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In 2003, I travelled to Dresden, Germany, to learn from a PhD-level engineer.

There was another engineer between us who acted as a translator. My mentor's English was poor, and even when speaking in his native language, he struggled and stuttered to express himself.

I remember a well-known Malaysian influencer, a former high-ranking civil servant, once saying that if a candidate stuttered during an interview, he would reject them immediately without even considering their capabilities.

By that standard, my mentor might have been considered fit only to work as a cleaner in Malaysia.

But Alhamdulillah, my mentor was born in Germany.

His communication difficulties did not prevent his research from being recognised and accepted.

In fact, his research helped create thousands of job opportunities, including the position I held at the time as a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) Design Engineer, designing microelectromechanical sensors.