CID2 Group 1: Jerale

Self Introduction

My name is Jerale Ng. I usually make friends by saying a 'yo!' but that feels too typical. Although the 2 sentences you have just read seem typical, guess what, I spent 30 mins on thinking it ok? I shall start my self introduction! I would use 6 things to let you know me. Friends, family, positivity, laughter, kpop, fashion.

Friends and family. Although this might sound heartless, they weigh almost the same. Since young, as I am the only child, friends really make a huge part of me. Without them, it feels...empty.

Positivity and laughter? That's me. I like to make people laugh and I like to make people happy. Cause I feel that's what I'm best at and that's what I feel everyone needs.

Lastly, kpop and fashion. But why this 2 together? Firstly kpop. I got addicted to it due to Bigbang's 'Fantastic Baby'! You should give it a listen, it lives up to its name! Next why does it lead to fashion? It give me inspiration to what I like to wear! To be honest, I pay attention to what I wear as it makes me looks nice and shine!

Hope I didn't bore you!

The Extra in the Ordinary

When I first heard of this title/ assignment from Miss Hwang, our CID teacher, the first thought that came to my mind was," oh! that security guard!" You might be wondering, "why would a simple security guard be extra ordinary?", let me tell you why in this simple yet interesting(¿) story of mine...! Since the start of this year, there has been this new security uncle that has been stationed at the hostel gate in the morning to ensure that students cross the road safely. He is the first person I meet in school daily, he is the first person I talk to in school daily with a 'thank you' and he is the first person I smile at daily. Although at the start of the year I seemed really awkward with him but after a week, we became no stranger to each other. Although his job seems simple, I can see that he really tries his best to ensure that every student crosses the road safely, which at least helps to boost the start of a student's day. At least for me. I'm really thankful towards him too, thus, I will always greet him wif a smile. To be honest, I do not know this uncle's name and age. I only know that he's a nice uncle that tries his best for his job. I believe that there is this special bond created between me and him jus with a simple 'thank you' and a smile. This uncle makes a difference is the ordinary school life by ensuring that every student crosses the road safely and in my heart, he really makes a huge difference as he really allows me to start my day well. If I have a chance, I would like to thank his uncle not just for ensuring that I safely cross the road, but also for helping me to start my day well and also being someone extraordinary in my ordinary school life!

Poverty and happiness

These 2 things are often linked and discussed about together with mainly 2 different concepts, the poor are happier than the rich or the rich are happier than the poor. For me, I feel that the poor are happier than the rich.

Firstly, let’s see the definition of happiness. Based on Wikipedia, happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. It sounds a little profound but I will cut straight to the point. It is stated that happiness is a mental or emotional state, I link that you do not need to get anything or do anything to get happiness, it is how you think or how you feel.

Next, let’s get to my point. It is a fact that happiness cannot be bought. However, many first-country people will feel happy after getting things that they like. To be honest, that is me too. This brings to my next point. As those who are poorer are not exposed to so many luxurious things since young, they will feel much happier easily. For example, those kids/people in Africa are easily contented as most of them are very poor since young, even small little things like finding some ‘special’ or seemingly insignificant things on the streets can make them happy.

However, it is partially true that poverty makes the poor sad, especially those poorer families in first-world countries. Those richer kids will always get more expensive and cooler toys/stuff while the poorer kids can only stand at a corner and be jealous and envious of the richer kids.

Since part of thing blog is about happiness, I write some stuff about happiness. I feel that happiness and positivity is very important. As long as you are happy and full of positivity, there is nothing that you cannot overcome. Thus, this is also one of my resolutions for 2016- to do my best and make everyone around me happy.

Thus, I would like to conclude with 2 things – the poor can be happier than the rich and it is always important to remain happy and positive!

Chingay Reflection

We went for the 2016 Chingay Parade rehearsal at the F1 Pit Building on 30 January 2016. It was a very colourful and vibrant parade which left me in many thoughts that I would be sharing in this reflection.

