Category: IGCSE

Grade 9 & 10

Writer’s Fortnight 2018: Steve Dawson

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on January 18, 2018

On the 16th of January, Steve Dawson, a Fox Sports presenter, came to our school to talk about how to give a good interview. Despite giving us extremely useful tips, our main purpose was to ask questions to write about him.

So first, some basic information from researching about him:

His first writing break was in London for weekly paper Boxing News, where he introduced future world featherweight champion Colin McMillan

He was a Chartered Tax Accountant with 10 years of experience in the field but decided to go for a career change in 1999.

He had spent 2 years as The Straits Times correspondent before moving to Channel iNews bulletin.

He was then headhunted to become the ESPN Star sports as a writer and presenter.

Currently, he is the face of football, mixed martial arts and general sports news throughout Asia having anchored the premium content at ESPN, Star Sports and Fox Sports since 2004.

He has written a couple of sports biographies, Alex Yoong: The Driver’s Line (2010) and How To Be The Greatest Like Muhammad Ali (2012), both published by Marshall Cavendish.

When reading about the fact that he had a career change, I thought that it must have taken a lot of courage to have quit his 10 years long accounting career. How did he feel about the change? How did his family react to it? I was really curious due to a relative of mine who had gone through one to pursue and experience a change in careers. It was quite hard for him as there were worries of whether he would succeed or not and whether the family was financially stable enough to support the change.

But it had turned out that he didn’t really liked the job of an accountant and had had a career change due to seeing a notice from the Straits Times that they needed a correspondent urgently. His wife was a little nonchalant and that as long as his salaries were the same, it was fine. He had actually had an exposure to the career when he was in university which he had written his thesis about the boxing economy due to being a huge fan of boxing and had forward to the newspaper.

I totally wasn’t expecting this due to a second-hand source of the experience of changing jobs. There is usually a long state of unemployment and it normally comes in when you have the free time to start properly planning and taking action for their new jobs. There may be support from their family, but there may also be worries from them as it is almost like a make it or break it thing. His experience just seems too smooth.

If I could ask him another question, I would ask: Is that really it?

I mean like there is bound to be some conflict. Were you really just all chill and lax when submitting your application to the Straits Times despite the fact that you don’t really have a degree for journalism (According to the information I received as he had studied for accounting/economics before working as an accountant)? Is there really no worry from your wife with being able to support your family as there is a chance of you being rejected?

I am aware I sound really rude and pessimistic but I just don’t really like how he was a little too vague with his career change.

But despite all those that I have (rudely) commented, I do believe that his actions were admirable. After all, it does take courage to quit a well-paid job to achieve your dream occupation. He although dislike the job accounting, he at least admitted it had help, something I don’t believe that I would say if I was in his shoes (based on what he has vaguely said). I guess that was why one of my two only favourite lines from him was “I’m quite pleased with my decision” when he was asked what advice he would give to his younger self.

Conclusion of the night (actually afternoon), is that despite unsatisfied with full story of career change, I have wholeheartedly admired his courage to change his career and that he is doing something he is passionate about.

Life to me is like a road with so many possible paths ahead and left behind. Everybody, at some point, may look over their shoulder and ask themselves: ‘Why didn’t I do that?’, ‘If only I knew…’ But we don’t actually know what the actual outcome is if we take that path, all we can do is to make a decision to look forward before falling inside a ditch.

THE END

the Three Gorges Dam: was it worth the cost

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on January 10, 2018

As the title has suggested, this post is going to be about the controversial project of China’s Three Gorges Dam. Honestly, I was split into two sides of the project as in all 3 factors of social, environmental, and economic. Some people might argue that it wasn’t worth it due to a large amount of social and environmental disadvantage while some support the project due to the economic advantage it brings. Maybe I’ll make up my mind when I finish my post so let’s just list down all the pros and cons.

Let’s first talk about the social side of the project. One of the main priority and purpose of the Three Gorges Dam was to control the disastrous flooding that has once claimed 30000 lives in 1953. Due to being able to control flooding, the dam is able to protect 25000 hectares of farmland. Job opportunities are created from the construction to the maintenance of the dam. The Three Gorges Dam is also said to be able to provide 10% of China’s electricity needs.

