Farewell

       Just like the oracle in the movie the Matrix said, “Everything that has the beginning has the end”. Now, it is toward the end of Bridging course. And I never expect it will come so soon that it seem I have just walked in our CELC #03-03 classroom yesterday and just seen tutor’s and classmates’ friendly face.

       Chinese people believe that, “In this huge world, we met not because of coincidence, we met because of destiny”. So we should treasure every people in our lives. I still remember my anxious feeling when I try to find my name in the white board after our pre-test. When I found out there were more girls than boys in our class, I knew that I would experience a fairly unique bridging course.

       

        And it is true. Under the lead of monitor Mengnan and assistant monitor Yunsheng and suggestion of “evil consultant” Xiaoxuan, we carried out a lot fun and “healthy” games and activities, such as “please close your eyes at night”, “werewolf” and “guessing number”. And we recorded a lot of funny video of the game losers. At this place, I should say sorry to Jiadong for trapping him so many times in “guessing number”. Besides games, the two outings are both memorable. I still remembered that all of us sitting around next to the sea in the dark sky, eating together in the hawker centre, riding bikes in the heavy rain, having barbecue and the hotpot in RV and waiting for the thunder getting away.

       In addition to all kinds of activity, I also went through a fantastic learning journey that I would never forget. Tutors were amiable and shared a lot of stories with us. They are more likely to be friends than teachers which help reduce the feeling of missing home. I have never thought that class can be fun and relaxed. Especially when tutor brought us some snacks, I hoped I can keep on this bridging course all my life.

       But bridging course does not mean an end. We are still in NUS, in Singapore, in this world. We are still friends. I know that one day we will meet again, all of us.

unforgettable period

Bridging course is coming to the end; I have experienced an unforgettable period. I remembered that the first time when I came into the small classroom, I felt curious and a little nervous, because I needed to face to many strangers, including our tutors. But only a few days later, the only feeling left was happy. I was happy to have seventeen lovely new friends and four erudite tutors. I was happy to have this small classroom which likes our home in Singapore. Everyday I learnt many new things from our patient and humorous tutors. For our leader Ms Khoo, she is very humorous. In her class, even a little thing, she can teach us in a vivid way which makes us study happily. For Ms Leo, her knowledge is bottomless, each time I communicated with her; I could enjoy her intellectual opinions. For Meena, she always tells us to be confident and makes us work in group, which helps us learn how to work with others. For Viven, she only has one morning with us per week, but I can also learn many things from her. She is very amiable. For my dear classmates, Shuwei and Kaiwen, you are my two buddies; we eat together, study together, play together and help each other. Monitor, you are a lovely girl who brings our class many happy things, just like what jiadong had said, you make our class like a family. Wangzi, Taining and Wu yue, I admire your wisdom, your eloquence and knowledge are impressive. For Xiaoxuan, Jiadong and Shuman, we are in the same research group, I am glad to work with you. I know I am very lazy, so sorry for my mistakes and thank you for your hard work. Anyway, we are a happy group, and I think we will get a good mark. I cannot write all of you, but each of you is my good friends that I will never forget. I will treasure every minutes in the left bridging course with you. And I hope that we can be good friends forever and all of us will succeed in the future.

Lost in life

Lost in life

Those days, I suddenly felt confused of my life, though it is common for a youth to powdering over her life and exploring the essence, the process is really painful. Maybe I am standing at a turning point, a point between my normal life and university, a point towards a mysterious future, which leads to my confusion.

The main puzzlement is that I am dying to know the world, to get closer to the world, but I do not know how to approach this goal.

To live up to it, I downloaded various newspapers in my mobile phone, I updated them twice everyday. I browsed them, TIME, Los Angeles Times, BBC news, VOA, ABC news and many other Chinese famous newspapers and journals. The more I read, the more panic I am. On account that I found out the world is changing in a speed out of my imagination, I cannot control it, and since I found that, I cannot pretend everything is still anymore. I am afraid that I will be left behind, I am afraid that I will be an idiot who cannot say any word when everyone around her is exchanging opinions about a topic.

To avoid this depression, I tried to flick through those materials I download no matter where I was. However, the expense was I did not contact with anyone in china in two weeks. And then I felt uncomfortable again. What if they forget me since I am miles away, what if I am destroying my social network which took me plenty of time and energy to build? I do not know the answer, I am too scared to figure it out, and all I can do is to fix it up as soon as possible.

The life is hard, isn’t it? Even though I am just a pre-university student, even though I have no need to deal with the love issue which is another troublesome but unavoidable question, I have already lost. I have to admit that I freak out, but the only thing which is in my heart is that give the life your very best, keep fighting. I believe one day I will find my way out of the misty life.  

How to be more persuasive?

If you want to be a politician, you need to persuade others to support you. If you want to be a successful businessman, you will talk to your cooperators and make an agreement. Even in our daily life, there are times when we want to persuade other to follow our desires. If you don’t have the power of persuasion, other people will tend to ignore your opinions and when you are a leader, you might be seen as a dictator. Here are some suggestions from Internet for you to be more persuasive.

     Abraham Lincoln once said: “If you wish a man over to your ideas, first make him your friend.” Good attitude is better than confrontation and violence and nothing is stronger than softness. Deliver your opinions in a gentle way and create a good atmosphere. If you deny people’s opinions directly, they will feel lose their dignity and try to prove you are wrong. So you should show respect to people and protect others’ self-esteem and raise different ideas friendly.
    Threatening people can also persuade people to follow your ideas. In negotiation, when the opponents have raised tough conditions, you should make your standpoints clear as well. But you should control the degree of threatening, because if you compel them too much, the cooperation may break up from there. And you’d better still keep in good mood and attitude. Explain the situations and consequences reasonably, and maybe give them some choices to compromise.
   Try to find your common interests and satisfy their need. You can indicate them that you are not enemies but friends. You would like to offer help and achieve your same purpose. Considering things from their angle and remove their defense.
   To conclude, when you try to persuade others, don’t put them in a opponent position and gain your own benefits. If needed, you can also use the smart skills of negotiation. Maybe in our life, persuading others is not such a serious thing and we all can handle it. But I hope these suggestions can help you in important moments.


