singzeon.

28 August 2012:

Some words about conversations.

Just now when leaving school I had a chat with C. I asked him about his preparation for prelims, which is rightly on everyone's minds now. We talked for about 7 minutes on different English teachers and things like that.

What I like about C is that he has the heart. When talking to me, you sense the feelings he is trying to convey and you feel for him or feel with him. He may not be as good or slick a debater as H, but he has the heart.

I'm not saying that H is hypocritical or superficial. However sometimes when exchanging points with H you may feel a little that he isn't as sincere. Since he can play around with words you never know when he may be concealing things from you by means of his words.

C, on the contrary, bares his heart and thoughts out. What he feels, he shows. And I think that there is rather rare nowadays. Everyone is hiding behind masks. Some of them are so thick that you probably can't separate their masks from their faces.

Well you're stupid if you don't. It's true to a small extent, but then again it's quite sad because at the end of the day there is no genuine human contact.

Besides C, there are a few other people I enjoy talking to. And unlike what some may think, I don't only enjoy talking to you if you can talk serious stuff like politics or current affairs. Even if you were to talk to me about entertainment (provided I know what you're talking about), I can still have a fab time with you and enjoy myself.

I personally feel it's the heart and the intellect. To me intellect has little connection with intelligence. Oxford Dictionary may (or may not) prove me wrong, but these are my definitions of the two words. Even when talking about non-serious stuff like entertainment, I feel there's still a need to (1) stay logical and (2) stay objective.

It's not only current affairs or serious discussion that begs these two precepts. For example, if you talk about how lousy Stefanie Sun is without backing that up, I won't enjoy my talking with you. And I'm not being biased to only my idol, it applies to anyone or anything.

Although conversations are meant to be light-hearted, things will get stale if one party talks nonsense. I know some people who are like that. Nonsense does not mean differing ideas or views. Nonsense means absolutely lame things that do not directly contribute to the matter of discussion. It's as if 'lame randomness', to put it in another way.

I feel that talking and having conversations is something that we generally overlook. We are given a mouth each. Save people who have speaking disabilities, all of us would be able to converse. Yet how many can converse well?

Just because we have a mouth doesn't mean we can speak well. To speak well isn't to overpower your audience and compel them to subscribe to you. It's about engaging them. (This, I believe, is what the ruling party has failed and is trying to improve, by the way.)

I of course try and engage people. Yes some say that what I say is lame, but at the end of the day I think that I can at least (1) stay logical and (2) stay objective. If humour really isn't gonna be my friend at the end of the day, at least I don't lose rational listeners who can overlook by my lack of humour.

One problem I face is to explain myself. I admit that I am bad at this. Many a time I know and understand perfectly well what is going on, yet I can't bring up words to suit my argument or my stand.

This complicates conversations from time to time. If it's informal, it's not that bad, but imagine if it's formal instructions waiting to be given. I'll certainly cause lots of unnecessary delay with my flawed statements.

This brings me to my English prelim tomorrow. While I blog mainly in English nowadays (my first posts were largely Chinese, I think) this does not tantamount a distinction in it.

The writing style I employ here is different from what the old folks at Cambridge wish to see. They would not be impressed if I present them such 'flowy' essays which do not even seem to adhere to any particular theme, seeing that I have jumped from conversations to exams. I look forward to prelims on the one hand so that I may seek an appraisal for my standards in subjects. On the other hand, I fear getting a nasty appraisal back after 19 September.

Nevertheless this is nothing compared to O Levels waiting menacingly 55 days later. I shall not be daunted by prelims no matter what the scores may be (though I'll certainly be down if it's not good) and press on till the end of O Levels. Good luck to all; the season begins tomorrow.

TTFN.

Wow what a gung-ho propagandistic post, eh? Well I suppose it's just how I feel at this juncture. Along the way you may have noticed some not so common words which yes, I deliberately experimented with it here in the light of tomorrow's English. Hopefully they will be useful in one way or another.

I actually intended to bitch about some 'Indonesian' on this post but oh well I shall not spoil my image. *flick hair* (no hair to flick.) Well I figured it'll be rather ironic if there I am preaching about saying meaningful things and here I am bitching about someone. So I not dwell on that 'Indonesian'.