Firstly, the purpose of this year's Chingay Parade. "Chingay 2016 marks the first year of Singapore's next 50 years towards SG100 and hence, Chingay 2016 is aptly themed, "Lights of Legacy, Brighter Singapore", celebrating the legacy and wisdom of our founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and other founding fathers based on the core values advocated by them and pledging our support to live by it and move forward together towards a Brighter future Singapore!" This statement is found on the 2016 Chingay Parade website and I totally agree to it. However, in my opinion, there is a deeper meaning and purpose of Chingay 2016 besides teaching values, which is to bond Singaporeans together and also showcase our talents.

Have the organizers of Chingay 2016 successfully fulfilled this purpose? Of course.

Firstly let's talk about the lights of legacy and values portion. SG100, lights of legacy, Mr Lee Kwan Yew, these were repeated many times throughout the parade and there were many different kinds of performances and items to remind us of them. There were many futuristic performances that try to let us think of Singapore's future and SG100. There were also many cool, movable and lighted-up vehicles that looked very futuristic and further enhance the theme regarding lights of legacy and the important values. As for letting us remember Mr Lee's values, he was mentioned many times throughout the parade and there was also a particular speech which was a tribute towards him. Through the performances, we could also see that the performers spent a lot of time and hard work in making the parade succeed, which better enhanced Singapore's can-do spirit and also the importance of perseverance.

Next, the bonding of Singaporeans. As Chingay Parade is a very popular event, many Singaporeans will come together to watch it. And thus, when Singaporeans watch it together, it will bond us together. Although I only watched it with my school mates and people from other schools, I could feel that everyone became very happy after watching it and we were enjoying the parade together, which makes us bonded. We cheered loudly together and celebrated Chingay together, that is the bonding spirit. Moreover, the fascinating performances also gives us topics to talk about with our peers.

Lastly, Chingay Parade 2016 indeed showcased our talents. There were so many wonderful and cool performances with much difficulty but our people, Singaporeans conquered them all. There was this particular performance which a few dancers did Bungee jumping, up and down, in the air. It was exceptionally spectacular and left the audience in gasps. This is a great example of our talents being showcased.

Next, I will be talking about the change since the first Chingay Parade and why. The first formal Chingay Parade in Singapore was mooted by the then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew who was also the chairman of the People's Association (PA). Chingay then, with all its noise and gaiety, would compensate for the ban on firecrackers, a customary New Year practice to drive away evil spirits. However, today, Chingay has become a uniquely Singaporean Lunar New Year tradition, held during the first weekend of the Lunar New Year. This yearly street parade is now a national festival, celebrated by Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians alike. There are foreigners that come to Singapore yearly just to view the Chingay Parade. Firstly, there is a change in the people participating in it. Only the Chinese participated in Chingay Parade then but now, Singaporeans of all races participate in it. This is because Singapore is a multi-racial country and it is also important to use this Chingay Parade to bond people of different races together. Next, there is also a change in scale. This is because Chingay Parade became more and more popular over the years both in Singapore and worldwide and eventually became the largest street performance and float parade in Asia. Thus, the scale eventually became bigger.

Lastly, I would like to write a little more about the parade and my experience that day.

Firstly, I feel that this Chingay Parade is a very successful one and I believe that a lot of effort have been put in by both the performers and organizers. I can see it clearly from the awesome performances and beautiful colours which were coordinated very well at the parade. If I have a chance, I would like to say a huge 'thank you' and 'well done' to the performers and organizers for giving me the opportunity to watch such a good parade.

Secondly, there are also many volunteers from the People's Association Youth Movement (PAYM) that took part in the Chingay Parade. I feel that it is really nice of them to take part as volunteers and if I have the chance, I would like to take part too! Thumbs up for the volunteers!

Next, although this is not part of the parade, I would also like to thank our teachers for bringing us there to enjoy this parade. There was this particular teacher who left a very deep impression in my heart. When we reached school at 10pm, all the gates were locked and we could not exit the school. Only the teachers with their staff passes could do so. After realising that, that teacher patiently stood at the gate and tapped the card for every student to exit the school which made me feel extremely appreciative towards. Thank you teacher!

To conclude, watching the Chingay Parade is an experience that I will never forget and I would like to thank everyone that made it possible!

3-2-1 Lesson Reflection

3 things I have found out.

-China implemented a One Child Policy in the 1970s.

-Singapore once implemented Two Child Policy in 1972.

-China changed its One Child Policy to a Two Child Policy in October 2015.

