What is an op-ed? An op-ed can stand for ‘opposite the editorial page’ or ‘opinion editorial’, and it’s usually written by an author expressing an opinion of theirs in prose form. This author usually isn’t affiliated with the newspaper or magazine’s editorial board, and may write on behalf of a client.
Op-eds are chances for newspapers to gain popularity among the public, and also sway public opinion about controversial and current issues. An Op-ed can run from 300 words to 700 words, and is definitely longer than a letter to the editor.
5 Things I’ve Learned this Term: 1. I’ve learned a lot about language as a whole and how it changes over time, including how new words are developed, and why exactly language has the words it does. Language is definitely shaped by culture, but it’s also really interesting how languages do have direct translations and why that is, and how interesting it is that all cultures and people from all around the world can think in relatively the same ways. It’s like how cultures may have many words for colour, but those that don’t usually always have words for black/dark, white/light or red, and that’s a constant.
2. I’ve learned about unseen text commentaries, and what makes a good one. I’ve definitely improved my skills over the term when it comes to writing a commentary on an unseen text, and have practiced doing lots of thinking on unseen texts, which will definitely help me in exams, sometime in the future.
3. I’ve learned about how to write a good thesis, and what exactly a good thesis needs to have to be, well, good. This includes things like vaguely outlining your essay, posing debatable arguments that leave you room to support them afterwards, and using clear language to define your stance or position.
4. I’ve learned how to use a semicolon; this definitely makes my writing a lot more professional.
5. I’ve learned a lot of new vocabulary, ‘idiolect’, ‘lineation’, ‘caesura’, ‘allusion’, ‘plosive’, ‘meter’, ‘sibilance’, ‘consonance’, ‘fricative’, just to name a few, and also how, when and where to use these in exam conditions, especially when I’m writing a commentary. However, I’ve also learned the meanings behind these words, like what ‘situational irony’ means, or what an ‘interjection’ is, and have had practice using them when I write.
1 Thing I Need to Work on: I’m going to quote my English teacher on this, and tell myself: ‘Write in pen!’
However, I think that I can still work on my text analysing skills, and I plan to do lots of reading over the break to improve.
This year, I’ve definitely been working on setting goals. (In some places, I actually question such an excess, since it doesn’t seem like a lot of goals will really help me as much as just focusing on one goal, but I’ll try it out.) For now, I’ll reveal my three goals for Grade 9 and High School, and what I’m planning to do to achieve them.
Goal 1: To reduce and find better ways to deal with stress through music. This goal is one of my goals for NYAA. I feel very strongly about this goal, and I’ve fully explained it in this post right here.
Have I worked towards this goal in any way? Further progress will be documented in the ‘Youth Achievements‘ category of my portfolio, and some updates are already posted. I will be posting monthly.
Goal 2: To strengthen organisational skills through service. I want to become more responsible and develop my self-management and group-management skills. In Ladakh GC this year, we’re looking to hold some sort of event, or be a part of an event, and I think that I can really improve my organisational skills. I can not only learn more about self-management, but also collaboration, as events take a lot of time to work out, and it takes teamwork to deliver a successful experience to the rest of the student body.
A success indicator would definitely be actually having participated or created an event this year, and a promise of future involvement. I also want to review on how successful the event actually was, and what impact it created. At the end of the year, I also want to feel like I have used skills that apply in an academic context in a service context.
Have I worked towards this goal in any way? Ladakh GC has already been thinking about being a part of one of the school events this year rather than creating our own. Personally, I think that it would be better to invest our efforts in a Ladakhi cultural event, because of our goal. I’ve talked about Ladakh GC and my first impressions here, and I think that it would be worthwhile looking into Ladakhi culture and organising an event that coordinates with a cultural festival of some sort. This not only would spread awareness of our cause, but also teach people of Ladakhi culture.
However, it seems as if we’re going to try and participate in one of the already existing school events, like ‘Run for Rights’. I have no objection towards this, and hopefully there will be a chance for teamwork and some chance to improve my logistics skills.
Goal 3 (Long-term): Finding a passion or cause in which I feel very strongly about. For me, I’ve always wanted to find a passion or some sort of cause that I can dedicate my life to. There are so many issues in the world right now, whether environmental, social or political, and I think that more people need to work towards these goals. However, I’ve been finding a lot of trouble finding one thing that I am passionate about, so I’ve been trying lots of different things. However, nothing’s seemed to stick, and I don’t think I’ve found the right people yet. So, I want to focus my high school career into finding something that I am truly passionate about.
It’s a career aim for me to get a degree in science, and use it for good. In an ideal future, I’ll use my knowledge of the natural world to explore it even further while working for a social enterprise of some kind. However, that means I need to find a cause, and passions aren’t always that easy to find. This is a built-in success indicator.
Have I worked towards this goal in any way? Well, I’ve watched this TED Talk, and I’ve tried a LOT of different cause groups at school.
Firstly, I’ve joined Ladakh GC since I’ve worked with humanitarian groups a lot in the past (Children’s Shelter Foundation and Moving Mountains), and I think that this could definitely be something that I could work towards. However, work there is difficult, and it is also important to keep my options open.
