00:00:03
Speaker 1: I've replaced Joakim with a beautiful girl here today, so I have no regrets when it comes to that. You will be familiar with this competition called World Skills. It's not the first time that we've had students, um, that represented Singapore here in our studio for that and, uh, my guest is also a familiar face. Say hello to Republic Polytechnics, Charmin.
00:00:22
Speaker 1: Hello. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? It's been a whole year since you were here in the studio.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: I've been good. It's been a lot since the past one year.
00:00:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean,
00:00:33
Speaker 2: I'm happy to be here.
00:00:34
Speaker 1: Exactly. And it's, it's always so nice to see like our very own students from Singapore representing us and then winning. I mean, OK, it's not always about winning. It's always about, you know, the experience and everything, but secretly,
00:00:46
Speaker 1: You of course feel happy if you win something, right?
00:00:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:00:49
Speaker 1: Tell me about your experience this year in Shanghai.
00:00:52
Speaker 2: Yes, so it's been, it's been a year since uh worst cases ASEAN. So that was in Malaya and through that I have had um many friendlies along the way. So I went to Australia in June this year and then, um, I won the best foundation as well as a gold medal over there. So that was a friendly that I had and I met a few of my competitors internationally.
00:01:16
Speaker 2: After that, I went to Shanghai to compete on the international stage. Yes, and I got the best nomination as well as a silver medal.
00:01:24
Speaker 1: I. 27.
00:01:31
Speaker 1: Crazy. How, how's your mindset going in because, you know, you don't want to be intimidated. At the same time, you need to have a good head on your shoulders to be like, OK, I'm focused and I, I want to do well. Does, does winning even cross your mind or you're just focused on the task?
00:01:49
Speaker 2: I went in with a goal. OK, OK. So I went in with a goal to achieve something that I really wanted from the very start when I joined WorldSkills. So that is to win a medal and to make myself, my coaches, as well as my family proud.
00:02:05
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean, so, you know, for the sake of our audience members who may not be so familiar with what WorldSkills is about, I was actually saying,
00:02:12
Speaker 1: Earlier that it is the world's largest international skills competition, so it's kind of like the Olympics of vocational skills in a way as we would dub it, right? Can you take us through the competition process, just in case people are wondering like, what do you do?
00:02:25
Speaker 2: OK, so I am in the restaurant category. So, uh throughout our international competition, it's across 4 days. So throughout the 4 days, we have
00:02:34
Speaker 2: Um, many different tasks to complete. So we have fine dining, so we have to serve a table of 3 and 2 at the same time, and we also have bistro dining, so we had to serve a table of 43, and 2 simultaneously, simultaneously as well as banquet dining and barista and bartending.
00:02:54
Speaker 1: There's so many things, so many things going on.
00:02:56
Speaker 1: I mean, for you, um, I know that there's a lot of like multitasking going on, you have to really keep a clear mind. What was the most challenging part of this process for you?
00:03:06
Speaker 2: The time it's uh
00:03:09
Speaker 2: Very squeezy time that we have this time around because um for banquet dining, usually we have 3 courses within 90 minutes, but this time around they increased to 6 courses within 80 minutes. Yes, so it's very squeezy,
00:03:24
Speaker 1: but it actually feels like a real-life, I mean they're trying to simulate like a real-life situation, right? Because
00:03:29
Speaker 1: Sometimes when I go for like events or even like wedding dinners at places, sometimes you hear people saying like, oh, there's a delay or like, you know, maybe it's uh it's it's it's not moving as fast as we want. I can see that there's a lot going on back end. Ever since you joined these competitions, and I'm assuming, you know, you have a bright future ahead of you in terms of your career, what were some things that you now appreciate more in the service sector, like compared to when you were just a consumer back then?
00:03:59
Speaker 2: Definitely when it's busy, I will try my best to wait a little longer because, yes, correct, because we know like what's going on behind the scenes as a service staff myself.
00:04:09
Speaker 1: I think the only problem is like when people haven't experienced the back end and that's how we like sometimes lovingly won that title for ourselves, right? Singaporeans like to complain and all that.
00:04:22
Speaker 1: OK, we're gonna take a short break. I think you actually have a few friends joining us on TikTok live watching you and even Republic Police tuned in. I am still with Republic Poly's Charmaine who has been with us. She's got plenty of very proud um lecturers and I think family and friends joining.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: The TikTok live stream right now. Thank you for joining us and thank you for doing our country so proud as well. Um, it's not your first time here and it's not your first time also like chatting about WorldSkills and how passionate you are about it. Um, in case you just joined us, she also claimed the best of nation award, which I wanted to address right now.
