My English Blog

2009-06-30T08:44:00.004+08:00

The Son is in Secondary School by Affran Sa’at

My badge has a Latin motto
Hope for the future
The future is hope
Or something

At times black crows try to interrupt
When we sing the National Anthem

It is difficult to maintain
The whiteness of my shoes
Especially on Wednesdays

I must admit there is something quite special
About the bare thighs of hardworking scouts

The Malay chauffeurs
Who wait for my schoolmates
Sit on the car park kerb
Telling jokes to one another

Seven to the power of five is unreasonable

On Chinese New Year
Mrs Lee dressed up
In a sarong kebaya
And sang Bengawan Solo

The capital of Singapore is Singapore

My best friend did a heroic thing once
Shaded all A’s
For his Chinese Language
Multiple-choice paper

In our annual yearbook
There is a photograph of me

Pushing a wheelchair and smiling
They caught me
At the exact moment

When my eyes were actually closed
____________________________________________________________________
The first stanza
I feel that the author uses a little bit of rhythm so as to stress out the importance of his badge that he obtained. I feel that the author does not fully understand the symbolism of his badge as he mentioned in the last sentence " or something " even though he has already passed secondary school. Another element the author used would be symbolism, for the badge seemed to symbolize the hope for a better future.

The second stanza
The author has used the element " Free verse " as i feel that only with free verse he can truly elaborate the fun they had when being interrupted while singing the national anthem.

The third stanza
The author is trying to tell us that on Wednesday, he probably has Physical Education or Sports so his shoes would be soiled and black. However, he seems to enjoy this day as he did not point out any hint of regret or disappointment.

The fourth stanza
The author admires the scouts, not for their will or determination to help others, but for their strong thighs and muscles. This is something quite amusing to me. However, he seems to dislike the scouts a little as he used the phrase " must admit " which told us that he was rather unwilling to say this.

The fifth stanza
I think the author is rather envious that his other schoolmates have chauffeurs to pick them up after school. However, we could see that the chauffeurs at that time were rather free and had nothing much to do as they were tellling jokes to each other while waiting for the children.

The sixth stanza
The author must have enjoyed Chinese New Year very much at that time but however, I feel that he was also trying to tell us how funny it was as Mrs Lee dressed up in a Malay costume and sang a Malay song during Chinese New Year.

The seventh stanza
The author seemed to enjoy exams but because he could do well and score, but because he could see the amusing acts that his classmates would do when they did not know the answer.

The eight stanza
I feel that the author had an intention of revealing that he was wheelchair bound only when the poem was about to end. However, despite of this, i feel that he still enjoyed Secondary school very much as he was able to give a big grin for the annual yearbook.
______________________________________________________________
My Own Poem

School is a dialy thing for us
In the morning we are sure to kick up a fuss
Even when the sun is at rest
Here we are, already out of bed

The first day of school is the worst
With all the strangers to face
Just when i am about to burst
A teacher comes up and comforts

Gradually over time
I find more friends
And everytime i fall down
They never fail to pick me up

Exam day is the best
For many do amusing acts
From shading all A's to colouring all B's
We never fail to have some fun

Soon it is graduating day
It seems that all has gone in a flash
"Smile!" said the photographer
and it seems all will soon fade away

2009-06-29T08:56:00.002+08:00

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

"Beauty stands and waits with gravity to start her death-defying leap" Indeed, this is such an interesting quote. Furthermore, it quoted by famous poet - Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1919. In 1953, Ferlinghetti and Peter Martin began to publish City Lights magazine. They also opened the City Lights Books Shop in San Francisco to help support the magazine. In 1955, they launched City Light Publishing, a book-publishing venture. Ferlinghetti is the author of more than thirty books of poetry and is also the author more than eight plays and of the novels Love in the Days of Rage (1988) and Her (1966).

The reason i like Lawrence Ferlinghetti is that his poems compared to the others have a distinguishing feature. Almost all the other poets have written their poems only for adults or teens with a great understanding or grasp of English. However, Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poems could be easily understood even by me, a thirteen year old boy. His poems are also interesting and at the same time, lets the readers have a glance of the facts of life. Lastly, his quotes are also amazing and easily understood.