Last year, I participated in an event called COP21, learning more about sustainability in an event that brought students from lots of different schools together to learn about the SDGs and what we can do to improve our lifestyle to become more sustainable. I feel strongly for the environment, and I know that there are lots of options in science to work towards this, so I think that this is probably my most feasible option.
However, I’ve also joined a focus group: Voices for Refugees. Someday, I’d like to volunteer in a refugee camp, because this issue is pressing the globe right now, and in alignment with the Human Rights, I feel that this issue needs to be solved as soon as possible. So, I’ve joined this focus group, and hopefully I will continue with it to build a passion.
I think that from a starting point, I’ve picked things that I am interested in, but I want to have consistency throughout my high school experience, and I think that consistency and dedication is what’s going to build my passions.
23rd October 2018 Ladakh GC: First Impressions and Ambitions
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The school year is finally in full swing, with introductory units and final adjustments complete, and activities ramping up to season 2 already. We’ve all had adequate time to settle into our new places, perhaps returning back to an old routine or making a completely new one. For the first 8 weeks of school, I’ve been trying to adapt to high school life, and I’ve been trying a lot of new things that I haven’t done before, one of them being in a high school GC.
First impressions of Ladakh GC: I’ve found that being in a high school GC is actually quite similar to being in a middle school GC. The only thing that is really different is that we students have a lot of responsibility and freedom, which gives us more opportunities to become leaders. I feel quite positive about being involved in Ladakh GC this year, and I do not regret my choice to join at all. The environment is comfortable, and we all have the space to share our ideas. I also feel like we are not unproductive at all, so I look forward to working with members of my GC in the future to achieve our goals (which we just set before the holidays!)
Our goals as a GC: Our goal as we have stated officially is to promote Ladakhi culture whilst aiding the efforts of Lamdon school; this will be by providing necessary classroom materials and organising 1 key event that we will raise majority of our funds by. Lamdon school has also just communicated with us their plans for upcoming projects that they wish to undertake, and after our chat with Ladakh GC Dover next week, we are going to finalise goals for fundraising.
My personal goals for the GC: Personally, as a member of Ladakh GC, I really want to raise funds specifically for the toilets in Lamdon school. The school has told us that their bathrooms are inadequate and need to be renovated, so I think that this issue is definitely a priority, for obvious hygienic reasons.
However, for me as a person, I would like to gain something from my experience in Ladakh GC, and one of those things is knowledge of Ladakhi culture so that when I am in Grade 11, I will be able to take my project week to Lamdon School and work there. This is a very long-term goal, but my initial intention when joining a GC was to stay loyal to it so that eventually I could do my project week there.
I also really want to host an event this year. Despite not having been in Ladakh GC before, I think that this GC is definitely a place where I could grow a passion for the issue, and I think that by organising an event, not only would I gain important organisational skills, but I would also learn about Ladakhi culture and be able spread this knowledge to the rest of the school, just like our official GC goal states.
So, these were my goals and first impressions of Ladakh GC, and I definitely look forward to working with the team and accomplishing our goals so that we can all have a meaningful service experience. Thank you for reading!
23rd September 2018 GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES CLASS What shapes my identity?
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Transcript: It is known that what shapes our identity are the things around us, our upbringing, what we are exposed to as a child, and nature. Each of these things have a large impact on who we are as a person.
Our parents have values and identities too, and these things affect their parenting methods. For instance, if a parent has a perspective that free-will is possible, then they may encourage their children to acknowledge their desires and make decisions. My parents are very motivated people. They like to push themselves to greater heights, perspectively individualistic, and this has passed onto me. I have high standards for my work and I always want to present my best efforts. My parents are also very accepting people, and they treat me and my brother as individuals, capable of making our own decisions and having our own responsibilities. This has encouraged me and my brother to explore our own identities, regardless of what society thinks. My brother can explore his more feminine traits, and I would say that today he is a very gentle and affectionate person, as well as fun-loving and playful. This personality is only supported in my household, as my parents have a very collectivist perception of the idea of family. We all support each other.
My family has been to many different countries, all of which have different cultures that have influenced my brother and I. Living in Britain, an individualist society, has also contributed to making me more individualistic as a person. I always set personal goals and look for ways in which I can benefit from situations. But I haven’t lived in Britain my entire life, currently I’m in Singapore, and when I was younger I also spent two years in Hong Kong. I feel that Britain is my home(?), despite the fact that I feel integrated into Asian culture here, which makes me and my brother third-culture-kids. Living in so many places has taught me about different cultures and has shaped my perspective of the world, and has made me more adaptable to change. It has given me an uncertainty about my identity, since lots of different cultures have influenced my beliefs – Singapore has taught me about respect for the elderly, and helping those who are less fortunate through service, whereas London has taught me to always stay true to myself and persevere.
