Something that made you afraid

The fact that exams or tests are around the corner makes me a little afraid. What makes me afraid is not doing well during these tests. I feel that I shouldn't be so afraid of tests because I can learn from failures. Maybe a small test like a pop quiz wouldn't really make me feel afraid but it's the major exams that make me really afraid because failing them will definitely affect me. I hope I'm able to overcome this fear of major tests. I must learn to tell myself that I can learn from these failures and get even better results. But saying this I don't want to completely get rid of my fear of tests, because a little fear will drive me to work harder.

Tired

I've been really tired from sleeping late these few days. I feel like it's hard to sleep early, when I try to sleep early I end up sleeping almost as late as before. I've also been quite tired from the amount of training in a week. The fact that tests are coming up makes it even harder to get rest. I hope to be able to find a way to stop myself from being so tired.

Pictures of my neighbourhood

Neighbourhood where I live

The neighbourhood where I live quite is peaceful and quiet most of the time. The way the houses in my estate is organised is like two squares innner and outer square. If you would walk out from the back door of my house there would be the playground and the fitness corner. The park is full of greenery, trees everywhere hanging above you. If you wallked out of the estate by either entrance, you would be facing the block of HDB flats on the opposite side of the road and there would be the old rundown bus stop there too.

Childhood memory of an event that shaped the person I am

During my childhood, I took up a few drama lessons and I felt that the lessons helped me develop my communication skills. These drama lessons always were on Saturday afternoons and I always looked forward to it. We did many fun things during lessons, there were games as well as serious stuff like how to project your voice. At every end of the term there would be a special event where every class has to contribute a short play. It was really fun acting and I felt that this influenced the person I am today. The lessons I had improved my presentation skills and made me a more open person who shares opinions and view often. If it weren't for these lessons, I don't think I would be able to speak as fluently as I am now.

Online lesson: character sketch

Atticus Finch is has high tolerance towards people who mock him and make his life difficult. He has tolerated many people who have insulted him for defending Tom Robinson, a black man in court. Although people consistently mocked him, he did not listen to them or react, he just went on with what he believed that was right. After that court session, Mr Ewell was really angry with Atticus for defending Tom Robinson against his daughter. So Mr Ewell spat at Atticus when he met him, Atticus did not retaliate instead he just wiped his face and walked away without a word. This shows that he extremely tolerant, most people would have turned to violence if they were spat at. Atticus taught his children to be tolerant as well. Atticus Flinch was very tolerant is known to be an upright and moral person, he is respected for that.

A scene from my favourite movie

When I was young, I liked to watch this basketball movie called "Space Jam". It was a movie about the Looney Tunes challenging a group of aliens to a basketball game. There were parts of the movie in which were cartoons while some parts were real life. It featured the basketball star Michael Jordan. The scene I liked most was the scene when the Looney Tunes played the match against the aliens. There were many spectators coming to watch the match. A lot of cartoon characters came to watch the match, everyone was anxious to know who was going to win. The atmosphere was very intense, the match was like a battle. Michael Jordan was playing for the Looney Tunes and I loved the way the scene was created just like a battlefield.

Favourite character in To Kill A Mocking Bird

My favourite character in to kill a mocking bird is Jem. He is a very fun brother to be with. I like the way he is brave to dare to do stuff, like running to the radley house and tapping the wall before running back. I find him funny that he would dare to lose his head for his reputation. I find him appealing to me as he takes care of his sister and is understanding.

Singaporean Short Story

There’s no place like home.

Home doesn’t refer to the building that I live in. But home is the country that has made me who I am.

Home is a little red dot, a miniscule country on the global map. It is one of the very few city-states in the world.

Home is Singapore.

Singapore has made me speak with Singaporean slangs. Such as adding a word of “la”, “lor” or “ah” at the end of every sentence, it has been known as “singlish” here. Singapore has also made me “kiasu”, which means afraid of losing out in dialect.

Even though Singapore is a tropical country, there are 4 distinct seasons: the wet and hot season, the dry and hot season, the wet and cool season, and the shopping season. You see, Singaporeans are known for their innate ability to sniff out bargains of any sort from the other side of the Central Expressway (CTE). Singaporeans are also known to queue up for two over hours just so they can get freebies. That explains the never-ending queues you see around.

In Singapore, you could turn to any direction and spot greenery. Compared to roads in other countries, they are naked.

I have been living in Singapore for the past thirteen years of my life. Everything has gone pretty well so far. The holidays were ending and I finally could get away from the squabbles of my brother and my sister. It was not that my siblings didn’t love each other, they undoubtedly did. Their quarrels were just the manner they exhibited their affection to each other.