  

Where there are friends, there is happiness

Last night, I called my best friend in junior high school for the first time since one year ago. Actually we have never talked so much since we came to different high schools. We mentioned our crazy experiences and talked about the current life. Some of the experiences which I already totally forget are really hard to believe that it was me. We honored the old days and encouraged each other on the phone. The communication with the old friend makes me know more about myself and feel warm. With the support of friends who know me a lot, I feel more confident and happier in my life.

     Friends are what we should treasure in whole life. They accompany us to walk on our life path, offer help and support whenever needed and add meanings to our life.
     Friends reserve many experiences of us. We may lose ourselves when we go through a lot in society, but the friends will make us behave ourselves and believe in ourselves. They know what kind of person we really are because we have spent so much time together. Also, when we talk about the past time together many years later, we will be surprised to hear what we have done and feel fortunate to have shared the golden times of each other.
     Friends stand by us when we are in difficulties. When we feel lonely in an unfamiliar environment, we can share the happiness and sadness in life with our old friends who will always be with us. Making friends in a new place helps us to adapt to the environment, because we can grow together and overcome difficulties with each others’ help. If we have problems, friends are ready to help and encourage us.
     Friends make life more meaningful. When you enjoy snack or entertainment with friends, you will have more fun than enjoy them by yourself. Friends are trying to make your life happy.  Life will be monopoly without the laughters and jokes among friends. When you can help your friends, you will also feel satisfied .
     Friends are important to us in our life. We cannot forget the old friends or ignore the new friends. When you offer your love to the world, the love will be returned. Only if you offer your friendliness, can friends come to you. Therefore, we should be willing to make friends because where there are friends, there is happiness.

The time we spent together

  Time goes by, and our six-month English bridging course is coming to the end. I think it good to spend a happy time with all members in group 3.

  In these five months, we have a lot of unforgettable memory together. When we went to the beach in the recess week, we were caught by a heavy rain when we rode bike and everyone got wet. Xiaoxuan was so lucky to borrow a dry T-shirt from Yunsheng. After dinner, we sat in a circle on the beach to play games. It is a fascinating game and many people had to do some embarrassing things. And on 1^st of May, we had hot pot in RV hostel. On the morning of that day, our three boys with monitor and Xiaoxuan went to supermarket to buy many things for lunch. It is interesting to do shopping, although in the end we cannot eat them at all. Furthermore, killer game is also a special activity in our group. We always play it during the noon and monitor is the person who is almost taken away by the hunter.

  Five months is not a long time, but it leads us to know and make friends with each other. Although we may not study in the same classroom in the future, our friendship will keep forever.

Are you strong enough to succeed?

      We are all on the way of pursuing our goals. But, are we strong enough to succeed?
      First, I wanna to share Lady Gaga's, one of the most popular pop singers in the world, story with you. Lady Gaga was of great talent in music; she could compose a piano song when she was 14. When she was 17, she was admitted by the Music faculty of New York University. Every year only 20 students can be admitted around the world, Lady Gaga was one of them. It sounds brilliant. However, after a period of time, she thought the school was not consistent with her dream. So, without hesitation, she quitted and started to sing at a night pub. Gradually, she reached today's height.
      Frankly speaking, her story touched me a lot. I dare not to quit a predigious school to pursue my dream. For me, the decision even sounds unrealistic and even lunatic! Lady Gaga is strong enough and she deserves to succeed. Although a lot of people hate her style, but we cannot deny her persistence and strong-mind on the way of pursuing her dream.
      If you like something and have interest in it, just go all out for it. As long as you are strong enough, even the God will give way to you!

The meaning of life

One day, I talked with our befriender about religion. She asked me what your meaning of life is. I thought for a while and said just having fun. She said is it superficial and shallow. Now, I want to say something to for myself.

First of all, if we live a suffering life rather than a happy life, we must regret when we are about to die. It is the happy life that we can really enjoy. In addition, people may say as a person, we must have some ambitions and some goals to follow, such as a large sum of money or high authority. Personally, I can hardly agree with it. Although there is no doubt we need some money to guarantee our life, we do not need to put too much burden on ourselves. Perhaps being satisfied is better for us. Besides, different people have different definition about joy. Just like kongzi, he liked to try his best to help the country become better, help the people live better life, while laozi preferred to ride a cattle in the countryside freely and enjoy the peaceful life. All of us should go after the ideal life we want instead of being influenced or bounded by others, just like Juexin in home, brave enough to pursue what he wanted.

However, having fun does not mean you can not care about others at all or even do harm to others. Think about it, if you hurt others, will you still be happy? Will you feel guilty about it? Furthermore, having fun does not mean you can do anything you want regardless of results like gambling. You may have fun at that moment when you gamble, but it is not permanent. When we choose what to do to have fun, we must think about what we can get and what it will cost so that we can make a more sensible choice.

In conclusion, having fun is my view to life. No matter what your view is, I hope all of you can achieve it.   

Chinese education in foreigners’ eyes

Background:

Pisa test is the Programme for International Student Assessment. This test is used to measure children’s skills in reading, calculating and science. It has become the leading international standard.

  Yesterday, I read an article on BBC News. The title is “China: the world’s cleverest country?” I found it interesting and want to talk about it today.

In the article, the person who is responsible for Pisa test said that, China’s results are remarkable. The findings indicate that China has an education system that is overtaking many Western countries.

There has been intense interest in China’s economic and political development. this provides the most significant insight into how it is teaching the next generation. An American said, on a recent trip to a poor province in China, he saw that schools were often the most impressive buildings while in the West, it is more likely to be a shopping centre. He said that you get an image of a society that is investing in its future, rather than in current consumption.

There were also major cultural differences when teenagers were asked about why people succeeded at school. North Americans tell you typically it is all luck. They will say ‘I’m born talented in mathematics, or I’m born less talented so I’ll study something else. In Europe, it’s about social heritage. They will say ’My father was a plumber so I’m going to be a plumber’. In China, more than nine out of 10 children tell you: ‘It depends on the effort I invest and I can succeed if I study hard.’ They take on responsibility. They can overcome obstacles and say ‘I’m the owner of my own success’, rather than blaming it on the system.”

