What is Hot and Cool to the Youth in Singapore

Wesley's Reflections & Thoughts on CNY

I have learnt we should not look at things from the outside. Like the woman in the picture from a few lessons ago, she did not really deserve much piety as she was from a syndicate. When we give money to her, it is as if we are giving money to the syndicate.

The symbol i have chosen is horse. It is because it is the horse year in the chinese zodiac, and is appropriate as a symbol for chinese new year.

The year of the horse...

The colour i have chosen is red. Why? It is because red is frequently seen during chinese new year as 'ang pows' or red packets. It is also seen as an auspicious colour by the chinese.





The image i have chosen is of a reunion dinner. In my opinion, flinging yu sheng is one of the most important parts of the reunion dinner, as it shows a family's unity.

Clarissa's Reflection and Thoughts on CNY

                     

      I had learned at least one thing in every CID class over the first 3 weeks. The main aim for the CID lessons is to prepare all of us for the OELP trip to either Taiwan or China in May. Out of the 3 lessons, I feel that the 2nd lesson was the one that had left the deepest impression on me. The topic of the 2nd lesson was: A picture paints a thousand words. In this lesson, the teacher had showed us 2 different pictures, both consisted of 2 people, a man and a lady with a baby asking for help or money from passers-by or tourists. Based on the pictures, we were told to choose who would we help. Of course, many in the class chose to help the woman, with the reason that the lady was more pitiful as she still have to support a baby while the man could easily find a job. However, it was later known that the man was really in need of help; he had been abandoned as a baby and was handicapped. Also, someone had stole his trolley which consisted of everything he had. The lady was part of a group of people who would bandage their body parts or carry babies and go out to the streets to beg for money from tourists at tourists attractions. 

    From this lesson, I had learned that there is always something more complex than anything you see, there will always be something that you do not know and there will always be some hidden story behind. I had travelled overseas with my family before, and I had definitely witnessed sights where people begged for money, and I had learned to be careful.

Thoughts on CNY:

Colour: Red
Why?: Chinese New Year is a festival for the Chinese, and red was considered as an auspicious colour. From mid-January to probably the end of February, you would see the colour red nearly everywhere; be it decorations or clothing or even food packaging.

Symbol: (the huge image on the right)



Why?:
Even though 2014 is the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac, I did not want to choose a picture of a horse as a symbol. The animal changes every year, and I wanted to choose something that would represent CNY, no matter what year it is.
I feel that this symbol meets my need. The word '福' stand for blessing. When it was put upside down, we call it '福倒了   ', which sounds the same as 'blessing is here' in Chinese.

         <-------Image

Why?: To me, CNY is a time where the whole family reunites and spend some much-needed quality time together. On the eve of CNY, the whole family gathers and have a sumptuous reunion dinner together. Then on the next day, they would go together as a family and visit close friends and relatives.

Isabelle's reflections and thought of CNY

Reflection
During the past few lessons of CID, I have learnt how to see,think and wonder. Whenever there's a scene or happening, we should observe what's going on or what the people are doing. After that, we should think about the people's feelings and thoughts, and lastly we should wonder and ask ourselves questions. i really enjoyed the lessons during CID.

One colour,one symbol, one image
Colour: red
I chose red as it symbolizes good fortune and joy. Plus, red is found everywhere during Chinese New Year.
Symbol: horse
Since this year is the year of the horse, I chose horse to represent the symbol . It brings luck and joy to 
Image: 

Yao Hui's Reflection and thoughts of Chinese New Year

Reflection:
I learnt that we should say out our opinion, we must think carefully before doing something, for example the beggars. If you give them money, you are not helping them, instead you are harming them. The association will think that they can make a living from these beggars and will capture more people to be beggars, and make them beg everyday. If you don't give them money, they will be tortured by the association, and they will have no money to buy necessity. In both ways, the beggars will be harmed. I also learnt that we should see things in other people views.

One Colour, One Symbol, One Image

Colour: Gold
I choose gold because it is the colour of success, achievement, triumph and wealth. I hope that i could make an new achievement this new year.

