Hello guys,

Sorry for not being so active… Anyways, I have had some feedback that my blog was too onto 1 topic or at least one genre. So from this post onwards, I will include more of world issues or some hot topics.

World cup season!!! Everyone is staying up all night watching live soccer matches, everywhere is just full or the soccer fever. Shops have started selling soccer-related items, games have also included soccer, even schools have been affected by this soccer craze. Hence this is my argument: should students stay up till 4-5 o’clock just to watch these games?

People have said, “Tonight is a must watch, because it is LIVE and it is my favourite team competing.” This is the problem: Is it really necessary to watch it live? Watching on youtube a few hours later is also a possible way to know the match, not only that, watching the telecast a few days later can also let you still watch the match. After said this people still tell me, “But I want to know the results fast.” To these people, I have only one word, “Newspaper”. Newspapers did not have a section for sports just for the sake of it. Not only do they tell you the latest news on the world cup, also they give you some people’s comments about it and “Paul’s” predictions etc.

To students staying late up at night to watch the world cup, a disadvantage is that they have a lack of sleep. As we know, students are supposed to receive 7-8 hours of beauty sleep while adults are able to receive less. Therefore, students should not stay up to watch and instead maybe record the match. If students do not have enough sleep, they would find it difficult to pay attention during classes and worst still, oversleep and be late for school. This is totally absurd when it is a weekday the next day! Adults too have to go to work in the morning and there is no way to watch a LIVE match and be totally energetic the next day.

This leads me to my next argument: Students not having enough sleep.

Students tend to stay up late either to revise their work or to play computer games, worst still, world cup. They have this thought: At night, I have all the time in the world as I can sleep whenever I need to. When I wake up, I feel the same as any other day. This may feel alright on the outside, however, research have told us that we would not be able to take in as much information as before, in addition, the person’s character will change slightly, thus the person would be easily irritated or frustrated.

However, this is not the main focus of the second argument. Students “SMS-ing” at night until early the next morning. The situation is that students tend to not sleep as they are waiting for the other party’s reply, hence having the mentality: What if my friend replies and I am asleep, that would reflect badly on myself. As this goes on, the student would suffer a loss of sleep.

Hence to solve the above problems, I propose that during bedtime, parents could impose the child to put his or her phone away from them. This would ensure that the student would not stay up late to SMS. If this is not possible, the parent could closely monitor until the point when they feel it has gone far enough, they could just confiscate the phone or buy a new sim card, keeping the old one. This would prevent friends from SMS-ing the student.

As for the world cup issue, well… Just watch the telecast in the future!!!

Regarding the above issues… if u have any comment or better ideas please write in the comments column at the bottom of this post. Please follow as well. Thanks! :D

We slept with our boots on

Unknown Words:

1. 1. Maim: To injure; disable; disfigure; depriving the use of a limb or other parts of the body.

Analysis:

Point of View:

I feel that the poet is writing from a soldier’s point of view, a war veteran. “They” refers to his comrades. The poem is written from his own experience as a soldier fighting in a war. Through the poem, he described what he and his teammates did for example, ”They washed out the blood, we loaded our ruck’s and then took to the skies”. This shows the action taken preparing for the war and it is written in such a way that the speaker is one of them, using words like, “we”.

Where this is more evident is during line 9 onwards where the poet starts elaborating more on his personal actions and feelings, such as, “Dirty and tired and hungry and scared”. This is clearly showing that he is writing in a soldier’s point of view and vividly describing what the situation was.

State of mind:

1. Resignation

2. Survival tactic

The author feels resignation as everything was just to hellish for him, driving him crazy until the point where he wanted to resign. This is shown in, “The noise is tremendous, terror I can’t define. The only reason I survived that day was divine.” This shows that the soldier felt that the war zone was chaotic, the noise being tremendous and there is a lot of terror. These terrors came in many forms such as terror of being killed, terror of not being able to mentally accept it etc. Just because of these terrors and the madness, the author just wants to escape it all and resign.

The author had the mentality to do anything to survive. They would run forever if they have to, even to the extent to betraying their friends just to ensure the safety of one’s self. Hence these were the two primary mindset of a soldier.

Situation and Setting:

The poem is set in many different landscapes such as mountains, villages and valleys. While the situation is the platoon of soldiers are on a mission which involves warfare with the enemy. During then, the soldier or the speaker is really frightened and that everything was happening so fast and the whole situation was chaotic. This is shown in, “I kept pulling the trigger and reloading and pulling some more”, “I run as fast as I can through the lead rain” and many others. The poem is trying to let the reader feel like he is in the poem, in the war itself, feeling the intensity.

Language and Diction:

Metaphor is used in this poem where the bullets fired through the air are being compared to rain. As rain comes down non-stop, the bullets are similar in this area. The poem in general used descriptive language to bring out the feelings and the emotions of a war. Not only descriptive but strong words to give an impact on the reader and truly show the hatred towards war, such as, “Who knew hell was so close to God”.