  I think the writer has some misunderstanding in Chinese education to some degree. The actual situation may be not so terrific as they explain. Maybe the reason of the intense interest in economics and political development is the money worship, but not the government’s insight into how it is teaching the next generation. Maybe the reason of children’s investing effort is that they become numb forced by the education system, but not they take on responsibility and be the owner of their own success.

  We all know that China has a lot of problems in copying, fake, creativity, education, and so on. And for a more than one billion people country, we cannot make an immediate change if we want to solve these problems. But we should not feel ashamed. We should not lose confidence. As long as we keep working on solving these problems even though we know China is not perfect, can we make it a better and really feel proud of it.

Teamwork

     Long time ago, there were two poor men who suffered a lot from starvation. A kind old man decided to help them. He offered them two things: a basket of fish and a fishing rod, each of which was chosen by one of the poor men. The two poor men got what they wanted with great joy and went on their different roads. The man who got the basket of fish finished the fish immediately without knowing the taste of them. He soon became hungry again and died before long time. The other poor man who got the fishing rod also died because of starvation before he managed to reach the seaside. Another time and another two poor men got the same help from the old man. They did not separate from each other and decided to find the sea together. They shared the basket of fish and finally reached their destination. Then they started their fishing life with the fishing rod.

    This is a story about team work. Teamwork is an efficient way to finish the tasks. Working as a team and helping each other can let people make full use of the strong points and make up the weak points. These two points are equally important. The power of a team not only depends on its members’ strong points but also on its members’ weak points.

    There is a principle in management: If a wooden bucket is made of several wooden boards whose length is not equal to each other’s, the maximum volume of it will depend on the shortest board. Though the other boards are very long, the water will flow out through the shortest board.

    This is the same situation of a team. Thus, learning to help each other is an important thing to lift the power of a team.

    Once upon a time, a little boy wanted to shift a washing machine to get the paper under it. No matter how hard he tried, the machine did not even move a centimeter. He told his father that he had tried his best and used all his power to shift it but the father told him that he had not. He told his son that you had not come to ask for my help and I also was a kind of power of you.

    Asking for help also is very important in a team. Not all the time others will offer you help initiatively. Asking for help is an efficient way to make up the weak points of a team. Next time you meet some problem in the teamwork, do not be shy, just say it out and that will help your team a lot.

Treasure Your Love

Yesterday we talked about poetry in class. The tutor introduced us several famous poems, which reminded me of a poem I read before. The name of the poem is Down by the Sally Gardens that was written by William Butler Yeats. This poem describes a young man felt regretful to lose his lover because of being youth and foolish.

I think most people will miss their first love. It may be not only because it happened when people are still in a naive age, but also since it did not have an ending. People always want things they do not have, so the loss of their first love makes feel uncomfortable. In the other hand, most first love breaks down because people are still young and cannot understand others well. Therefore, they may quarrel about tiny things and have to break up at last. When they look back at an older age, they may realize that they will still get on well if they consider the problem from the other side, which makes them regretful. Just like the poem says, “But I was young and foolish, and now I am full of tears”.

There is another sentence, “She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree”, that makes me think a lot. Because of youth, some people pay too much attention to the love that it has influenced their daily life. In addition, they may mind little things when they are with another. It may give the other person high pressure and make him feel tired. So please take love easy, and give the other one some private space.

In conclusion, when you are in love, please trust and be kind to each other, then you will not lose your true love. At last, I want to share this poem with you, and I also suggest you find the song whose lyric is this poem.

Down By the Sally Gardens

By William Butler Yeats

                           Down by the sally gardens my love and I did meet                          

She passed the sally gardens with little snow-white feet

She did me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree

But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree

In a filed by the river my love and I did stand

And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snows-white hand

She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs

But I was young and foolish, and now I am full of tears

Memory
These days, I have saw a lot of states posted on 'renren',  a chat tool famous in China. These are all about the feelings and experiences in grade three in senior high school. It reminds me a lot about my own experiences. As I can not get back home to celebrate the one-year commemoration with my classmates, I want to write about something in my blog and share with you.
At first, I want to introduce  a little bit about my senior high school. It is a elite school with 100 years history. It ranks top one for several times in jiangsu province on the ranking list of college entrance examination. So I am really proud of it.
Then, I want to talk about the life in school. Grade three is extremely a tough period of life. We have to face the huge pressure from the entrance exam. We study hard and help each other selflessly, so, we gradually get rid of ranking the last. Also, our life is not rarely focused on Studying, we always tantalise and chase each other after class. When it comes to saturday, we sometimes slip out to play football when we know teachers do not have time to monitor us.
 Some of my classmates are crazy about make nicknames to others, so, almost all of us have at least one nicknames. Actually, i am a typical victim as I have many nicknames like 'Cui Niu ' 'pi pi'(arse in English ) ' maths genius' . Cui Niu is the
Most wildly used. And I want to talk about 'pi pi'. I do not know the origin of this name but what is interesting is that the person who give me the name also name another three persons and she makes four of us form a team called 'pi gu gang men' and force us to put these names in use.
i really value this period of time. so i choose to share with you. 

I write this blog for all of you~

    Inspired by mengnan, I also want to write something about our group. I still remember that the first time I saw every one’s name on the list, I felt disappointed because the only person I knew was yunsheng. But I told myself: never mind, I should treasure it as a chance to make more friends. At that time, wangzi was the person I wanted to know about most, because she is beautiful ~ later, our dear monitor became the person I wanted to rely on. Time flies, and I want to say that I really enjoyed the six-month time being with all of you. I believe you also feel the same as me. During class, we exchange opinions and dreams; After class we share our stories, feelings and comfort each other. In this unfamiliar country, we become brothers and sisters. We share the same love to our country and the same feeling of missing our families. Without you, I don’t know whether I can enjoy my life here. Sometimes, watching cars passing by during night, I feel that I don’t belong to this city, but thankfully, group 3 becomes the home to all of us. There are many people I want to say thank you to.

 yunsheng : thank you for borrowing me the Tshirt when I got wet~

wangzi thank you for accompanying me to carry out my crazy ideas especially going to sentosa at night~ 

 tianya :thank you for taking fantastic pictures of me~

anti-xiaoxuan group( kaiwen, shuwei, tianhang) : though you three always bully me, I know we are friends. I know you are the people I can turn to when I need help, aren’t you?~

shuman: thank you for giving me the courage to like the person I like~

jiadong: thank you for paying so much effort on our research project~

monitor: as I once said, you keep me from being alone. I enjoy your company. You know me a lot and can even read my feelings. Having you as my friend is such a gift to me.

