blog writing 3:my reflections on the cultural tour.

~My reflections on the cultural tour~

little india

During the cultural tour, we visit Pernakan Museum, little India and so on. However, many of us complained that we didn’t go to Sentosa and thus felt a little disappointed. But now, looking back at the tour, I find we got more from it than from Sentosa (if we had gone to). While almost everyone coming to Singapore may well know Sentosa and will probably go there, they may know little about peranakans and have no idea of Little India. However, these two things are very important for us newcomers. The peranakans are the blend of Chinese and Malay descent; in little India, foreigners can appreciate the unique Indian culture of Singapore. 

peranakan museum

Thanks to them, we can gain deep insights into Singapore`s history and culture. As a result, we can get integrated into Singapore as soon as possible, which Sentosa does little help. Besides, since there are so many commercial places similar to Sentosa in world`s other areas, such as Hawaii or Los Angeles, it makes no difference whether we go to the USA or Singapore. In contrast, we will never really know little India unless we go there. Also, it should be noted that cultural tour is not just for fun; more importantly, it is to help us see the real Singapore and to obtain a fully understanding of it history and culture. Now I do not complain of the cultural tour anymore; on the contrary, I genuinely appreciate it and feel sincerely grateful for MOE (Singapore).

Keep a Childlike Mind (Blog 4)

All children, except one, grow up. This is the beginning of Peter Pan, a fancy novel. I become addicted to it and now I almost finish it. Peter Pan is the forever boy who lives in Neverland. Despite they sometimes fight with horrible pirates, Peter, lost boys and their new mommy, Wendy lead a fantastic life, accompanied by redskins, mermaids, crocodiles, and fairies. Peter Pan leads me to a tremendous world and reminds me of memories from childhood. It occurs to me that if we never grow up, what will we gain or lose? Admittedly, with time going by, we gradually lost innocence, imagination, and intimacy between parents and us.

  Firstly, we start to become sophisticated and lost our innocent mind. Children always believe in virtue and glamour. For example, I used to believe that good person finally would beat evildoers. However, the more knowledge we have learnt and the more incidents we have been through, the more disappointed we feel about the world. Maybe effort may not be paid back; dreams may never be achieved; the one we love may never get together with us. We come to realize how practical the world is and eventually get accustomed to it. At least, hope for a better tomorrow and belief in goodwill should be kept in the heart. With them, we can change the world.

  In addition, after growing up, vivid imagination vanished. Peter always do something make believe, such as drink make-believe medicine which is water indeed and eat a palatable meal which is totally imaginary. Likewise, we used to create a wonderland where we were the king, the superman, the monster and whatever we wished. Moreover, we never doubted the existence of the wonderland and always expected fairies to pick us up to start a fantasy journey. Conversely, nowadays, if a fantasy idea comes up, we will immediately stop it and question ourselves whether it makes sense. What a pity! It is time to find back our imagination and transform it into innovation in study.

Last, we become more independent, however, the distance between parents and us becomes larger. In the Peter’s story, Wendy and lost boys come back to their mothers’ embrace. It is touching that a little child cuddles up to his mother. Actually, no matter how old we are, we still are our parents’ little kid. Therefore the next time returning home, give them a big embrace and tell them “ I love you”.

  Actually, it is really pleasant to recall all these childhood memories. Also, it is no wonder that everyone feels familiar with Peter Pan’s adventure because it is always stored in our memory and never decays! In conclusion, we should always keep a childlike mind, with innocence, imagination and love, in this realistic world. Although we are not children anymore, believe me, we can still fly back to Neverland one day!

Blog4:Reflections on “Wake up Your Dreams”

    Recently, I am reading a guide book called “wake up your dreams”. Now I have finished the first part. (Actually it has eleven parts =-=)

    Nothing is impossible for those who dream, which is the name of the first part. In this part the author told us that we are supposed to capture the dream. He made an analogy that capturing the dream is like digging for gold. Without digging and much work, we cannot discover the “treasure” of our dreams beneath the ground. What’s more, no great dream is superficial or a mere fantasy, so we must chase them with long and hard work.

    Next, he said that we should take our dreams seriously. Even though it is a simple and small dream, we should not ignore, overlook or discard it. In addition, he suggested that we should not minimize our dreams. One “small” dream set in motion is powerful enough to unleash the potential in other dreamers and, dream by dream, to reshape the world. (p17)

   

After I read the first part, I was deeply impressed with the words he wrote. Now I realize what my dream is and know what I am supposed to do.

At the end of this part, he came up with some questions which can help us find a dream. I put them here for you if you want to find a dream.

1.      What do you most enjoy doing?

2.      What do you do best?

3.      When you daydream, what do you think about most?

4.      What do you want to learn more about?

5.      If you had a day to do absolutely anything you wanted, what would you do?

6.      What touches your emotions more than anything else?

7.      What have you received the most compliments for doing?

8.      What captures your interest most?

9.      Whom do you most admire, and why?

10.  What are the basic characteristics of, or skills involved in, the occupations you most respect?

11.  What are you most confident about?

12.  What would you be willing to exchange your life for?

Try to answer these questions in as much detail as possible.

