Teaching Chinese in Singapore

Chinese,chinese and more chinese. The subject that has been bothering more and more students,chinese. Everytime we hear complains from parents about their children being very stressed about studying and getting good grades for chinese. The bilingual policy was implemented by Lee Kuan Yew when he was still a prime minister( correct me if I am wrong). At that time, there were families with children who had difficulties with chinese emigrated to other countries like Australia. Their reason, they did not want their children to live in "misery" anymore. A mother even voiced out her opinion out to the forum of the Straits Times.

However, those people who are good in chinese said that these people are running away from reality as a solution to the problem. They just cannot see eye to eye. The issue of bilingualism in Singapore have been raised for many years. Arguments, arguments and more arguments. Recently, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew decided to change the policy by using english to teach chinese for the benefit of those students who had difficulty studying chinese. People cheered and some said that Minister Mentor Lee has finally corrected his mistake after so many years.

I feel that using english to teach chinese is a feasible solution to those with poor chinese results. It may make chinese an easier subject to these pupil as an encouragement for them not to give up. The exams can also be made easier too. However,this does not benefit the crowd with good chinese results. They would think that the lessons are boring, teachings of the basics over and over again. They can also ace the exams easily. There should be another class set up for these students with a teacher to teach separate things. Exams should also be set to their standard to make sure that they benefit from learning.

The Ministry of Education is launching their education plan of chinese to the public this month. More parents are curious about their child's learning of chinese. Everyone wants to know what are the changes made, including me.

So what are your thoughts? Leave a comment! Thank you

The Two Integrated Resorts

Well, as we all know, there are two integrated resorts which are opening facility by facility. It may sound weird, but that's what they are doing. When I first heard about building these resorts in Singapore, I was both happy and curious. Happy because I can save the air ticket money to go to a universal studios theme park. Curious because I was wondering where the Singapore government is going to get land to build these.

I am sure I am not the only one who feels that way. But when these resorts offically open to the public, other attractions would be challenged. One good example would be the Escape Theme Park. Escape Theme Park is the only theme park in Singapore before Wild Wild Wet and Universal Studios come in. The rides are not very thrilling(to me) and Downtown East has removed some of the rides in the theme park. I am speaking from personal experience. I just went there with my friends last December and we pratically finished all the rides in an hour. The best rides were only the go-kart and the wet and wild.

I feel that Escape Theme Park need more thrilling rides and not just the existing ones. Even when my friends heard that I was going to Escape Theme Park, they were like " Oh My God!!! Why are you going there? The rides are lame!Save your money for Universal Studios next year." I have to admit I felt it was a bit lame too. It needs to improve in order to stand up to the challenge.

However, it does have some good points like cheap ticket fares, nostalgic feeling etc. Wild Wild Wet is fun, the water slides and the rides are much more fun and better than Escape Theme Park. Downtown East has got to do something about it.

Another issue would be that since the two IRs(integrated resorts) are opening about the same time this year, there would be fierce competition. The Marina Bay Sands Resorts main attraction would be the casino, while the attractions of the Resorts World Sentosa is Universal Studios, Casino etc. As you can see, there are more attractions for Resorts World Sentosa as compared to Marina Bay Sands( correct me if I am wrong). People like me would think that Resorts World Sentosa would definitely win in the competition, but it is actually too early to say anything. The resorts have not even opened offically. It is also a bit exciting to see two giants compete with each other. This would also mean more improvement which eventually benefits the public. So stay tuned!

What are your thoughts and feelings? If they are different, post them in the comments page now!

Task B- Visual

This is the obituary for my online assignment. Since there is no logical or kinaesthetic intelligence, I will just have to do the visual. Please excuse the awful drawing

For those who cant really see the words, you can click on the image or read this: Mrs Henry Lafeyette Dubose, Age:90, Departed this world on 28 February 1935 beholden to nothing or nobody, Husband:Decreased, Wake is held at Maycomb Funeral Parlour Cortege will leave on Thursday 4 March 1935 at 12.30pm, thereafter for Maycomb Crematorium for cremation at 2pm.

