My first semester being a secondary one

It is almost half a year since I have entered secondary school and I have experienced a lot of things which I have not expected at all. The first semester was quite smooth besudes some downs. I will be sharing some of the plus points, minus points, interesting points and my plans for the future.(next semester)

Plus points (+)

I experienced half a year of secondary school life, teachers were friendly and always ready to make the lesson interesting, meaningful lessons were made fun and easy to learn, they made me eager to go to school. I managed to do different projects with different classmates, and I got used to working with people I'm not familiar with. My classmates were behaved relatively well and they made intelligent jokes during the class, unlike my old classmates when they make jokes that make no sense. I learned stuff that I did not expect to learn (infocomm studies). Computers can be used during free time and they are widely available, something I could not experience till I was a secondary school pupil. My cca, Chinese Drama, also allowed me to learn a lot about acting and stage play. The school had several platforms to communicate with their pupils and we received our test results via the internet, very hi-tech. With its ACE and OP, the school makes sure that students voice out during lessons, as well as focusing on self initiated projects. I grew to like my third language, Malay, and I found that it can be applied a lot in our daily lives. Hence, I represented Malay for the open house. The open house provided valuable experience for me and I learned what the parents wanted to know about the school. Project’s Day, the main project of the year, allowed me to experience doing a real project, our mentor was friendly and always gave his/her opinion on problems that we faced.

Minus Points (-)

The homework given by the teacher was difficult as the topics taught were totally new to me and I had to spend a lot of time completing them. There were plenty of days for me to stay back, especially in the first term, hence leaving me with very little free time as compared to primary school. The teachers 'spammed' me with projects and gave me very little time to finish up the projects. No extension given. Furthermore, teachers expect us to hand in our worksheets to the *subject* representative without any warning. Some teachers had problems pronouncing certain words and their sentence are full of grammatical errors. The school could not find good organizers or organized their programs well. The secondary one camp was horrible and the secondary one orientation/ consortium day was not really fun.

Interesting point (/)

Our recess is increased to 40 minutes. The teachers timed their homework the give with the other teachers so one day we have lots of work and the next day we have no work at all. I found out that humanities are actually quite interesting as we can apply it to our daily lives. I learned to sleep on the bus on my way home despite people shouting across the bus. I grew to like the noodles, economic rice, chicken rice the canteen sells.

Plans for the future (?)

Improve my grades because I will work harder. I will try to read more widely to improve my general knowledge besides reading compulsory books like Journey to the West etcetera. I will try my best to finish up ACE projects and speaking more in class. I will strike a balance between cca, homework and relaxation/ time with my family and friends. I also wish to be a more critical thinker and look at the both side of a problem.

Chinese Drama Anniversary

The Chinese Drama team celebrated its 30th anniversary last Saturday. Due to the Tan Kah Kee epic drama, the Chinese Drama team had to postpone the anniversary from the month of March till now.There wasn't much events/ programs prepared but we were occupied with rehearsing for our short play that we were supposed to present to our seniors at night. After a rousing game of catching, we settled to get ourselves ready for the short play. We were evenly divided, with much disagreements, into four groups. Well, each group is in charge of making a short play with only the script and very little time. As it was my first time actually participating in a play, it was an eye-opener for me. I had a taste of what I would be doing in the next few years, although it wasn't much fun, it was very meaningful for me. Let me share what happened on that day.

Now, I know what to do after getting our scripts, step by step. Bet you don't know what to do. Firstly, we read the script.(isn't it obvious) Next, we assign roles to each member of the team. Democracy overrides volunteerism as everyone will try taking up the easy role --- majority wins. Following, read the lines that you are going to say, to familiarise yourself with what your character is going to say. Lets get started! Act out the play with your script in hand, the director will then assign your standing places, the speed your character speak etc. most importantly, speak out loud. As a beginner, I had problems articulating my words well as I tend to mumble, I also either said my speech too early or too fast. As I got an easy role, no emotions were required but our team main lead did not clearly express his emotions out. I have not have a nerve-wrecking experience on stage yet, as what I had to say was short or little. I feel that facing a crowd isn't a hard thing to do.

Besides experience, I took home some knowledge on acting. Well, do not turn your back to the audience, or face your friend. Despite its simplicity, everybody is still doing it and is a relatively easy habit to kick/ get. Speak loud so that you are audible enough. Infuse your acts with emotions to show the audience that you are not memorising. Act not memorise. Be ready to change your story plan if one of your teammates forgot his lines. Aid him if you known his lines and be prepared to generate ideas if anything goes wrong. Isn't this helping you in your RTA oral assessment?

