Helloooooo, this should be a long, dreary welcome to the new but happening blog. Not really actually. I haven't blogged for a long time and doubt if I would ever blog for the next two weeks. Tests. Training. Stress. All these happening so quickly. Within a flash, it has already been 1/12 of a year gone by. Soon, it would be 1/6. Then 1/4. Then 1/3. Then 1/2. Enough of counting. You get what I am trying to say. The year is passing too fast. Way too fast. Its term test already. I hope that I would get enough of year 2009. Anyway, enough of talking. This would be a rather outdated post but I think the least I should do is to blog about it.
Was the taximan a good father?
This is in reference of the Taximan story (from the book which you should know). Initially, I thought that the taximan was a good father. But after analysing it carefully with the help of my teacher, I managed to sieve out the important imformation from the story. The taximan was not a really good father after all. "What it lies in the power to do, lies in out power not to do. "------Aristotle. I feel that the father was not showing a good example and how could he even have an ideal daughter? He should reflect on himself first before checking on the rest. Pot call the kettel black. HAHA. I think I have exceeded the word limit. Goodbye and have to mug for Geography.

"GOOD EVENING EVERYONE....." This was what I practised today. I got a headset-cum-microphone today! The first thing I did was to open the package and check it out. Surely it was going to work. I had half written my script for the voice recording ( I wrote the part one only ) and I was just testing the quality of the sound. It was perfect. I had fun using a monotonous voice reading and a cheery one too. I had a whale of a time figuring out all the functions of it, just like how a baby would fiddle with something new. I hope I would be ready by Wednesday and it would be perfect by then.

Alright, I have briefly talked about school work today. I promised to share jokes ( some of which are corny ) and some true life story I adapted from the newspaper, The Straits Times. I really enjoy the last few pages of the main paper and I think that you should read it too.

JOKES:

1. What can be served but cannot be eaten?
Tennis balls

2. Who was the first person to wear the eggshell?
Humpty Dumpty

3. What do you get when some grizzlies get stuck in a pool of slime?
Gummy bears

4. What happens when two frogs get married?
They live hoppily ever after.

5. Why could screams be heard from the kitchen?
The chef was beating the eggs

6. Why did the man walk stealthily across the dispensary?
He did not want to wake up the sleeping pills.

These are all I have found out so far. Actually, I read all these from a variety of joke books. I love jokes and it is one of my ways of relaxing, whether corny or not. Thats all I have for today, so GOODNIGHT EVERYONE!

SUP ALLLLLL!!!!!!!! I am just feeling really happy because it is Friday today! I am not sure if I can use a smiley but I am just really happy today. Well, I just want to wish all a happy Chinese New Year! So, what are you waiting for? Time for goal settings (which would be realistic) and time for tests as well. Back to square one again after PSLE. Just to take my mind off tests, I would like to discuss some current affairs which is happening to us now. And, I would also take some slices of life which I came across or encountered myself.

All of you have read about the new education system right, I hope. I realise that primary 1 and 2 pupils do not need to sit for any examinations anymore! I am really glad for them because I remembered that when I sat for my examinations in primary 1, I really did not know what to do. This change in the education system also highlight the effort of the ministry of education (MOE) to reduce stress from pupils. This comes back to the topic of the complaint letter I did today. How can the education system be altered so that it will be beneficial for the student? Maybe we cannot entirely take away all examinations but I hope that the examination period will be spread over the school year. Enough of talking, I would like to share my slice of life........ in the next post!

So keep up with my blog, and I hope that you will find it interesting. Good night everyone!

Oh no, tomorrow need to go to school. Sad. Anyway, I think I should post this because everyone has already posted.

"Who killed Adeline?" (This question is based on the book Little Ironies and one of the short stories Adeline Ng Ai Choo)

The reason why I haven't posted my thoughts on this question is because I do not really have an answer right now. It is a really brain bending question because it don't really seem as if there is even a standard answer. I would have thought that Adeline had killed herself but I think that there are many 'murderers' behind her death. Let's put it this way: Adeline killed herself but the reasons she killed herself was because of the pressure given from her father and her teacher not giving her another mark to pass her examinations. At least this is what I think. I do not really think she had any reason to kill herself anyway because she was studying for her own future and she was only trying to pass the grade for the sake of her future instead of the sake of her father's face.

That is all I can think of for this question. I really do not have any exact answer and your thoughts can come from different point of views. Hope you will read this story and post your comments!

"Wad do u think of tis prob?" This was one of the messages I received quite a few weeks ago. I was browsing through the messages of my handphone and this message happened to catch my eye. Suddenly, a question popped up in my mind:

"Does the use of text message language affect the English standard of Singapore?"

I think that it is quite natural of us to use slang in our speech. I am no different. It is already in our blood to speak "Singlish". I think that the use of "Singlish" or slang will only affect us if we do not have know how to spead Standard English. We may get influenced by our speech that sometimes we do not even know that we are not speaking Standard English. The use of "Singlish" becomes our Standard English and we feel weird using Standard English. Thus, we might somehow get affected if we do not practise speaking Standard English. I can assure you that if it wasn't for my English lessons, I would not even know the difference between "is" or "are". This is evident that using "Singlish" is will most likely affect our way of speech.

Although I would not really go all out to ban the use of "Singlish", I also do not think that we should promote it. I would like all of us to try to use more Standard English and the use of standard of English in Singapore would be greatly improved.

Once again, a grand hello to all reading this post. Today was not too bad. Just had some really interesting Chinese New Year celebration. Yeah, had to admit it was above expectations because they had stuff like Don't Forget the Lyrics Chinese New Year Version. I thought it was quite a well planned performance thought I would have preferred it to be in the auditorium. Now, I would like to talk about what the topic of the day (actually it was yesterdays').

"What is the duty of a teacher?"

These few days, I have been talking about education related topics. This is because I have been studying this short story adapted from Adeline Ng Ai Choo, taken from Catherine Lim's book Litte Ironies. You can read more about the book.
I think that a teacher's job is not only to teach. The teacher should come and counsel the student and find out more about his or her problems. Should the student be unwilling to talk, then a professional counseller should be called in. If the teacher is not concerned about the students, then where is the value 'care' in the teacher? Can we study in a school where the value 'care' is not present? What should we do then, when we have problems to tell a teacher, and the teacher does not care? We always say school is our second home, thus I feel it is also the teacher's job to help students not only in terms of studies, but also the students's well being.

These are my reflections. I am interested to know what your views are on this topic. So, comment!

Home, finally! Changed my braces colour to pink and yellow. Anyway, today we had language arts, my new favourite subject! The topic for the day:

"What do you think we can do to improve our education system?"

I think that Singapore's education is quite whole and well already, and I do not really have much to comment about it. However, I still have some suggestions to improve our education system.
Firstly, I believe that since we are living in a rather competitive society, the duty of students is to study, study and study even more. I think that it is certainly very natural for students to be overwhelmed with school work and added pressures to strive from their parents. I hope that students will not be too stressed out by their work and sometimes have some fun instead. Firstly, I think that we should introduce more outdoor activities for them. This will help the students to destress. Secondly, I would like schools to have more facilities so that students can learn in a more conducive environment. I also think that learning should not always be in the classroom and we should have students to go out to discover more about what they are learning.
This will help the students be more interested in their studies and learning should be more creative. This will enhance the quality of our education and enjoy learning.

Any disagreements? Share your thoughts!