The Language Monotony ^^

Pornography - Boon or Bane?

2010-08-06T05:58:00.000-07:00

Pornography is immoral in the society. It portrays women in a bad light. Pornography serves as stimulation to many for sex, but I feel that it is morally incorrect. Pornography can be classified into many different forms. Porn may provide as an excitement to many, but it might make people feel disgusted by it too. Porn is mainly for males and many of this illustrates women as a sex object to man. However, women are not sex objects that you can use and dispose off as and when you like, but what exactly is the purpose of porn?

While many have argued on this controversial topic, I take my stand that pornography is morally incorrect. Though many have said that porn is a good thing for it provides a platform for those that have sexual desires and they use it to curb it, but I do not feel that is the case. Even if they need a platform to curb their sexual desires, one cannot deny the fact that porn is still portrays women in a bad light. It is still a platform where women are treated like sex toys and I feel that that should not be the case about women for it degrades them.

In addition to the fact that porn degrades women, it also influences the minds of many. In one edition of 'Crime Watch', they talked about an incident, where a teenager molested a girl, in other words, outrage the modesty of another. What caused him to perform such an 'act' when he was fully aware of the consequences of molest? It was because his friend influenced him to watch porn. After watching porn, he started to have an addiction for porn and he let his thoughts run wild. That caused him to have a criminal record. That caused him to commit a serious mistake that he cannot salvage anymore.

Therefore, I feel that pornography is not something that is good, as it degrades women. Furthermore, it also causes significant damage for those that intoxicates themselves with porn. It's a bane to society.

Corporal Punishment

2010-07-18T00:08:00.000-07:00

Corporal punishment is basically physical punishment. Any form of punishment, which uses physical damage to punish anyone. In Singapore, corporal punishment in schools is illegal, but how many children are at the receiving end of caning, or rather, disciplined by through caning? I believe that parents, no matter how naughty their children are, should not cane children.

Corporal punishment is too violent a punishment for children. When being punished physically, they do not feel like they are in the wrong. Through caning, my parents feel that caning will be a good reminder for the child, who will get hurt through the process and will try not to do it again. However, is that the case?

Every teenager these days have their own ideas, what they want to do and what they feel is correct. When parents cane their children, most of them do not change for the better. Instead, they become more and more rebellious. Caning hurts the child, and they will fell they did nothing wrong as they do what they feel is correct. Since they feel they are correct, caning a child will make them feel that their parents are accusing them of doing something they think is right. Hence, is caning really the best solution to punish your child?

Caning is definitely not the best way to solve the behavioural problems of children. Caning does leave a lasting impression of the children, but it does not leave a positive effect on the child at the receiving end of corporal punishment. They do not learn. However, in the article, I do not believe that grounding and removing privileges will help either. Indeed that grounding and removing the privileges of your child does make them behave as they want those privileges, but they will also become rebellious as they feel their parents are still controlling their lives.

In conclusion, caning is definitely not a way to go as a method of disciplining your children, and grounding your child might be the best way you can do it now. However, is there really a perfect solution to discipline a child?

Yee Hark

Patriotism

2010-07-13T01:22:00.000-07:00

Recently, we started learning about war poems. War takes on many different forms, from civil wars to racial wars. There are many different reasons why people go to war, but I am focusing on a 'so-called' reason, patriotism.

Patriotism is not a reason that started war, but more of a reason why some soldiers want to take part in the war. However, what is true patriotism?

The dictionary meaning of the root word of this term, which is patriotic, is having or expressing devotion to and vigorous support for one's country.

That above merely states that having devotion to the country. However, what does it take to be truly patriotic? Let's say that a guy called Peter really loves his country. What he does when he goes to China is that he goes around saying that Singapore is the best and China sucks to the core. Is this the right way to be patriotic?

How can one become patriotic? That's the point that I want to make. In order for one to be patriotic, he obviously has to love his country. However, conveying that patriotism correctly is of utmost importance. Like Peter I mentioned above, he loves his country but uses the wrong way to convey it. By putting it in the above way, it will only cause damages to the country as the country will have a harder time to maintain a peaceful relationship with China.

