1st Post in 2009, Happy Chinese Niu Year

So finally it is 2009, and sooner than said, Chinese New Year is here. Well, finally after a busy start for the year, I can finally take a short break of about 2 days to really think of how to continue this busy schedule in my life. I think everyone faces stress in life, and it is never easy to balance between work, stress and enjoying life. When people say "Work Hard, Play Hard", it is actually something easier said than done.



During this past month, I saw diligence in some of my students when we put up the posters, classroom Chinese New Year decorations, and painting together. I enjoyed doing these, but I did not get to see the whole class in action, which was something regretful. Unity in a class is not an easy task, and as much as I hope to make them work with more effort, I do realize that individual effort from the teacher is not enough to push a whole bunch of 42 students. I hope that they will be able to understand more, and work with more love together. Special thanks to Xinni, Pecky, Eugene, some of the gals, and the 4 handsome 'hunks' for preparing the food for the class party. I really hope we can work like a big family for 2009 and progress together.



During the past few days, I have had some feelings which I felt like sharing. I was at Sheng Shiong supermarket the other day and I saw a very disturbing scene. I heard cursings coming from a plump lady, and she was swearing in Hokkien with all her might, that stopped many shoppers to take a look out of curiosity. Imagine the crowdedness of the place during CNY eve, and so many children around, and there you see this foul-mouthed lady cursing a young man and his family who is around, just because he has accidentally bumped into her and forgot to say sorry. What has happened to our gracious society? Maybe it is just a small part of our society, but does it reflect also that whatever our young children are doing, they actually follow the footsteps or copy their parents' manners and behaviour?



Few days ago, a meaningful email was sent out. It says that as teachers, we should "walk the talk", meaning that we do not just say on mouth, but we must follow up with our actions. I agree with that, and hope that I have not passed any bad habits or behaviour to my students.. Haha..



Then I watched the movie "幸福万岁", and I must say that Jack Neo's movies are really getting more educational. As compared to his last production "钱不够用2" , I find that this production pales in comparison, but he doesn't fail to amuse his audience with the tinge of sarcasm well blended with humour. In fact, it brought out some of the things that is so real in society. The essence of this movie would be in summary "Is love = Sex ?"

Revolving around 3 main male leads, this show brings out the psychological and sexual aspects of all men and women. It is so real that while I was watching it, it dawned on me that whatever is happening in the show, is what young teenagers are doing to their friends nowadays, taking videos and putting them on youtube, unaware of the dangers, consequences and effects that it will bring upon those affected. While others are laughing away at some of the scenes elsewhere, I could not stop to think how useful it would be if I can show the movie to my students. This movie is classified NC16, and if not for part of its content, I am sure it would be a very educational movie for the students. At least they can understand how self taken videos can be harmful at times. Well, like most movies, this has a happy ending, and of course, it has set me thinking about the power of media and how it has affected this new generation of young people.

I strongly believe that the power of media is so great that all of us in Singapore should work towards the well being of our young generation by inculcating the right values to them, especially the media. Sloppy and slipshod scripts with scenes which portrays sex and violence has been some of the centre of attraction of some serial dramas, and this kind of irresponsible productions have deeply affected the behaviour of many others and they are copying what is shown on TV. I do believe that responsible script writing should not only focus on getting their audiences, but they should focus on how to spread the right values through their shows. That is also one reason that I loaf watching local drama serials. Hopefully things get better.

Well, 2009 is a very very very busy year for me. Other than my normal school workload, i would also need to handle students' assignments, committee stuff, Department stuff, and ..... So I hope that all will go well, I can have more time to plan my lessons, to teach better, and students will hand in their quality assignments on time, and I can probably not be so lonely anymore. Haha.. Well, these are my 2009 resolutions, and hopefully it gets done by the end of the year! Yay..