After the 'not-that-bad' dinner, we headed back to the black box to perform our master pieces. The seniors were scheming and crafty.They went up to the stage, posed as one of the actors in my group and mentioned something totally different from the original storyline. Luckily, my friend managed to think of an impromptu idea and 'chased' the senior back. They also ruined another play by moving the props around and added in an irrelevant part to the story, but luckily they managed to get through as well. After singing the official Chinese Drama song, we had a seemingly big cake to enjoy. Because of traditions and customs, the secondary one were the last to get the cake and I managed to get the last piece of the cake even though some seniors had not eaten yet. Yes! After the celebration, we were dismissed at 9 plus and the school was eerily dark. I had never been at school since so dark, it was definitely a spooky experience.

Despite the lack of fun activities, I still enjoyed the celebration. I am starting to develop a bond with Chinese Drama. It was also very meaningful, for secondary one, as we learned the very basics of acting, felt how it was like acting a short play in front of a small audience. It was really heartening when I heard the 'thunderous applause' from the audience. The chocolate cake, topped with fruits, was real nice as well. Overall it was a fun and meaningful day.

If you could eliminate one emotion from the world, would you? Which one? Why?

Firstly, ask yourself what is an emotion. Well, according to Wikipedia, an emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings, thoughts, and behavior. For example, anger, compassion, disappointment, frustration, jealousy, pride, love and regret etc. These are the more common emotions. I feel that there are “beneficial” and “harmful” emotions. “Beneficial” emotions includes compassion, guilt, happiness, hope, joy, love and surprise, these emotions help to make our life more colourful and full of meaning. “Harmful” emotions makes us see our lives as dull, and the make us feel that life has no meaning, such as anger, contempt, frustration, hatred, hostility, loathing and jealously.

Hence, I feel that jealously is the root of all “harmful” emotions. Being jealous may lead you to having other “harmful” emotions towards others and hatred between each other will be common. Therefore, I wish to eliminate jealously and people around the world can live in peace.
For example, student x is jealous as student y for winning him in an exam.


Student x will be jealous of student y and he will start saying nasty remarks about student y. This will lead both students to be very hostile to each other, and it is not a win-win situation. Both students quality of work would eventually drop and will result in both of them having a lousy grade. However, if student x is humble enough to ask for help from student y, student x’s quality of work would increase, both of them eventually will excel in their work. Since there is no jealousy, student y would be very happy that he managed to help a student score the same marks as him. This is definitely a win-win situation. Hence, from this simple example, jealousy harms others while it has no benefit to you at all.


Why shouldn’t other emotions be eliminated? Sadness is essential for us as we need to overcome failures and downs of life, guilt is also essential as it represents that we have understood our mistakes and not repeat them again. With boredom, comes enjoyment, with worry, comes happiness. Disappointment spurs us on further too.


A world with no jealousy would also see a decrease in other “harmful” emotions. The world would be friendly, more peaceful and joyful instead of having a world full of spite, revenge and hatred.



Please share your viewpoints on this issue.

Tied up

Well, this is not considered an actual blog post but I would like to use this platform to express my feelings now. I am caught up in a situation between the devil and the deep blue sea. Let me explain, I have a former class gathering on the 30 may but it so happened that there was a smb message telling me that I have to go for my Chinese drama '相声' competition on that day. I know that I would be threading on very thin ice if I excuse myself for the event but I would also feel very disappointed if I am not being able to make to my former class gathering. There are a few ways out :

Firstly, I very thick-skinly ask my Chinese drama chairman to excuse me for this meeting. However, I have used that trick before in a not-compulsory event, SYF. He will then remark,"华岗重要还是朋友重要?" I would love to say,"朋友比较重要". But, he will用着失望的眼光看着我,道:"你去把!" Following, I will feel a sense of guilt within me and I would feel like I do not belong to Chinese drama cca.
Chances of it likely happening : low
Happiness level if it works: very high (for that day only)

Secondly, I could kindly and politely request my classmates to postpone the date of the gathering. Hopefully, I am so important that they will postpone it (have to include bin hui/max). I will use pitiful glances to look at them and hopefully, they will get enticed and allow it to happen. Another way is to use the hard way. However, I really hope that we have our class gathering soon.
Chances of it likely happening : med
Happiness level if it works: very high

Thirdly, I could rush to the class gathering after the'相声' competition. Chances are, the locations are at the exact ends of Singapore and I would have to rush my heart out to meet my old friends and teachers. I would be very tired and can't really enjoy myself.
Chances of it likely happening : high
Happiness level if it works: med

I can predict the future: only the second and third plan may pull through. Although postponing the event is good, I do not enjoy waiting another week to meet my friends again. Hence, if the competition is very early, I could most likely make in but if it is in the afternoon,......

