Saturday, December 29, 2007 @1:09 am
its been a long long time.
It would appear that I'd have more time to blog now that exams are over, but that doesn't seem to be the case, does it? I'm having so much fun and enjoying life so much that I don't feel the urge to air my opinions and announce my activities to the world. haha
okie, here are the tag replies:
[ceci] ah aunty, and you call yourself a singaporean! lol. oh well, sg only has like a couple of sports to blow her trumpet about. n aunty, you can go keep in touch with what's happening in the world! 18 year olds have to do that you know :p HAPPY BIRTHDAY for the millionth time :p[tttw] ah, typical singaporean! only, are you sure you're male? :p school's starting soon and you'll be in year 2 (unbelievable!), so you'd better fill your mind with work instead now!['nita] hahaha, welcome back. have fun in VJ ;)[guojun] haha doch weiss ich! ich habe nur gescherzt :p wie gehts bei dir? schon mit der arbeit beschaeftigt? ich habe noch spass und geniessen noch das leben. haha[mins] hey darling, hows life? catch up soon! tho u'll have to unground urself!!![deb] date me soon then!!! i don't want the next time i see you to be when we get our results![prinz] happy new year :p ah of course. you'll soon see how cunning setting up a blog really is :p[yang^2] thanks! happy new year! enjoy your time before army :pI took a picture of something and was going to upload it and talk about it. But my phone seems to be having less pictures than it should right now, so I guess I'll just have to describe it.It was a picture of the field in front of Aljunied MRT station and beside the condo. I remember the evenings when I'd walk past it on my way home and see at least 2 groups of people playing football. There'd be the 'malay teenagers' and the 'uncles and kids'. I distinctly remember an uncle with a pot belly who always played topless and who was never really good at kicking the ball. Not long ago, a new group of 'china teenagers' appeared, and they were even worse with the ball. But it was entertaining watching them and they sure looked like they were having loads of fun.
But recently, there're two new signs put up on the field.
One says " State Land. No playing soccer." (or something like that)
The other said that the land was up for sale and had a huge 'URA' printed on it.
So now, I don't see people playing football anymore. All I see when I walk past it is a green patch. That too, is a nice and pleasant sight. When I gaze further into the distance, I see my primary school and the playground in it.
But when I think about the future, once this land is sold and developed, in it's place will be concrete buildings. There won't ever be another patch of empty green space as large as that in Geylang East any longer. I won't be able to see my primary school from my library. The path from the MRT station to the library will be torture for claustrophobics, because it'll be surrounded by huge concrete buildings...
you know you love me
Sunday, December 09, 2007 @11:06 am
['nita] omg, i could sue you for stalking me! very funny :p hope you're enjoy your holiday ;)[sunthai] sunny!!! long time no see/talk! harlow!!! catch up soon k! must chase all the clouds away :p[prinz] gratulieren. jetzt hast du frei! und für eine ganz lange zeit...! musst du gut geniessen! :)[guojun] tsktsk. du willst du sein aber es muss auch ein balance geben :p jede woche besoffen...also das verstehe ich nicht...es macht kein spass...lol[ly] HIHI!!! wow, haven't spoken to you in eons! i'm good and enjoy my hols loads! :D hope you're doing well yourself too![deb] you're going to egypt, whats there to roar about you lucky girl?! i know you'll miss me, but hey! its egypt! lol. enjoy! :D[yinghui] darling junior! aren't you honoured! you told me to update and here i am! well, i'm busy with some essay, with i shall write you a long long essay once i'm done with that :p ha, and ask you out after that too. save your boredom :p hols ain't meant for you to feel bored!ok, now for me to air my views and give my many pence worth on things :)Singapore drew with Malaysia, 1-1, in seagames soccer and qualified for the semifinals. Well done, but in my opinion, it was a lousy match! The referee was so kayu he denied us two penalties and conveniently ignored a number of fouls! I was pretty impressed by some players, but it very much reminded me of watching JC soccer...international soccer being compared to JC soccer? not good...lol
oh well, semis against thailand on tuesday...we've drawn with them before, they've walked off before...so I suppose we do have a chance...(:
Next - the languauge competency of school teachers.
A concerned parent wrote in to the papers and MOE after hearing a kindergarten teacher say "Can I helptch you?". And now, all pre-school teachers who scored below a B3 in English for their O levels will have to go for some 40 hour enrichment course. While its good to see that measure are being taken, its hard to teach old dogs new tricks. A 40 hour course would hardly be sufficient to make a difference to people who've been mispronouncing and misusing English words their whole life. There'll probably be a change some one or two weeks after the course, afterwhich the old dogs will decide that it is just too much effort and revert back to their old ways.
Furthermore, the problem permeates all levels of education. In my experience, teachers in Primary school can still speak good English, but its a different matter when it comes to Secondary school and JC. Somehow, HR has the idea that if you're not an English language teacher, it doesn't really matter whether you can speak good English or not. This may be true to a certain extent. I have had brilliant science and maths teachers. They were the best in their field and delivered their lessons excellently, albeit in broken English. But this doesn't do much for the language abilities of the students. It is impossible to expect students to speak good English, when the only good English their exposed to is the 1 hour of English lessons they have everyday. This is especially so for students who don't come from an English speaking family. 80% of their cirriculum is taught in English, but 70% of this is taught in broken English. How then are they supposed to be able to speak good English?
There isn't the same problem with Chinese. All Chinese teachers have degrees in the study of the Chinese language, and are thus experts in their fields. If we're serious about having a nation of people who can speak proper English, we have to first ensure that our students are exposed to good English at all times.
you know you love me