Haha..so the title very confusing, right? How can something blinded a voice?
But that is exactly what happened to me..
During the 10-week internship period, I've go through the working life of the majority of adults..waking up early, take the public transport, and reach the work place, work, go back home, sleep.. To be more extreme, this company work 6-day full day, so 6/7 of the week, I have to go through these..
Ok ,well, what I'm trying to say isn't that, a person is all work and no play. During this period, I did visit some places with friends, enjoyed some great meals together, and had fun!
But what I did not do is, to sit down quietly, and listen to what my heart wants to say..the voice of my heart.. and I didn't see the need of this. Get to relate to the title already?
The voice of our heart..is a feeling that will direct you to the purpose of your life..what you are suppose to do, your purpose in life, and not urge, or responsibility..
Only after I finish my internship, I can hear the voice of my heart again.. and found the purpose of my life..
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
SOPA 2009: theSun is Worthy Winners
After following theSun for the past 10 weeks, I will have to say that theSun is undoubtedly the worthy winner of the 2009 Societies of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards: Excellence in Investigative Reporting. theSun won it's third award for investigative journalism in as many years.
Following the political tsunami on the 8th March 2008, while the English main stream media has certainly slightly reversed it's bias trend towards a more neutral stand, theSun has certainly proved itself to be the people's voice!
theSun's special reports and investigations team of editor R.Nadeswaran and deputy editor Terrence Fernandez picked up an honourable mention for investigative journalism for "Public Land Gone" - their expose on the Bandar Utama land scam where seven parcels of land meant for public amenities were alienated to political parties, politicians and businessmen.
theSun beat three other newspapers who are also vying for this award- Singapore's The New Paper and The Straits Times, and Hong Kong's Far Eastern Economic Review.
Kudos to the team! May you guys keep reporting the truth, and stay neutral!
http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=34600
Thursday, July 9, 2009
BM again for Science and Maths..Are we in the right direction?
When comes to this issue, so often I will have contradictory stand, depending on which aspect I look at. Being the first batch to go through this change of policy by the government in 2003, I have often thought of the logic of implementing it when I'm in the first year of Form 6
Here are some of the Questions that keep running in my mind whenever I give a thought to this issue.. and some have answers, some no..
Q: Will teaching Science and Maths in English improve the student's command of the language?
A: NO! How can the limited English in Science and Maths improved the students' command of it. Science and Maths don't teach grammar! The most can be learned is the specific scientific and mathematics terms. For my batch, everything remains the same as before, just need to write down the BM terms, so that to link up with previous knowledge of the topic.
Q: So what is the purpose of implementing it in the first place?
A: Hell, I don't know! Improve the image of our local graduates, maybe..Cause when I attend job and scholarship interviews, the interviewer will ask whether teaching and learning is in English. And most likely, stressed on the importance of English to the people. Already, I heard people saying "English? why care? PPSMI scrap already!"
Q: So is it a good thing that we scrap this policy now?
A: I don't know. It depends on why they scrap it. If it's because the rural students can't catch up, then it's a really one BIG step backward for the nation! While we slow down to let rural students catch up, we are losing grounds to the world! Frankly speaking, I feel this is merely a political decisions to win support from the various Malay, Chinese,Indian NGO and incompetent teachers. And I can't think of any good to scrap it now. Students will be the victims...
Q: Do you agree that “Technical terms need to be absorbed in English, so strengthening English in general is not going to help in Maths and Science.”?
A: Yes, agree! But technical terms can be learned quite easily.. As long as the student grasped the concept right, terms isn't going to affect much, and shouldn't be a big issue. I know it, I've been through this! ( I study science in Chinese for 2-3 years, in BM 5 years, and in English 2 years).
Q: If I'm the Education Minister, what actions will I take?
A: It depends on what are the problems. Whenever this Education Minister makes a decision, I never quite know what is he trying to tackle or solve. As far as I'm concern, there is nothing wrong to teaching Sciences and Maths in English. The problems:
I) the low quality of the teaching staff
II) the rural students lagging.
