Consolidation of first 3 CID lessons

From the past few CID lessons, I have learnt much about observation. Observation is a mandatory skill throughout our whole life and we should have this skill. There was this lesson where we are shown 2 pictures by our CID teacher, Mr Wong. There was this man who claims that all his belongings have been stolen and he is asking for phone calls and help to get a job. At first i wonder if the beggar was lying when he claim that his belongings were stolen. The second picture was a woman holding her baby in her hands asking people on the streets for money. We had to make a decision which is to give 100 dollars to either the lady or man. I wasn't sure who to pass it to, I considered tearing it and give each of them half of the 100 dollars note (nah jk). Jokes aside, later from what Mr Wong told us, the man was in real need of help unlike the lady with her baby was part of a syndicate to cheat money from tourists and people who pass by them. From this, I have learnt to view things differently, there's always another side of the story that we cannot see just by pictures.

Chinese New Year

It's the time of the year again! Chinese New Year! Well, what comes straight to your mind when you think of Chinese New Year? The color red? Yes. Why do we see red everywhere during Chinese New Year? It is believed that red is an auspicious color, symbolizing good luck and happiness. It is also widely used in olden weddings.

During this time of the year, streets of Chinatown will be nicely decorated with Chinese New Year decorations and selling foods like pineapple tarts. People would go shopping for new clothes, buy new furniture and buy new things as it is believed that because it's a new year, we should wear new things to start the new year. 

What other things comes red? Definitely the Ang paos! Who doesn't like ang paos? Especially kids, they love visiting more relatives. Is it really that they want to visit or is it just for the ang paos? Why do people put money inside ang paos? It is believed that it protects the person receiving the ang paos. 

So what symbolizes Chinese New Year? You might have seen "福" around. You might be thinking, why is the word pasted the wrong way. It is believed that if you paste the 福 the other way round, because it represents good fortune and happiness when pasted upside down. 

More holidays, more visiting, more money and steamboat! Who isn't egg-cited! 

I always look forward to Chinese New Year because I get to have steamboat with my family and visit relatives that I don't usually visit. I also get to buy new clothes for the New Year! Last but not least, something that all kids love which is the ang paos!

Happy Chinese New Year!

-Zhi Yan

CNY image color and symbol

I chose orange as it represents the color of oranges that shows prosperity. I chose this symbol of a horse as it is horse year. I chose the dices as they represent what people will usually do when they visit others--play mahjong and games and also enjoy from these games.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is finally around the corners! Everybody is getting busy shopping for new clothes, new shoes, new Chinese New Year decorations such as flowers and spring couplets. 

One colour to represent Chinese New Year is of course Red!

Red is the colour when you think of Chinese New Year. Red is an auspicious colour in the Chinese culture and it symbolises good luck and happiness. Walking down the streets of China town, you will see red everywhere — red lanterns, red spring couplets, red packets and other red decorations for Chinese New Year.

Talking about red packets, it is one symbol for Chinese New Year. 

People, from children to adults to elderlies, would think of red packets at the mention of Chinese New Year. Children would be happy at the thought of going for visits to relatives and friends' house, mostly because of the content inside the red packets. Just the thought of receiving various denominations of notes makes them grin from ear to ear. Meanwhile, adults would be having a heartache giving away their hard earned money to make children happy. Due to these mindsets, not many know the true meaning behind red packets. In China, during the Qin Dynasty, the elderly would thread coins with a red string. The money was called yāsuì qián (壓祟錢) meaning "money warding off evil spirits", and was believed to protect the person of younger generation from sickness and death. 

The image to represent my feelings for the upcoming Chinese event would be...

Happiness! :D 

During Chinese New Year, we can finally reunite with our family members. Forget about the stress, the homework load, the projects, the upcoming tests, and putting down the all things on we have on hand and enjoy the reunion dinner happily together with our family. Around the corners of Chinese New Year, there will also be new clothes and shoes bought that makes me happy. Of course, the main reasons of me looking forward to Chinese New Year is the holidays we get to enjoy and the money from red packets! XD

Finally, I wish everybody 身体健康, 学业进步, 万事如意 and a very HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!! :)

~Kitty

Colour , Symbol and Image for Chinese New Year 2014

    Red is what we chose as the colour for the Chinese New Year this year. Red has been an important color in Chinese culture, religion, industry, fashion and court ritual since ancient times and it is widely used for Chinese New Year. It give people a very cheerful and bright feeling when you look at it. Red also means good luck, happiness and prosperous thus it is widely used in Chinese New Year! Thus I wish that this year Chinese New Year can be filed with good luck and happiness!