But you can counter that as China’s demand for energy is increasing as its population increase together with its economy, thus unlikely to be able to achieve the figure there. Another problem was that although the dam does control flooding, it is unable to control the flooding on the other side where 632 km² of land home to 400 million people of China, which is also equivalent to 1/3 of China’s population and 1/12 of the world population. Already 1.4 million were forcibly moved. The amount of landslide has also increased, causing cracks in the walls of houses. People living under those roofs are in constant fear of the house collapsing and is having trouble keeping warm especially during winter when cold air seeps through the cracks. The villagers do want help from the government, but there is not only a long waiting list but also a distrust as it was reported that RMB30 million that was meant for relocation has been used for personal wants by corrupted local officials. So as we can see, on the social side, disadvantages overpowered the advantages by a lot.

Next up is the environmental effects this project has brought. I can only provide one environmental advantage of this project which is that it is a renewable energy. Done. Now here comes the bombard of disadvantages.

As we have mentioned before, the number of landslides has increased, and this is due to the water level fluctuating in a great number of 30m. Not only that. The decrease of silt and sediment heading downstream has also contributed to the increase of river and coastal erosion. The water quality of the famous Yangtze River has gone due to the accumulation of rubbish in the river and pollution. This has caused species to go extinct and be endangered. Not only did Yangtze river dolphin in 2006 extinct, the wetland home to around 95% of the endangered Siberian crane is shrinking at an alarming rate of 4km2/year. Fish stock and phytoplankton in the river have also decreased. Deforestation is also occurring for relocation for the people affected by the flooding. It was kinda funny to me as it was contradicting as many people believe that China should turn to a renewable energy source due to its extensive use of coal. But at the same time, turning to this project as an alternative is also bad despite being a renewable energy. Contradicting, isn’t it?

The economic advantages the Three Gorges Dam is one of the major reasons for turnovers from being against the project to supporting it. As mentioned before, jobs are created. It is said to have generated 100 billion KW an hour, which is as much energy as using 50 million tons of coal does annually. It has a controlled system which allows larger ships to transport and trade goods.

Now here’s the returning blow from the disadvantage side. Despite being said to be able to generate a large figure of energy, it actually depends on the water level, which is greatly fluctuating from time to time.There is actually longer delay caused in the trades due to long queues, which reduces the number of transactions. The amount of energy is actually reduced due to the dam blocking and collecting a ton of silt, ≤50% of the 500 million ton is deposited behind the dam which reduces the storage capacity.

So in conclusion, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea due to the overwhelming amount of disadvantages listed. But who knows whether it will be actually better for a longer term.

Presentation Reflection

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on September 12, 2017

Today, the whole class did presentations on their interpretation of the articles on the English language.

We had it mainly split into 4 categories with some overlapping. We had: Accent, Stereotypes, Texting and the Uses of English.

An accent is a way we pronounce our words.

I agree with what the presenters had mentioned, that there are no distinct accents as it can evolve over time by surrounding ourselves with different people and culture.

Some people think that the way we pronounce the words are wrong. Like how some people think that Queens English is the ‘proper’ English, that it is very prestige, very posh.

But to tell the truth, there is no actual correct way of speaking English. Just because you speak differently and pronounce the words differently, that doesn’t necessarily that it’s wrong.

Accents can help people feel a sense of belonging and uniqueness, but can also feel excluded from people that have different accents than them and could sometimes cause troubles with communication

Because of the differentness (I can’t believe that this is a word), we would sometimes judge others and categorize people just based on their accents. And this is called stereotyping, which not coincidentally, the next part.

Stereotypes: Accents, how they speak, the word choice that doesn’t make sense to you.

So as previously mentioned in the paragraph above, we the people might start judging people based on their accent.

And this can’t be changed as well, we humans can never stop judging. We just can’t. You might be thinking: When have I judged people before. But just admit it. You’ve judged before. Though I believe that you are one of the people that tend to judge less than others.

Anyways, moving on. Since stereotypes are “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing” (quoting from the Oxford Dictionary)

And the question to you is: Where have these oversimplified ideas come from?

Based on the information shared, there is a possibility that it might have been a common thing in the past. Or maybe it is due to some people of the same country speaking using the same words. Or maybe it’s because others had found it funny that they had shared it with everybody and made it a stereotype.

Personally, I can think of some examples each reason. But I ain’t gonna go into that.

The way we are speaking is changing. With our pace of life getting faster, we need to be able to communicate even faster. And that’s where technology comes in.

Our current modern technology allowing us to communicate with less effort and faster. And this is something called ‘texting’.

But some people think that texting is killing our language. Is that true? I don’t believe so.

I mean, if we can speak like we write, like those boring, long, complicated words and deep speech, then why can’t we write like how we speak? Which also ultimately means texting! LOGIC!

