Saturday, October 18, 2008
Week 9 Biodata
My name is Teo Yuan Lin and is currently a third year life student in NUS Faculty of Science. My area of concentration is Biomedical Science. The analytical and investigative natures of the scientific discipline match my character and interest. Even so, my hobby is playing music and has been in the school band for 8 years, since my secondary school years. I also joined the NUSWS percussion section from 2006 to 2008 and was the vice-sectional leader of NUSWS percussion section in year 2007. In addition to the enjoyment of music making, these years at the band also help me to be a more determined and self-motivated person. During my free time, I also liked to read both English and Chinese storybooks.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Week 8 Reflecting on the Research Project Experience
For the Research Project, Mushtaq, Yu Ying and I formed a group. Our research topic is to find out the students’ sentiments toward bell curve grading in NUS and make appropriate discussions and suggestions to it.
Investigation on this topic of bell curves grading is an enjoyable experience although it is not easy (due to NUS reluctance to disclose information on this). This topic is very interesting because of its relevance to us. Thus choosing of an interesting topic is very important too and from the beginning of the project, everyone is consensus on the survey report topic.
In this project, we also recognize the value of dividing and assigning task according to our strength. For instance, Yu Ying is better in language thus it was best that she help us with the editing of grammar and expression. Mushtaq knows many people across the four major faculties in NUS thus he volunteered to distribute the survey forms and collate the survey results. For me, I am familiar with researching on relevant articles and information thus I looked into article for information and use them for the discussion on bell curve grading. Through this, we can also learn from other people’s strength.
In addition, an open environment for us to speak up and voice out differing views and any doubts that we may have is important to clarify doubts as well as resolve the differing views. Sometimes, different viewpoints within the group are good by preventing Groupthink from occurring. This way, our report can be more objective and critical.
In conclusion, skills like empathy and understanding of group mate’s feelings, tactfulness, and articulation of ones opinion as well as contributing your strong points to project, are needed in order to work well with other people. These are experienced through this project and will be very useful for our oral presentation or any other projects that we might do in the future.
Investigation on this topic of bell curves grading is an enjoyable experience although it is not easy (due to NUS reluctance to disclose information on this). This topic is very interesting because of its relevance to us. Thus choosing of an interesting topic is very important too and from the beginning of the project, everyone is consensus on the survey report topic.
In this project, we also recognize the value of dividing and assigning task according to our strength. For instance, Yu Ying is better in language thus it was best that she help us with the editing of grammar and expression. Mushtaq knows many people across the four major faculties in NUS thus he volunteered to distribute the survey forms and collate the survey results. For me, I am familiar with researching on relevant articles and information thus I looked into article for information and use them for the discussion on bell curve grading. Through this, we can also learn from other people’s strength.
In addition, an open environment for us to speak up and voice out differing views and any doubts that we may have is important to clarify doubts as well as resolve the differing views. Sometimes, different viewpoints within the group are good by preventing Groupthink from occurring. This way, our report can be more objective and critical.
In conclusion, skills like empathy and understanding of group mate’s feelings, tactfulness, and articulation of ones opinion as well as contributing your strong points to project, are needed in order to work well with other people. These are experienced through this project and will be very useful for our oral presentation or any other projects that we might do in the future.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Recess week Evaluating Intercultural Behavior
Intercultural communication is the communication between people from different culture and such interactions are becoming more common in Singapore as we are progressing to be part of the global village. Many foreigners are coming to either work, study or live in Singapore. Among them, Japanese makes up a considerable proportion too.
Some time around the late August, I, together with my friends went to a Japanese Summer Festival held in a Japanese Primary school in Singapore. Although the festival was mainly for Japanese in Singapore to get together (and it even rained beforehand), many locals turned up too. That may be because Japanese culture is interesting to locals due to the popular media (like anime and JPOP). My friends and I were also interested in their culture but our understanding of it is very little and limited to the portrayer by the popular media.
When we were buying food and souvenir, we felt that most of the Japanese that served us was very polite. They received payments and give out changes with both hand, greeted their customers. We have known that politeness is highly emphasized in their culture and so we were not surprised. However, I realized that most locals (including us) did not really follow their cultural etiquettes and most of us did not receive changes with both hands. Looking back, I think that receiving something with both hands is a kind of politeness that is universal across culture but maybe Singaporeans do not always do that. I feel that the locals are not purposely being rude but are just not very concerned with etiquettes.
In addition, I was mildly surprised when I was given a plastic bag (to put my shoes) just when I was about to enter the hall. This is because we have to take off our shoes in the school hall. Later, I found out that Japanese usually do not wear their outdoor footwear into school halls and houses for hygiene purpose.
All in all, the trip to the Summer Festival was fun as we tried their food and watched their traditional art performance that was something different from us. Together with these, I also, get know more about their cultural etiquettes that are also different to ours. Although our cultures are different, with understanding of each others culture, misunderstanding and mistrust can be avoided.
Some time around the late August, I, together with my friends went to a Japanese Summer Festival held in a Japanese Primary school in Singapore. Although the festival was mainly for Japanese in Singapore to get together (and it even rained beforehand), many locals turned up too. That may be because Japanese culture is interesting to locals due to the popular media (like anime and JPOP). My friends and I were also interested in their culture but our understanding of it is very little and limited to the portrayer by the popular media.
When we were buying food and souvenir, we felt that most of the Japanese that served us was very polite. They received payments and give out changes with both hand, greeted their customers. We have known that politeness is highly emphasized in their culture and so we were not surprised. However, I realized that most locals (including us) did not really follow their cultural etiquettes and most of us did not receive changes with both hands. Looking back, I think that receiving something with both hands is a kind of politeness that is universal across culture but maybe Singaporeans do not always do that. I feel that the locals are not purposely being rude but are just not very concerned with etiquettes.
In addition, I was mildly surprised when I was given a plastic bag (to put my shoes) just when I was about to enter the hall. This is because we have to take off our shoes in the school hall. Later, I found out that Japanese usually do not wear their outdoor footwear into school halls and houses for hygiene purpose.
All in all, the trip to the Summer Festival was fun as we tried their food and watched their traditional art performance that was something different from us. Together with these, I also, get know more about their cultural etiquettes that are also different to ours. Although our cultures are different, with understanding of each others culture, misunderstanding and mistrust can be avoided.
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