Learning journey 2

Last Wednesday
afternoon, we went to the National Museum and the Art Museum. We started the
journey after our progress test. We found it was a good idea to have a break after
we had suffered an exciting test. However, I think the journey did not help us
in learning something about Singapore a lot because I could find only a few
things that represent Singapore’s culture very well. Why? I found some of the
things on display are quite similar with the ones in China. In addition, for
me, a boy grow up in China, I found things in the museum are not as good as
those in my hometown. I also find many western things in Arts Museum. The
western things are not classical at all, just some annoying modern art, which
shows the unhappiness and bored mind of the youth, which was culture garbage in
fact. Why I think the modern arts I saw in the museum was garbage? The art is
boring, and it is a waste of time, money, and energy.

I think the museums in Singapore should pay
more attention in the selecting the things on show.

Referee?

Few weeks ago, Eton Hall SM2 students organized a basketball game, which seemed to have nothing to do with me. However, surprisingly, in Friday morning, one of my SM2 friends asked me to be an assistant referee for them. At first, I considered it would not be a tough job, because the main referee would take care of everything. Thus, I replied to my friend that I was willing to receive the task.

Contrary to my original thought, I found out that the referee was the most difficult job. Whenever I whistled a foul on players, their teammates would rush straight to me and argue that it was not a foul, which almost drove me crazy. Furthermore, the audience around basketball court complained about my “unfairness” from time to time.

After the experience as a referee, actually, I realize that everyone is supposed to think from others’ side. In my opinion, the reason why these players were always discontented with me is that they did not consider from my side.To be honest, in real life, sometimes, I often quarrel with others because of disagreement. Now, I believe it is because I cannot think from others side. In the future, I hope that I am able to change it.

To be a mysterious person?

Last night I had a long talk with one of my best friend. He got a girl friend several days ago and is in a sweet relationship now. I really feel happy for him. However, he told me that the girl looks gorgeous but he didn’t know much about her. It was a little bit weird – how can you be together with a person who you don’t even understand? In response to my query, he said,” You know, sometimes people are curious about those who appear mysterious. You want to know more about the person. Then you find yourself addicted.”

At that moment, I was speechless. Those words reminded me of some my own experience. Some of my old friends said they loved staying and talking with me because I was a true friend. I never cheat them and am willing to share my happiness and sadness with them. However, I have quite a few male friends but don’t have a boyfriend. It seems that I am more suitable to be a friend but not attractive as a mysterious girl. Well… Although I do have my own secrets, I just do not want to pretend to be difficult to be understood or got close to.

Just as a song <OK>’s lyrics: loneliness is OK, alone is OK, everything is just OK.

Being myself is OK for me. I enjoy being myself so much loh~

Thoughts on Chinese Ancient Poems

From primary school to senior high school, our Chinese teachers always asked us to recite ancient Chinese poems. We did that partly to meet the national education criteria while some of the poems were extra assignment. Personally I was inclined to learn those masterpieces of ancient talent. I was quite into the way they manipulated words, the rhyme that generated beauty of music, the object and sense used to create certain atmosphere, the emotion flowed within the lines.
When facing those curious pieces of art, I was always amazed by how sensitive the poets were-they could discern the most subtle variation of their emotion and convey them precisely through limited words. Somehow most touching poems reveal painful feelings: suffering from homesick, depressions of failure, missing loved ones, morning the exhausted youth. Perhaps the character of being sensitive also caused the great poets to be susceptible and vulnerable. From this perspective, maybe these masters in literature led painful lives; however, I perceive them to have more enjoyment than ordinary people for they found a channel of releasing their deepest feelings and communicating with readers regardless of the gap of time.
When I learnt those poems actually I could not completely share those feelings though I could literally understand the content. The emotions in the context were distant. My Chinese teacher in the senior high school once told us that it was nothing out of ordinary that we could not completely relate to those poems, and we would be truly touched after experiencing more. She was right for now I feel that the pieces in which homesick is depicted makes more sense to me. I am grateful that my teachers asked me to learn those great masterpieces by heart, and I will cherish the knowledge.