    I know that we have to be realistic that friends cannot be together forever, but I hope when we enter NUS, we will still greet each other whenever we meet. My dear friends, I wish you all the best!! You know I love you !! Please do not forget me !!

Writing poems for myself

Writing poems for myself

“明天的明天的晴天/你我的你我的流年/时光的时光的缱绻/午后的午夜的散漫”

I always feel like writing something on a piece of paper anytime I’d like to. The Chinese fragment above was written when I was waiting for a lecture to start. The game of playing with Chinese rhythm is truly fascinating to me as what is to be completed can be totally neat both in sound and in appearance once successfully done. To tell the truth, I do appreciate the Chinese language and I do personally hold the belief that Chinese is tremendously feasible for poems. It can be so charming in itself. It is not an enjoyable thing to translate a Chinese poem to an English one, but I have tried.

“The sunny day of the day after tomorrow

 The flowing time we relish together

 Nothing hurries as the light shines cozily

 Lie in the couch from the serene afternoon to deep in night”

You can always have fun with what you enjoy even if you do not do well. If you savor what you like for yourself, who cares what you are doing except yourself.

I love a poem written by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats called When you are old. Actually, however, what impressed me a lot at the beginning was the Chinese translation version by a Chinese author Feibai, which is incredibly beautiful for me. When I eventually manage to find the original one, I was a little disappointed. The meaning was of course more impressive and charming than the translation, but I do not appreciate the rhyme that much.

When You Are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep

And nodding by the fire, take down this book

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars

Again, I do think the raising up and down of tones are much more distinct in Chinese that in English, for it is conspicuous that Mandarin has four separate tones for every character while English do not. Maybe the Chinese in poems can be considered more musical.

In the end, I think the most typical modern poems of Chinese are in various pop songs. Some of them are considerably well done in terms of lyrics while others are just acceptable when the tones are changed into a song. I write for fun, just the same as I listen to music to enjoy myself. Hope you can find the way you get pleasure from yourself despite of what others think about your job.

Our fantastic shopping on May 1st

       The day before yesterday is the first “International Labour Day” I spent in a foreign country. Usually, I would stay at home and face my computer for the entire holiday. But this year, though there is only one day off, I experience a short but meaningful holiday with my group3 classmates.

       My day was started by a heavy hit by Kaiwen when I was still dreaming after 6 hours sleep. Early in the morning, three of our boys with monitor and Xiaoxuan went shopping in the Fairprice in Jurong Point. Despite the JP in the morning was almost empty, more people are concentrating in the supermarket. Our first task is preparing food and drinks for our midday hot pot and barbecue. It seemed Xiaoxuan had taken it into account the night before for she just took out a list which had contained all the things we need to buy. Then for the first time, I observed how crazy the girls were when they were shopping, especially when there were two. They were particular to everything like the kinds of drinks, the amount of meat and the sorts of vegetables. In addition monitor strongly recommended white gourd tea. And Xiaoxuan was favourable to some strange cabbages. However, thankful to their precise selection, we had enough food for our hot pot though we had not finished them at last.

       During the shopping, something that out of my prediction also happened. When we were choosing vegetables, a man about 50 years old suddenly turned to me and said, “Do not but so many drinks. It will be harmful for your body and you may get diabetes.” I was surprised by his abrupt talking. Subconsciously, I nodded my head watched the five bottles of drinks. After finishing the speaking, he turned back. When we were waiting at the checkout line, we met again. And this time, I explained the whole thing to him. Then he just gave me a smile and started chatting with us. Although he misunderstood our action, I really appreciate his advice in good faith. I thought if there were more people like him, out world would be a better place.

       Our shopping did not last as long as I thought previously. But this experience was unforgettable. Though the food was not light to carry, we were paid off by the happiness of out classmates when they enjoyed the hot pot.

prison break

Prison break

Recently, I have watched an American series called prison break. In its first season, it tells how Scofield went into prison and broke his innocent brother out of prison to save his life. I have to say its plot is really fluctuating. However, it matches the complex situation in prison where everything can happen.

At first, Scofield didn’t have a good relationship with his brother. He is a full time engineer and has steady income; however, his brother doesn’t have a job and cause troubles everywhere. But when knowing the fact that the money he got for study actually came from his brother and his brother was innocent, he was determined to save his brother out. And after a long period’s careful research and planning, Scofield did a thing out of all of his friends’ expectation that he turned himself into the prison by grabbing a bank. As soon as he entered the prison, his rescue plan went on. In the entire process of his plan, I have seen his super intelligence. Many unexpected things can happen in the place called Fox River prison; however, none of them had stopped Scofield from his plan. Finally, he made it. He successfully saved his brother out and more challenges are waiting for him.

         Scofied is a man without many words. He thinks much. And when a man can plan carefully, somehow I think he has the power to predict the future, because he planned so well that all the things happen as his plan. Thus, the outcome will not be far from his expectation. This is one key point that helps Scofield to achieve his plan, also a point that I appreciate.

         At last, I’d like to recommend prison break to all of you.