Symbol: Horse
I chose horse because it was the year of the horse and horse represent life energy, freedom.
Image:

Alyssa's Reflection and experience of Chinese New Year

      For the past 3 weeks, the lessons for CID I have attended allowed us to voice out our opinions and observation about 2 pictures and our school. I find these lessons fun and I had also learn to widen my perspective by listening to my friends' opinions and thoughts. A lesson I have personally learnt so far in this module is to observe our surroundings. For example, when we were told to write a word that we think describe the school, we could think of the word, but some of us were not able to find evidence to support their answers. I personally think it is because they take the small things that happen in school for granted or did not observe their surroundings.

One Colour, One Symbol, One Image 

    One colour that I think best describe my feelings and experiences about Chinese New Year is orange. Orange looks a little like red which represents auspicious. Orange is also a bright colour which shows that Chinese New Year is a lively event.

Symbol:It best describes my thought of the upcoming Chinese New Year because this year is the year of the horse and I am looking forward to see how others show it or include it into performances.
Image: it best describes my feelings because i look forward and find doing the "捞鱼生" the best and most fun part of Chinese New Year. Personally, I love the crackers and Sashimi.

Horse paper cutting

Photo of a plate of 鱼生

Poverty in Singapore and Photo Challenge

Insight for today's post

• Poverty in Singapore                          
  
• Photo Challenge

Poverty in Singapore 

  So the other day in CID class, we talked about Poverty in Singapore. In such a well-developed country, it's definitely hard to imagine that there are still people who are still living in very poor conditions, but there are.
   In Singapore, it is highly unlikely that you will find beggars lining the streets or see starving children walking the pavements, scrounging for food. The poor and needy in our society struggle with “relative poverty” —simply defined as that their financial resources fall substantially below what is needed to pay for the necessities of living in Singapore.Due to various factors like health issues and family circumstances, they struggle to survive on a day-to-day basis. Moreover, they are caught in a vicious poverty cycle, with little or no means to make a better life for themselves. Their children are often not able to do better than their parents due to lack of access to knowledge and educational support. For example, the child would quit school to work and supplement the family’s income, simply trying to put food on the table.
     Here is a video I found regarding this topic: 

  
    

Photo Challenge

(a) School Spirit

This picture is just a regular picture of the school canteen at lunch time. My focus was not on we RVians usually eat or anything like that.
In RV, whenever it's someone's birthday and the entire class celebrates it by singing happy birthday in the canteen, the rest of the school (Ok, those in the canteen), starts singing along or clapping along. I was really surprise when I first witnessed that sight in 2013, but it gave me the impression that RVians, no matter in which level or what age, are really bonded and united in a special way.
Fun fact: When we sing 'Happy Birthday', we sing it in the RV style, where the beat was 2 times quicker than the actual 'Happy Birthday' song. ^^

(b) Happiness

Year 1 Orientation Camp Class Photo

This picture was taken in early 2013, when every single one of us has just joined RVHS and class 1G'13. The 3 days 2 nights camp at school was amazing! All of us had a ton of fun with all the cheering and the games and especially the LCD night! We jumped and danced and sang the night away. It definitely helped up bond. If I'm not wrong, this picture was taken on the 2nd day, when all of us were starting to come out of our shells and be more outgoing. 

(c) Fear

     

     Even though we might not literally be afraid of homework, it is definitely reasonable for many students to be afraid of a pile of homework and a busy schedule. (This might not apply to everyone.) After all, I don't think there's anyone who likes to have to be at school for the whole day on a Saturday every week and having to rush through homework on Sundays.
    Of course, there's definitely going to be some people who likes to stay busy, but sometimes, I think it's important to spend some quality time on yourself, your hobbies, your friends, and your family. :)

(d) Life 

This is a picture of what the school field looks like during CCA
timing. Most of the CCAs take place at the field/track, such as Softball
Uniform Groups, Cross-Country, and various Sports CCAs. 

As RVians, we spend a lot of our time in school Also, it is compulsory for us to have at least 1 CCA (co-curricular activity). Most of us stay back 2-3 times a week for our CCA, and some of us might even have to stay back everyday.
On Tuesdays and Fridays, after we are dismissed at either 2 P.M. or 2.45 P.M., we get ready for our CCA and head to the respective venues at 2.55 as CCA starts at 3 P.M. sharp. CCA usually last for about 2.5-3 hours and we'll get dismissed roughly around 6 P.M.