2 Perceptions I have gained.

-As a mother or parent in China, I might feel very sad if I get pregnant with a second child but I cannot give birth to it. I will be mad at the government.

-As someone part of the Government in China, I will feel that the One Child Policy is a good one as it helps to enhance China's economy, which will do good for the country.

1 question I have

-Is there a way to implement a policy that no one objects to?

Why must Singapore not be complacent?

The answer to this main question is very simple. Since young, we have been taught by our parents to never be proud and always be humble, especially when talking to others. But why? This is because once we get complacent, we will think that we are the best in the world and as long as we are the best, we will not need to improve. Also, without improving, people will be able to surpass us easily. This is obviously a wrong thinking that we should never adopt but it is true, it is a fact that once you are complacent, you will never improve. History has proven this fact too. An example will be during the Qing Dynasty. China felt that they were the best, they felt that there was no need for them to improve and they even looked down on other countries. In the end, their complacent attitude let them to a conflict with the British and in the end, the Opium War occurred. China lost badly, they then realised they were not good at all. This also applies to Singapore. Moreover, we are talking about a country, not just one person, thus if Singapore were to be complacent, many people would be affected.

I shall give an example of Singapore 'falling behind' others. It was reported in 2015 that Shanghai beat Singapore recently to become the world's busiest port with quite a huge gap, with Shanghai handling over a million of 20-foot containers more than Singapore. That is quite a huge number. This is something that Singapore should be upset about. We are famous worldwide for our busy port and there we have China beating us as the world's busiest port. We should feel ashamed. I believe that if worked harder, if we didn't become at least a little complacent, we would not have lost the title.

Our prime minister also mentioned that we should not be complacent during his speech at Clean & Green Singapore 2015 launch on 8 November 2015. He mentioned about Singapore having the longest dry spell ever in February 2015 and said about how the NEWater plants helped us during that period. The important part is that he said that we should not be complacent as the climate is changing and more of such extreme episodes might occur. I totally agree. Although we are a small nation, we really need to 'step up our game' as one nation to be ever ready for bad things to happen and not be complacent so that we will be able to constantly improve.

Thus, I feel that it is important for Singapore to not be complacent.

Future Of The Merlion

The Merlion is a statue that represents Singapore. Although it is widely know and a common tourist attraction, I have an idea on how to improve the Merlion statue and how it should be like at in the future. My idea is that there should be a huge Merlion statue on the sea around Singapore and we will need visitors to take a mini boat to get to the statue. We can have a viewing deck at the top of the Merlion for visitors to enjoy a better view of Singapore and its surroundings. We can also have a Merlion themed museum and restaurant for the visitors to have a great time there and also understand the history of the Merlion. I believe that this would make the statue more interesting and attract more visitors, Singaporeans included. Imagine how cool it would be to have a huge statue standing on the seabed that is representing Singapore!

Pre-trip Reflection

Our Suzhou OELP trip is round the corner. In three days time, we will be traveling to Suzhou.

If I were to sum up my expectations of this trip with one word, it would be 'special'.

Firstly, this trip will mark many 'first times' for me. It will be the first time I am going overseas with my secondary school friends, the first time I will be visiting a secondary school overseas, the first time I will be sharing a hotel room with a friend, the first time I will be facing all my classmates for eight days in a row and many many more. Just a fun fact: I have been to Bintan for a leadership training camp before when I was primary four, thus, this is not the first time I am going overseas without my parents.

I hope and expect that this trip will be one that is filled with fun, laughter, new experiences, learning opportunities and new friendships. I hope that by going to Suzhou, I will be able to better appreciate some things in Singapore that they don't have in Suzhou. Something that I exceptionally look forward to is the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. From the presentations of my classmates, I got to know that there are many interesting galleries and exhibits there, for example, an earthquake simulator room which makes me feel extremely interested and excited.

I also look forward to the meal at Haidilao in Shanghai as Haidilao is quite famous in Singapore even though I have never tried it before.

Lastly, not forgetting the exchange, I am also looking forward to visiting and learning in Lida School in Suzhou. I hope that I will be able to get a fulfilling and interesting learning experience there.