Military terms are used in the poem to let the reader feel that he or she is actually in the war. Such examples are, “LZ and Lock N Load”. “LZ” most probably referred to landing zone while “Lock N Load” was just some lingo the soldiers used. They used these terms to involve us in the situation he is in.

Contrast was used in this poem. This is evident in, “Who knew hell was so close to god”. In this short quote, hell refers to the war while God refers to heaven. I believe that they were having a battle up on the mountains which is near the sky, metaphorically where god lives while they were actually experiencing hell by fighting in the war.

Strong metaphor was also used in this poem whereby, “Beauty and terror are a strong mixed drink”. In here, terror refers to the war, the battle and the horrors of it. For beauty, I believe it to refer to the beautiful scenery of the mountains. Saying that it is a strong mixed drink means that it is difficult to combine or mix together. Fighting in a beautiful scenery and experiencing the terrors of war. A person would feel happy for the nice scenery buy terror because of the war. However, it is impossible to house these two emotions simultaneously in one’s heart, hence this is what the soldiers are feeling now.

Metaphor is also seen in the following quote from the poem, “Brothers aren’t born they’re earned. In the poppy fields, the tears, and the mud”. This means that brothers have to be earned and not by birth and they two are already brothers. “In the poppy fields… the mud”. Refers to the experiences the brothers have been through together. Poppy here could also mean drugs as drugs are made out of poppy, hence suggesting the soldiers could have taken drugs.

Personal response:

To me, I feel that the title and the poem itself states 2 important points about war. The first is that war is tiring for everyone and it goes on for a long time. Sleeping with our boots on is actually a metaphor, the actual meaning is that the enemy may strike at any moment and the soldiers have to be prepared 24/7. This brings me to my second point. War is again a lose-lose situation and it will tire everyone out, from the strategists to the soldiers themselves. Running all over the place is tiring them physically and to always worry and prepared for an impromptu conflict wears them out mentally. In all, war is never good for anyone and should be considered the last resort or may not even be considered a method.

Through the poem, with all the description of the soldier or the speaker, we can feel that war could be able to drive one mad as with all the stress and fear all the time, the soldier may just be mentally unsound, until the point that the soldier may give anything for a slight relief of the pain he is suffering. Similar to the poems “mental cases” and “mental wards”, both describes the effects and the horrors of war clearly.

Rainbow Death analysis task 2

Unknown words:

· Potpourri: A combination of incongruous things/ a mixture of dried flower petals and spices used to scent the air.

· Omnipotent: Having unlimited or universal power, authority, or force; all-powerful.

· Deceit: A deception

· Nefariously: Infamous by way of being extremely wicked.

· Nefariously: hateful

Analysis:

Point of view:

I feel that this poem is written in the point of view of someone who sits out of the war and observes it. A person who is capable of seeing the effects of the war and what the world has become, more like “the wise one”. “Toll on the innocent and unborn”. This shows us that the person knows the deaths and sufferings of the war, Hence someone somewhat like an observer. “Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.” He sees the evil of those who are in power. Those which do not see the truth and horrors of the war.

Setting and situation:

I feel that this poem is written in the time after the war in America. The poem was about the outcome of the war and the regrets some may have. At the beginning, America thought that war was a glorious action, showing honor and bravery in fighting for your country. However, after seeing the aftermath of the war, their thought of the war changed and saw that there is no glory in war, instead sufferings and pain were all over the place.

Language and Diction:

In relation to the theme, the author added “colours” to his poem. I feel this is well used as we know that different colours evoke different kinds of emotion. Personification is used in this poem as “All the deceit continues to spread”. Deceit spreads like a human spreading his arms. Rhetorical questions were also used in the poem, “Now thinking twice?” The rest of the poem, the poet used vivid and descriptive language to bring out the feelings of the poem and make an impact on us.

Personal response:

I feel that the war may be over, however the hatred and pain will be brought to the future. Enemies will always be replaced by even more powerful ones when defeated and this vicious cycle will continue, one taking revenge and the other party too. War will always be a lose-lose situation. During a war, humanity will be lost, where everyone is selfish and only the survival of themselves matter. Death tolls are in 5 digit numbers, hence 1 or 2 will be forgotten. Everyone fighting in a war is suffering and the pain of your loved ones dying times the 5 digit number, it is unimaginable the pain of the people. Ultimately, problems should never solved via a war or conflict, instead have a peaceful talk over a cup of tea.

Task 2 Language Arts Home Learning: Children in the darkness

I feel that the poem is written in the point of view of someone who knows the common knowledge whereby children are innocent and pure and is able to differentiate them, most probably being an adult as an adult is wise enough to know these differences. Through the poem, the poet distinguished and has drawn a clear line between a ‘normal’ child to the one in the picture.

The situation is during war or during the mobilization. As the country does not want to lose the war, however they have not enough able man, hence they mobilized innocent children to fight in the war. In the poem, it mentioned that,” From this life they cannot flee”. And the whole of stanza 3. This shows the feelings and thoughts of the children and those not. The children felt that it was their fate to fight in the war. Also, there was a sense of pity inside as innocent children’s’ fate was to serve and most likely die in a war. Stanza 3 showed the emotion whereby asking rhetorical questions, showing that the children were hopeless and their ‘normal’ lives will be gone forever. Sort of like saying that they were ‘goners”. The whole poem is evoking a sense of hopelessness as throughout the poem, the poet emphasized the hopelessness of the children and us as we could no prevent this from happening.