That obviously can't be true patriotism. However, it is difficult to have true patriotism as it is very tough to achieve as a student for you can't help the country. The only thing we can do as students is to help the community as much as possible by being volunteers to improve people's standard of living slightly.

Yee Hark

Effects of War

2010-06-27T01:25:00.000-07:00

This is the mind map I have done for effects of war.

I watched the Band of Brothers and some of the Youtube videos recommended.

Merchant of Venice Mind Map

2010-06-27T00:20:00.000-07:00

Home Learning Part 2

2010-05-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

Children in the Darkness
There are children in the darkness
Who have not seen the light
There are children in the darkness
Who someone will teach to fight

Chalk and blackboards will not be
To this door there is no key
From this life they can not flee
And these children are not free

Could we simply light a candle
Could we give them half a chance
Could we teach them how to read
Could we teach them how to dance

Or will a war consume them
Their body and their soul
Will their life and blood be poured
Down some endless thirsty hole

Back into the darkness
From which there is no flight
Back into the darkness
Into which there shines no light

Steps in Analysis
Point of View:
Point - This is from the narrator point of view.
Evidence - 'Their body and their soul'
Elaboration - he refers to the soldiers as 'their' as he is narrating.

Situation & Setting:
Point - the situation of the poem is how youths are being dragged into the war.
Evidence - 'There are children in the darkness/who someone will teach to fight'
Elaboration - The children are being thought on how to fight in the war, which shows how they are dragged into the war.

Language/Diction:
Point - there is repetition of the word 'darkness'.
Evidence - 'There are children in the darkness/Who have not seen the light /There are children in the darkness/Who someone will teach to fight'
Elaboration - this repetition of 'darkness' is used to emphasise how dark the future of the youths going to war are.

Personal Response:
Point - The poem evokes a sense of sympathy for the youths.
Evidence - 'Could we teach them how to read/Could we teach them how to dance'
Elaboration - they do not even have the time to learn how to read and yet they are brought into war which allows us to sympathise with them.

Home Learning

2010-05-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

Children in the Darkness

There are children in the darkness
Who have not seen the light
There are children in the darkness
Who someone will teach to fight

Chalk and blackboards will not be
To this door there is no key
From this life they can not flee
And these children are not free

Could we simply light a candle
Could we give them half a chance
Could we teach them how to read
Could we teach them how to dance

Or will a war consume them
Their body and their soul
Will their life and blood be poured
Down some endless thirsty hole

Back into the darkness
From which there is no flight
Back into the darkness
Into which there shines no light

This poem, 'Children in the Darkness', refers to the many youths that have to be sacrificed in the war. They are in the darkness refers to how they are trapped in the dark horrors of the war.

The conflict of this poem is how the youths are trapped and is unable to escape from the war. They are only immature youths that are people have to 'teach them how to read' and 'teach them how to dance'. They have not even enjoyed their childhood and yet they are being taught how to fight a war which they might lose their lives in.

This conflict in the poem shows how the conflict between countries in the war affects the lives. The war will definitely have a negative impact on those that fight in the war and remains a big fight against the psychological impact they will have after the war.

Parenting

2010-05-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

Heyys, it's been an entire term now and I have yet to post a thing on my blog. Today, I will be posting 2 posts. Here's my first post.

Today, I will be talking about parenting.

Different parent adopt different parenting styles. Depending on the personality of the parent, they will have a different style they adopt.

In the current era, education has been of utmost importance. What do parents do these days? They force their children to study, they force them to go for tuition lessons, enrichment lessons and everything.

However, is this sort of parenting really effective? It has been questioned. Children nowadays are facing a lot of pressure. they have pressure from their parents. Children fall out with their parents, or rather, many teenagers fall out with their parents.

Teenagers have their own different personalities. It is not alright for parents to tell them what to do this days. As a teenager myself, I have things that I want to do, things that i strive to achieve. Everyone has a mine of their own and no one likes it to have someone ordering them around.

Teenagers sought for freedom. They wanted freedom for themselves. They wanted to do what they want and that parenting has placed too much restrictions for them. Teenagers argue with their parents, parents will find excuses. This parenting styles have been a thorn in most teenagers flesh and the consequences is obvious and the rise of rebellious teenagers is inevitable.