Our Group 3

Our English bridging course will finish soon. When I am looking forward to life in NUS, I also feel a little sad because during these 6 months, I experienced a lot and I have to admit that I love our tutors and classmates very much. I do not want to say goodbye to you.
If you have visited my qq zone once, you will find that most journals I wrote are about my friends. And in this last blog, I want to write all of you.
I want to say thank you to our tutor first. They give me a feeling like my mother. When first coming to a country that I have never been to, I really felt lonely and because I have never left my city since I was born, even my university in China is in Dalian-my hometown, I missed my parents especially my mother very much. And I think I found the shadow of my mother on them. Our group is amazing because we have four female tutors, but that makes us feel the dense love from them. And they each are very different. Ms Leo is very erudite, every time we have class with her, we will always learn a lot of new things from her. And I think she is also very rigorous during our research project. Ms Khoo is very lovely. I love her big smile and her happiness when talking about her family. Meena and Ms Vivien both pull me out when I was in abyss. I remember those encouraging words they gave me. They all make me feel the warm.
And I love our classmates. Although we have known each other only for a short time, I just feel that we are like a big family. Everyone is different but just because of these varieties, our family is unique. We are all very energetic because every day I always hear laugh from our group. And our group has the killer game which other groups do not have. Although now we don’t play that game more often, it gave us a beautiful memory about sitting on the ground and laughing unconstrained. I still remember the day we went to East Coast Park together. We rode the bicycles in the heavy rain. And that is the real youth which only belongs to us. I will also keep in mind the mini steam-pot made by Xiaoxuan. It is really delicious which later was popularized to all our classmates.And although I havn't tried Tianhang's noodle, I think it must be very palatable. I always tease Xiaoxuan that the hot pot is poisonous. But I want to say that Xiaoxuan is really a very kind girl. I hope she can find her true love in the future. Please put down those unpleasant memories and the person who doesn’t deserve your love. And also in our holiday, I felt the unity of our group. Thanks to Cuiniu who helped me to borrow the pot from his officers.
I want to say thank you to my classmates.We have flower, grass and many who bring happiness to us everyday. I have Taining who accompanies me to have lunch everyday~Thank you for those who care for me.Every time I was sad, Tianya would always leave a message to comfort me. And I really want to thank Shuman who always comfort me.  I hope you can be happy forever.And Benjing, who helped me to find out what I want to get on earth and gave me the courage to move on. And thanks for all your support. You have brought the beautiful memories to me. I am very happy that we are in the same class. I think we are much skirted. Among so many Chinese, we are chosen to come here. Among so many students in SM3, we are in NUS. Among so many NUS students, we are in Group 3, which only belongs to us. I will keep these memories in my mind. Although we will say goodbye to each other, we are still friends.
I love all of you. All in Group 3.

Whatever is, is right

“Whatever is, is right.” This maxim reveals the process of development. Something comes into being because it is “right” enough while something disappears because it is “wrong” enough. Whether something is right or wrong does not depend on its inherent attributes, but depends on  the contradiction between it and its environment. If something gets along harmoniously with its environment, it can develop to a bigger scale. Conversely, it would disappear gradually if it has enough conflicts with its environment. That is, as long as the environment keeps changing, nothing on earth is always right or definitely wrong. Something used to be wrong may be right one day. For example, in hunting and gathering age, women enjoyed relatively higher status than men because women could collect more food by gathering while men got less by hunting. There is right enough for women to enjoy a higher status. However, as planting develops, men gradually become the main bread winner of the family. The contradiction of the state that women enjoyed a higher status but men were more productive grows bigger and bigger so that women lose their status in feudal society. When knowledge grows in importance and labor is not crucial in production, the ability to produce is similar between two genders. Therefore, there is enough contradiction to alter the inferiority of women and there is enough reason for women to promote their status. In some sense, we should not criticize the state of women in the past, because it is right enough at that time.

looking forward to May 5

   This Friday, my parents will come to Singapore and will stay here for 6 days. I cannot control my excitement when I heard the news that my parents have already bought the air ticket. It has been nearly 6 months since I come here in Singapore. During the 6 months, although I have a video conversation with my parents almost every day, I still miss them so much, especially when I was alone. Frankly speaking, I had never remained in residence, even never gone to nightly self- study for a single day at school before. So this is the first time that I left the shelter from my parents and began a totally new form of life. You can imagine how hard it is for me to adapt to the completely new environment in another country at first. But in general, I really changed much during the last 6 month. In the study life abroad, I learned how to be independent. I had to manage my study as well as my daily life. I learned to how to handle the great stress and competition in study. Nobody will supervise my study anymore. Everything must be totally by my self-conscious. I also learned to bear solitude. Not every time I have friends to rely on. Sometimes I had to face some problems by myself. In this process, I think I became mature more or less.

   Now there are only 4 days before my parents’ coming. I have made a lot of plan for them. I hope they can enjoy their 6-day staying here although it seems a little short for me. I will take them to the Singapore flyer, Sentosa, Singapore zoo and so on. And also I will let them have a taste of the delicious and typical food here. My parents have done so much for my on the road of my life. I hope I can make use of this opportunity to accompany with them and set their minds at rest about my life abroad. 5 May is coming soon and I am really looking forward to picking them up at the airport!!!

A fairyland—Clare Quay

A fairyland—Clare Quay

This Sunday afternoon, I went to Clare Quay on my own, although I have been there once the scenery there really attracted me a lot.

Walking out the MRT station, the first place I went into was a shopping centre. I believed that the topic of this week of the shopping centre was balloon, as in the centre of its lobby, there was a separated world made of balloons. It was like a magic trick that balloons could be made into grass, flowers and coconut trees and even the clothes of a model. Out of the shopping mall was the Clare Quay, it was fascinating to see the houses along the river decorated with different and bright colors. Just like walking into a fairyland and maybe each house had a fairy living in. People could drink coffee and enjoy the landscape besides the river, there were also ships on the river, I thought it would be really comfortable to sit on the ships and enjoy the soft breeze. I recalled the first time I came to Clare Quay was on the Christmas even, there were much more people and it was a little crowded. In the middle of the ground, there was a large Christmas tree which was made of several LCD screens. On each screen was the photo taken of the tourists, one of them was taken of my friend and me, it was really exciting to “plant” ourselves on the tree as decorations.

After this trip, the Clare Quay impressed me a lot more, and in my opinion, it was a real fairyland.

