A TIME FOR REFLECTION

The past first two terms have been a wonderful experience, although, sometimes, it may be a disastrous one for me. I faced lots of downs until I couldn't take it and later broke down. Many things I wished since primary school, has been fulfilled. However, the circumstances that I never think of across my mind had made me worried to step in this school after the holidays.

There are three things that I have learnt in this school for the past two terms.

First and for all, I have learnt to be patient and strive the best of my ability in whatever I do. Don't listen to the boos and dis encouragement of others when jumping the obstacles. People may say bad things about us, probably, because of our first position in class. Or perhaps, our beautiful hair color. Many people succeed from all those downs they encounter. One of the example is Nelson Mandela. He may be the blackest person in the world, but his heart of helping others can be the cleanest and whitest amongst all the whitest people in the world.

Second of all, I have learnt to suit myself in the new world. For me, primary school and secondary school has been the most furthest jump to encounter. I have to cope with the environment and the surrounding in secondary school well. I have to be truthful to myself. I hate the first term a lot. My primary school teacher has been a shoulder for me to cry on. I told him everything I faced. The teachers, the students, the school and the studies. I never thought and promised myself not to hate my friends and others from the first day of primary school till then. I also never thought of hurting my teacher's feelings. I always pray to god to give me the strength to cope with my teachers' limitations.

The last one is that, I have learnt to be steadfast in duty. Don't delay my duty as a student. Complete the assignments that is given by a teacher is the most important thing for a student to accomplish. Be attentive in class and be innovative in my works. Not only by this we can do our teachers and school proud, but our parents too. They sent us to school to be a student of distinction. Thank them by passing our grades with flying colors. That would be the biggest and the best father's day and mother's day gift ever.

2 things that I would like to improve on. (school work/yourself).

Have you ever heard,"Communication is not only the essence of being human, but also a vital property of life." by John A. Piece? Yes, I have been working hard a lot these days. Make our parents proud because of the satisfaction they were to see our grades is one thing. But a mother to daughter or father to daughter talk may be a second thing. I'm shy, rather doesn't communicate much in school or at home. Making a decision takes a lot of communication in between a group of people, not one, not two.

The second thing that I would like to improve on is aiming my goals. Sometimes, when I didn't plan my goals, I will achieve best results. Though, when planning my goals and try to achieve them, I wouldn't make it. But I really want and I should set my targets so that I will have lots and bright confidence. But if that's the way how i live,then i guess i will live with it.

1 thing that I would like to learn more about.

There is one thing that I would want to know. Why is love so complicated ? But why the love that ties between the family is not one ? Is the answer a scientific one or just a human opinion ?

Exercise 2

Hello there ! I'm going to post about my reflection towards the war that took place during Anne's and Bruno's time .

More than a million people were killed because they were Jewish by Adolf Hitler.He hated the Jews so much and i don't think that it is right to kill people just because of their looks, appearance or anything that appeal weak to him.

Anne Frank was a Jewish girl that lived in Amsterdam. It is obvious that Anne should be one of the " a million people were killed ". Therefore, when her family knew that they are gonna be dead someday, they search for a secret place to hide. During the moments when they hide at the secret place, Anne Frank wrote in her diary, a gift that she received during her 13th birthday. She wrote about her experience, feelings, hopes, sweet and bitter things that she encounter. Finding for a secret place may be long to find, and hope that it will be a shelter for a long time for the family to have protection, but it could be a short time for them to be found by the Hitler soldiers.

The Boy In The Stripped Pyjamas ( a fictional book ), tells us a story of what Hitler did and what the soldiers were appointed to do. Bruno, a German boy, father was a very important soldier and had to moved not far from the camp ( the place that the Jewish will be placed to death ). Bruno did not know why he was moved in with his father, and his family, as he was a young child. He loves exploring, and one day, when he explore, he found out about the camp . He met a Jewish boy, Shumuel and then they became friends. At the end of the story, Bruno agreed to find Shumuel's dad in the camp as he succeed to get in the campsite. However, the day when Bruno and Shumuel were in searching, was the day the Jewish people are to be dead. The storyline then continues during the search and how Bruno got dead in the end.