Service Learning

After coming back from service learning, I rushed to my room, took a shower, went to bed. A short sleep helped me revive. Now this rush day emerged in my mind clearly.
I admit that I am not an industrious person. Today’s activities really made me worn out, too much sunshine and soap water, but no pay no gain-- I gained elation and a span of sweet memory as a return.
In the morning, there was a game called electricity wire in which all of us had to go over the string with other team members’ support. At first, I tried to step on others’ knees to go over it, but fall down… In the second try, we used a new method—I was raised by two guys and thrown to another guy on the other side. It worked, so the other girls followed my steps, raised, thrown and caught. It did look a little funny but efficient. We all appreciated our teamwork. This stood out especially in the Butter Mountain Game. There were only three boys in our groups but six of us got to the top. What impressed me most was a boy reached the top thanks to Yueyue’s support. She was so reliable. Admiration grew from the bottom of my heart in a second. In the afternoon, we climbed the Spider web. I was really scared, for I had kind of acrophobia. However, I made it to reach the top eventually and I found I was not that afraid of height any more.
It was an amazing day. I did something I never thought I could. Thanks to this experience, I discovered some characters hidden in myself. What will happen next week? I am anticipating.

Journey to the museum

Last week, our group members and tutor have visited the Singapore National Museum and Singapore Arts Museum, which two places gave us a brand new impression of traditional Singapore.
Before I came to the Singapore National Museum, what impressed much about Singapore is that its modern rapid developing economy and magnificent architectures. After having visited the museum, I found it has varieties of traditions and customs.
The social customs in Singapore is a representation of the social customs in Southeast Asia. In the SNM, we realized about the basic tradition of Singapore, like the different kinds of food, the varieties of clothes style and invaluable decorations, the wedding and funeral ceremonies, and the old currency in Singapore. Such things may seem micro in our daily life, but they are the best representation of Singapore tradition.
After the SNM, we visited the Singapore Arts Museum. Compared with the other arts museum, this museum is more modern and abstract, and even some bloody. Some portrait in the museum was made by plastic, but the body of the portrait was stuck fully with knives and other sharpen tool, which makes some of us felt disgusting. Some videos talks about the funeral, some talks about the death penalty. Such things are scary, mystery, but attractive. Some of the pictures show the deep affection between mother and son, some of the pictures show citizens’ cool consumerism towards others’ death in old times, which make us know more about this young country.
These two museums gave me a brand-new experience, which fascinated me much. It made me memorize the old tradition and history stably in this rapid developing society.

Give Program

It has been about more than one month since I started my give program to teach students in the secondary school Chinese history and culture. Fortunately, it goes well except the first class.
I can clearly remember that when my partner and I gave the first class, we were both quite nervous because neither of us had had a similar experience before. Though we had prepared well for the first class, both of us felt embarrassed. To be honest, the students in Singapore are quite different from those in China. They are much more active, and of course much naughtier than the students in China. Therefore, at the beginning of the class, we had no idea what could we do if these naughty guys didn’t listen to our class, which was confirmed to be true later. During the class, several students seemed to be not so interested in our class, and the atmosphere in class was a little bit stuffy. Perhaps it was because they knew little about what I was talking about, or I was probably not suitable to be a teacher. Finally, the class was just end in the inactive atmosphere, and it was quite frustrated.
However, I learnt something from my first class, and a week later, I went to give my second class with some snacks. In order to capture these students’ attention, I had to take some action just like this, and it worked as expected. Every time when a student gave the right answer to the question I asked, I would give him a portion of snack as a reward, and it was clearly that they were quite willing to get some snacks by simply answering my questions. In the end, there was no doubt that my second class was a total triumph.
From this experience, I got to know much about the students in Singapore. I learnt how they studied and how they had their classes. Furthermore, I understood how to teach them and how to attract their attention even though my method seemed to be not so superior. To summarize, it is my unique and precious experience, which I will treasure a lot.