Exploring Singapore

      Some time ago, I went to eat steamboat with my friends at Bugis. When the day got late, I watched at the cars passing, people walking by and billboards shining. For a moment, I could not help missing my hometown and felt kind of strange to this city in which I am going to spend years. I even wondered why not I just go to a university in my city so that I can stay in the familiar environment and be around with my parents. Is it worth my leaving my lovely hometown?
      Frankly speaking, this question has huanted me for a while after my arrival at Singapore. As the excitement of coming to abroad gradually phasing out, my home-sick feeling became stronger. However, it is not a good predictor to sink myself in this kind of emotion. I started to try my best to explore, feel and love Singapore. This time, go to a deeper layer, instead of wandering my limited routine at Vivo. I wanna to know its local culture and immerse myself by being one of its member. This weekend I, with Benjing, walked from Bugis to Geylang. Along the tour, we ate durian along the road, tried the amazing and featured rojak, came into an Islam ceremony at KP Glam and finally found the Fujian Noodles at Geylang. My stomach was full, so did my mind. In addition to those local special food, we saw the multi-cultural shops, ceremonies and, most important, people.
      I was impressed by the diversified charactiristics showed by Singapore. What shocked me most was the scene I saw at Geylang: young girls wearing exposed clothes waiting for their customers. Admittedly, it's legal in Singapore for prostitution, so I should not comment on it with too much personal kind of "bias". To some extent, I learnt that I should not judge the world with my own criterion which is shaped by my cultural and family background. World is complicated so there is no right or wrong. Living in a city like Singapore which is like a melting pot combining a wide range of cultures. I should think more as a global citizen now. All in all, to explore Singapore and to try novel things is terrific, which I think will do good for me to merge in this modern and diversified community.
    

My attitude towards cloning

  When it comes to cloning, I am very excited about this topic. I think through cloning we can clone the thing we cherish and never lose it.

Cloning has many advantages. Firstly, we can use this technology to protect endangered animals from distinction. Then we could also try to use this method to relive extinct animals and even to see live dinosaurs. In addition, we could clone many domestic animals to work for farms, which will be beneficial to human beings.

  Additionally, cloning human beings is a sensitive topic. I am in favor of cloning human beings. But in order not to cause a mess to the world, cloning should abide by some rules strictly. In my opinion, human cloning should be agreed by the person who is cloned, because it is his right to choose whether there is another him existing in the world or not. Then it is must be a special situation when person is cloned, such as he gets cancer and so on. Although there are still many problems in cloning, I think it also has many benefits. By cloning, people can get a baby who has high intelligence if he is cloned by an outstanding person. Furthermore, if people get serious illness, doctor can use his cell to clone only some his organs to save him. In short, by trying cloning we can get lots of surprising answers.

  Therefore, I support making good use of cloning to offer benefits to our life.

Differences between Generations

  Every generation of people is different in important ways. I think the principal differences between my generation and my parents’ generation are in how they relate to others. My generation is more tolerant of other people’s choices, less concerned about what others think, and more self-centered.

  My parents’ generation has stricter standards about what kinds of behaviour are acceptable. They sometimes have a hard time accepting the fact that other people may have different ideas about what is right and what is wrong. My generation thinks people should have a lot of choices. For example, they choose whom they want to live with, whether or not to have children, whether or not to practice a particular religion, and what to do for a living.

  My parents’ generation is much more concerned about what other people think of them. Many grew up in tightly knit communities where people knew each other’s families. Filling in meant that you had to react a certain way. Many of my generation grew up in loosely knit communities, where we only knew about our closest neighbours. We did not care what the rest of the community thought of us. Also, we were a very rebellious generation and often did thing just to shock people.

  Wherever we grew up, most of my generation did not have to worry about having enough to eat or a roof over our heads. My parents’ generation did. For this reason, my parents did not have time to analyse their feelings of think about their inner selves. They were too busy trying to get by. Children of my generation were well taken care of by their parents. Because of that, we had time to think about ourselves and our place in the universe.

  When I think about our actions, it seems that my parents’ generation is more outer directed and my generation is more inner directed.

Self-management in university

In recent years, university students’ pressure on finding jobs has aroused extensive concern. Many people think that the reason is the increasing number of university students. However, in my opinion, the poor quality of university students is the leading reason. Many university students do not know how to arrange their daily life in universities. That is why they achieve nothing during the precious four years. Thus, self-management is really important for every university student. Self-management can be concluded in the following three aspects: designing future, enriching personal thought and doing exercise. Setting a goal is of vital importance. Students who have a clear aim know what they want to be and what they need to do. They plan their future according to their dreams. They work hard at classes and spend free time in improving abilities which they need. On the contrary, other students do not know what they like to do; the life of them is vacuous. They waste time in playing online games, skipping classes for more sleep, refusing others’ suggestions. Day by day, they become lazier and more selfish. Finally, they feel lonely in this world and are isolated by the society. So, having a clear goal is really important for every university student. Someone ever said, ‘People are great, because they have thought.’ Four years of university is the key period for everyone to deepen their

thought. A thoughtful man can judge what is right or wrong. There are many new fears and challenges in our life. As a student, we must distinguish clearly by ourselves what we need to cultivate independent thought. Except learning knowledge of our major, we need contact with the outside world by reading newspaper and magazines. Sometimes, we find opportunities to communicate with some thoughtful people like our teachers or dear friends. In this way, our thought will be enriched and our mind will become mature. To be a thoughtful man is what every university student need to do. Keeping good health is crucial for everyone. We university students need to do exercise to build a strong body and strengthen our mind to have a good mental health. Nowadays, university students are too lazy to have outside activities. Someone even skip PE classes, which lead to their fatness and laziness. If they carry on in this way, they’ll have a poor body for their future job. They will be easy to get sick and have no enough energy for work. Mental health is also significant for university students. Society is full of competition. We have to face different challenges in our work. A good mental condition can help us overcome difficulties. It is no doubt that a good health is of great importance for us. In a word, Self-management in university is my top concern. I believe, if we can manage ourselves correctly, many years later, we will be winners in our fields!

An umbrella

An umbrella

  Last Thursday, I was the last person who got off the school bus and saw an umbrella on a seat, I knew it belongs to one of my schoolmates. so, i picked it up. However i do not know what i should do at first. It was impossible for me to ask for each possible. suddenly, It occurs to me that i should shout aloud to make all of my schoolmates know. I was ready to speak out. But when seeing so many people walking in front, i retreated. I did not dare to speak very loud and it seemed embarrassed to me. I struggled a few times but gave up at last. As a result, the umbrella is still in my room now.