However, these countries have very different perspectives when it comes to gender. In London, private schools are segregated by sex, and the two sexes are rarely mixed. This means that I had very little perspective on the male gender until I came to Singapore and an international school. These two schools also have very different ideas on what it meant to be a girl. In the London private school, in the subject called ‘Design and Technology’, we learned to sew, to become the feminine stereotype, but in ‘DT’ here at UWC, I’m allowed to work with machines and saws and sandpaper, a whole new experience for me at the time. This changed my perception of gender, I no longer felt like I had to fit the stereotype. My gender naturally influences my identity, as it was determined biologically by genetics and also because I’ve felt like a girl my whole life – this was only enhanced by my school in London, with the ideas that girls shouldn’t play rugby, or be very good at maths.
But my school in London was harshly catholic, and very homophobic. My bisexuality confused me, even when I came to Singapore, though UWC is more accepting than British society. However, I feel like my bisexuality is an innate part of me, just a fact about me and my hormones. I feel like I can’t change this aspect of my identity, I’m deterministic about it. It’s just a part of me, like my gender, however this could be determined solely by nature and not as much by nurture. (There are still a lot of studies about this, though.)
So, all these things and more have shaped me into who I am, and I know that I will continue to discover more about myself in the future. Thank you.
This is my current list of classic literature favourites and recommendations. However, I know that I’ll read a lot more literature over the course of the next few years, and new books will definitely be added to the list. But for now, please enjoy the prematurity of my classics list, and I hope that you choose to read a few in the future!
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Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
DESCRIPTION: Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.
Why I love this book: I read this book at a very young age – and I loved the long-winding story, it wasn’t boring at all to me. It was an easy read, and I fell in love with all of the characters and all their escapades. This book kept me hooked right until the very end.
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Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
DESCRIPTION: ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’
Why I love this book: I’m not usually a fan of romance, but when I read this book I didn’t mind it at all. I found the book funny and enthralling, and the ending was extremely satisfying. It remains one of my favourite classics to this day.
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Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
DESCRIPTION: In a future dystopian society, all printed materials have been banned. Enforced by the fire department – whose role it is to burn books – the attempt to create an emotionless, egalitarian society has been taken to an extreme. Guy Montag is a senior fireman who is much respected by his superiors and is in line for a promotion. He doesn’t question what he does or why he does it until he meets Clarisse. As his doubts grow, he begins to steal some of the books he is meant to burn.
Why I love this book: It’s a delightfully speculative and philosophical piece of fiction, albeit short, it encapsulates bigger topics than would be expected from such a short book. It’s fast-paced and provides thought-material all the way through. You’re constantly thinking and adding meaning and it’s just one of those books that speaks out about humanity in an introspective and interesting way. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I push it onto anyone who hasn’t read it already.
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Kindred – Octavia Butler
DESCRIPTION:
Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.
Why I love this book: The description above has a little bit of a spoiler, but it doesn’t reveal much about the escapades Dana has while she’s transported back in time. This book is a classic piece of black literature, and it combines the element of science with the heavy topics of oppression and the segregation of black people in America, making it an interesting book that keeps you in it’s hold all the way to the end. I love it because it compares today’s world where black people have more rights with the time in which they were slaves, and it does so extremely well – you can really see the difference properly. It’s an amazing book, by an amazing writer. Read it!
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Recommendations
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Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
DESCRIPTION:
Brave New World is a dystopian novel written in 1931 by English author Aldous Huxley, and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State of genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning that are combined to make a utopian society that goes challenged only by a single outsider.
Why I love this book: I love this book because of the dystopian/utopian theme. It’s all about control of the population and conformity, which I think was very well explored, especially with the addition of the character of the savage, a character that we could compare others to. I think I definitely enjoyed the characters more than any other aspect of the book, probably because of how interesting they were and how well Huxley had shaped their minds. It’s definitely a must-read for science-fiction or dystopia fans.
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The Colour Purple – Alice Walker
DESCRIPTION:
Set in the deep American South between the wars, it is the tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls ‘father’, she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Nettie and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker – a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually, Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves.
Why I love this book: This book is heavy. I’m not going to lie, it deals with mature topics and can be overwhelming at first – but it’s a beautiful story and if you’re comfortable with topics such as explicit language, sexuality and society, race relations, religion and African history then I recommend it. I loved it for it’s explicitness, though. There was a lot of truth hidden within those pages, and I thoroughly enjoyed combing through it all. It’s one of those books that has built my perspective on race relations and segregation. It’s also definitely a good book to talk about with other people (all of these are, to be honest) – and provides a lot of interesting topics up for discussion. Make sure to read it!
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I‘m going to end this on a slightly different note than usual. I haven’t read a lot of literature, so this list is looking more empty than I would like it to be. I’d like to open up this little section to talk about my to-read list, especially for literature, and to open up the comments section for more books that I should look at.
I also might want to do reviews and little writes on classic literature in the future – I can see my ‘classics’ section developing already!
Anyway, here are the plans for the next set of books I’m looking to read – and feel free to recommend more in the comments!
TO-READ:
↬ Catch 22 – Joseph Heller ↬ Native Son – Richard Wright
↬ We – Yevgeny Zamayatin
↬ The Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck
JUST FINISHED: ↬ The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (I absolutely LOVED this, comment if you want a little book review) ↬ The Lord of the Rings (the whole trilogy) – J. R. R. Tolkien