Three of my favourite poems written by him would be :

- I am waiting
- A vast confusion
- Underwear

Bibliography
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/367
http://www.poemhunter.com/lawrence-ferlinghetti/

2009-06-29T08:28:00.003+08:00

" The Bear-men of Qolqepunku "

High up in the Andes of Peru

The Ukukus wander on

Glacier, frost and snow

Dressed in furry clocks and masks

They trek to find the mountains ice

Of sacred healing powers

The Bear-men, they are called:

In the old language of the Quechua;

Guardians of the ice

They cut the ice in solid blocks

Carried on backs, down mountain paths,

To family, friends, and livestock

Ah! Sixteen-thousand feet high, comes

A pilgrimage Qoyllur Rit i’ …

Year, after year, after year.

The Bear-men—, silently watch

Their glacier, slowly disappear

As if in thin air!...

They’ve now decide to leave the ice

The magical ice of Peru, in place

As warming temperatures rise…

This is helping the Ice Cap

Evaporate, in the 21st Century—

Perhaps this is a whisper…

“Is this the world’s end?”

___________________________________________________________________

sacred healing powers ( line 6 ) - Personification of the ice.

Guardians of the ice ( line 9 ) - Personification of the ice as usually only people would need guardians.

As if thin air ( line 18 ) - Similie. The author compares the disappearance of the ice to thin air.

Magical Ice ( line 20 ) - Paradox. It seems untrue that ice can be magical.

helping ( line 22 ) - Personification of the temperature.

whisper ( line 24 ) - Personification.

I like this poem very much as it contains a lot of figurative language. Not only the language, but the content is also very meaningful and interesting. It is meaningful as it tells us that global warming is happening but at the same time interesting as they made the ice in the poem " magical".

Through this poem, i am able to get a better view of figurative language and thus, i like this poem very much.

My Own Blog Prompt

2009-06-02T14:41:00.000+08:00

Q: The MOE is reviewing the syllabus of the History subject. Write a 300-word formal letter to the Education Minister to share your opinion about the current History syllabus. Offer at least one suggestion to enhance the syllabus, and persuade the Minister to take up this suggesion.

Ans:
Ong Sze Chuan
Ang Mo Kio Central St 50 Blk 121
#06-35 S390214

15th February 2009

Minister David Ong
Minster of Education

Dear Minister David:

Re: Reviewing the syllabus of the History subject

A good day to you.

I am a pupil currently studying in Hwa Chong Institution and i would like to offer some suggestions of how to enhance the school syllabus of the History subject.

Firstly, i would like to say that the current syllabus is quite boring to most of the students. The students find it a chore to read the textbooks as it has hardly any role playing. After i have conducted a survey with the entire Secondary 1 students in HCI, I found out that most of the students like to role play as historical figures. This part should be added to the school textbooks as students would have fun learning History and they would want to discover more about the past.

Secondly, i want to stress the importance of more field trips to historical places. For example, the national museum of Singapore is a very good place for all the students. I feel that more field trips is neccessary as the children can witness what happened with his or her own eyes.

I look forward to a favourable reply from you soon.

Sincerely,
Ong Sze Chuan

Blog Prompt : Is progress necessarily beneficial for society? Comment.

2009-06-02T12:18:00.002+08:00

Firstly, I would like to make my stand clear that i agree with the statement : Progress is necessary for the benefit of society.

I would like to cite evidence from VTBS. For example, in Village by the Sea, Hari knew that there would progress is necessary for the benefit of the society and thus, came back from Bombay, learning new skills like watch mending and even planned to start a watch mending shop.

Another example would be the villagers of Thul. They do not have any ambitions and thus, do not strive for progress. Without striving for progress, there would not be any benefit to the society as we could see that most of the villagers were either in bad shape or were living in poverty. Thus, Progress is definitely beneficial for society.

All the examples from Village by the sea proved my stand to be correct that progress is necessary for the benefit of society.

Thank you for reading

Blog prompt : Who is the favourite/least favourite character in Village by the Sea ? State your reasons.

2009-06-02T11:44:00.005+08:00

I shall be talking about my least favourite character in Village By The Sea.

My least favourite character in the book would be Lila's father.

Firstly, he is the main cause of all the problems from the family suffering in poverty to the mother unable to be cured. Because of his irresponsible acts like being a drunkard instead of going out to sea and earning an income for the family, he caused his family to be in an extremely bad state.

