Singapore's National Identity defined by Singaporeans- Our Mother Tongue

Recently, there has been quite a debate going on over the teaching of Mandarin in Singapore, with less youths seeing the importance and the need to study Chinese. Minister Mentor Lee himself commented that nowadays, Mandarin had to be taught in such a way that it suited the youths, suggesting that an element of fun should be introduced into the current system of teaching. Be it Drama or Information Technology, teachers were advised to adapt their lessons to capture the interests of the student body. In addition, he noted that listening and conversation skills should be the primary focus before incorporating reading and writing into our education, reasoning that doing it the other way round or worse, together, could potentially put students off at a very young age. "Flexibility" in teaching Chinese was of utmost importance in this day and age.

Personally, I feel that changing the current system of studying Chinese will be similar to using a double-edged sword. This is due to the fact that while some students will benefit from the change, some would remain passive towards the Chinese Language and even take advantage of the system.

On the positive side, the transition of the education system from text-based to IT or Drama-based would grab the attentions of those eager to learn, giving them access to a greater basin of resources as well as articles written from the perspectives of intellectuals across the globe. This will undoubtedly contribute to their learning experience, expanding their intellectual horizons. Furthermore, introducing drama into the curriculum could help students gain more confidence in articulating their thoughts and words in Chinese, instead of using English in every circumstance.

On the negative side, this change would invite abuse from the students. As we all know, this the computer age, where the current generations of youngsters reign supreme. As a result, we know all the little tricks and tweaks to make our online venturing undetectable, which would give us the opportunity to cover up our history of computer gaming and idle social-networking when we were expected to do our work. The initiation of Drama in the Chinese curriculum could also have adverse effects. For example, students might fail to realise the point in participating in Chinese Drama and treat it as another one of the "useless and not counted in my academic score" activities in the curriculum. In turn, the new phase in teaching Chinese would just produce results similar or worse results than the current system.

In my opinion, students need to know the reason they are learning Chinese. If students think Chinese is useless, than no happen what new scheme is thought up by the ministry, no matter how interesting it might seem, it would all be for naught.

Understand our culture, embrace our heritage, glorify our language.

Singapore's National Identity defined by Singaporeans- Complains

I was just browsing through the web when I discovered this website discussing the Singaporean Identity. Truth be told, it is a little bit old but I guess it might still be a little relevant to Singapore's condition today.

Some describe the our national identity as "A nation of hard workers, untiring complainers" while others think of it as "the way we speak makes us special". Another source feels that "Everything revolves around economics". At least these are the few points that I wish to highlight in my next few posts. Tonight, since I am busily mugging for my Science test on Friday, I will only discuss the point about Singaporeans being "A nation of hard workers, untiring complainers".

The claim "A nation of hard workers, untiring complainers" unspoken of but true. The source identifies Singaporean's are best described as people who complain a lot, but get the job done in the end. I have no qualms about agreeing to this statement. Perhaps it is because I am looking at it from a 13-year old with biased opinions and reckless outspokenness but I have observed that people around me complain about almost anything. With a slight increase in workload, parallel to a slight increase in taxes, we do nothing but open or mouths in protest. We groan, we moan, we murmur behind teachers' backs. However, in the end, we still get the job done.

I don't really know. Perhaps it is because we have our own ideals and opinions but are too afraid or passive to say it out. Maybe this has restricted us to mere complaining but no action. Maybe it is just better to follow the crowd and do well enough to survive in this world. Nevertheless, there is always a chance that we just don't care about what is done as long as we get our pay and our results.

In the end, I persist that Singaporeans should not waste their energies on complaining but not moving a hairline. Solutions to what we are not contented with is what we need. We need Solutions, not complains. We need Activeness, not passiveness. We need to be Singaporeans.

I spy with my little eye

Well, I really am lost for a topic to centre this blog around. I mean, last year we could write about anything and anything, right? So why restrict ourselves this year? So,I sat on a three seater, red and rusty bench in the park below my flat and thought. Nothing came to mind. And I mean it. Nothng.

I watched with complete boredom as neighbours, some friends, some strangers jogging past me. Then, I saw this plump kid jogging past me. Okay, honestly speaking, my pet turtle from two years ago could crawl faster than him. His red, puffy cheeks were soaked in sweat and his titanic belly bounced with an ominous rhythm. He was exhausted, I could tell. But something about just seemed very familiar...

Then, I watched as I saw two little children cycle past me with zest. They were only about six, judging by their scrawny composure, pimple-free and round faces. If I remembered correctly, one was shouting "What the ****, how come u so fast one?" Sigh, I do not ever recall myself being so offensive during my childhood. However, what shocked me more was the need for competition at such a young age. My oh my, why are Singaporeans so competitive in everything? It sort of reminded me of the so called "battle" between RI and HCI. Chuckling, I imagined both of them growing up to enter these two schools...

In a brief moment of amusement, I finally found my interest. I found something worth blogging about. I am going to write about the "Singapore Ideology". You know, that funny topic we did for the first CA discussion? Yeah, that is the one.

What do the government expect of us as Singaporeans? What do we expect from ourselves as Singaporeans?