Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Forced to make a sacrifice

My exams were getting closer day by day and from the moment I was introduced to a computer game by one of my friends, my grades started to decline.
My friends at school were discussing with me about a computer game that I was playing with them when my teacher, Mr lim, called me up to the front. I was astonished when Mr lim asked me to come up to the front as I never did anything that could have caught his attention. " I called your parents about your declining grades and they have told me that you have been recently addicted to a computer game." At that time, I felt betrayed by my parents for telling Mr lim about the computer game. " Why do they keep on saying that I am addicted to this computer game? I only played it for around 3 hours a day." I thought to myself. " Mr lim, I do not think that this computer game is affecting my grades as I still do study." I replied to Mr lim. " Even though you still do study for your tests, I still think that you are still affected by this computer game, at least give it a thought to stop playing computer games for awhile until your exams." encouraged Mr lim. I listened to his advice for a moment and gave it a thought, but decided that I was not affected by this computer game and would not be affected by it and ignored the advice.
The next day, I was given a mock exam by Mr lim to prepare for the exams. "This would show them that I have studied for my test." I thought confidently to myself. I looked at the paper and laughed, it was easy! I started to write down the answers in the mock exam, feeling proud. However, not even one quarter through my mock paper, I started to drift off in the fantasies of my computer game and started to ignore the things that were in front off me. I did not realise that time was ticking away and my mock exam was still going on. " Wow...I really could try that when I get home...or maybe this..." I was locked up in my imagination when I felt a pat on my shoulder. Awaking from my dream, I looked up and realised that it was Mr lim frowning, he pointed towards the wall clock. I looked at the wall clock and almost jumped out of my chair. Only ten minutes left! I scribbled through my paper as quickly as I could and finished right on time. I was disappointed and embarrassed in myself for getting distracted by a computer game.
Mr lim heaved a sigh as he took my mock paper. "Meet me at my cubicle after school." he said.
After school, I went to Mr lim's cubicle. He took out my mock paper and showed it to me, he had already marked finish it." I realised that you were daydreaming for a long time during the mock exam, were you daydreaming about the computer game that you are addicted to? You know that you should have stop playing that game a long time ago and concentrate on your exams?" Mr lim reprimanded. After Mr lim finished reprimanded me, I gave a serious thought to my addiction and decided that I would sacrifice that computer game for good grades and not letting Mr lim down for his concern.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Ideal School

  My ideal school should have teachers who understand their students well and are unbiased towards their students. My ideal school would also have to have many activities that they can organize for us students and finally also have teachers who give notes containing the summary of the each lesson.

My ideal school should have teachers who understand their students well and are unbiased towards them. The teachers would have to be able to understand the difficulties or problems that their students are facing so that the teachers would be able to be flexible with the needs of the student and help him with his studies. The teacher would also have to give equal treatment to their students so that their students would not develop any misunderstandings or unnecessary thinking towards that teacher and be focused in their learning. 

Friday, August 19, 2011

Reflection on LA speech

I did my LA speech on the 15th of August, I feel that the LA speech that I did on that day was unsatisfactory. I felt that I was hesitating and thinking too much when I was delivering that speech. I also feel that my volume was quite soft and this could result in the loss of marks for my speech. I felt that the preparation that I made for this LA speech was inadequate as I was still unfamiliar with my speech and also could not memorize the entire speech. I also feel that I should practice in front of someone and ask for his or her opinion on the flow of my speech and the content of my speech to further improve. However, I feel that I am improving as on my first time making a speech or presentation I was extremely nervous and could not keep my calm, I ended up reading straight from my paper and was murmuring to myself for the entire speech. I feel that if I keep my calm and just think about my speech in future, I would be able to give a better speech.

Shylock's famous speech in Merchant of Venice

Shylock's famous speech in Merchant of Venice

I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases,
heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter
and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If
you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the
rest, we will resemble you in that.

