Daily Reflections for OELP trip
Day 1
I was very excited for the trip to Taiwan on day 1. I have never been to Taiwan before so this trip was a new experience for me. Throughout the whole plane ride, I could hear the people sitting around me chattering loudly with each other, seeming to be excited for the trip too. The most memorable experience in day 1 would be the releasing of the 天灯 that we designed and wrote our wishes on. It was the first time I have ever released a 天灯 so seeing it rise to the sky was very fascinating. Also, before the trip, our group did reasearch on the activities for the first day in Toucheng farm and that included this 天灯 activity. Although what we searched of the releasing of the 天灯 amazed me, experiencing it in real life was way better.
Day 2
I was not as excited for this day as compared to the others, sinply because it is mostly outdoors, which meant that we would have to move around a lot. However, the activities throughout this day was really fun and engaging for me. From the stone building to build an "oven" for the sweetpotatoes to the weed planting. We may not experience the activities we have experienced this day which makes today more memorable. Although I complained that the mud was disgusting like the rest of our class during the weed planting, it was still a fun experience in total.
Day 3
That morning, we took the High Speed Rail to Hsinchu. There was ample space between the seats and the cabins were clean and spacious. The seats were also well-equipped, similar to the Japan High Speed Rail. However, many people would assume that Taiwan's transportation system is not as good as other developed countries like Singapore. I think that this assumption is negative as we should not judge a book by its cover. We went to the Science Park, Spring Pool Glass Factory and Inner Bay Old Street in Hsinchu afterwards. All were very interesting and fun in their own ways. The many different inventions in the Science Park, the process of manufacturing the colourful glass sculptures and the preservation of the old street truly amazed me.
Day 4
On day 4, we went to the Taipei Confucius Temple, Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, Taipei 101 and the Eslite bookstore. We learned many things in the Confucius Temple, including the 4D movie, which was the highlight of this visit to the temple. We also got to compare what we learnt at the Taiwan Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall and the Singapore Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. What I found most interesting was the visit to the Taipei 101 as the scenery on the 89th floor was mesmerizing. We also learnt how the damper counters the earthquake and prevent the building from collapsing. Lastly we went to the Eslite bookstore to look at the books sold in Taiwan. The bookstore was huge with many different varieties of books and stationeries.
Day 5
On day 5, we went to 建国高中 for our school immersion. After we were paired with our buddies, they showed us the different places in the school before proceeding to their classrooms for lesson. When I found out that they are allowed eat and drink while listening to the lesson at the same time, I was very shocked as this is not allowed in any other schools in Singapore. Teachers also used blackboards to teach instead of whiteboards and I was not aware of that before going to 建国高中. After that, 14 of us went with our buddies for a 专题研究成果发表会 and I was among the 14. Although it was a very long talk, some of it were actually quite interesting. Next, we went to the local supermarket (carrefour). It was bigger than most of the supermarkets in Singapore. The last destination was the Raohe night market. What I observed was that the food there was very oily and there were a lot of people.
Day 6
On day 6, we went on an outing with our buddies and we went to the bookstore after that. Our buddies brought us to Long Shan Temple and a Hot Spring park for the outing. The weather was very hot and humid that day but it did not deter us from our trip. What moved me the most was that our buddies would always remind us to drink our water in order to prevent dehydration. Our buddies also took the effort to research on the places we were going that day so that they could give us the correct information. Because of that we learnt a lot that day. Next, we went to a bookstore. It has 4 levels in total.
Day 7
On day 7, we went to the National Palace Museum, Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines and Bopiliao old street. We were introduced to the different kinds of jade structures in the National Palace Museum. All of them were sculptured in detail and very beautiful. The Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines is all about the lifes of Aborigines. We learned about how the Aborigines make use of what they have and made me appreciate our urban life more. Lastly, we went to the Bopiliao old street. They used fun games like puzzles to attract visitors. We learned about the history of the street there eg. the river there was often used by aborigines to exchange goods with the people on the island.