Secondly, he took the had earned money of Hari which is used to support the money to go and buy "toddy" for himself. This is very irresponsible of him as he has already caused his family to land in such a bad state and yet, he stills deprives any chances of the family turning for the better. He has also caused Pinto's, their dog, death as the Khanekar brothers killed them due to the debts he owed them for buying "toddy".

Thus, all the reasons i have stated above showed why he was my least favourite character in Village by the Sea.

Thank you for reading.

Blog Prompt : Which part of the Village by the Sea do you like best? State your reasons

2009-06-02T11:29:00.002+08:00

The part of Village by the Sea which I like best would be the part whereby the father turns over a new leaf.

Firstly, i like this part as I feel that the main cause of why all the problems started was because of Lila's father when he became a alcoholic and sold his boat in order to sell his debt and he started to stop working and thus leading to all the problems arising. When Lila's father turned over a new leaf, it was a sign whereby all the problems would start to cease and things would start to turn for the better.

Secondly, i like this part as it is when the mother falls terribly ill and requires the husband's attention and care throughout her treatment in the hospital. Just at that part, the father decides to turn over a new leaf and accompanies her wife in the hospital without owing any debts or drinking any "toddy". This touched me a lot and thus, I am since very fond of this part of the story.

Thank you for reading and please leave your comments.

Blog Prompt : I rather be the city rat than the country rat. Comment.

2009-06-02T11:07:00.002+08:00

Firstly, I would like to agree with this statement that I would rather be the city rat than the country rat. Being a city rat has far more advantages than being the country rat.

As modern technologies are advancing, city rats have more knowledge in modern day technologies. As technologies help us to increase the productivity rate, city rats have an advantage compared to country rats who are usually referred to as " country bumpkins " as city rats know how to use technologies to increase the efficiency in our daily work such as using the computer or surfing the internet.

Being a city rat also enables us to catch up with what the modern world has to offer. For example, we might already be playing console games such as PSP or XBOX, while the country rats are still playing with stones and pebbles and might not even know that there is such a thing! Hence, I feel that being a city rat is better compared to being a country rat.

Lastly, I would like to conclude that I would rather be a city rat than a country rat.

Thank you for reading.

Exams are over ! Well... almost =D

2009-05-09T11:11:00.002+08:00

Hello everyone.
I am very elated to announce that almost all our tests have finished with the exception of the literature essay. Finally, we can all have fun after mugging for 2-3 weeks.

Goodbye everyone ! Have fun in your holidays =D

2009-05-05T20:48:00.002+08:00

Hello everyone. Today , i will be talking about the upcoming examinations.

I have finished :
- Language Arts Narrative Writing
- Maths test 3
- History test
- Science test

The upcoming examinations :
- Maths test 4 --- TOMORROW!
- Chinese test --- TOMORROW!
- Malay test --- TOMORROW!
- Geography test --- Thursday
- Infocomm studies test --- Thursday
- Chinese test --- Friday
- Literature essay --- Next Wednesday

Just a reminder... there's no school on next monday as it is a replacement holiday for Vesak Day !
YEAH!

Lastly, i would like to end this post by sharing a video with all of you about the year 2012 . Enjoy!

Ps. remember to leave comments and tagg =D

Upcoming Examinations

2009-04-21T15:53:00.001+08:00

Hello everyone. As we all know, examinations are in a few days to weeks time and I would like to wish all of you good luck!

Well, let me share with you my academic aims for this term :

Language arts - A2
Maths - A1.5 ( my first test was an A2, but i aim to get an A1 for the 2nd one. )
Chinese- A2
Science- A1
Geography- A1
History- A2
IS- A2

So i aim to get an MSG this term of 1.7 or less ... :D

Lastly, I would like to end this post by wishing all the sec 1s good luck for the upcoming examinations ! |||BELIEVE IN YOURSELF|||

Another video of hwa chong

2009-04-21T09:07:00.002+08:00

Hello everybody. I found another funny video about hwa chong's discipline system. Enjoy and leave your comments.

I feel that the school should have such a disclipine system as it is yet intersting but fun! However, that will only happen with such advanced technologies in the future! :D

Interesting Video of Hwa Chong

2009-04-21T09:05:00.001+08:00

Hey everybody! I found this interesting video of Hwa Chong on youtube. Please leave your comments! :D

Life in Hwa Chong...