                This symbol is what we chose for  the Chinese New Year this year. Since this is the year of horse this is definitely a horse in the photo and there is the auspicious red as the background, which wish people good luck, happiness and joy in our chinese culture. Although the photo depicts a horse, if you look more carefully don't you feel that the horse look a bit like a dragon too. Thus we also wish that we the child that are born in tha year of dragon can also soar in the year of horse.

                                                                              This is the picture we chose to represent Chineses New Year. What will still  be more happy than  when a whole family seats around a huge table, eating and enjoying the delicious food while telling each other about what interesting things had happened to them during the past year? I can say that all our group members including me enjoys the time when the whole family, even some relatives that we didn't  get to see because of work or studies can gather together around the table and care about each other. Thus I wish that everyone can have a nice start of the new year with the company of our dear ones and definitely our class.

                                                                                                                                                     Zehan

Poverty In Singapore

Singapore may be a more modernized country where most people think that there are no poor people in this island country. On the contrary, there are many poor people in Singapore. Poverty does exist in Singapore although you may not be able to see beggars on the streets or starving people scrounging for food at all the place u went to. Well, you may say that begging is illegal in Singapore thus not seeing them, it's true. Still, you can see people selling tissue paper outside hawker centres, at MRT stations, etc. And on the picture above, it is one of the workers who decided to sleep on a bench near their working place so that they can save the bus ride fare, where they need to go home and back to their work area. The following pictures are also evidence of poverty in Singapore. An old granny is trying to look for items that can be used in a pile of rubbish that other dispose of while an uncle is forced to sleep beside the road because he doesn't have a house to live in. After your all see this picture, can you still say that there is no poverty in singapore ?

The following video is about the poverty in Singapore.

Color Symbol and Image

I chose the color black because a few years back something tragic happened during Chinese New year. My hamster,lamelame, died when fighting with it's brother. My family and I was unable to stop it thus making me feel sad every Chinese New Year. Black is associated with negative feelings, hence I chose black.

This year,2014, is the horse year, this picture is made up of a horse forming the year of 2014. If u actually notice, the horse look like a dragon which is a sign of good fortune and happiness too.

Ahaaaa! I chose the poker cards, because Imma gamble all day!!! Nah just kidding but I'm still going to gamble hahah. But definitely not big sums duh maybe at most 10 bucks. Most people gamble during the Chinese New Year to have fun. There are so many card games like Big Two, BlackJack, Poker, Showhand,etc. Take note too : Do not gamble at high amount of $$$ or u will lose $$$ quick . Bye guys!

~MingWei

Consolidating Our Learning — First 3 Weeks

We learnt about observing our surroundings and interpreting a picture in the first 3 weeks of lessons. 

Every day we see things that create impressions on us, of which are captured in photos and videos. However, we often tend to not reflect on what the picture can actually mean to us or the others. If we take a longer and closer look at these pictures, there are actually many tiny details and stories that they are trying to portray — as the quote goes "a picture paints a thousand words". 

Pictures can be interpreted differently based on the impression it gives to various people and certain angles we view them at. Hence, one picture may have many meanings, some of which may even be unexpected. For example, the picture of a beggar pleading for money in the busy streets. You may think that he is just like any other beggars you see on the street, but take a closer look at the placard in his hands. It says that his belongings have been stolen. A little more research will let us understand his background story and that he really needs help and some money to get up on his feet again. 

We also learnt about observation. We can infer something by observing our surroundings or interacting with someone. For example, students running into the canteen to buy their food could mean that they are hungry, whereas students chatting and joking with one another could mean that they're happy. 

In a nutshell, I think we should pay attention to our surroundings more often to be aware of the things that are happening around us. 

~Kitty

consolidating CID lessons

For the past three lessons, i learnt about how to see things with a new perspective and the different cultures of different countries. i also learnt about the poverty in singapore and that gave me a shock especially since i felt that singapore would not really have such lousy living conditions.


The most interesting lesson so far is learning about the different cultures. for example, the british scoop their food outwards before bringing it in to eat, the japanese drink very loudly to show that they are enjoying the food and the indians hake their heds but they mean yes not no.

Consolidating our learning - Lim Zhi Yan

For the past few lessons, we learnt to describe and interpret a picture. 

