2J CID Group 1

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"Only cops and vampires have to have an invitation to enter."
-Christopher Moore


Saturday, 25 January 2014

Qian Hui's colour, symbol and image

Colour: 

Yellow
I chose yellow as yellow represents happiness. Chinese New Year is a very happy occasion as familes, even with relatives who live further away will come together to celebrate the new start of the lunar calendar. It is one of the rare occasions where all family members get to eat and talk to each other, and is thus a happy occasion.

Symbol:
I chose lion dance as usually during the Chinese New Year period we will be able to see lion dance, with their flashy cloths and swift moves. We can even hear the drums and beats of the lion dance from far away, due to its strong and reverberating sound. 

Image:
I chose this picture of food because during reunion dinner with out families, there will be a widespread of delicious and mouth watering food. Also, as we eat reunion dinner with our relatives that we usually rarely see, we will feel happier and enjoy the meal more.

Thursday, 23 January 2014

Qian Hui's reflection

Over the past three weeks of CID lessons, I learnt many different things. I learnt to see things and try to understand more than how it just seems, and learn to emphasize with different people. 
I learnt not to judge and jump to conclusions until I have sufficient research on the situation and I learnt to work with different people.

An Qi's colour, symbol and image on CNY

Colour: RED
To the Chinese, red is a lucky colour and that is the exact reason why we receive 'ang baos' (red packet) during Chinese New Year. We have red packets is not because of the money in it. The colour red is the elders' blessing of wanting us to be lucky. So, instead of judging people with how much they give us, we should focus more on the elders' blessings.

Symbol: 2014
2014, a new year, a new fresh beginning, the year of horse. I think this is a symbol to represent this year's Chinese New Year because it has the year '2014' and also the zodiac of the year,the horse.

Image: 2 oranges
We always give our elders 2 oranges when we visit them. It is also a form of blessing from the yonger ones to the elders. I think it is similar to the 'ang baos' for they are all blessings to one another but just that they are from the yonger to the elder ones.

Xuan Ying's colour, symbol and image for CNY

Colour:

I chose red because Chinese New Year is a fun and joyous occasion, with family and friends.

Symbol:
I chose a 福 because I hope the new year will be a good, prosperous and smooth sailing year. 

Image:
I chose this image because I look forward to exchanging oranges with relatives and receiving ang paos.



An Qi's consolidated reflection

For the past 3 weeks for CID lessons, I learnt about many things and one of them is teamwork. Sometimes, we need to distribute our work evenly to ensure that everything is fair and eifficent. Also, everyone needs to write our own blog entry to be counted finishing our blog on them. Thus, I learnt a lot more about teamwork for these past 3 weeks.
Another thing that I learnt during the lesson was to never judge a book by its cover. The lesson regarding the 2 senarios, where the woman caring a baby was working for a syndicate while the man sitting on the floor, holding a cardboard was a handicapped person and was in need of help. We should always look at both sides of the story befire making a just decision. Thus, I learnt never to judge a book by its cover for these 3 weeks.

Xuan Ying's reflection

Throughout the past 3 lessons of CID2, I have learnt several things, including more about blogging and reflection. One of the lessons I have learnt is that I should not jump to conclusions about a person's personality and background based on their appearances, as we do not know anything about them and should not be so quick to judge them. One example is that I sometimes feel that some beggars can go out and work themselves, without having the need to beg and that they are just cheating some kindhearted souls. However, after the lesson, I learnt that maybe they are under severe circumstances or have their own reasons that they have no choice but to beg for money. 

Amelia's Colour, Symbol and Image on CNY

Colour that represents CNY: 
RED. It is because red symbolizes good fortune and happiness, and CNY is a happy occasion for most of the people, especially me. 

Symbol that represents CNY:

DRAGON. The Dragon is present in many Chinese cultural celebrations as the Chinese people often think of themselves as descendants of the mythical creature. The dragon also represents prosperity, good luck and good fortune.

Image that represents CNY: 

I chose this picture as people are all gathered to buy stuff to prepare for CNY



Amelia's Reflection

I have went through three weeks of CID 2 lessons and I have learnt a lot from the three lessons. The lesson on week 2 was unforgettable. We were showed two pictures, the first picture was a guy siting on the street and the other was a woman with her child standing. They were poor and homeless. It made me realise that I am very fortunate now, to be able to study and have parents who provide me stuff that I need. We were asked which one of them would we help. I chose the woman with the child as the child have to be taken care of. After the lesson, I learnt that I should empathize with others. 

Yi Ki's colour, symbol and image on CNY :)


新年代表颜色:
The colour which represents CNY:
RED, 红色

原因:先让我分享一个故事吧。

      “传说中国古时侯有一种叫“年”的怪兽,他住在山上。但是,每逢除夕,他就会下山,吞食人类,破坏房子和农物。
  某一年的除夕,乡亲们收拾东西准备逃跑。这时候,村子来了一个老人,老人对一户老婆婆说只要让他在她家住一晚,他定能将“年”兽给赶走。但是,大家都不信,老婆婆还劝他逃走的好,但老人坚持留下,大家见了,劝他不住,便纷纷躲避去了。

  当“年”象往年一样准备闯进村肆虐的时候,突然传来爆竹声,“年”混身发抖,再也不敢前进了,原来“年”兽最怕红色,火光和炸响啊。这时大门大开,只见院内一位身披红袍的老人哈哈大笑,“年”兽大惊失色,仓惶而逃.

  第二天,当人们从深山回到村里时,发现村里安然无恙,才恍然大悟,原来老人是帮助大家驱兽的神仙。

  现在,春节是人民的佳节,它象征着团结、兴旺,人们对新的一年寄托着希望。”

所以,我认为红色代表新年。

Reason: Before I state the reason, let me share with you a short story.
    "Long ago in the mountains, there lived a horrible demon creature named Nian. Every year, on the first day of the year, the creature would awaken and descend upon the village. He would eat all the grain and livestock. And if there were any unfortunately children stuck outside, they would disappear.