Life during the Japanese occupation

During the Japanese occupation, some people were placed in prison where everyone was treated equally. Everyone showered together daily and learn to be steadfast in whatever we do . My father encountered dysentery and passed away two years then. My sister was forced into the flesh trade. Many japanese schools were built and we had to sung the japan national anthem in the morning. Japanese concerts were held every week. Everyone had to bow to the direction of the japanese imperial palace in as it was a rule. Punishments were encountered by anyone who forgot to bow them.

Living in Singapore

I lived in Singapore for the 12th year of my life. I started to treasure more about Singapore when i was 10 years old. First, i have to admit it that i felt that its bored living in Singapore because there is nothing much about it. Example, there is no winter season here. But then, when i started to watch shows and advertisements in the television that are related about Singapore, I begun to like more about the country.


Example, the esplanade. Now, my favorite hobby is watching theaters, musicals and many more. Where else can you watch those like the Esplanade here in Singapore? Yes, there are places like Esplanade in Singapore, but they are very, very few. There was once I went to watch a theatre-more of a musical drama with my dad in the evening, after we had dinner at Swensens. I have to say that the desserts, besides the foods, were awesome ! I ordered two big-sized cups of ice cream with different flavors. The musical was very, very fun and exciting.


Singapore is also made up from different ethnicity and religions. This also can be seen from our pledge, ".... regardless of race, language or religion...". Hence, we celebrated different kinds of ethnic festivals.By this, the friendship that ties between friends from different races can be strong. I am glad that we are the kind of green city. I hope that Singaporeans will maintain the name of "green city" till eternity.


I have been wondering the houses that are built in western countries, example, united kingdom. The houses are very big and levels in the house to stay in. In spite of Singapore's plenty of land, we cant built houses like those in the UK because it can takes up many spaces of land. So, instead of having those houses in the UK, we can use the extra lands for education or others purposes, example, building another HDB Flat so that more people can move in.

I love the environment and the surrounding here in Singapore. I love the ice kacang, a dessert that can be found here in Singapore. You can find it here, but not in other countries. Well, I might say that there are ice kacang in the countries, but wherever you go in Singapore, you can stop by any desserts shops and probably, one of the choices for you to try or pick is Ice Kacang !

In conclusion, Singaporeans has done well in everything they want to achieve. As a gift of " thanks ", I hope that I can do Singapore proud too, just like them. I hope that when I grow up and decided to further my studies overseas, I would want to share it with my friends here in Singapore the wonderful experience.

Singapore is my homeland, and this is where i belong.

MYTHS, LEGENDS AND FABLES

1. The storytelling stone



Have you wonder how stories came about ? How storytellers had the idea to share his stories to young children or even older ones ? Yes, i do wonder too. Let me share you a legend from Native America. There was once a man whose name is Crow, who lived at the very end of the Seneca village. No villagers wanted to approach me nor saying good things about him. They were very cruel towards him. Crow's appeal was very untidy. His hair is always untangled and his clothes were old. Crow's parents died many years ago and hence, no one took care for him.



During that time, stories never existed because none of the villagers did not share any. One day, when Crow was resting on a stone, he heard a deep rumbling voice. He was shocked but he did no bother to know where the voice come from. Once again, he head the voice again. He gave up and looked around to know where did the voice came from. He was surprised the voice came from the stone that he rested. The stone then introduced himself and tell Crow what is a story and then, with Crow's permission, he told him stories. Unless, Crow gave the birds that he had hunt.

Since that day, Crow begun to listen more of stories. But one day, the stone had told Crow enough of stories and told him to share the stories that he know to the whole village and the villagers will share the stories to the next generation and so on. Crow did it.

The villagers were satisfied of his stories and gave him clothes and food as a reward. One day, when Crow was sharing his stories, a young woman sat next to him. She always do. Crow stayed at the village and he married the young woman.His stories were then shared to the next generation. Till today, stories were still exist.

• I really like the story because it makes me wonder everytime if the legend is non-fiction. It is kind of logic 'thing', isnt?

2. Why owls stare

It began when Owl and Pigeon who always boast around about their strentgth and more. When one day, owl told pigeon that there are more owls than pigeons, but pigeon dissagree. They made an agreement who would won in counting at the Big Woods. Pigeon told owl that he needs one week to tell the whole pigeons, meanwhile Owl told pigeon that he needs two weeks to tell the Owls. Pigeon disagree to it and told owl that anyone who is late would not be counted.

