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27 October 2011:

I wanna talk about communication.

SC has published a survey for the whole school to do. And from what I heard, some people are intending to give random and nonsensical responses to the questions. Or, they are planning to select all the "strongly agree" options.

This may sound high-handed but, if the students don't do the survey seriously, how is SC gonna change to serve the school more properly?

It's true that SC needs to change. We may need to make some of the rules less strict, and offer some concessions. That's why there was this survey. No doubt, I'm sure this survey is partially to check the students' perception towards SC.

That's why proper and sincere response is necessary from the students. It's rather sad to see how the students dismiss the survey as something unessential and just select "strongly agree". If that's the case, when Mr Y sees the result (where most questions have positive responses), he'll probably think: Alright, so actually no change is needed.

And from there, SC would probably be even more disliked. Popularity ratings hit a high the previous year, if I'm not wrong. Of course, I would like the ratings to maintain. But, there have been stronger demands for some changes in the rules.

I'm sure the Top 6 has been inexorably pushing for some changes, but I think there is resistance somewhere in the system. If the student population doesn't "come together" (by means of survey response), how are the Top 6 gonna push for even more changes that would certainly be very welcome by the student population?

Another thing I hear is that some people, I think the Lower Sec, may choose positive responses because they are afraid. Which I don't understand. I can say surely that SC does accept negative feedback. And probably now, all the more negative feedback is required for SC to change. There really isn't a reason to be afraid or anything. It's not China, where if you don't side a particular lobby, you'll get punished. (No offence to anyone from China, but this is all too true. Of course, I believe there has been less of this now.)

To be frank, I've also answered "disagree" to some questions. Of course, it's because I genuinely think so, not because I simply want to spite SC or anything. Which brings me to another extreme I am afraid of. Without a doubt, there will be "hardcore protestors", that will rebut and knock down anything SC does. These people would probably select "strongly disagree" for every option. It is equally non-constructive, since this isn't an accurate judge on whether SC really is that lousy.

Now I know why Mr S would say "please be mature" when briefing for Good Teachers' Checklist.


TTFN.


26 October 2011:

Today is a happy day for me.

This is so different from what I felt a few days ago. I don't really know why I am so happy today, but I would think it's cos today was rather productive.



First up: I've been having an affair with books since recently. Not textbooks (all the more no since exams are over), but story books, or rather novels. Or maybe, books in general. The library in school has been selling old books for $0.50 each.

This, obviously, is very good news, since there are some priceless books that are unavailable now. For one, I bought a book on the state of teenagers in the 1980s. To everyone else, this may seem as a useless book and start calling me "boliao". But to me it's actually a good sociological read. Then, one can compare the traits that youth had in the 1980s and the traits that youth have now.

I don't know why I like sociology and forensic pathology so much, but I just do. And of course, history. Which is why my "history antenna" was upright since all the books were so old. I have a thing for old things, I guess. I like to imagine what happened at the time when a particular artefact (I just call it that) was produced. From there, some details can actually be deduced. I guess it's like forensic pathology, except that in the latter you do the sleuthing on a human body.


The second thing that made me happy was visiting Uniqlo. I am really very pleased with visits to Uniqlo. For one, their service standard is very high. No matter which staff member you approach, they will make the effort to serve you to the best they can. It's not everywhere you can find such high standards of service.

Which is no wonder actually, cos it's a Japanese company. And Japanese are always No. 1 at service and hospitality. Another thing that I was happy about at Uniqlo was their wide range of products available. There was everything from shirts, T-shirts, jeans, pants, jackets, hoodies, and belts. (LOL the last one sounded random.)

I really wanted to buy everything there, but of course some like belts were not applicable, and coats were also not applicable. Okay, I'm digressing, but you get the message: Uniqlo is simply an awesome place to get all your clothing. If I'm not wrong, they even have briefcases! Oh and their catalogue is simply delightful to read and browse through. It's compact (around A5 size) yet informative.

For your information, I was not sponsored by Uniqlo to write this part of my post. 


The third thing may be something that most of you would probably brush off as useless as well. That is, I've discovered that commentaries from Lianhe Zaobao are published fully online as well. This means that I do not need to buy the paper everyday to read interesting articles. Since I found out (which is not today, so technically this did not make me happy today) then that I could view commentaries, I've been printing them out to read for a later date. At least, I won't have the constant worry whether or not I am missing out on anything interesting.

I've even bookmarked the site so that I can refer to it easily. And, I might even pin the site. This would mean that everytime I launch Google Chrome, the page would be open as well! :)

The final thing that made me happy would be Chem. Okay, not exactly Chem, but the recording of the Chem podcast which is part of our project. I like doing recordings, so yeah I'm very happy that we have to do a podcast as part of a project. The feeling when I held the mic and my group members and I were speaking into it ... Seeing the volume meter jump and go back ... All the scenes I like. Of course, I'm not going to go into radio industry or anything, but yes, I just like it.