Parenting has placed pressure in among teenagers nowadays, and parents will have definitely played a part in rebellious teenagers.

Interpersonal

2010-02-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

Conduct an interview with a friend (not from HCI) or family member. Find out from their point of view on prejudice and discrimination. Either record the interview or write out the interview transcript.

I chose to interview my friend, who is currently in RI, on what he thinks about prejudice and discrimination. I will type the transcript out. The initials 'YH' refers to me and the initials 'JT' refers to him.

YH : I understand that we are living in a country where racial prejudice is no evident. However, what is you view on racial prejudice?

JT : Personally, I feel that racial prejudice is just the discrimination of a race in a particular country.

YH : Have you read 'To Kill A Mockingbird' before?

JT : Yes, I read the book before.

YH : Based on 'To Kill A Mockingbird', what do you understand about racial discrimination?

JT: 'To Kill A Mockingbird' is an American based novel talking about the time where racial prejudice is prevalent in the United States of America. I understand that the African Americans during that time have been ostracized in the society.

YH: Then why, however, did you say that racial prejudice is just the discrimination of a certain race in a country?

JT: I said this because I feel that all countries, more or less, will have racial discrimination.

YH: Based on what do you say that every country will have racial prejudice?

JT: Many thinks that Singaporeans have always had a racial harmonious country. However, why do we have Total Defence Day? It is because there were racial riots in the history of Singapore.

YH: So what you are trying to say is that racial prejudice is the discrimination of a certain race in a country and that all countries have racial prejudice? Is that your understanding of racial prejudice?

JT: Yes, that is my understanding of racial prejudice.

YH: Thanks for having this interview with me.

JT: No problem.

This is the interview I had with my primary school friend.
Yee Hark

Comments

2010-02-24T04:43:00.000-08:00

This is a warning to all people who wants to comment on my blog.

YOU CAN ONLY COMMENT ON THE TOP POST.

There is a problem that I don't know how to fix. So if you want to comment on my blog, please email to me at yeehark@gmail.com or contact me, so I can put it in the correct post by saving the top post as a draft before you post your comment.

P.S. To Miss Soh, if I put the comments in the correct place, the timing for each post might be wrong.

Yee Hark

Resort World Sentosa

2010-02-18T04:36:00.000-08:00

Resort World Sentosa...

More commonly known the IR, Resort World Sentosa was officially opened to the public on 15 Feb 2010 at 12.18 pm. Many of you must be thinking of Universal Studios and the games you can play there. However, that is not the issue I am talking about, but the casino that they opened at the IR.

The most debatable topic last year was whether or not the casino should be built. Many debated against it, many wanted it to be built. The final decision? The answer is obvious.

The casino was built in the end. The official opening was on the 15 Feb. What happened on that day? Not every one went to visit relatives for the Lunar New Year, many went to see the casino. Many thought that Singaporeans will exercise self-control.

The end result? Singaporeans flooded the casino, literally. There were to many people in the casino, they had to stop the people from going into the casino.

All were adults (Obvious). Some had children. What can the children do? They can only stay outside, waiting for their parents to stop their gambling. On a newspaper article, in The Newpaper, it was reported that some children waited outside for more than 3 hours. Though housekeepers were accompanying them, can you just sit there and do nothing for 3 hours? Why do they have to wait there while their parents are gambling? 3 hours were wasted.

The casino being built might not be wrong, as it may allow Singaporeans who are affected by the recession to earn more money. Based on this logic, many went to gamble. But out of 100 times, how many times did you lose? Gambling may be able to help if you are very lucky, but gambling can make you losses even worst. You may plunge into greater debt. How many times did you see TV dramas on gambling and what happens? The gambler always loses. Ironic, it may be, but there was an advertisement which said something like this, which had a girl holding a piggy bank and the father asking the girl for her money to gamble. This, I recall, is a government advertisement, and they want to stop gambling. Then why on earth did they built a casino in Singapore? The only positive thing about the casino is that it prevents less people from gambling at illegal gambling dens.

Resorts World Sentosa is a fun-filled theme park for children, but also a gambling lair for adults.

