home to a blogger formerly known as lost
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Complacency in Modernity
Nov 20th
I’ve just read Five Things the U.S. Can Learn from China (TIME article) and although it talks about America in particular, I suspect that much of it applies to many other developed countries, including Singapore.
(Whether or not Singapore qualifies as a developed country is another topic altogether, but suffice to say that it possesses many of the characteristics of one.)
The article seemed to attribute much of the differences in attitudes to the different Eastern/Western mentalities and cultures, and I do find Singapore to be an interesting case study to determine the veracity of this hypothesis. With a predominantly Chinese population, would the average Singaporean mentality not reflect that of China’s, with its can-do attitude? Unfortunately, I think that would have been accurate a generation or two ago, but no longer.
Some would accuse our youth of being poisoned by Western media and culture, of watching too much Friends and assimilating the idea that young adults need their independence from their parents, that we should enjoy our childhoods rather than study all day, that we should enjoy our lives rather than work all day. Some of these attitudes probably hold some merit to them, but the fact remains that our society has changed and that it has probably made us less competitive as compared to rising nations today.
Personally, I think it’s all to do with complacency, rather than any cultural differences. Our youth (my generation included) are growing up in an increasingly comfortable and protected environment, and much of the motivation to improve their own lives seems to have vanished across the years. People are quite content to merely maintain their current standards of living, and at the same time seem less willing to put in the effort required to do so.
Assuming this is the case, will China eventually fall victim to the same phenomenon? Time will tell, but I’m guessing it’s a cycle all rising nations will go through. Only in this case, with a population of 1 billion to satisfy, it might take some time for the effect to start surfacing.
Panasonic GF1
Oct 31st
Got my GF1 at last! This is actually my third interchangeable-lens camera – I’d started small with the D40 and then upgraded to a D90, but I’ve decided to abandon the DSLR format and go with µ4/3 instead. I made a small loss from the old camera (S$30), but I think that’s a pretty small price to pay for nearly four months’ worth of DSLR usage (plus the whole learning experience)!
I haven’t really used the new camera all that much yet, though I did manage to get a few shots in the camera shop and the zoo (was bringing some foreign friends around), and even with the default settings, it’s looking pretty good! Probably not as nice as with a DSLR (depth-of-field isn’t really all that shallow even at f/1.7), but it’s definitely a lot more portable!
Facebook spying
Oct 22nd
I had some Facebook friend requests from students as early as during my practicum, and I’d deliberated for some time before deciding to accept those requests. The basic idea was that hey, I don’t really have much that I’m hiding anyway, plus it seemed like a way to get to know the kids better. I don’t actively stalk their profiles (who has the time?), but occasionally some really funny gems end up on my main page anyway.
Essentially, the head prefect had failed to write his name on his examination script, and when the discipline master (who was invigilating) made a fuss about it, he’d sheepishly owned up – much to his classmates’ amusement. I wish I’d been there! =P
This one was rather sad really. Here we see ‘elite school’ kids bragging to each other about… how little they study. Which is totally funny (painfully funny? funnily painful?), because of course I wasn’t doing anything of the kind a decade ago!
(…or was I? I can’t really remember. But I suspect it’s possible. How very depressing!)
A little work pride
Oct 22nd
This will sound a little pathetic, but I’m actually taking great pride in a detailed answer scheme for the end-of-year examinations that I helped to kick-start. The previous one was alright, but this one has made marking so much easier!
(How exciting a teacher’s life is.)
Approval ratings
Oct 7th
So the elective modules have come to an end. I’ve had my fair share of students sleeping in class, but I wasn’t particularly strict on them since it’s, after all, meant to be for enrichment. Hearteningly enough, I also had a fair share of students listening rather raptly. Even more encouraging was another bunch of feedback I’ve managed to dig out from alternative sources =P
I know that these represent a very small sample of students (who bothered to blog about their experiences in a Google-able manner), which is possibly self-selecting in the sense that those who hated the module chose not to discuss it at all. However, it’s still good to know that there’re at least a few students who’d enjoyed themselves, and I hope I’ve given some of them at least a greater understanding of what Psychology really is, and who knows? Perhaps some of them will even go on to read it at university.