Overall reflections for OELP trip
Throughout this whole learning trip to Taiwan, I had gained a lot of new knowledge about Taiwan and the people there.
Firstly, taking the High Speed Rail and MRT left a great impression on me. I have always thought that Taiwan's economy is not as good as other countries such as Singapore and the people there were not as polite. However, when I got to took the Taiwan High Speed Rail and MRT, I was pleasantly surprised as the stations were clean and the people there were orderly. The people follow the lines drawn on the platform outside the doors to queue and were orderly even when there were quite a lot of people. Inside the trains, there was ample space between the seats and it was clean and spacious. This observation left a great impact on me as Taiwan was not how I thought it was but instead their economic status and people's character is on par with other countries' or may be even better as Singapore also has lines on train platforms for commuters to queue orderly but few people actually follow it when it is crowded. Most of them would choose to squeeze and push others just to get in the train first.
Secondly, visiting the Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan also increased my knowledge of Taiwan. Before going there, I had this mindset that America is the only country that has the most ability to invent high technological gadgets but my opinion changed after visiting the Hsinchu Science Park. They have many different useful high technology inventions on display that amazed all of us. This taught me not to jump into conclusions before knowing the truth.
Thirdly, I was shocked and envious when we went to Jian Guo High School for our school immersion and found out that they are free to eat and drink in their classrooms. I also find it fascinating that the students could eat and focus at what the teacher is teaching at the same time. This shows that the teachers trust them to pay attention to the lesson while they are eating.
After this trip, I realised that the Taiwanese people values the passing down of the knowledge of their own history and culture to younger generations. For example, the streets that we visited, the Inner Bay Street and Bo Pi Liao old street. Although many locals have set up shops there for tourists to visit, there is still preservation of the history of the streets. Both streets have museums for us to visit that contains the history of the streets. This shows that the Taiwanese people, despite modernizing some parts of the street, still preserved the history by opening up a museum for younger generations or tourists to visit and gain knowledge of. Another example is that when we went to the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, we also saw a group of Taiwanese students touring the museum. This shows that the Taiwanese people value their culture a lot and schools even organise learning trips so the younger generations get to know about it too.
1/5/15 Montage
I think that the Merlion would make the best national icon for Singapore as there are no other icon in Singapore that could possibly be better than the Merlion.
Its name combines "mer" meaning the sea and "lion". The fish body represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village and the lion head represents Singapore's original name — Singapura.
There are other icons that represent Singapore like the Sir Stamford Raffles statue and the Marina Bays Sands.
However this icons do not represent Singapore as best as the Merlion. For instance, although Sir Stamford Raffles is best known for his founding of Singapore, there was another man — Sang Nila Utama, who gave Singapore its name as the lion city which also influenced the lion head of the Merlion. Secondly, the Marina Bay Sands was only built in the year 2010, much later than when the Merlion was built in 1971.
Hence, I think that the Merlion would make the best national icon for Singapore.
With what you have learnt about the golden age of Tang dynasty,reflect on the things you have learnt about Lee Kuan Yew and how Singapore can be seen to be at its own version of the "Golden Age".
The golden age of Tang dynasty basically means the period of time where the Tang Empire was the largest, richest and most sophisticated state in the world.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew also did many things for Singapore from clearing up the Singapore River to promoting bi-lingual education. He also turned Singapore from a fishing village to an urbanized city. This can be seen as Singapore's own version of the 'Golden Age'. From a poor fishing village with little food and bad sanitation, in just a single generation, Mr Lee Kuan Yew transformed Singapore from third world to first world.
Because of Mr Lee Kuan Yew's contributions to Singapore, we now live in an environment where we do not need to worry about food, water, shelter, education and clothes. Hence, the Singapore now is our own version of the "Golden Age".
Reflection on China's economic growth and opening up of their country to international trade and its affect on Singapore
Over the years, China have opened up their country to international trade and that led to economic growth.