The poet used repetition, “the darkness”. The poet repeated this phrase to make an impact that there was no justice to the world as if there is, the children would not have gone to war. In contrast with darkness, there is also light. Light in this poem I feel that it represents justice. Hence when the children have not seen the light, this implies that there is no justice here as it is very cruel to bring the children to take up arms. The word ‘consume’ is used here, meaning that the children is totally conquered by darkness, hence giving the impact that there is totally no hope or justice here. At the last stanza, ‘back in the darkness’ is used to show that there is no way out of the darkness but back in there. Overall, the words and diction used in this poem is very accurate as it brings out the feeling of hopelessness and creates a deep impact on us as readers.

After reading this poem, I feel that it relates me to the reality that life is unfair. Someone may be having the best of life, with wealth, and leading a carefree life. However on the other side of the world, there is someone who is poor and living a life of troubles and maybe danger. A question also appears in my head, “Why can’t other people be the same as us?” The world is unfair as everyone has a different fate. Regarding war, I feel that it is cruel and horrific as it absorbs life and makes people war-mad, until the point that children have to enter this war. It kills with no one winning in the end and young, innocent children’s life is sacrificed through this evil process.

Thank you.

Task 1 Language Arts Home Learning

Poem 1: Children in the darkness

The poet, Henry M Betchtold was in Vietnam in 1967 - 68 and again in 1969. The poet want back often as his soul lives in Vietnam and he wants to go back to visit it from time to time.

He wrote this poem during the Christmas season in 2009, in his hotel room in Saigon. His initial intention was to write a poem about the girls who work in the park and was treated badly by the men there. At the sight of this Henry was furious. However he was unable to write anything that did not sound weak. His inspiration was when he watched the news from the TV. From this, he saw that in the background, there was a photo of a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle. Upon seeing this, words kept flowing out of his mind and thus, this poem was born.

This totally contradicts what the poet, together with what we think. To us or the common knowledge is that children are supposed to be pure and innocent, free of sin. However, through the photo and the poem about children going to war. War is a sin and by the children going to war, means that they are committing a sin, which is totally against the common knowledge.

Topic: Students and their awareness of world matters

Topic: Students and their awareness of world matters

Hi descendants of heaven,

This post will be a short one.

Students do not really know what is happening in the world or has no feelings towards it as they feel that it does not concern them. As the Hwa Chong values say," Global Perspective". Students should start to get themselves into the matters the world is experiencing. A good example would be the Haiti earthquake. Students only know that there was such a tragic event. If to write their thoughts they can do it. However if we ask them what are you going to do about it, I am sure that in their hearts, they would not doing anything or change anything about themselves. This can also be seen from the credit crisis. Parents are suffering as their income decreases, but the children spend it like always. Students just take things for granted and they do not know how people around the world is suffering.

I feel that children should get themselves more involved in world matters. This will allow students can plan for their own future and have a clearer sight on what they really want. Students will also be more sensible in controlling what they buy during the downturn. Another familiar sight would be students not eating cleanly their plate, having leftovers or just wasting food. They would also know what their parents are going through and can understand their parents better and change their own lifestyle according to the situation.

Question: What do you think students should do? How to attract them to world matters? Are you involved? Please enter your comments in the comment box. Thanks!!!

Topic: Students and their tuition

Topic: Students and their tuition

Dear the people whom are destined to overcome hell,

My question is do students really need tuition? O is it they are scared of doing well for the exams, somewhat like not being confident in yourself. So the question lies on whether tuition is that important or that your parents are just wasting money?

Students in Singapore are known to have their lives full of activities and packed with tuition, due to rivalry between students. Now a days, the world has became more competitive as parents wants their children to be the best or at least better than his or her mother's friend? This can be said as bragging or showing off. I am sure to say that at least 85% of the students in Singapore have at least a tuition lesson per week.

For some students, the tuition is really necessary to them as they really need external help from outside sources, to guide them in the right path. Parents are willing to pay about $60 easily for a lesson as they dream that their child is the best the world has ever seen. They want to groom the child and hope that he or she could fulfill the dream that their parents were unable to do so, pinning their hopes on you and to continue the family line.

However I feel that most students are having the second scenario: The students feel that the tuition is redundant as the students feel that it is boring and studying in school i already sufficient. Them going to tuition is mainly forced by parents or the parents feel a need to. They feel that revising at home is more effective than compared to going to tuition. Tuition is also time consuming and gives extra pressure to the student as they have extra homework for tuition and less time to do school work, resulting in burning the midnight oil. Studying at home, the student feels more relaxed and comfortable, compare to tuition. The general opinion is that the tuition is boring and have no need for it and currently going due to parents.

Questions for my dear readers: Which do you think is more effective, studying at home or in tuition? If you were a parent, what would you do if you had children? Please share with me your interesting views. Thanks!!!