ERP Assignment - " Mother Tongue"

“The First Duty of Love is to Listen – Paul Tillich”

Have you ever heard a belief which is said, “In the foreign country, stranger from the same country as yours is your family”?
If you ask me that question, my answer is “yes, I do and I know it better than most of the people”.

I have been living in Singapore for half a year. I just knew about the Singapore and also about my school. I had just heard that there would be some groups of foreign students from different countries would be staying in the boarding. I gave no respond about it. At first, I found that there was a group of exchange students from China. The first thought went through my mind was I want to be their friend as my main reason coming to Singapore from Indonesia was to create my way to the global world. I was trying to start conversation with them, but it is hard for me to create a close relationship with them as I could not speak Mandarin. I thought of a way to get along with them, ask my friend from China staying in the boarding to ask me to go with him whenever he wants to go with the exchanges student. However, when it finally happened, I got depressed. As my friend started talking with them, they were just ignoring me. I envied my friend. However, I could not do anything.

One day, I was surprised when I heard that exchange students from Indonesia would be staying in the same boarding as mine. I was very happy. I hoped those students could redeem my feeling of missing my hometown. It came to my surprise when I saw a group of girls was included in this exchange program. All of sudden, I caught of a glimpse that might be my dream girl, a white slender girl whose hair was as beauty as silk. This time, different from the China exchange students’ case, I spoke in the same language as them, Bahasa Indonesia.
The first four days since their coming to Singapore, I could not do much. They were really taken care by my school and the exchange students from my school. To my shock, when I found that one of them was having a same crush as me. I could not hold for any longer. The day after that, I started doing some introduction to one of the girl. I was easily get to a close conversation with her as we were speaking in the same mother tongue language.

A few days after that, there was an event for the Indonesian exchange students. I, as a scholar from Indonesia and some of the Singaporean students needed to accompany and guide them to the place of Interest in Singapore such as Orchard Road and Sentosa Island. When we went there, there was a accident that I would never forget. We were divided into a few small groups. Accidentally, I was in the same group as my crush and the Singaporean who had the same crush as me. Whenever she wants to ask something about Singapore, she preferred asking me to the Singaporean though she knew that my knowledge of Singapore could be wrong as I was new to Singapore. When she wanted to buy something she asked me to stay with her and then bargain for her. She did not want the Singaporean to accompany her shopping. She preferred me to accompany her to the Singaporean whom she had known since one year ago. Eventhough it might not be truth, I kept thinking that she was giving some respond to my feeling to her. It was most likely that she could tell me all things about her although I just knew her. I just needed to listen to her and then she would slowly but sure gain her feeling toward me. However, the Singaporean who had done everything for her was only ended as friend of her.

Since then onward, whenever I remember that moment again, I will always be proud to become an Indonesian. My mother tongue had decided my destiny and my soulmate.

Personal Response Task - The Evolution of Goodness

I believe human beings are willing to do good to others because of many reasons. One of them, as far as I know, for people who believe in God (no matter these people have a religion or not), It can be said that doing good things for others is something that God wants us to do. As specifically, I as Christians, doing good things because we want to be like our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Also, we do not want to make the sacrificial of Jesus Christ become useless. In addition, we do good things because it is written in the Holy Bible that we must do good things to others.

On the other hand, for people who are not believe in God, I think they do good things to others because of "Heart". In this case we are not talking about the heart with the definition of "the hollow muscular organ located behind the sternum and between the lungs"(http://www.google.com.sg/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:heart&ei=eyDrScmPDIOZkQWX5q2mCA&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title)
but with the definiton of "the locus of feelings and intuitions" (http://www.google.com.sg/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:heart&ei=eyDrScmPDIOZkQWX5q2mCA&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title).
Some believe that Heart is a secret place of God in our body, but others believe it as a feeling of human. According to my contextual knowledge, there are three main function of heart by the definition of "the locus of feelings and intuitions".

1. before doing something, It reminds us to do things in a "good way".
2. In the moment of doing something, It is telling us whether the thing we do is correct or not.
3. After doing something, It helps us to have a reflection on what we have done so if we have done something wrong, it makes sure that we will not repeat doing it again.

(14) 3B Commentaries of "Deaf to the world"

I was walking at Orchard Road last Sunday and I found a student almost dye because of an accident. The student was texting on his mobile phone and he unconciously unable to evade the bicycle which was ringing the bell at all time far behind him.
"WHERE IS YOUR EYE!?" said the student sarcastically to the bicycle rider.Surprisingly, I found that the bicycler was a reporter who wanted to have a survey on the street.
"Is that a habit of Singaporeans? No apologetic, No concern about others?" I think it is still fine for some not to look to the left or right when walking along or crossing the street, especially when they are among other pedestrian. I, however, was very concern about the people hearing music or sending text messages in the street so that they are like being hypnotized and being in their on world. Not only disturbing the others, but they are also putting their life in peril. Just for example like the story about the student and the bicycler that I have mentioned above. In addition, the RAC foundation, a British non-profit organisation, found that