  I feel very regret about what I have not done now. why don't I just be brave to speak loudly and all the problems can be solved. I think a lot about my behavior. And i draw some conclusions. Actually, i do not dare to speak out is because i am afraid of other people's views about me. I am afraid they will tease me and see me as a monster. However, after thinking twice, i think my former thought is totally wrong. It is an action of helping others if i can say loudly. So no one will tease at me. They will only appreciate it that i am helpful.

  I think my conclusion may help someone who is very shy. They may think a lot about others' opinion on them so that they close themselves in order to avoid being talked about by others. But these redundant thoughts may be ridiculous if they think deeply. So, my suggestion to those who are very shy and dare not to talk out is that they should not think a lot about others' thoughts, instead they should think more about the positive aspects of what they will say . maybe tomorrow, i will take this umbrella and say out to all of my schoolmates to ask whose umbrella it is.  

Pleasure@ Singapore zoo

Pleasure@ Singapore zoo

Last Saturday I went on a trip to the Singapore zoo which is organized by the church of my host family and had much pleasure there. However, I didn’t perceive the journey to be a considerable one merely because of the heavy rain in the morning. I failed to anticipate a pleasant trip and didn’t manage to be informed any message about the cancellation of this travelling plan as well. I and Yaowen, a friend of mine who had also been invited for this outing, left our hostel at eight o’clock in the morning, wearing a hopeless conflict on our faces.

Nevertheless, it was not as miserable as we had expected. A rainy day is indeed troublesome, but things got much better after I bought a plain but cute raincoat. It meant I didn’t need to hold the umbrella tightly all the way trudging in the zoo; I retrieved the capability to take photos of the various animals as well as the beautiful scenery.

What impressed me and Yaomen most is a strange crocodile we saw in the zoo. It lay prone on the shore with its mouth largely open, and just keep the odd posture dramatically still. Since there were some sculptures of creatures situated across the zoo, we inferred that it must be another fake one; a real one could not hold the strange behavior and didn’t move at all. Nevertheless, when we went through the exhibition and came back to the entrance, we saw the crocodile of stillness again, but much to our astonishment, though it remained to keep its mouth open, it was not difficult to spot that the open mouth became smaller. It should be a real living one! I think both of us thought in mind at that moment: “Oh my goodness…”

By the way, the KFC in the Singapore zoo was quite expensive, but it was virtually rather nice, not only the food, but also the environment. It is quite enjoyable to relish eating just several meters from the lively natural world. If you haven’t been there, hope you can have a good time wandering in the zoo, and please go to have a look and inform me of the condition of the considerably strange crocodile!

Please don't forget Jay--our idol

    One thing sad is that, as we grow up, our idols grow old. Do you have an idol in your childhood? Will your hero fade from your memory when he is no longer handsome and popular?

    I believe most of us have admired Jay Zhou more or less or at least are impressed of his one or two songs. Despite the reason that his song is of a unique style, I do think people love his songs because he writes about our stories and he sings out our feelings.

    As for me, I respect Jay a lot. He is definitely talented. I can see logic through his songs. Each song is a story talking about sadness, happiness…He is by no means handsome to me but when he is on stage, he is so confident making me believe that he is the king of music. Also, he always insists on being himself and singing in his own style even at that time when no one appreciates his works. He never stops his pursuing towards music allowing him to enjoy a high reputation. However, after dominating the music scene for more than ten years, he is now sometimes overwhelmed by singers who are younger. Some of us criticize that his inspiration has dried up but I firmly believe that Jay can never be replaced by others. He influenced our whole generation; he subverted people’s understanding about music; he is Jay Zhou.

    When we grow up, we may suddenly realize that the person we admire is not so perfect as we imagined. However, the memory he gave us, the changes he made on us and that period of time he accompanied us were gifts of our childhood. So, never criticize your hero only because you don’t like him anymore.

Be a Transformer in your heart

Two hundred years ago, the Danish thinker Kierkegaard suffered from poverty throughout his whole life and his life was pretty short as well. However, due to his strong heart, his life was full of happiness. Happiness like this may be difficult for common people to understand. But actually, people who have a strong heart are actually a noble in spirit. So try to be a Transformer in your heat, you can harvest more throughout your life.

Modern society, everyone is facing heavy social pressure from business, physical health and family. Many people feel discouraged and hurt when they come across problems like misunderstanding or frustration. But actually no one can hurt you if you are the people with a strong heart. They do not live in other people’s eyes. Even if all the people misunderstand him and isolate him, he can still cope with his life calmly and firmly.

In fact, everyone can be hurt. Life is quite equal. The difference is that some people known how to comfort himself and conquer all the fear. In the life of any time don't be afraid to start again because each a seemingly low point in life is on the path to a higher peak. Pain and happiness has nothing to do with the external material but your state of mind. We may have nothing temporarily. But it does not mean you have nothing in your heart. We can anguish, can be lost, but cannot show inner emptiness.

So no matter what you do, remember to build a strong heart first. Do not always rely on the giving from others. We should always know that happiness and joy are given by ourselves. So be a Transformer in your heart and enjoy your life to the full.

Happy birthday to me

       In the morning, when I went to Gang Eng Seng School for give program, my partner Ji Yi suddenly told me, “happy birthday!”Hearing this, I was stunned at first. A few seconds later, I replied, “thank you!” At that time, this congratulation was really strange to me even though I could still clearly remember the voice of the last birthday greeting for me, but it as if happened in the many years ago. Then I was lost in the thoughts of my past life.

       When I was young, the word “birthday” was not similar to me because there was almost nobody would remember my birthday, including myself. My parents were busy with working and my friends did not care about me too much. The only one on earth who would remember my birthday was my sister. At many times, I lived an “ordinary day” as usual, my sister suddenly said to me, “Happy birthday, my lovely brother!” and then represented me a gift. As we have little pocket money at that time, the gifts were very simple, for example a pen, a notebook or a wallet. Although they might be worthless, they were undoubtedly priceless to me.

