I'm the master of my life.
Born in Australia, I came back to Taiwan at 4, and went to the U.S. at 11,
received training in Beijing for a year at 15 and came back again at 16, I received training in Beijing for a year at 15 and came back again at 16,
representing Taiwan in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
Today I want to share with you
my parents' ideals of education.
First, I・d like to share four short stories.
Story one: do you know what gymnastics is?
I came back to Taiwan at 4.
One day I happened to see a gymnastic game while watching the live broadcast of Asian Games with my grandpa.
I told him that I wanted to learn gymnastics.
And he asked me: "Do you know what gymnastics is?"
I said yes.
So my when mom got home from work, he told her that
I wanted to learn gymnastics.
and asked her to find a learning place for me.
My mom promised that, but she thought
that I was just being playful and have no idea what gymnastics is.
So she took me to Gymboree instead.
Seeing me play happily there, she registered a course for me.
She asked if I like it after the session,
and I said yes.
She told me that she was glad and already registered for me.
I asked her how long the course was.
She said it's three month.
I said okay, but after three month, she still have to take me to learn the real gymnastics.
She almost fainted when hearing what I said. She said: "You know this is not gymnastics."
I said: "I know what gymnastics is. Do you know what gymnastics is?"
"Now I know that you know what gymnastics is," She said.
So she called Chinese Taipei Gymnastic Association
and found the only gymnastic training center for children in Taipei.
So I fulfilled my dream and learned gymnastics for two to three years.
Story two; piano vs. Chinese pipa
I got in the swimming class at Xiu Lang elementary school when I was in third grade.
We had to swim up to 3,000 meters every day.
I realized the training load was too much for me to learn the two instruments at the same time.
I was learning piano and pipa then.
My sister was learning piano and Chinese 2-string Violin.
My pipa was borrowed from my band teacher. 42 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:58,031 My mom thought that it's better to return my pipa to the teacher
because we got a piano at home anyway,
so I could continue learning piano.
She talked with me and I agreed.
But I regretted soon after further thoughts.
I loved pipa more than piano.
So I asked my mom how many sessions left before we had to pay for the next course.
We had two sessions left then.
So I asked her if I could stop my piano class and continue my pipa class.
My mom asked me for the reasons.
I said because we would go back to Australia.
It's easy to find a piano teacher in Australia
but not so easy to find a pipa teacher.
My mom saw my points,
so she bought me a pipa.
I had learned pipa until I left Taiwan.
For now, whenever I'm free,
I still learn pipa from my pipa teacher.
From these two short stories, you can see
whatever I want to learn,
my parents respect my decisions.
Since I was little, my parents often encouraged me to explore different hobbies
in order to find where my passion is.
I aspired to be a professional Go player since I was about eight years old.
But my Go teacher didn't want me to do so.
He thought playing Go as a profession was hard
and my parents planned to leave Taiwan once I finished my elementary school education.
We moved to the U.S. when I was 11.
At that time, I thought that was the end of my Go dream.
Surprisingly, although I didn't get a Go teacher in the U.S.,
U.S. middle schools end at 2:30pm.
So I got a lot of time to play Go.
Also, the convenient Internet also
allowed me to practice with the sharp Asian Go players online.
At 14, I did something more important than study.
I went to China for the Go rating exams.
Only two girls will be awarded in the yearly rating exam.
Fortunately I was one of the two.
I had a different life ever since.
My next story is about my sister.
One day when the teacher was teaching subtraction of seven-digit numbers.
For example, one million subtract 755,555.
My sister thought if she did the subtraction with 999,999,
and added 1 back later.
The subtraction would be easier and simpler.
Although my sister's teacher didn't like the idea,
I thought it was brilliant.
Story four; is there only one answer?
One time when I was in the third grade,
In a test, there were four pictures,
to transplant rice seedlings, to harvest, to weed and to fertilize.
We were asked to re-arrange the pictures into the right sequence of rice farming.
The correct answer on the text book was
to transplant rice seedlings, to fertilize, to weed and then to harvest.
But my answer was
to transplant rice seedlings, to weed, to fertilize, and then to harvest.
My teacher thought I did quite well in class.
The question should be easy for me.
So he asked me what I was thinking.
I told him that when I was living in Australia,
my house got lawns in the front and the back.
My dad weeded every time before he fertilized the lawns.
He said in this way the weeds wouldn't be fertilized as well.
My teacher found this reasonable.
On the next day he told us that between transplanting rice seedlings and harvest, to weed, to fertilize, and then to harvest.
farmers have to weed and fertilize repeatedly.
So my answer was also correct.
The reason why I shared these two stories is that I hope you do not care about the score,
but to care the idea behind the answers.
Why she or he gave the answer?
Maybe there's amazing idea behind.
But children lose scores just because their answers are different from the given ones.
and the good ideas may disappear as a result.
So, never kill children's ability to think.
Next, I want to share some experiences at my home with parents and children.
First for parents,
The book "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran mentioned,
You may give your children your love but not your thoughts,
they have their own thoughts.
This is how my parents treat me.
Children can be with you but never belong to you.
Parents can help to shape their children but should never attempt to mold them into the way parents want them to be.
Either should parents push their children to live out their own. unfulfilled dreams.
Remember, children are independent individuals different from their parents.
In May, I attended a Go contest in Inner Mongolia, China.
A cochairman of the local Go association told my mom that
Joanne's achievements must make you happy.
Hearing this, my mom hurriedly said,
"Joanne's happiness is my biggest achievement."
All the present parents can give it a thought. Which parent are you, the first or the second?
And then I want to share an idea with children.
If you want your parents to respect your decision,
you have to assure them
that your decisions won't hurt your future.
To do this, you have to learn four things.
First, endure loneliness.
Second, overcome temptation.
Third, learn to choose.
Fourth, know how to let go.
Every skill has its own essential basic trainings,
which require a lot of practice.
Like when I was learning pipa
I was required to practice the circular finger movement and scales every single day.
The practices may be tedious and boring.
but if I didn't endure loneliness, resist temptations and gave up,
there was no way I could gain my parents' support.
Also, perhaps there are a lot of things you want to learn,
but if you are forced to choose for some reasons,
you should prioritize the things and let go.
Next I'd like to introduce Do to you.
I want to share the first rule of Go's top ten tips.
Those who are not voracious win.
Never be voracious for winning more.
Win is win. You can win the game by only one point.
Desire to win more often makes you forget your situation
and lose the game.
I hope you can learn more about Go in your leisure time.
I'm really glad to share my stories here with you.
Happy Moon Festival. May you achieve anything your heart desires.
Thank you.