LO2

Memoirs of a Pioneer Generation (Writing our Article and Building Friendships)

CAS

LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

This season, I faced a significant challenge in the form of a language barrier. The woman I was interacting with, Yapiang Aunty, could only speak mandarin. Initially, I thought I could overcome the barrier by engaging in drawing activities or card activities with her. However, instructions were also hard to explain and I could find out anything meaningful about her life. Ultimately, I convinced one of my friends, Karen, to help me translate. This was a more effective long-term solution and we ended up shaping a powerful story of aunty’s fierce independence throughout her life. Despite finding a translator in the end, I learnt that there are ways of overcoming a language barrier without one. Miming and acting were my best friends in this process. I realised that persistence, resilience, and patience were also key during the season.

By the end of the season, we were able to write an article about Aunty, which I consider to be a measure of my success in overcoming my challenges.

I was able to work on a range of skills, especially my communication abilities and collaboration. I learnt to become more patient, open, and clear when trying to express my thoughts, because I didn’t want anything to get lost in translation. I am also quite introverted, so this service was a great opportunity for me to push myself out of my comfort zone and work on my collaboration.

Kahaani: Initial Rehearsals (Action)

CAS, Uncategorized

LO2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

This year, we performed dances which symbolised the progression of a blind man’s life in order to raise awareness for Voice of the World (Kolkata GC). I was placed in the dance which represented the part of his life where he fell in love.

The initial rehearsals were probably the most challenging for me. There were probably two major hurdles that I worked to overcome.

Learning the dance: I hadn’t danced in probably a year, and getting back into intense Bollywood choreography was quite a challenge for me. It took a lot of practicing outside of our group sessions as well as attending extra practice for me to become comfortable with the dance.

Coordinating with the other members: The fact that I had my friends in my dance really helped motivate me and build resilience. They were an important support system for me. However, coordinating with them in the dance was a completely different story. Since this was a new environment in which we were collaborating, we had to develop different strategies to effectively communicate.

Naturally, our initial rehearsals were not perfect. Our group’s most significant weakness was that we kept forgetting choreography. We definitely had to make the most out of our allotted rehearsal times during this phase of the preparation of the show.

 

 

 

Piano Lessons (Season 1)

CAS

LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

Piano has always been a significant part of my life. I’ve been playing since I was 5 years old. Over the years, I’ve always been pushing myself in terms of my ability with the instrument.

My target for the next two years is to complete my ATCL (Associate of Trinity College London) recital and learn repertoire that I wouldn’t traditionally choose. When it comes to music, it’s easy to play what you like. I think that a true test for me would be to play something that I don’t enjoy that much but still play with passion.

Something that scares me is the recital I’m going to have to do at the end. I’ve always struggled with stage fright and nervousness and I end up letting those feelings cloud my performances. Although I worked on it throughout iGCSE music, performing on stage is one of the biggest risks I’m taking.

So far, I’ve just begun learning the pieces and I’m faced with a piece that I wouldn’t normally like to play (a Mozart Sonata) as it is very technical. In order to make it less daunting of a task, I’m making sure to practice small parts of the larger piece whenever I get time with a metronome in order to keep track of my progress. However time management is definitely difficult. I barely get enough time to do anything outside of my schoolwork since I have taken quite a heavy IB package.

In the future, I need to work on making time of piano. Starting next week, I’m going to try and fit my piano practice into the time I take breaks from work.

Memoirs of a Pioneer Generation (Visiting the Location)

CAS, Local Service

LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

We started visiting the location this week and I met the lady I was going to be interacting with for the next few seasons.

As I had anticipated during the planning stage, she was one of the elderly who couldn’t speak English. The language barrier was one of the biggest challenges we faced. Even though the centre had provided a translator, he had to attend to everyone else as well. This meant that in the short time that I could actually ask her questions, I had to make them relevant, specific, and engaging. I also had to be quite sensitive when wording my questions since a lot of the people there didn’t have family and I didn’t want to make any unintentionally rude or emotionally insensitive comments.

Something that really benefitted my in the most recent week however was partnering up with one of my friends who could speak Mandarin. Although this was a short term solution, since her partner would return again next week, it was the most informative session I’ve had so far. She helped me ask all the burning questions I had and I learnt so much more about the lady I had been interacting with. Keeping in mind that this was only a short term arrangement, I asked as many questions as possible. I noted down everything I found interesting about her and even asked her to draw something for me in order to connect with her more.

For future sessions, I asked her what she would like to do and she said that she would love to try something like origami or something more hands on. I’m going to try and find some more arts and crafts for us to attempt together while the translator makes his rounds so the session doesn’t go to waste.