00:04:56
Speaker 1: The challenges in the Best of nation award actually quite complex, quite a lot of things. Um, I zoomed in on the bartending challenge. Can you tell me a bit more about that?
00:05:06
Speaker 2: So, that is more complex because we have to memorize a list of cocktails and then we wouldn't know until the day itself, the bartending itself, yes, which one will. So it's mystery. So we'll get 3 and 1 mystery.
00:05:22
Speaker 2: Yes,
00:05:24
Speaker 1: remembering and memorizing 27 recipes, that's insane.
00:05:28
Speaker 2: That's insane. It's
00:05:29
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah. How, what was your, how did you compartmentalize and plan for that?
00:05:36
Speaker 2: Usually I go, I memorize by the easiest one first. So usually the minimum one is 3 types of alcohol followed by 4 or 5. Some example like Long Island iced tea, there are 7 ingredients in that. It's correct.
00:05:53
Speaker 1: No wonder we always get headache.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: Oh yes. So that is the cocktail that I remember the last. Yeah.
00:06:00
Speaker 1: And can you tell us a bit more about what was chosen for you to, to make or what was selected?
00:06:07
Speaker 2: So,
00:06:08
Speaker 2: OK, I don't really remember the three, but, yes, but um we were given 3 mysteries and one that was um created by our
00:06:20
Speaker 2: Wskis um director himself. Oh,
00:06:24
Speaker 1: OK, so it's a special one. Yes,
00:06:26
Speaker 2: correct. So it's a special one and then we were given a recipe on the spot. So we have to prepare the ingredients, the glassware, the garnishes, and then we have another 20 minutes to prepare.
00:06:37
Speaker 2: Compare the drinks to our
00:06:38
Speaker 2: guests.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: And so they rated, I'm sure based on like the visuals, the flavor, the taste,
00:06:45
Speaker 2: how balanced or not.
00:06:46
Speaker 1: And if it's meaning like to the brim, or what do you mean by that?
00:06:52
Speaker 2: Oh,
00:06:52
Speaker 1: so they need to look like totally uniform.
00:06:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not as easy as you think. I'm sure that now that you're so well versed in all of this, when you go for your own like family gatherings, are you the go to person? They're like, OK, she's got it, she's doing the
00:07:04
Speaker 1: drinks.
00:07:05
Speaker 2: Does that happen? No, just to open wines actually.
00:07:09
Speaker 1: So you're very useful in that sense. OK, so now you've got both medals with you today. You've shown it to the, have you shown it to the TikTok live stream just yet?
00:07:16
Speaker 2: Not yet. Show it,
00:07:18
Speaker 1: show it. Yeah, flex it.
00:07:19
Speaker 2: It
00:07:19
Speaker 1: looks
00:07:19
Speaker 2: really
00:07:20
Speaker 2: heavy. Yes, it is. It is. So
00:07:23
Speaker 2: This one is the best of nation. Yeah, that's the
00:07:26
Speaker 1: one with the the turquoise straps. Yeah.
00:07:29
Speaker 2: And then the orange strap is my silver medal.
00:07:33
Speaker 1: Thank
00:07:33
Speaker 1: you so much for bringing that down and for sharing it with us. What's next for you now that you know you've already achieved a certain level of accomplishments in Republic Poly and then you're going to graduate soon. You mentioned that you're gonna full-time work full-time very soon. Anything else that you're gonna do or pursue or you can share with us on air before I let you go?
00:07:52
Speaker 2: Um, yes, I'll be continuing, uh, my full time with my internship place previously. So that is finaning as well, and then maybe pursue my further studies in the future.
00:08:02
Speaker 1: And anything you'd like to say to, you know, aspiring young people who also want to take on a similar path to you and hopefully win big at WorldSkills next time. Anything you want to share?
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Um, I would say if you have the passion and the resilience for it, uh, go for it because it's a very fun journey, although it's long, but it's very fulfilling. Yeah, exactly.
00:08:26
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here. Would you like to say
00:08:29
Speaker 1: A big thank you to one of your, any of your RP supporters or you know, your, your
00:08:34
Speaker 1: friends.
00:08:35
Speaker 2: Yes, I would like to thank my coach, Miss Yannie. She's been there through all the long hours, the long trainings, as well as the different competitions. Miss Adeline, my expert, so she's the one that's
00:08:48
Speaker 2: Making sure that everything is on point before we head off for every competition. My chef, as well as um all the lecturers that have been helping me along the way. So
00:08:57
Speaker 1: it
00:08:58
Speaker 1: really takes a village, right? Yes, we don't see that. We don't see that. Thank you so much. You know, it's always a pleasure having you here and you're always so happy and you radiate so much joy and I wish you all the best. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I've replaced Joakim with a beautiful girl here today, so I have no regrets when it comes to that. You will be familiar with this competition called World Skills. It's not the first time that we've had students, um, that represented Singapore here in our studio for that and, uh, my guest is also a familiar face. Say hello to Republic Polytechnics, Charmin.