Owl agreed to it. The week after, the whole lott of Owl came. They didnt see any sign of Pigeons. The laughed and thought that the pigeons were asleep. But soon thousands of pigeons swooped down on the Big Woods, blocking out the sky. The owls were shocked and surprised. Some of them fly away and hence very less owls were there.

Surprisingly, when lots of owls fly away, the remaining also flew away too. The pigeons laughed and celebrated for their won. Since then owls oftenly travel at night when pigeons fell asleep. They stare and watched out for pigeons.

• I like the legend as there were a lot of morals to know. But it kept me wondering if it do make any sense why owls stare. ( laugh )

history homework

In my opinion, yes. We do need philosophy or religion today.

First and for all, religion is a teaching for us to practice. Not only that, we can learn from it and use it for our daily lives. It helps us to be a good person and respect ourselves and also to the whole world. It made us realise how important the world is. We have to learn to appreciate, to thank and to know what we get and receive.

Sometimes bad things do occur in our daily lives. Have you ever heard the quote, " Life is difficult ".? Life isn't easy, isn't smooth and isn't fair. Its not that we did not do things right, its just a fate. Sometimes, we lost faith in ourself. That why we need a guide, we need a teaching and we need the correct path to lead us to the right way.

Can you imagine if there is no religion, no philosophy ? The world would be filled with lots of freedom. Yes, we do need freedom in our daily lives, but sometimes, we do misused the freedom that is gifted for us. Let’s view some examples .

One of them is some parents give too much freedom to their children. Why ? Their children will be influenced from bad companies. They will be found at the street late midnight or worse, in the morning at 1am plus. Some would smoke, take drugs and even sell drugs. The problem is then published in newspapers because the rising of the similar problems in the community. In the same time, the children will forget their own religion when they have their own “pleasure” moments. They did not respect the community, the world.

Then, the parents who read the article would give limited freedom to their children. As you can see the problem doent only affect the children who abused the freedom, but also the children who longs for the best freedom to enjoy.

So from this, maybe, some of us do not need religion. But what about the next generation ? Do they really need religion ? If they don’t know about religions, wouldn’t it be a pity ?

FOOD AND CULTURE

As i browse through the dishes at, http://www.cnngo.com/singapore/none/40-singapore-foods-we-cant-live-without-810208, i like the Goreng pisang, Curry puff , Dum briyani, Murtabak, Roti prata and BBQ chicken wings the best. Out of all, my favourite food is the BBQ chicken wings. There is a reason i like it. But before that, i want to point out that most of the dishes that i like are from the Indian and Malay cuisine.

I started to like goreng pisang, the Malay snack, since the day my mum brought it up after she browsed through a cooking book. I think the dish is attractive enough to catch her eye. She made the dish during the day i came home from my primary 5 camp. How far i know about goreng pisang, the important ingredient to make the dish is banana. Thus, the dish has a taste of banana. Goreng pisang is yellow brownish in color and it is very sweet. The sweetness taste is the one i like the most!

Next dish i like is the curry puff. In malay, curry puffs is known as karipap. I won't like it if there is no potatoes inside the curry puffs. Ha ha. Curry puffs is introduced from the malay origin. Different ingredients example, the potatoes, has the different taste of the curry puff.

Roti prata is nice too! I really love it and I'm so thankful because it is sold at one of the stalls in my school canteen. Sometimes, i will eat it with my friends and it really taste good when the roti prata is eaten with curry!

For the dum briyani, the dish most of the time is cooked during events like wedding ceremonies. I like the dish because it tastes very nice. It is unique as the rice is in yellow in color and it is from the indian cuisine. The dum briyani taste good when we eat the rice with chicken! Ha ha.

Lastly, this is the food that i can't stop loving it. It is called the murtabak. Again, it is also from the indian cuisine. I wil eat it with my family sometimes during the weekends. We will buy it from the hawker centre nearby our house and eat it at home together.

Before i end my post, i would want to say that it is really possible that one of the ways to foster family bonding ties is by eating many dishes from different cuisine, etc indian cuisine, malay cuisine, chinese cuisine and a few more others. Example, when this is taken place during the weekends or holidays. This helps one to communicate with each other more than weekdays as almost all in the family is busy. Not only travelling or picnicking with family, but eating together could be one of the list of family bonding.