Yee Hark

Government Policies

2010-02-15T01:08:00.001-08:00

Today, I will be talking about the government policies of giving summons.

Today, at about 10 am, my mother and I drove to Marine Parade to bring my younger brother to his badminton training. Then, we decided to stop by NTUC to shop for some New Year Goodies.

How lucky is the New Year? Absolutely lucky for us. We got a summon ticket after we finished buying the items. We were parking in the season parking lot. The fine? $50. Why? For parking in a season ticket lot without a season ticket.

A lot of you may think that the punishment was perfectly reasonable. I thought too, before I saw the sign. It clearly wrote that the season parking lot was reserved from 10.30 pm to 7 am. Upon looking at the sign, your first impression is that after 7 am, you are free to park there until 10.30 pm. So technically, we are not at fault.We thought of other possibilities. However, we did put the coupon as they stated there was no free parking. So, we were clearly not at fault.

The government puts this policies in place so that they can prevent people from parking here and there and create inconvenience to others. I feel that this is important. However, since you put this policies in place, shouldn't they put clearer instructions in place so that people won't be fined randomly. Worse still, the government failed to teach the summon giver the proper rules, hence leading to such confusion.

We were confused. We had no idea why we had the summon ticket. Easiest reason, the person who issued the summon was not fully taught the rules of the place. What she did? She just know that that is for season ticket holders and that we were wrong. This is somewhat injustice. What we are left to do? We can only appeal and hope that it is successful. It all happens just because that the person who issued to summon ticket didn't know the rules.

All I feel is that the government, which put this sort of policies in place, should have taken better measures to protect the rights of people.

Yee Hark

To Kill A Mockingbird

2010-02-01T05:09:00.000-08:00

In the 1930s, right after the Great Depression, the African Americans in the US were under even greater depression. Why do I say this? The African Americans were crippled under segregation in the nation.

To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, has pointed out how the African Americans were treated. They were segregated, separated and even blamed for every small deed committed by others. This can be depicted from how they blamed Boo 'Arthur' Radley for every small deed that took place in Maycomb County. So was Tom Robinson's trial. It was obvious that Tom Robinson was no guilty of raping Mayella Ewell. No evidence proved that Tom Robinson was guilty. Despite all this, he was voted guilty. What is this? This is injustice, this is prejudice. This is absolute racial prejudice. They had already decided it before.

What I am going to talk about today, is neither the plot of To Kill a Mockingbird, or the important quotes. What I will be talking about is the hidden moral in the book. The value of having no prejudice.

Singapore has always told the young to have racial harmony. To further emphasise it, different schools celebrated racial harmony. They are educating the young to have racial harmony. They are trying to avoid the racial riots in history. I feel that Singaporeans all have racial harmony. However, what they have left out is xenophobia, where one is prejudice against another person from a different country.

Singaporeans hae prejudice against Chinese immigrants that come to Singapore to work. Singaporeans have many different misconception on Chinese workers. Either they are here to be prostitutes or to 'steal' their job opportunities. The problem is, how is it that they are stealing your job opportunities. If that holds true, that means that they have to have prejudice with nearly everyone. If everyone is working, aren' t they stealing your job opportunities? The obvious misconception of the Chinese being prostitutes. Are you implying that nearly most Singaporeans are prostitutes? Most of them are Chinese. Xenophobia is prevalent in Singapore as many Singaporeans are prejudiced against many different people from different nations. They somewhat hate the citizens of other countries. That is Xenophobia.

In the youth of Singapore, it is utterly and ridiculously obviously that most are Xenophobic. I don't deny that I am Xenophobic too, but then it is a problem that I feel we should overcome. I am slightly Xenophobic against the Bangladeshi workers in Singapore. I feel that they have these sort of stench and everything, but I am trying to overcome the habit of shunning them. They are still part of the society of Singapore and an important figure. We should learn to stop being prejudicem which is the main purpose of To Kill A Mockingbird.

Yee Hark

Squash Trials

2010-01-21T04:54:00.001-08:00

After another hectic and extremely tiring week at school, with piles and piles of homework waiting to be completed, I decided to post on the most important feature of the week, of my week, the Squash School team trials.