One thing I have in my mind is that Singapore has high expectations for us students to do well in school academically. As a student, I have always been the average. Not the smartest, not the dumbest, but somewhere in the middle. I have met people who have their eyes glued to their textbooks and workbooks almost the entire day and it isn’t surprising how they top the class or how thick their spectacles are. No offence, but those students look like goldfishes with those goggle like specs. I wouldn’t want to be that kind of person now would I? Everyone described them as “no life”.

I feel like there are only three types of people in the schooling world: the students who spend hours and hours on subject guidebooks, those who slack off each day and those who are like me, the students standing in between. It was until the first day of my second year in secondary school where I realized there was another type of student.

The second year at secondary school started conventionally except the fact that there wasn’t orientation. I was in a whole new class this year. Our new form teacher was a tall middle-aged man. He had his hair elegantly combed to the right side with gel I reckoned. He wore a red and blue-checkered shirt with a bow tie at his neck. He could pass off as a clown if his bow tie and shoes were two sizes larger.

“Right gentlemen, I’m Mr Loo and I shall to be your form teacher for this year.” Mr Loo projected his voice perfectly in Queen’s English.

“This is totally going to be an amusing year…” I growled.

“Every one of you shall introduce yourselves now. Starting from…you.” He pointed his lengthy finger at me.

I raised my left eyebrow and stood up.

“I’m Gerald.”

Mr Loo remained expressionless and glared at me for a moment before directing his finger at someone else. Everyone else stood up, said their names and stated their hobby, their CCAs or some fact about themselves before sitting down. I knew I hadn’t created a fantastic impression of myself.

As boys took their turns to introduce themselves, I noticed a boy. He had unkempt hair and I could see eye bags under his eyes like a mini panda, as if he hadn’t slept for the whole night. He declared he was a new student at our school.

“Well, welcome to our school, Wei Song. I hope you will enjoy studying here,” Mr Loo mentioned.

I judged he could be the type of student who gamed all night. From past experiences, my judgments were accurate. Well I guess from time to time? Mr Loo proceeded to assign us seats in the classroom. It was just my luck. I had to sit next to Wei Song. We were seated all the way at the rear gloomy right-hand corner of the classroom.

I knew he would absolutely influence me in a truly “special” way.

The following day, lessons started habitually. Our first period was math, Mr Loo taught that subject. It was rather entertaining to listen to every single word being flawlessly pronounced. I guess I could grasp the concept of the math technique that he was teaching. Getting zonked of listening to Mr Loo, I scanned the classroom. Everyone had his eyes glued to the whiteboard, omitting some fools who were sniggering at each other’s jokes in secret. I speculate I had one of the shortest attention span in the class after those chaps. I revolved my head to the right and detected that Wei Song was dozing off. I was utterly flabbergasted at how Wei Song could fall asleep during a lesson, on the second day of school! I gave him a disgusted look. But I didn’t want him to get a scolding from that quintessential teacher, so I gave him a nudge. He woke up and looked around in bafflement. He was so heavy-eyed that he wrestled with his eyelids to stay open.

“Alright. I shall hand you a copy of this mathematics worksheet right now.” Mr Loo announced.

As soon as we received the worksheet, the one’s who had been listening so attentively during the lesson were working on their worksheets as if they were fiddling with some microscopic organisms. They had their eyes a little less than six inches away from their worksheets. The blockheads who were sniggering away during the lesson could only scratch their heads and give quizzical looks at each other.

I was calculating the numbers slowly but surely so that I could get the right answer. As I was scribbling out my workings, I caught a glimpse of Wei Song. He was at the fifth question already! How did he do the questions so exceptionally quick? I saw him writing down the answers in speck-and-span order yet rapidly. It was like he had an answer sheet in his head and was writing it down like a printing machine! I stared in disbelief. Wei Song had been sleeping throughout Mr Loo’s lesson and yet he knows his work so well? I saw Wei Song’s drowsy eyes as he was printing his answers on the worksheet. Could he have written down random answers? He couldn’t have. He had crystal clear workings that lead to his answer. At that moment, I knew I had to ask Wei Song some questions and get to know him better.

After the bell sounded for recess, everyone zipped to the canteen to have a bite or the field for some soccer while I sat next to the snoozing Wei Song. I had to ask him some questions while he and I were alone. This was one the few moments that I could “interview” him. So I joggled him until he well out of sleep, he looked at me with raised eyebrows.

I questioned, “why are you always so sleepy during class? Do you game a lot?”

He shook his head and mumbled, “My mum makes me study all night almost everyday. I barely get any sleep.”

So he wasn’t a gamer! He was the kind of student who studied all night! But the reason behind the studying was not sheer willingness but the force his mother applied on him. I continued to ask him more questions. I began to understand what he was going through.