The villagers lived in fear of this beast and boarded up their houses on this night to protect their families. One year, right before this event was to occur, an old man visited the village. He turned to the villagers and asked, "Why do you fear this creature such? You are many and he is but one. Surely he could not swallow all of you."

But the villagers remained skeptical and locked themselves up anyway. That night, Nian did not come. The old man had ridden him until dawn and the creature went back to its cave hungry. This went on for several nights until the old man revealed, "I cannot protect you forever."

He turned out to be a god and had to return to his duties elsewhere. The villagers were terrified that once the old man left, they would once again see Nian return.

So the old man informed them, "The beast is easily scared. He does not like the color red. He fears loud noises and strange creatures. So tonight, spread red across the village. Hang red signs on every door. Make loud noises with drums, music, and fireworks. And to protect your children, give them face masks and lanterns to protect them."

The villagers did as the old man instructed and Nian never returned again.

In Chinese, the word for New Years is Guo Nian. Literally translated it means to "pass over Nian" or "overcome Nian". That is exactly what the villagers did.

It has become a tradition that part of New Years celebration is to hang lots of red decoration in your house. Streets are filled with music, loud drums, and fireworks all day long. And special paper lanterns are made in a variety of shapes and sizes, paraded through the streets to scare off any demons that might come.

Thus ends the story of Chinese New Years or Guo Nian." -source: 
http://www.chinesenewyearfestival.org/culture/19-the-story-of-chinese-new-year-
Therefore, I think that the colour that best represents Chinese New Year is red.

新年象征:
Symbol which represents CNY
原因:“福” 让我想起新年的祝福
Reason: This Chinese word, "福” means prosperity and fortune


原因:这幅图上有很多新年祝福语,描述着我对新年的心情,如今我的脑海里都是这些祝福的话。可以说我对新年的到来已经很有准备。我很兴奋地等着新年。
Reason: This image have many Chinese New Year greetings on it which shows my current thoughts of this festival. It expresses my overwhelming feeling of anxiety, while waiting for the Chinese New Year.


Yi Ki's consolidated reflection :)

  It has been three weeks since our first CID2 lesson. During the Construct, Integrate, Differentiate (CID) lessons, I learnt how to do things as a team since teamwork is emphasised through blogging and completing the tasks with our teammates. I was able to learn several things in these three weeks.
  One of the lesson I had learnt is to empathise with others. A task assigned for week 2 is about the poverty in Singapore. After our teacher's teaching of poverty in other countries, I went back home to research on the poverty in Singapore. I realised that people who need a lot of financial helps still exist. There are people who sleeps on the streets to save travel fares and people who make a living out of selling tissues. Although they are not starving till death or begging for money(like in some other countries), their income is still below Singapore's poverty line. After searching the net, we realised that there is a problem of income inequality in Singapore. After doing such researches, I learn to empathise with the "uncles and aunties" who sells tissue. I no longer feel irritated when they interrupt my meal.

"Poverty in Singapore?"

"The poor and needy in our society struggle with “relative poverty” —simply defined as that their financial resources fall substantially below what is needed to pay for the necessities of living in Singapore."
-Source: mws.org.sg

Image source:
http://sgagainstpoverty.org/references/


Our group thinks that there are almost no poverty in Singapore. We do not see beggars on the roads nor do we see people being homeless as much as we see people driving luxurious cars or eating at high class restaurants. Well, this may not be a concrete evidence but it is true that our country had moved beyond "extreme poverty".

Prime Minister Lee pointed out that Singapore has moved beyond “extreme poverty”, which is defined by the United Nations as living with less than S$1.90 a day, according to Today.
-Source: yahoo!news 17/11/13

Singapore is financially rich but are all the people financially rich? Many are oblivious to the poverty in Singapore. Actually, begging is illegal here, under the island-nation's Destitute Persons Act, carrying a fine of up to $3,000 or imprisonment for up to two years for repeat offenders (source:http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/11/singapore-poverty-spotlight-20131178362669442.html). Do you remember the last time you saw some "aunties and uncles" selling tissues in the hawker centers? They might be one of those who suffered from poverty in Singapore. 

We think that poverty in Singapore is a declining issue but we should still be aware that people that suffers from poverty still exists.


Source: therealsingapore.com 
This photo depicts a man sleeping on a public bench. Is he homeless or is he spending the night on benches near their jobs to save the transport fare home? 

Thursday, 16 January 2014

Our Group's Photo Challenge :D

School Spirit:
School anniversary where all RVians come together to celebrate

Happiness:
Friends in RV is everything of our life

Fear:
Too much of homework 😥😰😨😱

Life:
Gathering in the hall

Saturday, 11 January 2014

Jing Yan's holidays

During the holidays i mostly stayed at home and played computer games. The rest of the time i went out with friends to play or went back to school for CCA. I am in Dance Society and i love it. The photo attached above is about my cca chalet that happened during Dec holidays and at Costa Sand Resort. There were many activities such as night cycling, babeque, going to wild wild wet. We had lots of fun there.

Thursday, 9 January 2014

Yi Ki's holiday :)



During the holidays, I did not do much things but one of the most significant things I did was volunteering. A few other student volunteers and I started a project of a charity sales booth and spent around 3 weeks to prepare the handmade products (key chains, bookmarks, etc.).

         


With the help of our tuition principal, we managed to have a booth during the graduation day. Besides being the charity sales booth helper, I was also in charge of all the different booths. Thus, I had to keep guard for 5hrs. It was tiring but I had a great time.