The trials took place in the afternoon during training, which falls on Tuesday and Thursday. The table was drawn, where everyone had to play with one another, with each loss will earn 1 point, a 3-2 win will earn 2 points, a 3-1 win will earn 3 points and a 3-0 win will earn you 4 points. As such, out of 11 players, including 2 DSA Sec 1s, only 7 will be chosen. Winning more matches, wins you more points, but winning it faster is a better way to get selected.

When I talk about the squash trials, there's a message that I want to put across within it. Before I talked about the hidden message I will be talking about, I shall elaborate on the squash trials. The matches were under way, and the Coach paired me with a 2a4 friend, Jing Shiuh. Jing Shiuh always wanted to beat me and he showed great determination. On the first set, he tried his best, but was eventually defeated 11-9. After a confusion, the coach told us to change the scoring system, where you have to serve to win the point. after a hard-fought set, I won 9-7. The Coach wanted us to play best of 3 games, but then we were asked to play best of 5 instead. Fatigue reigned in our mind. We played on and he lost 11-8. I gained 4 points from my opponent but the result did not matter to me, as the scores were tight and he fought to the end. To end the trials on Tuesday, I lost 3-0. I fought hard against the Sec 2 best from 2o3, Lee Chin Ann, with the 3 sets ending on 11-9, 11-8 and 11-5. The last set with me succumbing to fatigue.

On Thursday, I had to play 3 matches. The first match was against Sean from 2p1, the second against Nicholas from 2p2 and the last match against Kah Win from 2a4. I played soccer before the trials, and drained a whole lot of my energy. I had no strength to play the game, and lost the first 2 sets 11-8, 11-6. I fought back to win 1 set 12-10, but eventually lost 12-10. It was a game I could have won. After the game, I replenished my energy with lots of water. In order for me to get into the squad, I had to win the next few matches. I played with Nicholas, who was not in form that day. He was lethargic and didn't go for every ball and played loose balls. I won comfortably 3-0, but faced a tough, uphill battle against the somewhat second or third best in the Sec 2 batch. In a hard-fought first set, I lost the last point that gave away the set with an unforced error to end the set with a score of 11-9, and same followed suite for the next set. I refused to lose, I mustered all my resilience, and won the next set 11-8. My opponent was tired, he had just a small ounce of energy left. I took full advantage of this situation and made a comeback with the scores of the next two sets 11-3, 11-5. In a tough 5-set match, I upped to my tally of points to 12.

With the obvious hints lying here and there, the squash trials have thought me something. This is the importance of having an EP3. The difference Hwa Chong makes by culturing us not only to perform well in academics, but also sports, culturing us to be the future leaders of our nation. EP3s contains the moral value that Hwa Chong is trying to inculcate into us. The spirit of determination, resilience, the spirit of never giving up. That is the moral of the story.

As I stated quite clearly and hinted it quite obviously, I have emphasized and further repeated that determination is all that really matters. In the end, it's all down to your determination, resolution and your resilience. Take Naruto for example. Naruto is a character who has no talent whatsoever. All he has is his determination. He has the resolution to beat his rival, Sasuke. Take Rock Lee in Naruto. He is exactly like Naruto. However, he has the conviction to prove that hard work is more important than genius. Quite clearly, it applies to squash, it applies to all EP3s, the determination to fight.

This is a fact. The game is neither won or lost when the last point is not played. The ball is round, it is full of possibilities. Anything can happen in a game, even the slightest touch on the ball can make the difference. No matter what type of shot was played against you, no matter how difficult it may be, you will still be able to win the game. As you know, the Adidas slogan is "Impossible is Nothing". This is actually emphasising the importance of determination. In the game, anything can happen. Impossibilities will become possibilities.

I shall use another example. This example is from the soccer league, the Barclays Premier League. At first, a challenge to break into the Big 4, 'Arsenal', 'Chelsea', 'Man U' and 'Liverpool', was deemed impossible. What is happening now? Liverpool (currently 6th) is struggling to maintain a good form, Aston Villa (currently 7th) , Tottenham (currently 4th) and Manchester City (currently 5th) are flying high. Anything is possible. Any of these teams can break into the Big 4. Many Pundits have also written off Arsenal from the title chase after they lost to Chelsea 3-0. However, despite being 11 points away, they manage to climb all the way to the top, with half of the season gone. What does this tell us? Anything is possible. You just have to show the character, the determination within ourselves.