Blog3:Moe Culture

    At first I should clarify the title. This moe is not the “Ministry Of Education” that we often refer to. Actually, it is a Japanese slang word originally referring to fetish for or love for characters in video games or anime which is a Japanese style of motion-picture animation, characterized by highly stylized colorful art, futuristic settings, violence and sexuality and manga which is a Japanese graphic novel, typically intended for adults.

    Nowadays, moe is very popular in china, but it has deviated from its original meaning. In Japan, it used to describe a strong emotion like fire caused by some features of characters’. However, in China, its meaning is “very very cute” and it is accepted by Japanese now.

    Although it is a common sense, it still has differences between “moe” and “cute”. We can use “cute” to describe a lady, an animal or even a thing that does not have life but we cannot use “moe” to describe anything except a person. To illustrate, we can say that this kitten is so cute but we cannot substitute “moe” for “cute”. But in reality, if we describe a thing as “moe”, we will not feel strange because it is not wrong in grammar or logic.

   
As a matter of fact, we cannot change the common sense. What I want to show is that sometimes common sense is not absolutely right and we must recognize it clearly.

Using suitable idiom (Blog 4)

Using suitable idiom

           To begin with ,let me share the difination of idiom with you.Idiom (Latin: idioma, "special property", f. Greek: ἰδίωμα – idiōma, "special feature, special phrasing", f. Greek: ἴδιος – idios, "one’s own") is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made.(From  Wikipedia)

           Even though using idioms can polish our composition and make it much more vivid and native than before,the listener might mistake its actual meaning if he or she has not heard this figure of speech before.Those unfamiliar with a new language are easily to be confused by the idioms,  that is why students of a new language must learn its idiomatic expressions as vocabulary.

           Besides, in some cases, when an idiom is translated into another langusge, probably its meaning will be changed or become meaningless.Consequently,in our paragraph writing we sometimes misuse the idioms which were translated by us words by words.As a result, the idioms those are misused are always circled by our teacher especially me.For instance, we always descibes the loyalty of a couple by using"until their head become white" which is meaningless because head cannot become head but hair can.Even so ,you can use"grow along with sb.","have a wonderful night","happiness increase with age"," spend the rest of sb. life with ab." be dying to be with sb."have a long life together".

          Last but not least, it is extremely necessary to learn a new language by leaning its culture. Subsequently,idioms are  now not considered part of the language, but part of the culture.

         

Elevator heart (Blog 3)

Elevator heart

        To begin with,let me share with you my experience several days before. My roommate and I needed to board the bus at eight to enter an activities organised by MOE but the clock was set wrongly so that we woke up late at that day. Therefore, we put on our clothes in hurry and try to go downstairs by the elevator. Unfortunately, as we went to the outside of the elevator, the elevator didn't go up to our stairs because it had already boarded enough people so that it went down rather than going up.So we kept up waiting for about 10 minutes and miss the bus. As we went down to the first floor we found many NTU sm2 students sitting at the dining hall, then we knew why we could not board the elevator.That is what I call "elevator heart", it is the people's eagerness to use the elevator to make it convenient for them during the busy time. Consequently, it lead into the case that other people cannot finish their urgent thing and also the weak use of sources.Can elevator heart be avoided? The answer is absolutely yes.

       First,we should be conscious of what is busy time and what is not.Well,definitely around eight o'clock is a busy time and during this time you should better consider that if you have to use the elevator.If it is not, you should  not better use the elevator because maybe there are some people encounter  emergency.You should when you are make convenience for others and they also do this for you in return.So restrain your "elevator heart" when it is a busy time to others.

       Secondly, in RVSH we often meet the situation that after the RV's conference, many people crowded at the first floor to wait for the elevator.Nonetheless,it cost a long time to get back to your dormitory.I have a solution to make use of elevator efficiently.It is common sense that guys can use staircase to go down and up but gals cannot.Therefore I strongly suggest that we should let girls use the elevator first. Then boys use elevator equally to get to the third floors and use the staircase.It will save time for almost  everyone and we can also exercise by walking. 

       In a nutshell, we should be magnanimous no matter in which case. Only understand and tolerate can make this world a better place to live in.

(Elevator heart is  collocation that is made by me, hope you are not confused by its strange combination)

Jailbreak for Apple, legal or not? (BLOG 3)

   Nowadays, Apple products have become a trend of fashion. It is often seen people playing with their iPhones, iPads or iPod touch everywhere, anytime.

  So, why these Apple products are so attractive to us? I believe it has something to do with their confortable feeling. More importantly, there is a sea of interesting and useful application software, which we can download from App Store.

  Here comes the point. Unlike Nokia or Android handsets, the recourse of Apple software is not open, that is, we have to pay for these software before we have access to them.

  Although you can afford an iPhone, an iPad, it is hard to buy so much expensive application.

 So, is there any way to get software without paying? The answer is JAILBREAK . Because of jailbreak, you can download various software, not only from App Store, but other websites, for free.

  

  

  However, this has widely aroused disagreement about whether it is legal to jailbreak your Apple products. Different people hold different opinions. As far as I am concerned, after we bought these products, they became our private possession. We have the right to do anything with them, of course, jailbreak included. Nevertheless, it is improper to download pirated software from those illegal websites.

  So, what is your opinion?