Reflection:

I feel that what Shylock has said in this speech is very meaningful. In this speech, Shylock is displaying the characteristic of equality. Shylock said this speech in his argument to take one pound of flesh from Antonio. In this speech, Shylock shows two sides to his personality. Shylock shows that he is sensitive and is hurt by the prejudices that people have against him because he is a Jew. In this speech, Shylock is stating that a Jew and a Christian are equal. He says that both Jews and Christians are human, they are not inferior or superior to each other in anyway as they both would have the characteristic as a normal human does, they would have the same reaction as a normal human would have. I feel that we all have something to learn from what Shylock said in this speech. If we see a person of another race or religion in our daily lives, we should remember what Shylock said in this speech, not to develop any racial or religious prejudices towards that particular person as everyone is equal regardless of who they are.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Reflections for project day semi-finals

I feel that project day has help me to be able to express myself in a more openly way by allowing us to do a presentation about our project in front of an audience. This competition has allowed me to be more confident and less nervous when I present something in front of an audience. Without project day competition, I would not have been able to improve in terms of my ability to present something in front of an audience and I might still be very quiet and held back like before. For the project day semi-finals, I went with my group to the venue where our project was to be presented and we presented our project. I was in category 11, future trends. This category required us to be creative and innovative as we had to think of ideas and solutions to a futuristic scenario which was given to us. Even though my group was not able to pass project day semi-finals, I was satisfied with the result as everyone in my group had done their best and we also were able to learn from our mistakes identified by our respective judges. This would allow me to have more experience in projects like this and I would be able to strive for a better result next year.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Punishment for the policeman who shot a black man ( blog prompt 16)

I believe that their punishment should be that the policeman that shot the black man be sentenced to jail for a few years. I feel the policeman could really be in danger, but still killed the man and has to be punished and also that the policeman needs to give a thought to his actions.

I feel the policeman could really be in danger. The black man could really have a killing intent and was about to kill him but the policeman saw through the attempt and opened fire. If you found out that your life was in danger, would you try to save yourself? The policeman only wanted to prevent the black man from harming him and opened fire at him.

However, the policeman still killed the black man and has to be punished for his actions. Even though he claimed that he was in imminent danger, there is no concrete evidence of the black man attempting or presented a threat to the policeman. If there is no punishment for the policeman, corruption would become more common as policemen could take away a life and claimed that he felt that his life was threatened.

I also feel that the policeman should give a thought to his actions and not be sentenced to death. If the policeman is sentenced to death, he would not be able to change his ways. By not sentencing the policeman to death, he would be able to think about his actions and be more careful the next time he encounters similar circumstances.

In conclusion, I feel that the policeman should be punished for his actions but be given a chance to change and become a better policeman.

I personally feel that the policeman should not have opened fire at the black man even though he felt that he was in imminent danger. The action of the policeman shooting the black man makes me feel that the policeman shot the black man only because he was racist against the black man. The policeman’s actions have not only brought grief to the family of the black man but also started violence and riots throughout London. If the policeman were more careful and presented a more concrete evidence of the black man showing any sign of threat, all these complications could be avoided. If the punishment for the policeman was too light, it could make corruption more often as policemen could take advantage of the light punishment to get rid of any burdens that they have. However, if the punishment for the policemen was too severe, it would affect the life of the policeman as the punishment he received was too severe and his loyalty to serve the country could waver.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Ameneh Bahrami

If I were Ameneh Bahrami, I would have forgiven the acid attacker too. This is because I feel that people should have a second chance and also that the attacker could have some mental issues at that moment.

I would have forgiven the acid attacker as I feel that people should have a second chance. Sometimes, when people do the wrong thing, they could be immature or unintentionally do it. After knowing that they are in the wrong, I feel that people could turn over a new leaf and change their ways. Even though I agreed to use the eye for an eye justice method a few years ago, I have realised that it is not morally right to just pour acid at the attacker’s face just because he poured it at me. Even though the attack was in the wrong, he should be given a chance to realise his mistakes and change for the better.

I would have forgiven the attacker as he could have some mental issues when he splashed acid on me. He could be suffering from a disorder or a mental illness which could have triggered his aggressive behaviour. I feel that we should not put the blame on someone who is suffering from a disorder or mental illness as he is already in such a sorry state and we should not inflict such a punishment on him.