TTFN.


24 October 2011:

今日心如沉大海。

Я не знаю что происходит.

Мне очень жаль, что я сделал тебе это сердит. Когда я думаю об этом, я был слишком груб с вами.

不過我不相信只因為今天這起事件。

今天的心情好差。連打出一整篇文章都不能。我其實相當討厭那些每次只寫一兩句的人。但今天就只好這樣了。


13 October 2011:

你會曉福建話無?

快哋嚟睇嚇呢段視頻先!


(You may directly skip to 1:11 to avoid the introduction about television in Singapore.)

If you are below 18 years of age, I am almost certain of two things: (1) You don't know who these two are; (2) You don't know what they are talking about.

How many of us below 18 know how to speak Hokkien, Teochew, or Cantonese? I suppose many of us probably hear it from our grandparents or parents or relatives, but how many of us actually take interest in it and learn it?

It's easy to see why dialect is losing its selective participation nowadays. First, there was the policy of having no dialect. Secondly, dialect was seen as being useless in daily life.

In September 1979, the Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched in Singapore. Soon after, dialect was being banned on television, radio, and almost any other media platform. The reason for this policy was that Singaporeans were unable to be competent bilingually, and dialect usage at home was the main reason for it.

Hence, dialect was banned. 30+ years later, it has become that dialect is almost like a lost art in Singapore. Sure, you can still hear it occasionally in public transport and hawker centres, but who are these people speaking in dialect?

It is 99.9% adults. Adults who have learnt dialect before or slightly after 1979. I would say that people born in the 1990s have almost no knowledge of dialect. The only time they would be forced to say it is when their grandparents who don't know English or Chinese uses it to communicate. Again, that is very rare too. Most grandparents nowadays know how to speak Chinese, and they would not use dialect to speak to their grandchildren anymore.

To the 99.9% of people out there, dialect is probably so insignificant. It seems so, anyway. Simple reasoning would state that if dialect is so important nowadays, why would most people not use it anymore?

But I am the 0.1% that finds dialect important. Of course, dialect can never be more important than our English and Chinese, but it is of importance too.

Singapore dialects are very unique. In fact, I would say that all dialects are unique, not only Singaporean ones. Dialects, like languages, reflect some viewpoints or trends in particular generations. They are very colloquial, and you can see from there a unique perspective of history or geography.

For example, the colloquial Singaporean hokkien term for Indian is "geh-leng-ah". This phrase is not present in 閩南語, which is the "standard" for Hokkien. Why then, would this phrase come to existence?

There are two versions. (1) The Indians in Singapore used to live mainly in Serangoon (think Town Plan by Crawfurd in 1823). And somewhere in that area, there was a street called "geh-leng". And "ah" means fellows. So the Indians were known to be "geh-leng-ah", or the fellows from "geh-leng" street. After a while, of course, people misused the phrase, and it became slightly derogatory.

(2) Another version would be that the Indians used to handle cows, and they used a bell to assist them. Because the bell keeps making the sound of "kling-klang", people used the sounds and called them "kling-klang" fellows. Personally, I believe the first version, since I have seen the street name before, but I forgot what it was in Chinese. However, the second version was told to me by my grandmother, and of course that would be rather reliable too, since she lived in that era.

But regardless of either version, I think it is evident that these dialects actually reflect our way of life. In 閩南語, there's a phrase "細漢煩惱伊袂大,大漢煩惱伊袂娶". This phrase reflects parents' worry. See how dialect is so apt at capturing our various ways of life. And because dialect is so unique to an area, it makes the phrase even more precious.

Yet, people are "abandoning" dialect. On the one hand, I don't blame them: it was a policy to ban dialect too. On the other hand, why would they throw away such a valuable piece of their culture?

If our dialect vanishes within the next 50 years, a lot of valuable history and information about the way we speak or live may be lost. Dialect will be something like a rare art. Some people think that losing our dialects in Singapore is not a big deal; since we came from China, there will surely be dialects left in China, where there are so many people speaking them.

But no, it is not true. Like I said earlier, dialects are very unique. The China form of Hokkien in Fukkien province will definitely not have "geh-leng-ah" in their vocabulary, and their grammar will surely be different from us slightly. Singapore is only 40+ years old, and it would be saddening to see such a unique part of our culture and heritage go.

And even if you want to learn a dialect now, it's also too late. You can't go online to learn, because Singaporean dialects are not online. The only ones you can find are those from China or Taiwan, and they are not local at all. The only way you can do so is by approaching your elders who are still around, and talking to them. Yet, how many are willing to do so? This item will surely be at utmost low priority in anyone's To-do list, if it can ever get in.