00:00:22
Speaker 1: Hello. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? It's been a whole year since you were here in the studio.
00:00:28
Speaker 2: I've been good. It's been a lot since the past one year.
00:00:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean,
00:00:33
Speaker 2: I'm happy to be here.
00:00:34
Speaker 1: Exactly. And it's, it's always so nice to see like our very own students from Singapore representing us and then winning. I mean, OK, it's not always about winning. It's always about, you know, the experience and everything, but secretly,
00:00:46
Speaker 1: You of course feel happy if you win something, right?
00:00:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:00:49
Speaker 1: Tell me about your experience this year in Shanghai.
00:00:52
Speaker 2: Yes, so it's been, it's been a year since uh worst cases ASEAN. So that was in Malaya and through that I have had um many friendlies along the way. So I went to Australia in June this year and then, um, I won the best foundation as well as a gold medal over there. So that was a friendly that I had and I met a few of my competitors internationally.
00:01:16
Speaker 2: After that, I went to Shanghai to compete on the international stage. Yes, and I got the best nomination as well as a silver medal.
00:01:24
Speaker 1: I. 27.
00:01:31
Speaker 1: Crazy. How, how's your mindset going in because, you know, you don't want to be intimidated. At the same time, you need to have a good head on your shoulders to be like, OK, I'm focused and I, I want to do well. Does, does winning even cross your mind or you're just focused on the task?
00:01:49
Speaker 2: I went in with a goal. OK, OK. So I went in with a goal to achieve something that I really wanted from the very start when I joined WorldSkills. So that is to win a medal and to make myself, my coaches, as well as my family proud.
00:02:05
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean, so, you know, for the sake of our audience members who may not be so familiar with what WorldSkills is about, I was actually saying,
00:02:12
Speaker 1: Earlier that it is the world's largest international skills competition, so it's kind of like the Olympics of vocational skills in a way as we would dub it, right? Can you take us through the competition process, just in case people are wondering like, what do you do?
00:02:25
Speaker 2: OK, so I am in the restaurant category. So, uh throughout our international competition, it's across 4 days. So throughout the 4 days, we have
00:02:34
Speaker 2: Um, many different tasks to complete. So we have fine dining, so we have to serve a table of 3 and 2 at the same time, and we also have bistro dining, so we had to serve a table of 43, and 2 simultaneously, simultaneously as well as banquet dining and barista and bartending.
00:02:54
Speaker 1: There's so many things, so many things going on.
00:02:56
Speaker 1: I mean, for you, um, I know that there's a lot of like multitasking going on, you have to really keep a clear mind. What was the most challenging part of this process for you?
00:03:06
Speaker 2: The time it's uh
00:03:09
Speaker 2: Very squeezy time that we have this time around because um for banquet dining, usually we have 3 courses within 90 minutes, but this time around they increased to 6 courses within 80 minutes. Yes, so it's very squeezy,
00:03:24
Speaker 1: but it actually feels like a real-life, I mean they're trying to simulate like a real-life situation, right? Because
00:03:29
Speaker 1: Sometimes when I go for like events or even like wedding dinners at places, sometimes you hear people saying like, oh, there's a delay or like, you know, maybe it's uh it's it's it's not moving as fast as we want. I can see that there's a lot going on back end. Ever since you joined these competitions, and I'm assuming, you know, you have a bright future ahead of you in terms of your career, what were some things that you now appreciate more in the service sector, like compared to when you were just a consumer back then?
00:03:59
Speaker 2: Definitely when it's busy, I will try my best to wait a little longer because, yes, correct, because we know like what's going on behind the scenes as a service staff myself.
00:04:09
Speaker 1: I think the only problem is like when people haven't experienced the back end and that's how we like sometimes lovingly won that title for ourselves, right? Singaporeans like to complain and all that.
00:04:22
Speaker 1: OK, we're gonna take a short break. I think you actually have a few friends joining us on TikTok live watching you and even Republic Police tuned in. I am still with Republic Poly's Charmaine who has been with us. She's got plenty of very proud um lecturers and I think family and friends joining.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: The TikTok live stream right now. Thank you for joining us and thank you for doing our country so proud as well. Um, it's not your first time here and it's not your first time also like chatting about WorldSkills and how passionate you are about it. Um, in case you just joined us, she also claimed the best of nation award, which I wanted to address right now.