I found one of the lessons interesting is where we were first shown a picture of a vulture and a little girl laying on dirty ground as shown in one of our previous post. We were asked to describe and interpret the picture at first. Then within a minute time, we had to research on the picture. What we found out was so much more than what we had interpreted. It's amazing how a one minute's research is able to allow us to know so much more. 

We were then tasked to see, think and wonder about two pictures. One of which shows a beggar sitting on the floor with belongings around him and a cardboard that informs why he is begging for money. The other picture shows a woman carrying a child, begging money from a man reading the newspaper who seems to not care about her.

When I first saw the two pictures, I thought both were cheaters as the man had quite a lot of belongings around him and even clear water, while the woman and baby were well-dressed. Then a scenario was given to us, to decide who to give a hundred dollar cheque. It kept was thinking who to give it to at first, but decided not to give any of them in the end.

So are they beggars?

When the teacher finally gave us the real story, it's true that both are beggars, but the baby the women was carrying wasn't hers. Well, a picture tells us a thousand words, but it's actually how you interpret it. This tells us not to judge a book by its cover.

-Lim Zhi Yan(11)

Photo challenge (School life)

School spirit:

   This represent every single RVian standing to sing the school song depicting school spirit.

Happiness:

                          Lessons have just ended and it's time for recess! 

Fear:

      Tests every week makes a student go crazy!

Life:

   We are not alone in RV. There will always be someone there to help you if you are in need.

Starvation

Starvation.

The reason we chose starvation is actually quite obvious. You can even see the shape of her ribcage and bones of her arms and legs. This actually shows how long she have been starving to be at this stage of weakness. 

As you can see, the ground of where she is squatting is actually very dirty. Why is she squatting on such dirty ground? We interpreted that she was actually walking to somewhere but is unable to walk any further due to a really long period of starvation causing her to not have enough strength to walk any further. Not even a little bit of strength to rest on a cleaner Ground. 

As you can see, there is a vulture staring at the little girl at the back of the picture. Vultures are smart animals, they observe their prey before they take action. Vultures would of course not choose a prey that is strong and muscular to chase because the prey might be able to run away easily. The vulture waiting behind the girl for the time to come to take action shows that the girl is an easy prey and it will be able to hunt her down easily. Which also proves that the girl is weak and more likely unable to move quickly. 

My holiday Wang Li ZeHan

During 2013's December holiday ,due to several reasons such as me sister preparing for her A level test and my mother going back to China to take care of my sick grandmother, we didn't have the time to go oversea as a family thus I have been staying in Singapore for the holiday. This holiday is actually quiet meaningful as I can use the two month two catch up on a lot stuff such as my academics results and on my Cca and sports. I mostly stay at home but I had gone back to school a few time to buy stuff needed for the start of the new school term and for Cca. The another place i go constantly is to the jurong east library. I would go there to borrow different types of story books every week as I find reading enriching since it can help me to improve in my languages and even let me gain a lot of additional knowledge. My favorite category is mystery and fantasies. I would also go to visit my best friend and play badminton with him. Since I am overweight, t tried to slim down during the holiday by jogging or playing badminton at least three times a week but it seems like i still haven't see the result yet. My gaol is to achieve at least a bronze award in my NAPHA this year. I tried to review all my subjects in year one during the holiday too since I am not considered a good student in 2013 for either academic or behavior, thus I decide to give myself a fresh start this year. My relative from China came to visit us in the holiday and we go to visit those famous tourist spot such as jurong bird park, sentosa or singapore zoo. There are a lot of changes over this years such as the zoo as I didn't went to there since I graduate from primary school but it is a totally new experince for me this time when I go there with my relatives. Although I may not be able to go oversea during holiday but is still very fruitful to me!

My Holidays

To be honest, I did nothing much during my holidays. I'm 99% a couch potato, no exercise and facing the computer everyday, yes I mean everyday. I find nothing interesting and things so I'm just watching videos, game streams and playing LoL, League of Legends.But during the holidays, I did visit my relatives who were in Malaysia. And yea had to go Cca during holidays too. There was this navy exhibition that caught my attention where we got up to a Singapore navy ship, we were allowed to explore it. And there were this PDS course also known as the Precision Drill Squad. I enrolled in it but unfortunately did not pass it probably because I didn't put my fullest effort in it which led me to regretting as I did not make use of the time to practice to do it . Instead when at home I was playing LoL. Yea, that's all of my holidays.