2009-04-17T21:22:00.004+08:00

Hello everyone. Today, i will be posting about my life in Hwa Chong so far.
I feel that my life in Hwa Chong so far has been quite okay.
My Cca is basketball and the teacher is quite nice to us, as he is also quite young :D.

Today, I had a consortium assembly with all my other consortium mates. Mrs Ke, our director of consortium, showed us the class MSG results and my class was the last among the aphelion sec 1s. I feel that all of us should work harder for the next term.

I shall end my post here. Good bye everybody.

J-Tigerr

2009-03-27T17:16:00.003+08:00

Hello everyone. Today, i shall be posting about the march holidays and how i displayed my values of J-tigerr throughout the week. I apologise as i did not have time during the march holidays to post.

On Monday, my team and I respected each other by listening to others while doing the powerpoint slides for our project.

On Tuesday, my team and I displayed team work by encouraging others despite them making wrong passes in basketball training.

On Wednesday, my team and I strived for excellence by doing our best in the friendly basketball match against Anderson Secondary school.

On Thursday, I was joyful that i had completed the first two days of my training in the holidays.

Lastly, on Friday, I was resilient and never give up despite the grueling 3km run in the morning.

Thank you for reading

J-Tigerr

2009-03-14T12:28:00.004+08:00

Hello everyone. Today, I shall be blogging about the values I have displayed this week.

On Monday, my group and I displayed teamwork in completing the PowerPoint presentation for the projects day pre-preliminary judging.

On Tuesday, my team strived for excellence in the pre-preliminary judging of the projects day.

On Wednesday, we respected each other in the camp and listened to others' opinions without cutting in rudely.

On Thursday, we were resilient and did not give up despite the failed attempts of building a catapult.

Lastly, on Friday, we were joyful that we had became greater friends through the camp and had learnt to overcome difficulties as a team.

Socratic Seminar

2009-02-28T16:00:00.003+08:00

Hello everyone. Today, I shall be the blue hat and summarise the entire seminar. Firstly, The topic is : " who or what is the real lamb that gets slaughtered in the story."

As for Jun ning, Darrell and Ke xuan, they thought that the lamb should be Mr Maloney as he had the biggest sacrifice of losing his own life.

However, David, Liang rui, Wen han and Yi Hong thought that the real lamb is Mrs Maloney as she was the one that losed her husband and might be jailed.

As for Alvin and my opinion, we think that the real lamb is the baby which Mrs Maloney is carrying as the baby lost his or her father and might also lose his mother.

Matthias, on the other hand, felt that all three of them were the lamb as all of them got "slaughtered" in their own ways.

Lastly, i would like to end this post by saying that this seminar was indeed a very fruitful one. Keep it up everyone!!!! :D

Typical Day In school

2009-02-25T19:25:00.003+08:00

Hello everyone. Today, i will describe my day in school. Firstly, we had P.E lessons as the first lesson of the day. We went to the gym and Mr Lee, our teacher, showed us how to use the gym equipments and i tried to use one machine to help me with my chin-ups. It was very fun and interesting. We had recess after P.E lessons and me and my friends decided to play basketball. However, a P.E teacher spotted us and sent us out of the court. He also sent us out the last time because we were in school uniform. But we were in P.E attire today and he still scolded us for being on the court. There were still two basketball courts empty and i did not understand why he did not let us have a game of basketball. I think that it was quite unreasonable of him to send us off the court without giving us a proper and adequate explanation.

That led us to having an unhappy recess. After our break, we had Chinese lessons. After that, we had Geography lessons and Mdm Chan returned us our test papers. Woo hoo! I scored 20(+1 for wrong marking) / 30 !!! I GOT AN A2.

Immediately after Geography lessons we had Language Arts lessons by Ms Gordon.

Well, i shall end my post here due to time constrain. Byes!

2009-02-23T20:24:00.004+08:00

Nuisance callers dial up a 999 logjam

Hello everyone. Today, my topic of discussion will be on nuisance callers dialing the 999 hot line.

Firstly, I would like to say that all these nuisance callers should be more aware of the consequences of their actions. For all they know, they may cause another emergency call to be delayed by 30 seconds to a minute. This may have resulted in the caller already being harmed by the time the police could get back to him or her.

Secondly, I would like to offer some tips for the nuisance callers.
You should call 999 if :
-A crime is in progress
-If a criminal suspect is close by, or you know where the person is.
-If a further crime may happen
-If someone is badly hurt or in danger

You should NOT call 999 when:
-It is a non-urgent situation in which there is no risk to life or property.
-When immediate action is unnecessary.

