Chong: To thrive in an increasingly VUCA world, it is important to constantly keep abreast of new technology and explore new things.
DURING the enforcement of the movement control order to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the country in 2020, Chong Zhuang Hong suddenly found himself having a lot of free time with classes being held online.
Not one to rest on his laurels, the Penang-born student turned to online tutorials and eventually an e-learning portal to learn coding, having developed an interest in it.
That decision has augured well for him as he can now lay claim to being an app developer, with his two apps freely accessible on the Apple App Store.
But the 18-year-old, who had won a scholarship to study the A-Levels in Singapore, is quick to point out the limitations of learning from online videos.
“I discovered the lack of linkage between the skills I had learnt from the videos and the actual application of creating an app,” he told StarEdu.
That prompted him to purchase a course from an e-learning portal which, he said, had been extremely useful in laying his coding foundation and honing his problem-solving skills.
The first app that Chong developed was inspired by a popular anime series at the time. It incorporates artistic three-dimensional artworks into daily apparel.
By using the app to scan the T-shirts, users will unlock the special augmented reality (AR) artwork on the clothes through the lenses of their cameras. There is a wide range of artwork that can be selected from the app.
“I thought to myself, it would be so cool if we could take pictures and even interact with the characters through the phone’s camera!”
With that idea in mind, he started his four-month journey of creating it. As with most endeavours, the rewards often do not come easily.
“Passion alone is never enough. Persistence and hard work are more important to get us far in life,” he said.
Unlike studying a school subject where he could seek help from tutors, he needed to rely on himself in this self-learning journey.
He admitted to feeling demotivated when he saw “the piles of bugs and errors” which he did not know how to solve.
“Fortunately, the online community is very friendly and helpful. Every time I seek help on online platforms or from coding interest groups on social media, there are netizens who are willing to clear my doubts,” he shared.
Even after publishing his app, Chong had another hurdle he had to face, which involved marketing his product.
That was when he learnt that as an individual app developer, he could not go all out to promote his product effectively as he needed to focus on implementing the app. It is as important as the whole deployment process, he said.
“No matter how great your app is, there is no point if no one knows about it,” he added.
Having successfully developed his first app, Chong was even more stoked to produce a second one.
With more experience this time, he developed a dictionary and translation app with the hope of helping to solve some of society’s problems.
The app, said Chong, aims to make learning the English language more efficient and convenient through smart dictation and its personalised vocabulary list features.
It is also optimised for revision, with the function of generating flashcards that can further consolidate the user’s mastery level.
According to Chong, the app made it to the top 200 chart for the category in the app store within the first five days of its launch.Spurred by comments from the users, he said he will continue developing more apps as he feels contented every time he sees how his app has helped others learn the English language.
To teenagers aspiring to develop their own apps, Chong had this to say: “Don’t think about how making apps would make you rich or successful; instead, think about how to create one that would be useful to others.”
He added that to thrive in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, it is important to constantly keep abreast of new technology and explore new things.
“Start with a clear goal in mind, and also a proper online course! It will really accelerate your learning speed,” he said. Dickson, 18, a student in Singapore, is a participant of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) team. For more information, go to facebook.com/niebrats.
Now that you have read the article, test your understanding by carrying out the following English language activities.
1 Chong learnt coding during the pandemic and managed to develop two apps as a result. What was one skill you picked up during the pandemic and what have you achieved through it? Tell your activity partner all about it.
2 Look in today’s copy of the Sunday Star newspaper for three examples of meaningful hobbies that people take part in. Cut out the words and/or photographs. Then, have a game of charades in which you act out the action(s) needed to perform the hobby (without saying a word), while your activity partner takes a guess. Take turns doing this activity with each other’s choices from the newspaper. Have fun!
The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) programme promotes the use of English language in primary and secondary schools nationwide. For Star-NiE enquiries, email starnie@thestar.com.my.