sending messages and driving simultaneously reduced reaction time by 35 per cent. It used a driving simulator in its study.
Surprisingly, a test conducted by a Sunday Times team on 60 people spotted on the streets found that 30 of them were sending messages on their mobile phones and the other 30 were seen listening to music.Like the story that have been mentioned above, I think it is very dangerous to walk on the street without paying attention to situation around you. maybe you say that everybody has eyes and even the drivers or the riders also has eyes and brain so that they can evade me instead of me evading them. I, however, are very concern if you are really saying something like that. That means that you are really unaltruism and very stupidly self-centered. How if they just do not want to evade and just crush you? You are the only one who will get the consequences.
It is a fact that Singaporeans are among the highest text-messaging users in the world. The reason of it is because they are bored to the situation around them. So, to make things more unboring, they send messages or listening to musics. I also found it correct that musics can make people unbored. So in some marathon races, the use of portable audio devices is allowed. In addition, many jobs requiring alertness, such as security firms, do not impose a ban on headphones. Mr Patrick Wong, assistant managing director for Top Guard Security Agency, said that while his firm does not ban earphones during work, it is not encouraged.As a youngster, I also support those statement as it will be very boring day if you do a boring job without doing anything else. I even sometimes use an earphone and listen to music when I was studying. All in all, I conclude that listening music is okay but you just need to know where you are and know your responsibility. Instead of the possibilty of being 100% silent to ambient noise, I still support the habit listening to music

Commentaries of "Deaf to the world" - Summary

Youngsters absorbed in their cellphones or music players face greater risk of accidents on the road. Singaporean's youngsters are too addicted to mobile phone or music players. Most of them are even do not care about the fact that sending messages and driving simultaneously reduced reaction time by 35%. On a survey, it is found that 50% of the pedestrians had their audio player volume at 50% or louder. Although they know the consequences, the pedestrians are insist on hearing to the music or sending SMS as it sets their mood.

Attractive "Alpha" ??

I was walking in the Orchard Road, I saw an European towering all other people around him including me. Talking to the his tour guide, he did not pay attention on the condition around him.

"I wonder how Singapore can make a road which is very attractive even for the Euroean like me?"

"S$40 million weird things spread out a long Orchard Road"

"S$40 million!!? Imagine you put that S$40 million in the form of 50 cents, you can make a house made of money!?"

Orchard Road is already one of the world’s premier shopping streets and is known as the heart of Singapore for some people. To maintain and even make it better, The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has worked with various stakeholders. STB has spent S$40 million on it, however many Singaporeans have commented that it is not worth as S$40 million. 40 out of people polled along Orchard Road by LifeStyle did not notice anything different.

Commentaries : "Scrap the CCts"

Raffles Institution is having the test called CCT (Common Class Test)in this year, 2009.
Controvertion is emerging at all time. Pros and Cons are giving all their opinion and argument to support their opinion. And in this case, I prefer to give my point of view about CCT.

Actually I prefer standing on the position of neutral. I, however, had to stand on the Contrary side of "Scrapping the CCT's" as my PR(Progress Report) for the term 1 is not very good.
CCT, eventhough is harder than TA/CT, gives a lot of favor especially for people who needs more marks in order to get a good Progress Report as the percentage of CCT is far more bigger than TA/CT. But on the contrary side of it, CCT can also be a nightmare for the students if they get a bad mark on the CCTs. In addition, CCT is also very useful because it gives students a lot of practises to prepare the students facing the EOY(End Of Year) Exam which is rumoured very hard.

Commentary Task ; Orchard Road Facelift

Orchard Road is already one of the world’s premier shopping streets and is known as the heart of Singapore for some people. To maintain and even make it better, The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has worked with various stakeholders. STB has spent S$40 million on it, however many Singaporeans have commented that it is not worth as S$40 million. 40 out of people polled along Orchard Road by LifeStyle did not notice anything different.

For a country like Singaporean, I believe that the government is doing all they can do. Singaporean which is the smallest country in the world can be going this far,becoming one of the most prosperous country, because of the hardworking government. Like what Mr. Andrew Phua, STB's director of tourism shopping and dining, had explained that many Singaporean still had not been recognizing the real function of the change that had been made on Orchard Road. For example, one of the Singaporean said that the flower totems are annoying because they block the view of the pedestrian. However, after clarifying with Mr. Phua, the media found that those flower totems are designed for safety and are heat-strengthened. In addition, when the glass is hit by hard objects, it will not shatter but will remain intact with cracks on the panel to mitigate potential danger to the public. On behalf of that, Mr. Phua also said that it is the rational amount of money to be spent as it is also included the cost of the works which included state-of-the-art lighting, power upgrading, landscaping, repaving works and consultant's fees, etc.

On the other hand however many people said that the amount of money can be used for more useful changes. Many bad comments were coming up such as the amount of money should be only one twentieth of it is needed.

What is an exposition?

The school project ask me to make a blog and write something about the topic.

So, here are the results that I get from surfing websites^^ :

According to wikipedia, Exposition means, a different type of dramatic structure in which undepicted plots elements are conveyed in dialogue, description, flashback or narrative.

According to wiki.answers.com, Exposition means, a speech or paragraph that conveys information. It's a way to get information out to the read about character and story.

According to Dictionary.com, Exposition means
–noun
1.
a large-scale public exhibition or show, as of art or manufactured products: an exposition of 19th-century paintings; an automobile exposition.
2.
the act of expounding, setting forth, or explaining: the exposition of a point of view.
3.
writing or speech primarily intended to convey information or to explain; a detailed statement or explanation; explanatory treatise: The students prepared expositions on familiar essay topics.
4.
the act of presenting to view; display: The singer gave a splendid exposition of vocal talent.
5.
exposure (def. 10).
6.
the state of being exposed; exposure.
7.
Music. the first section of a fugue or a sonata form, in which the principal themes normally are introduced.
8.
(in a play, novel, etc.) dialogue, description, etc., that gives the audience or reader the background of the characters and the present situation.

In fact, I don't really know what actually it is about. So all I can do now is surfing in the internet
and find more info about it.

One more thing, I think I'll be learning about it soon..