~Mingwei

My Holidays

I went to Spain during the holidays and experience the spanish culture and learn abit of spanish. I especially enjoyed the scenery and how friendly the people were. I also went to malaysia to visit my relatives and taste the authentic food there.

~Jeslyn

Holiday Trip to Genting Highlands, Malaysia

My parents were busy working and did not have much time to take my brother and I to an overseas trip. Thus instead of going to faraway countries like China, Australia or Taiwan, we went to Genting Highlands, Malaysia. This 4D3N trip was planned last minute and i could recall us packing our luggage hurriedly just a few days before our departure. 

There was nothing much to play since the outdoor theme park is under construction for new rides and the indoor theme park is mostly rides for children. 

Watching movies in Genting is a must-do―the ticket prices are so much cheaper than the ones in Singapore! A 3D movie ticket in Genting simply costs about RM18 (SGP$7.20) while in Singapore it costs about $11. We watched 4 movies in total over the 4 days. 

SnowWorld! The last time we went there it was under renovation. Now that it had been renovated, it became much more beautiful. There are ice sculptures, warm house, and the tall castle. The view of the place from the top tall castle looked extremely breathtaking. There is the cresta run toboggan slide, where we sat on the rubber tire and slide down from the castle. Although it was fun, it was very cold too (-6°C). 

We went to the Genting Bowl too. Not the bowl we eat our food from, but the bowling arena. Something special about the bowling alley in Genting, is that it would glow in the dark after 6pm. It was really very cool to bowl in the dark. It was a pity we did not went for the night one as it was quite expensive. I remember I used to be quite good in bowling a few years ago but it seemed that my aiming skills had deteriorated after the game with my father and brother. This is embarrassing but I only scored 34 points... 

I sat my first cable car ride in here this holiday. The ride was about 15mins, going down and up the mountain. Although there was breeze, sound of nature and the view deep forest, the cable car kept shaking and I felt dizzy. I thought I should never ride it again. 

Other than entertainment after entertainment, we also ate delicious food. We went to restaurants such as Shanghai 10, Hot Pot, Good Friends Restaurant, etc. The fried rice from Shanghai 10 was the best!

With these, 4 days passed quickly and it was time to take the bus back home to Singapore.

~Kitty 

Holidays overseas - Lim Zhi Yan

I go overseas at least once a year. Be it school trip or just holidays spent with my parents, I always look forward to going overseas even though it's the same country. I love visiting different airports and trying different airline every time I go overseas.

One of the things I like about traveling is the different food you can actually eat only in that country. Although some can be found in Singapore, the unique taste of the food always gives a different feel.

I also like the relaxing feeling when I go overseas especially when it's free and easy. You are not rushed around and there is no timetable to follow. You also do not have to worry about school or life in your own country. The feel is just really different when you are overseas I like everything is paid for except for when you shop and eat.

Sight seeing is one of the things of liked most about going overseas. Singapore is really small and there isn't really much to see. But overseas you get to see beautiful sceneries and some might even look fake to you because it's just too beautiful. I love taking pictures and hence take loads of pictures overseas due to the nice sceneries.

Weather is something I like to complain in Singapore. The weather is so unpredictable but when you are overseas, most countries' weather is very predictable. You are able to know when to bring an umbrella out or not.

Every country have it's own story. When visiting tourist attractions, especially the museums, you are always told a new and interesting story to how the country have become now. The stories are also very unique as it's their own countries' experience which we would not experience in our own country. Like weather wise when they have snow storms, tsunami etc. sometimes it's really sad too. The fact that you are hearing it from someone who have experienced it and reading from a book is totally different.

Last but not least, I still enjoy the peacefulness when you are off the social world to just take some time off and relax. Going overseas also allow me to enjoy and appreciate more of what is not on the social world but the beauty of the 'real world'.

A picture from my latest trip to Taiwan. I was actually holding food in my other hand, hence it's looking in the camera's direction. :D                        

-Zhi Yan

Group photo

Left to right: Zhi Yan, Jeslyn, Kitty, Ming Wei, Zehan

Hi we are group 6 from 2E. Our group is called culture vultures because it just popped into our minds.

Our CCAs are:

Zhi Yan: Floorball

Jeslyn: Floorball

Kitty: Chinese orchestra 

Ze Han: Band

Ming Wei: NCC