       Maybe I had dressed in school uniform for too long, I was weak in how the decide which shirt should go with the trousers. And my sister always complained about my weird dressing. In most time, I would reply an excuse, “In fact, I know what I should dress in but I just have no time in it.” Another interesting thing is about buying clothes. Certainly, I was a great fool in this part. Once a time, in order to buying some clothes for me, I accompanied with her to the shopping mall. She drew me from shop after shop. And each time I tried on some clothes, she would deliver a speech on what I should dress in and how others dress. Before long, I cannot stand her endless words any more. “Enough! I choose clothes on my own,” I shouted out. She was angry and kept in silence right away. Then I looked at the bewildering clothes. After about five minutes, I said to my sister, “E…it would be better if you could give some advice.”

       In addition, when I received the greeting, I felt that she just like my sister. Hahahaha……

Be brave to try

Nowadays, you may think that our life is boring and tough. We are living in the routine. Every day, we get up , eat breakfast, study, eat lunch, study, eat dinner, study and then, go to bed. Everything repeat again and again. So many people are always looking forward to  the future. When in the class, they may think about the break time. When in the vacation, they may want to go to school and stay with friends. Why?  They are trapped in the routine and have no courage to try something new and find the fun of life. Actually, I think the joy of life is to break the rules and find something that we have not tried before. A famous writer Jack London had a fulfilled life and he had tried a lot of things that many people dare not. I think he should be very content and without pity when he passed away although he lived for only 40 years. During the Chinese New Year, I installed an operating system called "Ubuntu"on my computer(though failed) because I thought that I should try something new instead of being the exactly same as  others to use Win7 only. Although I failed and also lost lots of my important pictures, documents and software, I am still happy because I can try something new while many people are still accustomed to using Win7. By the way, I also enjoyed the process of installing it.
We should be brave to try something new and try to break the routine. Be brave enough to have a special day--it is not only a kind of experience but also a kind of attitude.

Few days ago, I reread the novel <Le Petit Prince>. Although I have read it once before, I felt I was shocked for the first time. In the story, everything was exaggerated--there was a so small planet on which there could be only one resident, an emperor who only ruled himself, an accountant who counted stars for day and night, however, we should, or we must learn something from it.
In the story, the little boy travelled to different planets in the space. He saw all kinds of grown-ups who were busy, crazy about money, eagle to possess, artificial and arrogant. The little prince hated them.Actually, we all hate these kinds of people so-called "grown-ups" and those terrible characteristics. However, I have to say that, we are indeed changing in this way. When I was a very small child, I dreamt about growing up. But now I don't want to. Just like what little prince said:"The grown-ups are lack of imagination."
We are growing up, but we should still have a pure and simple heart. Our life is used to enjoy the scenery instead of chasing the wealth and fame which will finally come out to be useless. At the first of the life journey, many people are simple just like the little prince, but during the journey, they start to pretend, to be blind and vain.
I hope, one day, before I am too old, I can sit in a small seat and watch the sunset 43 times for all day long. I hope I can also have a friend like the small rose, though she hurts me, she will be my friend forever.

English Speaking

    Recently I teased myself saying that my English level have fallen down. I would like not to believe it, but I found I  had a problem in English speaking, which may exist long time ago but wasn't taken seriously. When I wanted to say something, I usually plan for the structures I will use or even in more details. But sometimes when I was suddenly asked and haven't prepared, I will be struggling to think of how to express it. I  doubt I have had the ability to express things as I like. And I even feel that I didn't make much progress in speaking in the last 3 months. Since there are only 44 days left for English course, I think we have more pressure to reach a certain level, especially in speaking.
    First I think the consideration of structure is not wrong, but I am little in lack of proficiency. I need to be more familiar with more structures and reduce the time to think of one. That will need accumulation of some common structures and good sentences. Even though this kinds of recitation is not flexible, I think it is a good way to help us be fluent in daily communication as a beginning. Second, sometimes I don't know how to translate the words in Chinese into English when speaking. The translation is also habit that people won't accept it as a good language learning method. But I think if a person can translate as he like and avoid some common errors, he has been very efficient in communication. The problem is we don't have enough words or collocations to use. So it requires us to memorize more words and phrases. We can take notes when we are watching the English-speaking movies or series and review them afterwards. The meanings and usages of the new words are also very important, so we could look them up and take them down on our vocabulary notebook. The third one is that I should practice more in class. I should not be silent because it will do nothing good to myself. In addition, I used to feel good about my tones and pronunciation of speaking but I recently found I'm not very good at it, especially compared to some English-speakers. So maybe I can record my voice regularly and find the defects and change them, but it is not very easy. These ways sound good, but if we don't follow them, actually they are of no use.
    Days are passing by. If we don't make progress every day, then when will we make a change. I think I will pay more attention on English learning and try to practice more on speaking.

My thoughts about human cloning

My thoughts about human cloning

         Since the birth of Dolly, nowadays, there have been many cases of animal cloning. Then how about human cloning? If cases of animal cloning can succeed, human cloning will not be a big problem. However, there has been none case of human cloning nowadays, because it may result in a series of ethical problems. So although I am really interested in human cloning, I can hardly get to know about human cloning in reality. But for me to think about human cloning is still an interesting thing.

         I can clearly remember the feeling of excitement when I first heard about cloning and knew that it might help to create another me. At that time I thought if I could create a new me through cloning then when I went home, there would be no need for me to do my homework since there was another me. I would ask him to do my homework and sometimes when my mum asked me to do some housework I could still ask him to do for me. Then all the things that I hated to do would go to him and I would only do the things that I was interested in. At that time I really considered that having a cloned me was really a good thing.

         However, gradually I found that the good thing I considered when I was young was not as simple as what I thought. I began to consider more. If the cloned me was exactly the same as me, then how about his thoughts. Whether would we have the same thoughts in our minds or whether what emerged in my mind would instantly be known by him? Would there be two me in the world? I began to fear. And from some movies I became even afraid that one day the cloned me might kill the real me and take the place of me.

         Today in class we have talked something about human cloning. And when asked about whether or not we were in favor of human cloning, I chose to be in favor of it. There are many people who are against it thinking that it may cause many ethical problems in our society. But I think since the future is unpredictable and human cloning may bring great contributions to our society, why don’t we have a try. It may sound absurd. However, it’s just what I think. And I believe human cloning will bring some unexpected results to the world.