I think that China's decision to open up their country to international trade is beneficial for them as they have many natural resources to trade with the rest of the world and they will gain a lot of money from it. This explains the economic growth of China.
China's economic growth have also affected the world and Singapore. Many items we buy in Singapore are made in China and most of them would be very cheap. In my opinion, I think that it is cheap because of China's low salary and many of the resources used to make the items are from China.
China's one child policy and its link to Singapore
In my opinion, I think that China's one child policy has its positive and negative sides.
China's population started rapidly increasing in the 1960s thus the start of the one child policy. Although this policy helped to minimize the number of births in China, many families in China are unhappy as they could not have more than one child. Even though I can sympathize with them, I think that this one child policy is the fastest way to minimize the number of people in China as the years pass by. As the numbers gradually start to decrease, China could then be less strict with this policy and allow the birth of a second child, which is what China is doing now.
If Singapore were to also adopt this one child policy, I think that the generation of people born within the one child policy will have a hard time supporting their families. With only one child but with 2 parents, 4 grandparents and many other relatives, the child would have to earn more to support them. Also, with lesser people, Singapore's economy will also decrease if the one child policy continues on as there would not be as many people to work and contribute to Singapore's prosperity as in the past.
Reflection of CID lesson 30/2/15
In this lesson, we were shown a
story of a man and his wife on a ship. As the ship was sinking, and there was only one spot left on the lifeboat, the man hopped onto the lifeboat, leaving his wife behind on the sinking ship. At that point, I thought that the man was very callous, leaving his wife behind. However, we later knew that the wife had actually contracted a terminal disease, and the reason why the man had hopped onto the lifeboat was because he did not want his children to be without a parent. From this story, I learnt that before we knew the story behind, we should not jump into conclusions immediately and wrongly accuse others.
We were then shown a picture of the situation of the riot that broke out in Little India. People were throwing things
around, rubbish was strewn all over the ground and a police car was overturned. At first, I thought that the Indian workers were in the wrong but we were then shown a video of the living conditions of the foreign workers. They were constructing a condominium, yet they lived in a place with poor hygiene and limited space. From this, I learnt that we should not give a conclusion so quickly when we do not know the other side of the story.
In my opinion, poverty is not as serious in Singapore as compared to many other countries.
Those that come from lower income families will be provided with financial assistance from the government. This includes not having to pay for school books and most of the school trips which helps a lot in saving money for the lower income families. However, due to inflation and the increase of housing costs and other daily necessities, poverty is also increasing in Singapore over the years from 16% in 2002 to 28% in 2013.
I am also grateful that my family is not facing any financial problems and that we live in a country where poverty is not that much as an issue in comparison to other countries in the world.
December holiday reflections
During the December holidays, I took part in a VIA to ACRES (Animal Concerns Research and Education Society) planned by my CCA. The VIA was a total of 30 hours, so we had to split it into many days to complete it. ACRES rescues animals that are hurt from accidents and brings them back to take care of them until they are fully healed and ready to be released back into the wild again. Some of the animals ACRES have rescued are tortoises, turtles and snakes. Because taking care of snakes are too dangerous, we were only allowed to take care of the tortoises and turtles. It was very tiring as we had to work 6 hours a day under the hot sun taking care of the animals. We had to prepare their food, feed them, clean their tanks and wash their night dens which are often full of their faeces from the night before. To make matters worse, there are also a lot of mosquitoes in the premises of ACRES. On the first day of VIA, none of us brought insect repellents so we got bitten pretty badly by the mosquitoes. By the end of the 5 days (30hours) of VIA I had a total of 78 mosquito bites as the insect repellent was not of any use to the mosquitoes there. I also remember the seniors and I being very worried that we might get dengue fever because of the many mosquito bites. However overall, I still think that this few VIA sessions were fruitful and rather fun as we got to bond with the other people in our CCA that are not in our level and learned more about each other.
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