Solutions:
I) If the teachers really unable to teach Science and Maths in English, don't let them teach! Let them teach other subjects like Physical Education. If no such vacancy, post them to other areas or school that need such teachers, and employ competent teachers to teach. I believe the incompetent teachers are being too pampered! If the students can adapt, so can the teachers! Humans are always learning and adapting! Ever wonder how you know how to eat rice?
II) If the commitment is there, in the long run, surely the quality of the teaching staff in rural areas will improve. In the mean time, provide more residential school for the students in rural area.
Here are some of the Questions that keep running in my mind whenever I give a thought to this issue.. and some have answers, some no..
Q: Will teaching Science and Maths in English improve the student's command of the language?
A: NO! How can the limited English in Science and Maths improved the students' command of it. Science and Maths don't teach grammar! The most can be learned is the specific scientific and mathematics terms. For my batch, everything remains the same as before, just need to write down the BM terms, so that to link up with previous knowledge of the topic.
Q: So what is the purpose of implementing it in the first place?
A: Hell, I don't know! Improve the image of our local graduates, maybe..Cause when I attend job and scholarship interviews, the interviewer will ask whether teaching and learning is in English. And most likely, stressed on the importance of English to the people. Already, I heard people saying "English? why care? PPSMI scrap already!"
Q: So is it a good thing that we scrap this policy now?
A: I don't know. It depends on why they scrap it. If it's because the rural students can't catch up, then it's a really one BIG step backward for the nation! While we slow down to let rural students catch up, we are losing grounds to the world! Frankly speaking, I feel this is merely a political decisions to win support from the various Malay, Chinese,Indian NGO and incompetent teachers. And I can't think of any good to scrap it now. Students will be the victims...
Q: Do you agree that “Technical terms need to be absorbed in English, so strengthening English in general is not going to help in Maths and Science.”?
A: Yes, agree! But technical terms can be learned quite easily.. As long as the student grasped the concept right, terms isn't going to affect much, and shouldn't be a big issue. I know it, I've been through this! ( I study science in Chinese for 2-3 years, in BM 5 years, and in English 2 years).
Q: If I'm the Education Minister, what actions will I take?
A: It depends on what are the problems. Whenever this Education Minister makes a decision, I never quite know what is he trying to tackle or solve. As far as I'm concern, there is nothing wrong to teaching Sciences and Maths in English. The problems:
I) the low quality of the teaching staff
II) the rural students lagging.
Solutions:
I) If the teachers really unable to teach Science and Maths in English, don't let them teach! Let them teach other subjects like Physical Education. If no such vacancy, post them to other areas or school that need such teachers, and employ competent teachers to teach. I believe the incompetent teachers are being too pampered! If the students can adapt, so can the teachers! Humans are always learning and adapting! Ever wonder how you know how to eat rice?
II) If the commitment is there, in the long run, surely the quality of the teaching staff in rural areas will improve. In the mean time, provide more residential school for the students in rural area.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Print something without ink?
Well, that day while I was browsing through the newspaper, I saw one of those usual Dell's advertisement brochure. Besides being colourful and pleasant-looking, this one sentence caught my attention "IT'S NOT MAGIC, BUT IT'S CLOSE".
So I read on.."Zero-ink, Bluetooth-enabled mobile printer".
Huh? Printer that is zero-ink? How is that? No ink that how it prints?
So I search through the web to find out what is this all about.
It seems like this ZINK Paper is an advanced composite material with cyan, yellow, and magenta dye crystals embedded inside and a protective polymer overcoat layer outside. When heat is applied in just the right way, full color images appear like magic on the paper - hence the term "magic paper".
To find out more, visit the following site
http://www.zink.com/ZINK-paper
Well, I just think technology is really incredible, and impossible is nothing! Try tell those non-techie that printing without ink is possible, I'm sure they will say you are out of your mind! So now, who is out of their mind huh?..
So next time if you have a brilliant idea that sounds impossible, don't simply give up and bow down to people who say "it's impossible", because if you don't try, you'll never know!
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