My UWCSEA Learning Journey

So far Ive been intrigued with Marios side of the story, I enjoy reading through his narrative perspective and I feel like the book gets more interesting the more you read it because his relationship with aunt Julia gets moire and more serious as you keep reading the book. But ive been confused reading the short stories in the book, every chapter is different and sometimes I get confused when trying to follow the storyline of the book.

The tension between Aunt Julia and and Mario has been built throughout the book. I feel like the more time they spend with each other the more tension is built and the more Mario falls in love with her. Im also curious to see with what Mario does with his writing carear and whether he us going to graduate law school. It is clear that he is passionate abut his writing and that he is not passionate abut studying at law school. I wonder if Mario will continue to study in law or quit law school and pursue his writing.

Tell the story of one time —in a class, on a playground, at a dinner table—somewhere— when you did what Coates says we generally don’t do: you stood alone against everyone else because your empathy outweighed your social need to belong.

One memory that stands out to me was when I was at tennis camp In the US and I proudly corrected my peers when asked about where I was from. I remember sitting in a circle with a couple of other kids at the camp and we were all introducing ourselves and talking about where we were from. When it was my turn I said that I was half American and half Japanese but I live in Singapore and everyone in that small circle was confused where Singapore was. They said things like “what Is that In china or something” or “do you guys speak Chinese” and then some kids were even confused where Japan was and what language they speak there. I was frustrated and confused when I heard their responses but I realized that some of these kids genuinely dont know and although they may sound disrespectful their intention is not to be disrespectful. So I corrected them and told them that Singapore is it’s own country and that It is a country in between Malaysia and Indonesia and that most people still do speak english  in Singapore. Looking back on this now obviously the severity of this situation is nowhere near the same as the experiences Tana Hesei Coates has dealt with or rather black people in the US have faced but this memory of mine related to some of the stories that we have discussed about in class. I have had other situations where my empathy outweighed my social need to belong but I thought of this one first after reading this question.

How has my mother or father transformed themselves over the span of their life? And what was a admirable moment that I was able to witness or learn from.

First of all my mother started working as a tour guide for Japanese people before she had me. She then had to transform into being a housewife and a part time tour guide for Japanese people In Singapore. One thing that I admire about my mother is the way she treats people with so much respect no matter who they are. In Japanese culture it is very important to act polite and show respect towards everyone and this has been something that i have grown up with in my household and my mother has always taught us very strong mannerisms and signs of kindness and respect towards others.

Do you speak Singlish?

No, typically not. But very occasionally I do, I have a few local friends that I sometimes speak singlish with but they sometimes find it funny because Im a white boy trying to speak their dialect or thier ‘slang’. I also sometimes speak singlish when I’m at the hawker center and I’m speaking to locals. Although I may sound quite accurate to how a Singporean person ay talk I just feel out of place sometimes. I think its because I’m not a local like them, I haven’t grown up in this environment my entire life and I don’t surround myself with Singaporean people so it just doest feel right to me and more importantly for them it feels weird or unnatural to hear me speak their dialect.

When you do your language B, do you try to imitate the accent and gestures, too, or do you feel self-conscious about that? Should you?

Not the gestures but the accents yes. I try and speak with the accent because I think it helps my learning. When learning a new language I want to be able to pronounce words as accurately as possible so I do try and use the accent especially when talking to my teacher. Do I feel self conscious? …. Well In class I don’t because everyone in my class is a beginner and spanish and we are all learning the language so I don’t feel left out and I don’t feel judged. But I feel like if I was put in a environment with all native speaking spanish people I may feel out of place trying to use the right accent or gestures. Should I feel out of place? I don’t think so but I do understand it, its not my native speaking language and Im far from fluent from it so If I were to try and speak with a accent it may come off ass being impolite or maybe even racist.

 

 

Caroline Duffy is a riveting and griping author. It looks like she writes her poems from personal experience and past memories. She definitely has a very vivid imagination and seems to write poems out of the ‘ordinary’. She wants to surprise people with her poems, she wants to engage her audience with her stories and make them think deep. With her creative choice of words, Carole Ann Duffy writes these engaging stories with the use of rhymes and repetition. With her poem ‘little red cap’ she writes a poem with a twist to the original story of little red ridinghood.  I think that many people were taken back by this poem but also drawn to it at the same time because it is different to most poems. Most poems wont talk about the things that Carole Ann Duffy does in this poem. And she writes it in such a way that something like ‘rape’ doesn’t even seem bad in this story when in reality its a terrible thing.

What values would you say are challenged, reflected, or promoted in this profile?

After reading his book the Art of Charlie chan hock chye and then reading his profile on a article ive noticed that Mr. Liew is not so money driven and that his drive comes from his passion. Mr. Liew seems to be very passionate about wring books and also confident in his work. Despite the fact that his book did not make so much money he is still motivated to continue writing books and continue his success as an author. His motivation for writing books and his passion for books are very admirable and inspiring.

After living overseas for a few years and starting up his carear in rhode island Mr. Liew seems to present himself as a proud Singaporean despite his international background.