As for questions, I am basically interested in how people live and communicate there as I am a person who believes in communication bringing people together. One question that I would like to ask my buddy is "how well does he know about Singapore?" as I am also curious about how much others know and how they feel about my country, my homeland, Singapore.

As for achievements as a class, personally, I just hope that our class would be more bonded through this trip and everyone would be happy and enjoy every moment of the trip. Both as a chairperson and as a member of this class, these are my hopes for our class through this trip. As for the bonding part, I guess it is just natural that we will want everyone to be closer with each other. As for happiness and enjoyment during the trip, I strongly hope and believe that it is an easy and possible goal and I am a person who likes people around me to be happy, thus, that is a goal of mine. I feel that as long as people are happy, it is all that matters.

Thus, I hope that this trip will be a meaningful and interesting one.

Year 2 Suzhou OELP Post Trip Reflection

The seven-day Overseas Experiential Learning Programme (OELP) passed in a flash. As the name implies, we were able to try many new things, have many first-times and learn knowledge and values through this trip. In this reflection, I will be mentioning my gains from the trip, as well as answering the three main points for this reflection.

The first point for this reflection is ‘Why do you choose to go on this trip? What decisions were made when you choose to go on this trip? What do you hope to learn from this trip?’ The reasons I chose to go on this trip were basically to gain more exposure overseas, to learn, and because my friends were going. The first two reasons are basically the aims for this trip but as for my friends, they make up a big portion of my life, and of course, no one likes to be left out, right? Not many decisions were made for this trip as from the start, everyone, including my family members, encouraged and supported me to go for this trip. As for my aims for the trip, they are to bond the class together as a chairperson of the class, to make new and better friendships, to learn and expose myself to new things, and also to learn knowledge and important values such as independence. I would mention more on the independence part. This trip is a good way for me to grow independently as my parents are not with me and I have more control of my own actions and decisions. With all these goals and thinking in place, everyone was super excited for the trip! A photo of the super excited CID 2 Group 1 before the trip can be seen below.

The next point for this reflection is ‘What is one situation you come across that you feel strongly about? What is one person that you had seen that taught you more than what could be achieved in class? What is one fact that you had learnt during this trip that impacted you the most?’ The one situation I came across that I feel strongly about would be the 1 hour queue to clear the custom and get out of the gate at Pudong International Airport. This was basically because many people were cutting the queue and there was no order there at all. This made me really appreciate the fact that in Singapore, this would never happen and almost everything in Singapore is in order. Why is this important? With order comes efficiency and with efficiency, more things can be done. Next, one person who taught me more than what could have been achieved in class will be my buddy’s mother. She was exceptionally caring and warm when I met her and she really made me feel much more at home and comfortable when speaking to them. Even though I only met my buddy and her for two days in the whole trip, I could feel that she was super nice, especially during the home visit when she tried her best (and obviously succeeded) to be a great host. She also taught me how to appreciate the Chinese tea culture by offering and showing me how to prepare Chinese tea and also sharing on the history of it. She even gave me a ‘brick’ of tea leaves to keep for representation of this wonderful house visit and for future appreciation! Thus, she taught me the importance of being great and caring hosts and also a part of Chinese culture that is not often taught to us. I am sure that when my buddy comes to Singapore in July, I will try my best to be a great host and allow him to have a great experience in Singapore to reciprocate! Lastly, a fact that has impacted me the most is that a famous Kun Opera Performer that we have met shared with us that she spent about twenty years (and counting) for training and started at a young age of around ten years old. She shared with us that her training when she was a kid mostly involved her master hitting her and straining herself in order to achieve best results and learning. Of course, she persevered as she has a passion for this form of art and succeeded eventually. She really taught us the importance if perseverance. From her sharing, I learned that as long as we really want something, we should persevere and work hard and eventually, we will be able to succeed. This is one of my biggest takeaways from this trip. A photo of the performer sharing and teaching us about Kun Opera can be seen below.

