Blog Prompts 4

As of 2010, only 67% of Singaporeans say they have close friends of a different race, religion or nationality. I feel that this is really a pity though Singapore is mostly made up if Chinese (74.2% of Singapore's population is Chinese - 2009 figures). In that case, a non-Chinese would have to have at least 3 Chinese friends to reach a 100% figure. That is, of course, possible. I feel that we still need to understand other races even though we are the majority as it would be easy to misunderstand someone if you did not understand their culture and religion. Moreover, to understand someone else's religion would be taking the 1st step to forming good life-long relationships with that person

Mind Map - The American Civil War

Blog Prompts 3 - Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

Today, we are discussing about this article about 'Chinese' and 'Western' parents, their methods and the pros and cons. The article can be found here. Those kids sure have it tough! I feel that the examples the article gave are rather extreme and stereotypic and though most people think that way, the truth is that most parents are neither completely 'Chinese' or 'Western' and are in fact somewhere in between. Both methods have their pros and cons but I feel that a combination of both is the best. For example, the author wrote that 'Western parents have to tiptoe around the issue (that their child is fat), talking in terms of "health" and never ever mentioning the f-word, and their kids still end up in therapy for eating disorders and negative self-image'. In this aspect, I feel that the 'Chinese' parent's direct and blunt way of just telling their child that he/she is fat is better as the child might not even realise that he/she is fat and if you, as parents (if you are) do not let your child realise that, he/she would just grow fatter and fatter and most likely will get ridiculed in school. Perhaps this is the reason that 'Western' kids end up in therapy for eating disorders and negative self-image.

24th January's Home Learning

The theme of this comic strip is partly humor and partly to demonstrate that our advance in technology is not an advance in our morals, in fact, it is a degrade in our social morals. The white dove(or pigeon) represents the past when we where more advanced in our morals and the black rabbit represents the present where our advance in technology pulls us back and caused our morals to degrade.

I choose the dove(or pigeon) to mostly be white to show that it is 'purer' than the rabbit, which is mostly black. The black rabbit lost the race as it stopped to answer it's phone which I used to show that technology is pulling us back. Thanks for reading!

Blog Prompts 2

Is it better to have not known something than to have known something and to ultimately lose it later? Well, to know something and then to lose it would be very painful and might cause you a lot of heartache but, you will know the happiness and joy of knowing the something and that could be enough for you to carry with you throughout your whole life. Some people might not want to know the something in order to escape the heartache that will come with losing it. To those people I say this: if, by your definition, it is better not to know something in order to escape the heartache that will come with losing it, than what is the point of life? You will lose everything in the end anyway and besides, nothing is without risks. If you still have that mentality, then why are you still living(not that I'm suggesting suicide)? You know life the moment you are born and you will ultimately lose it. There is no escaping this fact. The fact that you are still alive and reading this shows that you do not really believe that it is better not to know something in order to escape the heartache that will come with losing it. Ciao!

Blog Prompts 1 - Have you ever been excluded from a group of people, or been in a group of people who excludes other people?

Two year ago when I was in Primary 6, there was this guy my class who was severely overweight and was the subject of much casual bullying. one day during PE, we were required to run the shuttle run which was 4 x 100m. When it was the overweight guy's turn to run, he ran quite slowly and clumsily as he could not stop properly. The bullies in the class laughed and some people just followed due to the so-called 'mob-mentality'. I cannot say that I defended the student but neither did I laugh and that was a source of comfort for him. From that day onwards we were friends but both of us were quite quite so I did not know much about him beyond the surface. He loved Science and got me much more interested in Science that I was at that time.

Debate: Is Lying Justifiable?

So, is lying justifiable? Most of you will say 'Yes. it is.' since all of us have lied before and will not want to be caught in a spot if we say no. I feel that the answer should be sometimes as there are these so called 'white lies' which people claim that are told for benign reasons. Benign is an adjective that means kindly, by the way. But are telling 'white lies' good for the recipient? Say the your aunt is slightly plump and when she asks you whether she is fat, do you say that she is fat or that she is just perfect to make her feel happy? However, if you keep on telling her that she is perfect and then suddenly one day someone not so considerate tells her that she is fat and then your aunt would be crushed as all the time she was thinking she was perfect because of you and suddenly someone tells her that she is fat! If this really happens, should you have told your aunt that she is perfect? You think about it. Of course, if your aunt is severely overweight, you should just tell her the truth, that she is really fat, as it will be good for her health.

In this case, one can argue that you did not tell the 'white lie' with the intention to harm your aunt. By this definition, telling a lie is justifiable until you hurt someone by telling the lie. But then how will you know whether your lie will hurt someone or not? Think about this the next time you are going to tell a lie('cos you will, believe me).

2011 Target for LA

What went well last year?

The poetry segment was pretty good considering the time and ranks somewhere in the middle between the poetry, composition and comprehension segments.

What went wrong last year?

There was too much irrelevant stuff in compositions and I took too long to write it leading to less time for the poetry segment.

What is my target MSG?

Below 2.0

How do I intend to achieve this?

Practice writing more compositions so as to get higher marks and use less time to write it.