Enjoy!

Task B- Intrapersonal

Who would you want to be friends with in the novel? Explain.

I would want to be friends with Atticus. In the novel, he is portrayed as a man of moral values and courage. He stood up for Tom Robinson in the novel despite facing huge amount of criticism and pressure from the people around him and his family members. However, he stood with his beliefs till the end and he did not succumb to anybody or anything at all. Just this point alone is enough to earn my respect.

Atticus is also portrayed as a capable and reliable man in the novel. During the part where a mad dog attacks Maycomb, Calpurnia called Atticus instead of Heck Tate, the sheriff. Heck Tate even passed his gun to Atticus to kill the dog. Atticus was also known as "One-shot Finch". This shows that he is reliable and capable.

Yet with so many capabilities, he chose to remain humble about them and keeps a low profile. He told Heck Tate to hush when he was telling Jem and Scout about him being known as "One-shot Finch".

Atticus is impartial. He believes in racial equality. He did not despise the blacks but instead helped them, just like how he helped, protected and stood for Tom Robinson throughout the novel. He stood for what he thought was right despite the consequences and the price he has to pay.

Atticus is a man of good moral values and influence. I want to be his friend as I wish to learn his values to become a better person. When I am wrong, he can also correct me and lead me to the correct track. Atticus would also be a good friend as he is reliable and capable. He can help me in times of emergency. With so many reasons, I definitely would want to be his friend.

My Learning Profile (Task A)

Hi all, this will be my second post!!! Excited? You ought to be. This post will be about my learning profile. Not all of you may know what a learning profile is, well I am going to give a brief introduction of it now.

A person's learning profile, also known as a person's learning style, involves some factors like what are your personal strengths.This Multiple Intelligence Worksheet is an interactive worksheet which produces a Multiple Intelligences wheel based upon Gardner's eight multiple intelligences. This can help us in the journey of learning as we can identify our different personal strengths. A person has multiple intelligence. The eight different multiple intelligence are:

-Kinaesthetic - Body Smart
-Linguistic - Word Smart
-Logical - Number Smart
-Interpersonal - People Smart
-Intrapersonal - Myself Smart
-Musical - Music Smart
-Visual/Spatial - Picture Smart
-Naturalistic - Nature Smart

Can you guess what is my strength? I think for those of you who are my close friends or understand me, should be able to deduce my strengths. I shall keep you in suspense for a while.


Nevermind forget it. I will just give you the answer. Well, my strongest intelligence is intrapersonal, which means I understand a lot about myself. That is in fact quite true. Since the task now is to write out my feelings on this Multiple Intelligence Profile, get ready for it now!

Well, I always feel that I understand myself very well, ever since primary school. I use to keep a diary recording my daily school life and all the ups and downs in my life. However, as time goes by, I got a bit sick of writing diaries and the number of enteries decrease. Then blogging became popular and I prefered typing to writing. So, I turned my black-and-white diary to an online diary, which was much more convenient as I can access it from anywhere as long as there is internet connection. I can also type faster than I write, so it saves much time.

Since Primary School, I was aware of my personal strengths and weaknesses. Some examples of my strengths are chinese, maths and science. Some examples of my weaknesses are Music, English etc. Ironically, I changed my CCA to chinese orchestra as I wanted to try to take up music. I did seek help from my friends and teachers regarding the subjects that I am weak in.

I guess being intrapersonal can help me very much. Whenever I have doubts or queries, I know who to seek help regarding the subject that I am weak in and I know how to prepare myself for the subject that I am weak in before the exams. By knowing my strengths, I would know which subject to pursure for further education and which career to choose when I grow up.

So I think intrapersonal is what I am.

However, if you are curious to find out more about what a learning profile is or your own learning profile with indications of your strengths and weaknesses, visit this website: http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/what.cfm

Bye :)Hope you have enjoyed this post!