Lastly, I would like to offer a few suggestions for the police. I feel that the police should trace down and find out who the nuisance callers are and punish them if they repeat the offence. I also think that the police should create another hot line for non-emergency calls.

Thank you for reading !

My typical day at school

2009-02-11T19:25:00.002+08:00

Hello everyone. Today, we had P.E in school for our first lesson. We went to the cardio room at SALT centre to do some physical training. After that, i played table tennis with a few of my friends at the table tennis tables below the classroom block.

After our reccess cum P.E, we had chinese lessons. Zhang lao shi gave us back our chinese comprehension practice paper. I was quite delighted with my score. ^-^ . After chinese lessons with Zhang lao shi, we had Geography lessons with Mr Lim. We did a worksheet of measuring the distances of maps. After Geography lessons, we had lessons for language arts. Ms Gordon came in and told us that this lesson would be spent watching videos on the computer. Unfortunately, the computer could not work and in the end, we had to do silent reading.

Yay! Its recess time after language arts lesson.

After recess, we had our final lesson of the day - Arts. The art teacher taught us some tricks our eyes would play on us when viewing pieces of artwork.

Well, this has been my typical day at school. Bye!

A Very Meaningful video

2009-01-30T16:08:00.001+08:00

Current affairs- News In Class (Term 1 Wk 4) Blog Prompt one

2009-01-30T15:53:00.002+08:00

Q:Age and experience are important to the workforce in any country. Discuss with relevant examples how this statement is true.

Ans: As the question states, age and experience are important to the workforce in any country. This is very true as firstly, older people have much more experience in that many aspects of that area and they would be of much help to the company.

Firstly, age. Older workers have experienced through many things and they can warn the youngsters what to do and what not.This not only reduces the number of mistakes the company makes, but also saves time for the company or they would have to correct the mistake and that would take my time.

Secondly, Experience. If a company has a billion dollars, but not a single one of their workers inside is capable, the company would no doubt go bankrupt very quickly. Thus, experience is also very important in workforce .Experienced workers have both accuracy and speed in thier work, thus, it is ultimately beneficial to the company.

Finally, i stress again that both age and experience are important to the workforce of any and every country in the world.

Thank you for reading!

Current affairs- News in class (Term 1 Wk 3) Blog Prompt 1

2009-01-29T16:31:00.002+08:00

Q. Imagine your group has just invented an electronic device that helps other students learn better in the classroom. Write a short press release that describes this new device and explain how it will promote learning.

Ans:

Hello schoolmates, my group has just invented an electronic device that helps other students learn better in the classroom. it is called"The Self Study Machine". There are a few functions of this device.

1. It enables students to record the teacher's talks and speeches during class and it has a voice recgonition system that allows itself to read and know what the speech is about. Then, it can explain to the student what it means
2. It has a built in dictionary of the latest version.
3.It enables the students to surf the internet free of charge.

Applicable to my earlier points, i shall now explain why and how it will promote learning.
1. As it enables students to record the teacher's talks and speeches during class, the student can listen to it at home if he or she forgets it. He or she can also know how to pronunce the words properly with its built in voice recgonition system. The student can also understand the teacher's speech better.
2. As it has a built in dictionary, students would not have to carry such a heavy dictionary with them and can save time flipping the pages to find the word. They would not have to worry about the version as it is the latest and newest version.
3. As it allows the students to surf the internet free of charge, the students can go online anywhere and everywhere in Singapore. For example, in Hwa Chong Instituition, they have a portal called the Summary Message Board (S.M.B) and teachers post messages there for the students to read. If a student forgets to read the SMB the day before, he or she can just quickly access it through the self study machine and read it before school starts. This function also enables the students to surf the web for information that is beyond school text books level.

Thank you all for reading.

Welcome to my blog!

2009-01-18T14:18:00.001+08:00

Hello fellow school mates and teachers, this is my english blog. I hope that all of you will leave useful and educational comments on my blog and please do not violate any of the rules below.

1.Please do NOT spam the tagboard.
2.Please do NOT use any vulgarities while tagging or commenting.
3.Please do NOT hack the blog.
4.Please do NOT plagarize.

Thank you and have a good time exploring my blog.