00:04:56
Speaker 1: The challenges in the Best of nation award actually quite complex, quite a lot of things. Um, I zoomed in on the bartending challenge. Can you tell me a bit more about that?
00:05:06
Speaker 2: So, that is more complex because we have to memorize a list of cocktails and then we wouldn't know until the day itself, the bartending itself, yes, which one will. So it's mystery. So we'll get 3 and 1 mystery.
00:05:22
Speaker 2: Yes,
00:05:24
Speaker 1: remembering and memorizing 27 recipes, that's insane.
00:05:28
Speaker 2: That's insane. It's
00:05:29
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah. How, what was your, how did you compartmentalize and plan for that?
00:05:36
Speaker 2: Usually I go, I memorize by the easiest one first. So usually the minimum one is 3 types of alcohol followed by 4 or 5. Some example like Long Island iced tea, there are 7 ingredients in that. It's correct.
00:05:53
Speaker 1: No wonder we always get headache.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: Oh yes. So that is the cocktail that I remember the last. Yeah.
00:06:00
Speaker 1: And can you tell us a bit more about what was chosen for you to, to make or what was selected?
00:06:07
Speaker 2: So,
00:06:08
Speaker 2: OK, I don't really remember the three, but, yes, but um we were given 3 mysteries and one that was um created by our
00:06:20
Speaker 2: Wskis um director himself. Oh,
00:06:24
Speaker 1: OK, so it's a special one. Yes,
00:06:26
Speaker 2: correct. So it's a special one and then we were given a recipe on the spot. So we have to prepare the ingredients, the glassware, the garnishes, and then we have another 20 minutes to prepare.
00:06:37
Speaker 2: Compare the drinks to our
00:06:38
Speaker 2: guests.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: And so they rated, I'm sure based on like the visuals, the flavor, the taste,
00:06:45
Speaker 2: how balanced or not.
00:06:46
Speaker 1: And if it's meaning like to the brim, or what do you mean by that?
00:06:52
Speaker 2: Oh,
00:06:52
Speaker 1: so they need to look like totally uniform.
00:06:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not as easy as you think. I'm sure that now that you're so well versed in all of this, when you go for your own like family gatherings, are you the go to person? They're like, OK, she's got it, she's doing the
00:07:04
Speaker 1: drinks.
00:07:05
Speaker 2: Does that happen? No, just to open wines actually.
00:07:09
Speaker 1: So you're very useful in that sense. OK, so now you've got both medals with you today. You've shown it to the, have you shown it to the TikTok live stream just yet?
00:07:16
Speaker 2: Not yet. Show it,
00:07:18
Speaker 1: show it. Yeah, flex it.
00:07:19
Speaker 2: It
00:07:19
Speaker 1: looks
00:07:19
Speaker 2: really
00:07:20
Speaker 2: heavy. Yes, it is. It is. So
00:07:23
Speaker 2: This one is the best of nation. Yeah, that's the
00:07:26
Speaker 1: one with the the turquoise straps. Yeah.
00:07:29
Speaker 2: And then the orange strap is my silver medal.
00:07:33
Speaker 1: Thank
00:07:33
Speaker 1: you so much for bringing that down and for sharing it with us. What's next for you now that you know you've already achieved a certain level of accomplishments in Republic Poly and then you're going to graduate soon. You mentioned that you're gonna full-time work full-time very soon. Anything else that you're gonna do or pursue or you can share with us on air before I let you go?
00:07:52
Speaker 2: Um, yes, I'll be continuing, uh, my full time with my internship place previously. So that is finaning as well, and then maybe pursue my further studies in the future.
00:08:02
Speaker 1: And anything you'd like to say to, you know, aspiring young people who also want to take on a similar path to you and hopefully win big at WorldSkills next time. Anything you want to share?
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Um, I would say if you have the passion and the resilience for it, uh, go for it because it's a very fun journey, although it's long, but it's very fulfilling. Yeah, exactly.
00:08:26
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here. Would you like to say
00:08:29
Speaker 1: A big thank you to one of your, any of your RP supporters or you know, your, your
00:08:34
Speaker 1: friends.
00:08:35
Speaker 2: Yes, I would like to thank my coach, Miss Yannie. She's been there through all the long hours, the long trainings, as well as the different competitions. Miss Adeline, my expert, so she's the one that's
00:08:48
Speaker 2: Making sure that everything is on point before we head off for every competition. My chef, as well as um all the lecturers that have been helping me along the way. So
00:08:57
Speaker 1: it
00:08:58
Speaker 1: really takes a village, right? Yes, we don't see that. We don't see that. Thank you so much. You know, it's always a pleasure having you here and you're always so happy and you radiate so much joy and I wish you all the best. Thank you.