Of course, there is slightly more freedom on dialect nowadays. It wasn't the case last time. If a radio broadcaster or TV personality accidentally blurted out one word or two in dialect, he / she would be fined. Which, personally, I don't see the point. It's alright to fine someone if an entire program of dialect is being played, you can say that it may affect people that are trying to grasp Chinese and English at the same time, since they need to learn the dialect too.

But how does one word affect these people? Chances are, they would probably know the word already, so it doesn't hinder their progress. And even if they did not know the phrase prior to this, and even if they set out to find out what the word was, it's not as if their bilinguality will drop significantly! It's just a word ...

Anyways, back to where I was. There are slight allowances of dialect now on TV or radio, like the infamous 我問天 song that played for countless months every day at 7 pm. Or that Yes! 933 DJ 坤華 could sneak in 蘋果 in Cantonese for his program's trailer.

Hopefully, more people will appreciate dialect, and there will be more chances of using dialect next time. Of course, most of all, I hope that the ban on dialect will be removed. Compare it with all the housing, transport, and education policy that the government needs to fine-tune now, I am sure they'll surely place no importance on it now. So let's see if it ever gets lifted ... :')


11 October 2011:

Why must ‘goodbye’ come after ‘hello’?

There seems to be a lot of "goodbyes" recently, at least in the past few weeks.

I'm sorry if this post may come across as being very "bland" after you finish reading it. I am recounting all these from my memory, and sometimes some interesting or sentimental parts just don't come out. And so I miss it out. Too bad.

1. My seniors have graudated. Technically, my cohort is now the "biggest" and oldest in the school. Graduation night was last Friday, where all the Sec 4s crowded into the Grand Audi. I remembered two things most fondly from the whole event: the singing of the school song, and our SC tradition of ending the event.

At around 1730, the school song started playing in the Grand Audi. Everyone started singing it. It was really the loudest I've ever heard, even louder than when you factor in the enthu Sec 1s during normal Monday assemblies.

It's slightly ironic, don't you think so? Every Monday, for the past four years, the Sec 4s rarely opened their mouths to even utter a single word. Yet they sang it so loudly for the last time ... 

Anyways. I miss my seniors. Of course, not everyone. I'm glad that some are gone (or will be going; they have too by December 31 anyway). But, there are others that I don't wish to see them leave. I've spent at least 2 years with them, and they have taught me a lot, made me happy, and simply listen to me talk crap.

人有悲歡離合,月有陰晴圓缺,此事古難全。

Never mind. I just have to accept that it's part and parcel of life. I have to deal with such things. Of course, I should not make it out to be so pessimistic after all. With Facebook, or handphones, I can easily contact my seniors if I want to. Vice versa, of course. So it isn't that bad, after all. 

2. Some teachers are leaving. It seems that more teachers are leaving this year, than in past years. Maybe it's my judgemental error, or maybe there's a conspiracy going on ... LOL no.

Anyways. The fact about teachers leaving is true. It's really saddening since the teacher had been great to us, and the whole class liked her a lot. It's rare that a teacher could make the whole class like him / her nowadays, yet this teacher did it. 

But now, she's leaving. Of course, she is actually advancing herself. She is moving on to a "better environment", still related to education. So actually, we should be happy for her. It's just that, after close to one year of being so used to her, her sudden departure would surely jolt us a little.

... Yes I know I sound like I'm just recounting a very boring story (or maybe 2) to you ... It sure was more emotional when I first thought of it / heard about it. But because of my strict hiatus to prepare for the exams, I stopped myself from blogging. Not even doing scheduled posts!

But the hiatus actually wasn't so successful. And I think my brain is antagonistic. Whenever I go on a hiatus, my brain would brim with classic blogging ideas or stories. But when I resume, suddenly all ideas fly away and I am back to boring stuffs like these. I once resolved to writing the ideas down, but sometimes I get too engrossed planning my future posts that I forget all about writing it down. Days later, it's gone. Haiz.

Anyways, TTFN.



aboutme.

From Singapore. 20 years of age. Blogs as and when inspiration comes, in British English (and Singlish), Traditional Chinese and (hopefully) Russian. Not a lifestyle blogger, expect posts to be serious, dull or even obscure. I enjoy comedy, in particular British humour.



interests.

[more or less in order] medicine | forensics | theatre | modern world history | typography (including style and grammar) | visual design | Taiji | Chinese language and literature | Mandarin pop (and singing) | Apple products.



typography.

PT Serif for main text and links. Ubuntu Condensed for dates, post titles and sidebar headings. Both fonts from Google Web Fonts.



credits.

singzeon. by Sing Zeon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence. Pictures used here either come from my Instagram (instagram.com/singzeon) or Google image search. For the latter, I do not own those pictures.



quote.

Hard to love. 認真你就輸了。