Also, texting should be qualified as a language as it is just a different way of using words. In texting, we use slang. And slang actually stands for short language, which means that it is still considered as language. Though slang is not always clear to people.You still understand each other even though we are changing some words. Though I wouldn’t go so far to using slangs in essays. as it doesn’tS make others feel like you shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Agreeing with the speaker, although we are still able to understand each other even though we are using slang, I wouldn’t go so far as to using slangs in essays and formal writings as it doesn’t make others feel like you shouldn’t be taken seriously.

English has become a global language, successfully becoming a language family (search that up if you don’t know what it means). It has been included in so many other cultures and has formed new languages such as Singlish and Kiwiglish.

One of the many reasons why there is such new languages is due to the country’s people wanting to bring back their culture/language. Kiwiglish is a very good example of this.

Kiwiglish is English and Maori, a language that has been previously suppressed after New Zealand was colonized. The Maori language was a very important part of the country’s culture as the people of New Zealand has been trying hard to bring back the language after it was banned. Currently, it is becoming popular again, so good job! I believe that the reason why they want to bring the language back is to help separate their own culture from the others, making sure that they are different.

Getting back on topic, English has become such a significant universal language that children are encouraged to learn it at a young age, that it has contributed an extra £14.5bn to UK economy as they were able to communicate and trade, that it has become a solid guidance for employment, that education all over the world is recognizing English as the standard students should be reaching for. Congrats, English!

When we are using our language, we sometimes change the structure of our sentences to get the responses we want without sounding too rude. And trust me, it happens all the time.

“That colour looks hideous on you” and “Why not we look at the different colours first before deciding”

The latter would sound much better, though you are trying to imply the same thing. Funny, isn’t it?

We (well, most of us) will consider our word choice to determine whether it is suitable for the situations we are put in. I don’t really know how to describe….

But anyway, in conclusion, English is constantly evolving. And just accept it.

My Language World Project

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on September 10, 2017

idiolect |ˈɪdɪəlɛkt| noun

the speech habits peculiar to a particular person: in his strange idiolect, he preferred to call angels ‘angelicals’.

sociolect |ˈsəʊʃɪə(ʊ)lɛkt, ˈsəʊsɪə(ʊ)lɛkt| noun

the dialect of a particular social class.

So we were given a task by our English teacher, Mr Watson, on exploring our language use, our idiolect and sociolect.

I had interviewed a few people within my family. You might be thinking: What? But you are meant to interview other people to get a variety of answers!

My family is actually a mix of different Chinese culture. We have my dad who’s Hakka/Kejia*, my mom who’s in the Hokkien* community in Penang, and my grandmother who’s a Teochew*.

It was really interesting on how they use these languages besides English and Mandarin.

For example, in Penang, the way we say stone in Hokkien is ‘batu’ª (‘ba’ in Mandarin’s 4th intonation and ‘tu’ in the 2nd intonation).

But in Singapore, stone is pronounced as ‘ciu tau’ª in Hokkien.

The reason why we say ‘batu’ instead of ‘ciu tau’ is due to the influence of our nation’s Malay culture as in Malay, the word for stone is also ‘batu’ª (though the intonation for it is different)

If you were to say ‘ciu tau’ in the Penang Hokkien community, people would be raising eyebrows at you as people won’t understand.

Once, my mom and I were doing grocery shopping when we saw some really delicious guavas. We couldn’t help but say that the guavas looked really nice. The saleslady seems pleased by our comment. Except, she didn’t know what we were referring to as we had replaced ‘guava’ with ‘jambu’, another Malay influenced Hokkien term.

After clearing up the confusion, the lady immediately knew that we were from Malaysia as there was another term for the fruit in Singaporean Hokkien.

In conclusion, my idiolect and sociolect is influenced by who I grow up with, leaving me with words that are interchangeable in my life.

* Terms

Hakka |ˈhakə| noun (plural same or Hakkas)

1 a member of a people of SE China who migrated from the north during the 12th century.

2 [mass noun] the dialect of Chinese spoken by the Hakka, with about 27 million speakers. Also called Kejia.

Kejia |keɪˈdʒjɑː| noun

another term for Hakka.

Hokkien |həʊˈkiːn| noun

1 [mass noun] a dialect of southern Min Chinese that is also spoken in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

2 (plural same or Hokkiens) a member of a people traditionally inhabiting south-eastern China.

Teochew |ˌtiːəʊˈtʃjuː|

noun (plural same)

1 a member of a people of the Guangdong province of SE China.

2 [mass noun] the dialect spoken by the Teochew.

ORIGIN

Chinese dialect form of the name of the city Chaozhou.