The last point for this reflection is ‘How would this trip affect your future behaviours and attitudes? What are some long term changes you hope will take place? What did you learn in this trip that you can bring it back to Singapore?’ I feel that through this trip, with less control of my parents, I became more independent. I learnt how to wash my stuff, pack my own luggage and also prepare food when I’m hungry. This would of course affect me in the future as I will have more confidence and trust in myself in the future and I know that I can do and accomplish things on my own. This can be linked to the second question. I have become more independent, which is a long term change. For the last question, it would be appreciating our history and culture. The Chinese are a bunch of people that are always very traditional and follow their own culture, whereas in Singapore, we don’t really do that. I feel that appreciating our own culture and following traditions can be a good thing as in some traditions/culture, there are certain values which are beneficial to us that can be learnt. For example, the tea culture in China. It is often promoted as it promotes peace and patience of people which is something that is good and positive. Thus, appreciating culture is something that can be brought to Singapore.

To add on, I am really happy that through this trip, I can really see that our whole class became much more bonded and even some who don’t really talk to each other start having conversations and our class is more together and bonded as a whole, which is one of the goals I really wanted to achieve through OELP. I would like to thank everyone in our class for contributing and making this OELP a really enjoyable one! A group photo of our class can be seen below.

Lastly, I would like to thank our guides and teachers for making this trip possible and planning interesting places for us to visit like Meiji factory and Volkswagen factory. They have indeed sacrificed a lot of their time and also spent a lot of effort to make this trip enjoyable. I would also like to thank the Suzhou Lida Middle School staff, teachers, principals and of course, our buddies for having us and making our visit to their school a memorable one! A huge thumbs up and thank you to everyone who made this trip possible!

In conclusion, this OELP has indeed been a trip that allowed me to learn a lot and also develop a lot in terms of being an individual and also a member of the class. Although it was just a short seven days, I’m sure this is an experience that no one in our class would ever forget!

Trip Task (Cost of living)

1. $10 supermarket challenge

With $10 (50 RMB), we can purchase about 16 bottles of Coca-cola which costs 3 RMB (about $0.60) each in China. While in Singapore, with the same amount of money, we can only purchase 7 bottles of Coca-cola which is priced at $1.35 (which is about 7 RMB) each in NTUC stores in Singapore. We can see that the price of Coca-cola in Singapore is about two times of that in China.

2. Interview

When asked about standard of living, our tour guide stated that she is quite satisfied but there are indeed many people with different costs of living and that there are people who might still be suffering as there are many people living in undeveloped parts of China.

Unfortunately, we did not have a chance to interview our bus driver.

3. Supermarket

The supermarket carries both home brands and international brands, just like supermarkets in Singapore. The cashiers were generally quite nice and friendly and it was better than i had expected. I can say it is almost on par with the service in Singapore. The items are also categorised very neatly in the supermarket. The supermarket visit was a pleasant experience for me.

Trip Task (Education)

1. School lessons

The teachers are very well respected and always tries to engage the students by asking questions. However, as for my experience, some students were very noisy despite the teacher being in class and i even spotted two students fighting.

As for lessons taught, the class i went was having physics lesson and the things thought were extremely difficult for me to understand.

2. 5 photos

The school has many table-tennis facilities which is counted as physical development.

A library with lots of learning materials.

Very interestng learning facilities like the Geography room.

Very well-themed learning facilities.

Canteen with many stores selling a huge variety of food and having ample seating for students.

In conclusion, the students there have a well-rounded education.

3. Interview

Mu buddy says that the guys at his school mostly likes basketball including him and he also mentioned that he loves things like calligraphy and chess. I understand that he does not have tuition too.

I find their culture quite similar to Singapore which includes fun laughter and of course, studying. They are not as 'hardcore' in studying than I expected but of course, which kid dosen't love playing and having fun?

4. One learning point

One thing we can learn from their school and apply it to RVHS would be the break time between lessons. We used to have this last year and students can use it as a break to freshen up and relax which I feel is good for students, especially after long lessons. This would allow students to 'recharge' and get ready for the next lesson.

Trip Task (Heritage and Monuments)

1. The location that represents the place.

在我们行程的第二天，我们都去了好伙伴的家。在我伙伴，子恒，的家时，他的家人很温馨地招待了我。他教我下棋，他的奶奶为我们煮了一顿丰盛的午餐，他的妈妈也教了我关于中国人传统饮茶的习俗。他们对我的招待，的确是给了我一种家的感觉，让我感到很温馨和感动。因此，去到他们的家，让我真证地感觉到了家的味道，家的感觉。