ENGLISH – Writers’ Fortnight with Christine Pelly

For the last session of WF, we heard from Christine Pelly who volunteers for TWC2. TWC2 looks into the welfare of transient workers in Singapore meaning that they help workers when they move to Singapore and if something about the payment goes wrong or their employer doesn’t want to pay for treatment if they’re injured. I found this talk quite interesting because Pelly answered all the questions we had really well. One question that someone asked was “What do you feel the government could do to help?” and her answer was “There are laws in place to help transient workers but need to be enforced” which really interested me. I was expecting this session to be a lot of talking from Pelly but it was more of a balance between people asking questions and Pelly giving detailed answers. One thing I think I will take away from this session is one of the last things Pelly said. She left us with the question “when there is such an inequality in power, who would balance the power?”. I’m not entirely sure about this question, but I would either say it’s up to someone from the outside to come and help balance the power or the two sides will have to overcome their differences and try to find a better/fairer way to have power.

ENGLISH – Writers’ Fortnight with Deborah Emmanuel

During this session of writers’ fortnight, our speaker was a poet called Deborah Emanuel. Her story is that she doesn’t necessarily know where she belongs. Her ancestors were from India but she was never taught the language and so she felt as though she didn’t belong from India, and she didn’t want to be conformed to Singapore’s CIM system but now she feels like she fits in. She told her story about how she experienced trauma from her violent father and never had a home until 4 years ago. She shared that she had gone to jail for smoking weed. Her poems however were really amazing. One of the poems that she read was the “I love you” poem which was about how love was being fought over, it was forbidden, and there was a misconception about love. She also said that when her mother passed away, singing “I love you” had no direction any more. A question that I asked during this session was “What advice would you give your younger self?” and her reply was that she wouldn’t give any advice because she believes that she needs to experience what she will go through.

ENGLISH – Writers’ Fortnight with Robyne Hayes

During the third session of writers’ fortnight, our speaker was Robyne Hayes who is a photographer/activist. Hayes presented some facts about child marriage such asĀ  1/3 of girls in the developing world are married by age 15 or 130 million girls aren’t in school. Her aim was to create empathy and an understanding of child marriage through photography. Before this session, I had a basic understanding of child marriage. I understood it was mostly involuntary and that it was happening. Afterwards, I understood more about how some girls are being viewed as only having the purpose to bear children and being a wife. I was quite surprised when Hayes explained the photovoice project where cameras were given to girls who were in a marriage and were given a week to capture what their life was like. The effects of this project was pretty amazing to me as husbands started to step in as in helping to get water and help to make food. There was one girl who didn’t have to wash her husband’s feet anymore and said that it was a big change. During this session, I asked “How do you feel when you see the changes in their lives?” and she replied that when Hayes sees the changes in the girls lives, she feels hope because something so terrible can change and become better. One thing that shocked me was when Hayes mentioned the reason why they let their daughters get married. Because it would reduce the “dauwn” the family owned which seems to be a sort of tax. This was a really interesting talk and probably my favourite.

ENGLISH – Writers’ Fortnight with Chetan Bhagat

In this session of writers’ fortnight, the author of “The 3 Mistakes of my Life”, Chetan Bhagat, came and spoke to us about success and his goals. He used to be a banker but he wanted change so he became a writer who had one goal; to reach all Indians everywhere. His goal is change and his strategy is to reinvent/to change the game. He said that there are two types winners, winners who are better than others, and winners who change the game. He says that when you have a goal, you should follow these steps. 1) Set a clear goal, if you don’t know what you want to achieve, then it’s probably going to be very hard to achieve. 2) Have reasons behind that goal, you should know what you want to achieve. 3) Finding the group. If you’re trying to become vegetarian and you’re in a house where people eat meat every day, it’s probably not the best. 4) Detailed action plan. Be organised. 5) Setback dealing mechanism. If you’re at a setback, Bhagat says that you should definitely not quit, find a way to continue. 6) Faith. If you don’t believe in yourself, achieving your goal is going to be quite impossible. Some success tips he gave us were: 1) Under promise and over deliver, 2) Reinvent, 3) Passion in intent shows, 4) Patience, 5) Partnerships, and 6) Humility. One thing I’m not sure I agree with is under promising and over delivering because it seems a bit dishonest. It does turn out good for everyone but it’s just a bit strange. He also said that adaptation is key for success. He’s been so successful because he kept going to the more popular places such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. A quote he stands by is, “Be so busy improving yourself that you have no time left to criticise others.”

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ENGLISH – Writers’ Fortnight with Steve Dawson

During this first session of writers’ fortnight, we listened to Steve Dawson who worked for various news companies such as ESPN, FOX sports and ONE Championship. He told us that in order to lead a successful interview we needed to remember 5 things. The first thing was to ask open ended questions in order to proved a challenge for your interviewee. For example a closed question would be “did you like the game?” and the answer would be yes or no but an open ended question could be “what was your favourite part of the game?”. The second thing he told us was to set the answer free and not to set unnecessary parameters. An example of what not to do would be “are you concerned that you haven’t made any profit?”. A better question would be “how does it feel to not have made any profit?”. Dawson mentions that when interviewers ask “how does it feel…”, it may seem a bit “wet” but from experience he says that the answers you get are really good and better than you could have hoped for. The third thing was not to interrupt you interviewee or any other reporter asking questions. They might be getting a really important point across. The fourth thing he told us was to listen to the answer EVEN if you have a voice recorder, that way you might have the chance for a follow up question. For example you ask the question, “what impact has Cristiano Ronaldo had on your life?” and then they reply “significant, but he’s only my second favourite player.” And the whole time you wouldn’t have been listening and you could have asked “who is your favourite player?”. The fifth piece of advice he gave us was to find a unique angle for questions. Your article would be quite boring if you’ve read the same thing in five other articles, but if you have an angle, it makes the story much better. An extra piece of advice he gave us was not to be a fangirl/boy because when you interview someone you look up to, you should try to be on the same level as them. For example, interviewing a professional footballer, you should be a professional journalist, that way you get so much more respect.

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ENGLISH – Store Robbery #100seconds #storywriting

A man walks in followed by two other men. I greet them with a friendly smile but my heart starts to race a little as one of them walks to my cashier. He asks if there’s any cold beer and cigars. I smile and nod and duck behind the counter, composing myself. “He’s just an ordinary guy, stop overthinking it.” I think to myself. I take the red pack of cigars and place them on the counter. I duck back down again and open the mini fridge, rusted with age, and take the bud light. As my fingers make contact with the glass bottle, the coolness takes me by surprise and forces a shiver down my spine. As I turn around to face the man again, I see him pass the pack of cigars to one of the men he came in with. I frown, since he hasn’t paid for it and hasn’t made a move for his wallet. The bell on the door jingles as a woman with her son walk in. “That’ll be $28.9 – HEY! YOU HAVEN’T PAID YET!” I shout as he grabs the beer off the counter and walks towards the door. I move to block him so that I’m in between him and the door. “Sir you need to pay” I say again, in a calmer tone. With one arm he sends me crashing into the stack of canned beans and walks away with the men behind him. The woman pusher her son behind her. I standĀ  up slowly trying to catch my breath. The man didn’t have a gun, yet he managed to steal and scare this woman and I, with just his body alone.