ª Intonations

Stone (Hokkien)

Stone (SG Hokkien)

Stone (Malay)

After the documentary

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on September 6, 2017

After watching the documentary and reflecting on your personal views, to what extent do you think gender identity is determined by the environment? The questions below may help with your thinking.

Before I had watched the documentary, I believed that our gender has already been pre-determined psychologically. But I never knew that there is an actual reason why we are what our gender is.

After watching the documentary, I have little faith that the environment we are growing up in is affecting our gender identity. Though one thing I believe that the environment had affected was that whether or not we can accept our gender and open up.

A very good example of this would be when Brenda/David was socially excluded due to enjoying what boys like and acting like one. She/He was feeling confused and didn’t want to worry his parents, thus not opening up to them about his identity. Only when his parents had finally revealed to him that he was actually a boy then only he had open up to them and live as a boy.

I believe that gender is a really important aspect of our identity. It allows people to identify whether you are a female or a male, allows people to have a vague targeted audience.

But as I have hinted before, it is normally used as a barrier or restriction. Like saying girls are meant to be acting fragile and like a princess, that they should be liking pink. Excuse me! I only said that gender allows people to have a vague targeted audience, so don’t go around twisting my words!

Gender is only one of the aspects of our life. We are all meant to be different, to be unique. So it’s alright if girls like blue and likes climbing trees!

People can only be open about their gender identity when they are in a environment that accepts them. Being in an environment that doesn’t will just restrict access to what they actually enjoy and wants to live as.

Although I do say that a open community is great, it sometimes confuses you on your own identity upon learning that there are other ‘types’ of people. I remember that when they were talking about the LGBTQ+ community, I was falling into the Q part of the name and had kept asking myself: am I one of them?

It does get confusing, but I guess when you look at your interactions and interests, you will find your answer.

Is gender identity physical or mental?

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on September 2, 2017

Gender is the state of being a man or a female. The term can be used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than the biological ones, I prefer to call that as sex.

Personally, from what I have read and have been surrounded by, I believe that gender identity is something we are born with. But by that, I mean that from the very young age, we are already the gender we are meant to be, psychologically. I believe it is just a matter of realizing, accepting and coming out as what you are. Though we may be influenced by what we are exposed to from a young age, like how girls like pink and boys like cars, we are still what we are.

I believe that gender can affect our identity in many ways: how society sees us and how they would treat us, the way that we would react, and the way we would see ourselves. For example, in the past, women are seen to be weak in society, and because of that, we act fragile and see ourselves also as a weakling. But personally, I believe that even if we have different genders, we are meant to be different from each other. Besides interest and personality, gender is just one of the aspect of that.

Would We Ever Break the 100m Sprint Record?

Published by liew48863@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg on August 22, 2017

So today in math class, we were asked by our math teacher, Mr Jacobson, ‘When do you think the 100m sprint record will be broken?’.

I’ve forgotten what had led to this question, but I know that my answer was very different from the rest.

So I’m currently writing this post because : 1. I wasn’t able to express my idea fully (tongue-tied); 2. It is kinda different from the rest of the people.The second one is that we will break it soon, latest is by the next generation. This is due to the fact that our current society’s education is now requiring their students to be an all rounder one. This would lead to the increase in the productivity in sports and the want for achievements, thus having people training harder to stand out from the rest. Self-motivation and competitiveness are one of the keys to having ‘success’ in my opinion and I believe that this would be the reason why we could break the record.

I personally think that we will break it soon, latest is by the next generation, like the rest. But the reason is different.his is due to the fact that our current society’s education is now requiring their students to be an all rounder one. This would lead to the increase in the productivity in sports and the want for achievements, thus having people training harder to stand out from the rest. Self-motivation and competitiveness are one of the keys to having ‘success’ in my opinion and I believe that this would be the reason why we could break the record.

I think that we will be achieving 9 seconds son due to the fact that our current society’s education is now requiring their students to be an all rounder one. This would lead to the increase in the productivity in sports and the want for achievements, thus having people training harder to stand out from the rest. Self-motivation and competitiveness are one of the keys to having ‘success’ in my opinion and I believe that this would be the reason why we could break the record.I haven’t heard any other ideas besides improving the ‘technology’ of the sports equipment (which is literally just shoes and clothing) and finding out the average of the number of years it took before the previous records were broken so I would really like to hear them.

I haven’t heard any other ideas besides improving the ‘technology’ of the sports equipment (which is literally just shoes and clothing) and finding out the average of the number of years it took before the previous records were broken. So if you have any other opinions, just shoot them at me.