The best conclusion I can come out with : hope that they postpone the date of the competition. :)

*Note: I hope being bilingual in a blog is not against any of the rules for blogs.

June Holidays

As the term slowly creep by, with endless amount of projects and homework/assignments, the june holidays is finally only a week away after nine gruelling weeks of 'intensive learning'. Never in my life had I longed for the holidays to come this much as I need my well-deserved rest. However, the june holidays are already packed with camps, outings, even dental appointment! Hence, it is quite hard to totally relax for one month straight.

Homework is inevitable during this long period of time and I already expected comprehensions, literature assignments, compositions, tons of worksheets for humanities, mathematics and science. Following, we have the 'time bomb' as teachers would give us homework over the net suddenly during our holiday. I really dislike this and would prefer if they give it in all at once so I can relax after I have finished them. I have already prepared myself for the worst.



Yet, all work and no play make jack a dull boy. We should try to maximise my time, allowing ourselves to relax even more. Books are a form of leisure and can be read at any available time. (Oh, I need to read lots of books like The Little Prince, Journey to the West, Little Ironies, {can't believe I haven't read finished that book} and 2 other meaningful books for reviews.)

Aside with that, let me explain why I look forward to the holidays. I cannot wait to meet up with my old classmates as they hold a special place in my heart. It's great to spend time with them sharing our old memories. I will try to blog about what happened on that day. I can also spend time relaxing by watching a movie or by going out. I hope everyone will make us of the june holidays to do something meaningful.

HCI open house

As everyone know, yesterday was a significant event on our HCI calender. Yes, it was the open house. I will be sharing on what the open house was about and my personal feelings towards it. Early in the morning, at around seven thirty, all the ushers and 'promoters' of each program were waiting there, eager to start their open house. When I reached there, all the boards for various programs were already taken out. People were talking here and there and there was a sense of anticipation. As the time went by, more people were streaming in, getting full preparation to introduce their programs to the anxious parents. The clock tower was decorated pretty well, with plants everywhere. I also noticed that there were drums at the clock tower and I wondered what will those be used for.

The mystery was 'solved' once the parents began to stream in with their the nervous primary 6 child. The drums were used as a table for parents to register and to receive a free goodie bag. I was helping out for the MSP. Parents came and asked questions relating to the MSP, and I had a hard time gearing up as the parents seemed somewhat fierce. Suddenly, we realised that our teacher-in-charge had yet to arrive, and we were not wearing the tags that the presenters were supposed to wear and was very awkward. That thought aside, I tried to explain what the MSP program was about, how it is carried out and the advantages. However, I was not very confident and needed the help of a more eloquent friend. Our teacher appeared out of the blue, handed our tags and rushed off as fast as she came. On the whole, I felt that the parents were friendly, and seemed interested to send their child to HCI. Some parents smiled at us while others gave encouraging words like 'keep it up'. However, some of them were rude to us and casted cold glances at us. During a short break, I toured areas nearby and saw how the interacted with the child and the parents.

Another disaster came when we were short of one packet of food. We had a difficult time sorting the food into another packet and miscommunication were often. Hence, we all had less to eat and one of my friends even resorted to eating refreshments that were for parents. After our lunch, no one came to inquire about the MSP but there were a lot of questions based on consortiums, DSAs, school hours and CCA. I parent maybe too 'kiasu' asked so much about the dsa that we are practically giving it away. The parents must really care their children to ask about the school to such a great extent.

I felt a sense of satisfaction once the open house was over as I am sure that this open house has attracted many parents to sign up for this school after their PSLE. Furthermore, serving parents, ushering them, made me feel happy. But I was particularly happy when a primary six boy, came up to us and asked about our MSP. I could tell that he was really shy from his facial expressions and gestures, yet this did not stop him from coming up to ask up. I hope that if he enters HCI, he would join our MSP and strive to be a good student.