As the school terms went by, Wei Song and I were best buddies! I couldn’t hang out with him much due to his authoritarian mother. But I could spend lots of time with him during class. I acted like an alarm clock, waking him up whenever he dozed off during class. He taught me some tips and tricks about math occasionally and that helped me quite a bit with my work. We worked on a few school projects together. I could still remember the first time I went to Wei Song’s house for the project. His mother was extremely particular about things and was downright austere. I was absolutely petrified when she just gave some advice to us. She was undeniably passionate about whatever assignment her son did. It had to be done a cut above the rest otherwise she would prefer it not to be done. She was the firmest parent I have ever met. I respected Wei Song for being raised in such a household. Their household was unquestionably prodigious and the first I’ve ever seen.

One of the weekend mornings, I saw a featured article. Its headline read, “Battle hymn of the Tiger mother”.

I laughed secretly to myself, “Agree.”

Gerald Tan

2P4 (06)

My favourite fictional character

My favourite fictional character is the Big Friendly Giant from the book the BFG written by Roald Dahl. The reason I like him is because he has a funny way of talking. His English isn't very good so when he tries to talk he ends up speaking a lot of hilarious words. He is memorable to me as he is the smallest among all the huge giants and he's the only giant that does not eat little children. Instead he's a good giant who "blows" dreams into children's rooms so that they can have a good dream. He has exceptional abilities as well, his ears are able to pick up the slightest sound. He is able to run extremely fast too. I hope everyone will read the book and like this character too like me!

Online lesson 2 part 2

1. I guess the factors that led to the formation of my identity is the environment that I am in. I have been spending my life in a civilised country and so I think I have been groomed to be a well-behaved individual. The school I went to when I was young shaped me to be a leader and I am lucky to have been raised by exceptional parents that taught me values as well as the need to work hard. The friends that I have made shaped to a certain extent, as they influence my choice of words and habits. The activities and programmes that I participate in helped to build my character as I interact with others.

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Online lesson 2 part 1

William should be held responsible for Margot's treatment. He should be responsible as he had caused everyone to think that it was Margot was lying that the sun was coming out that day. He had suggested to put her inside the closet.

If I were one of the school children, I would have convinced the other children that the sun might come out. If I really wanted to know if the sun was coming out that day I would have asked the teacher. I should then just wait patiently for the sun to come out. And if the sun really did not come out that day. I would just face it and go on to do my everyday things, instead of putting Margot into a closet. Putting Margot could not change anything, it definitely would not change the weather outside. So I guess treating Margot like that would not make a difference.

Reflections on my Hong Kong competition Trip

For the past few days, I was in Hong Kong participating in a track and field competition. This was my first overseas competition. I was very excited before the trip, it was also the first time I went overseas without my family but with my friends! I started the the trip from the airport where the team received our air tickets and checking in our luggages. It was rather saddening that our seats were not next to the person we wanted to sit with. It seemed that most of us were split up, some of us were sitting with strangers. We started looking at each others tickets and started making deals to exchange seats in the plane. It was hilarious to see how some people were so desperate to get their desired seat. I was lucky enough to sit next to my two friends who were in the same event as me.

We landed in Hong Kong at about 9pm, we went for dinner and then checked into the hotel. The hotel was fairly good. In the morning, we went for a buffet breakfast. I absolutely love buffets! It wasn't too bad, it had quite a variety of food. The first day was spent at Ocean Park! It was a Hong Kong theme park, I had been there quite a few times. What I really loved about Ocean Park was not only the awesome rides but also the carnival games which we could play to win prizes.

The following day was training at the stadium, so that we could get used to the place. The next two days were days of competition, my events were both in the morning on both days. I was not very confident in the competition as I was not used to the cold weather. It was about 8 to 18 degrees and all I was wearing to throw were my hwa chong tee-shirt and shorts. I was actually quite surprised at my results. I had gotten third in the discus competition. I hadn't been training that much on my discus throwing. The day after was my javelin competition, five people from hwa chong were competing in the same competition including me. I was competing with athletes who were a year older than me. In the end, I was placed fifth in the competition, after my two seniors who got second and fifth. I was fairly satisfied at my results, I had tried my best and had fun that was what is most important.

Overall, I loved the trip! There was awesome food and I got to spend more time with all my track and field friends. I felt this trip bonded us together and allowed us to get to know each other better. It has made me more independent as I had to be responsible for my actions. I loved the time spent with my friends, especially the time spent wrestling in the hotel room! I really thank the teachers and coaches that made this trip so awesome! I truly hope there will be more amazing trips like these!