Nippon makan
Sep 21st
- Kuishin Bo has a buffet offer for weekday lunches – finish it within an hour and have it (relatively) cheap! I brought my sister there during the September break to give it a try, but somehow it wasn’t as good as I remember. Either the quality has dropped, or my palate has suddenly decided to gain some standard, somehow.
- I do rather miss good ramen, and Yoshimaru Ramen has a branch near Ailin’s place, so we decided to head there for a try. It’s no Daruma Taishi, but it’s pretty good nonetheless. The broth could be more flavourful, but the noodles are done quite well.
- Ever on the quest for the best tonkotsu ramen in Singapore, we decided to give Ramen Santouka a try as well. The broth and pork were really good, but I didn’t love the noodles all that much. I wonder if Ippudo will be able to provide that perfect ramen fix?
Feedback
Sep 21st
So I’ve been running two elective modules for the past week now, and though one of them’s off on a rather rocky start, I’m rather glad about how the other one’s shaping up. I’m never be too sure about how my students are feeling about the lesson, though, so I’ve turned to Google Blog Search for a little extra information. One reviewer in particular seems to have really taken to the sessions so far – hopefully I’ve managed to successfully give them a taste of what Psychology is about!
Other reviews are less obviously approving (like, is ‘the teacher is quite lol’ supposed to be good or bad?), but overall it seems like this one module’s been received quite well thus far. Of course, this sample represents the population that has expressed their thoughts on an easily-found blog, but it’s rather heartening nonetheless!
In and out of school
Sep 7th
- Spotted in a sec1 classroom – a quick ‘cheat sheet’ for various logical arguments, probably from their philosophy lessons. I don’t remember being formally taught logical thinking during my student days, but I do think it’s a useful skill that definitely deserves some lesson airtime. I particularly love how little robot pictures have been added to (presumably) make it more interesting for the kids, though.
- This is the gate I typically use to get into the school. Try to spot the reason I’d bothered to snap a picture of it in the first place.
- RAGE XIV (the Guitar Ensemble concert) has just passed – for the encore item, the curtains opened to reveal a half-asleep ensemble playing their piece rather sluggishly, much to the audience’s amusement. Going through the concert preparation reminded me of the good ol’ days a decade ago, back when it was still held in LT1. Ah, how times have changed!
Google Chrome for Mac
Sep 3rd
I’ve been getting rather fed up with Firefox and how sluggishly it responds these days, and having discovered that Google Chrome is already available for the Mac (albeit only as a developer pre-release version), I decided to give it a spin. I was pretty amazed by the mind-blowing speed (possibly faster than Safari on the Mac), but unfortunately some pretty basic features such as the bookmark manager and QuickTime integration aren’t working yet. I’m actually looking forward to the built-in dictionary.app integration (which allows instant lookup of words with a keyboard shortcut), but that isn’t quite working yet (apparently it works in the location bar – not the most helpful of places).
I guess what they said was right after all. “…please DON’T DOWNLOAD THEM! Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software.” Still, I’m pretty excited about it, and might possibly be making it my primary browser once a stable (or even beta) version emerges…
Beefy goodness
Aug 30th
- I’d went for a Kagoshima Wagyu tasting session awhile back, and while I certainly did enjoy the steak, it’s not something I’d pay such a premium price for again. Anyway, while I really do enjoy fatty Japanese beef, I think it’s better prepared yakiniku style, rather than grilled as a whole steak.
- I was looking for the male toilet in the Cathay building and almost didn’t find it – the normal ‘Gentlemen’ label had been (rather cleverly) replaced by an advertisement for Brüno. While it isn’t a show I’m interested in catching, I did think it was a rather clever promotion.
- There’s such a thing as going too far, though – having the face of a movie character (a gay one, at that) staring out at me from the urinal can be somewhat disconcerting, to say the least. Still a funny concept, though.