Anyone has the ability to be successful, it is a matter of whether they want to use their determination to pave their way to the top.

This also taught me that we have to optimistic and positive. After this, I feel that I am both a half-full and half-empty person. Half-full has a positive connotation whereas half-empty has a negative connotation. Despite me learning to be more optimistic, I still fill I am also half-empty. This is like a metaphor to show that I am still capable of learning from my mistakes. as half-empty has a negative connotation, it is some what like saying that I have many faults. That gives me the thought that i am supposed to learn from my mistakes. I also think that I am half-full. This positive connotation somewhat states that I have merits. This allows me to think that I should improve on them. Being a half-full and half-empty person, I feel that I am fallible, having mistakes. This is related to my squash game as I have to constantly improve on my stronger areas of my squash game and also constantly improve on my weaker areas in my squash game. Thus I describe myself as a half-full and half-empty person.

I feel privileged to be able to understand the importance of EP3s. This is what I have learnt from my EP3. What did you learn from your EP3 and do you agree that EP3s are important?

Yee Hark

The First Week of School

2010-01-19T05:16:00.000-08:00

The most dreadful week of my life, the beginning of a new chapter, the start of a new era. Just joking. This was the start of the school year, the beginning of my Sec 2 life in Hwa Chong. The introduction of our new form teacher, the new 2o1 teacher has been revealed. Mr Eddie Lau, a Geography teacher in the school has taken over from Miss Ng Hooi Hoon. Despite having a new teacher, unlike those that thought us in Sec 1 like Miss Soh and Mr Yong, the rest are new. This is the beginning of the terrifying year that is looming ahead.

The year started with the bad news that just keeps coming. First, there was a new system put in place for Lower Secondary Pupils. The new and devastating subjects called the Oral Communications and Independent Studies. This two subjects are indeed devastating, as it bring the percentage carried by the EOYs to 70%. That also means no ACE and OP are included in the subject. The difficulty is taken to a new level. However, this is life, nothing we can do about it.

The introduction of the new assessment for current affairs, where there will be a teacher in the class and the overall percentage on the subject, Oral Communications, is 60%. Worse of all, there is only one chance, take it or die. To add on to our misery, we have to lose the privileges of ACE and OP, and now have to endure the wrath of the judges, in both the current affairs as well as the Project's Day.

On Tuesday, we immediately incurred another scolding, from Ms Soh. We were chided for an utterly insignificant matter, the failure to bring our laptops despite it being a future class. Why do we always get scolded for insignificant matters? It's all ourselves to blame. The start of the new term, the start of a horrible fate that we hate landed ourselves into.

Why I say that? It all continued going downhill on Thursday, Wednesday being a nearly perfect day. We met our History Teacher, Mr Balan. We received our History assignment. We have to complete 59 questions to do with the WWI. Some of us googled the question, and we have to get scolded by another teacher yet again. Turns out that Mr Balan has copied the questions from the net. That makes it a whole lot easier and most copied their answers.

To end the week, we each received an e-mail from Mr Balan, which states that we had academic misconduct. We had a pop quiz, which is tomorrow and we will have to pass it.

The important point that I am going to discuss plagiarism. Apparently, Mr Balan scolded the 2o2 students today for not observing copyright rules. Sure, many of them have also copied from the Internet like many of us. However, is this really plagiarism or merely research? Though I do believe that this is indeed plagiarism, then isn't Mr Balan not observe copyright rules too? Isn't he plagiarizing the contents on the website? I do not believe that he has the right to scold the students about copyright issues when he is not even following them? To end this post, I would like you to comment on whether or not you agree with me that Mr Balan is just being unreasonable and the definition of plagiarism from Dictionary.com.

Plagiarism

the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work

To observe copyright rules, I am going to site Dictionary.com after I have signed off.

Yee Hark

(2010). Plagiarism Definition | Definition of Plagiarism on Dictionary.com. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2010, from Ask.com. Web site: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism.