From the article, we can see that upon the release of this year’s O’level results, twelve of the twenty-five students with nine A1s come from outside Singapore. This shows that foreigners here are indeed scoring well and achieving good grades. They are excelling in their studies. Ask any students and they will say or have a mindset that says that those foreign students, especially some Chinese students, do exceptionally well in their academics. Most of the time, they will have straight A’s for their exams.
Why is this so? The English standard of Chinese students when they just arrive in Singapore is relatively poor. To be able to hold a basic conversation with some of them is actually a great feat what more calling them to read and write. The language medium of any paper is English. Perhaps for various subjects, language does not play a big role. But it more or less affects the level of comprehension of questions for the various subjects. Thus it also can affect their answers. The worst of all is the English paper. Yet they still did well. Perhaps most of them being a few years older have a better grasps of various concepts with only the different language terms to overcome. That is why they start doing well in the various subjects after they had adapted to their new environment.
However, I feel that most importantly, it is their perseverance that matters. They give in all that they have for the English papers. They put in a lot of hard work just to score well. Judging the fact that they left their homeland to have education here, by scoring well will be the best thing that makes this trip here a worthwhile one.
This is needless to say the push factor which had motivated them to do so well. Some Singaporeans on the other hand does not seem to have such a strong drive in them. Having a good education system and sufficient facilities, it made them more laid back. Thus, they are not as motivated. Perhaps if they are willing to push themselves a little bit more, there might be a higher percentage of local students getting nine A1s. Nevertheless, these foreign students had indeed done well in their O’levels and they really deserve their credit.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Youth crime
Blog 2
After reading the article, I am rather relieved to know that the youth crime rate had dropped by 30% of last year. From this we can know that there were indeed improvements made as compared to the previous years. It shows us that Singapore is indeed a safe country. No doubt there are crimes, but it is just a slight minority of Singaporeans, thus it is still safe. In the article, it also states that there was actually a drop in crime rate last year as compared to the previous years’ rising crime rate. I feel that it is partially due to the police efforts to reach out directly to parents of youth loitering late at night.
By doing this, it keeps the parents more informed of their children’s action. With more awareness, they can thus play a role in monitoring them and help curb youth crimes. Children will usually go astray if not controlled and taken care of properly, leading to them committing crimes which could ruin their life. Initially I thought that what police did was not going to work because I had the impression that such juvenile delinquents do not really obey their parents. However, seeing the report from the article, it shows a result that is otherwise, proofing the power of parental influence. Not only at home, even in school, the principal emphasizes on discipline. Usually before the holidays, the principals will give a speech and remind us not to commit crimes. Their constant reminders sometimes might not be really registered in our mind, but at least I feel, it is more or less useful in helping to prevent youth crimes by telling us the right from the wrong.
After reading the article, I am rather relieved to know that the youth crime rate had dropped by 30% of last year. From this we can know that there were indeed improvements made as compared to the previous years. It shows us that Singapore is indeed a safe country. No doubt there are crimes, but it is just a slight minority of Singaporeans, thus it is still safe. In the article, it also states that there was actually a drop in crime rate last year as compared to the previous years’ rising crime rate. I feel that it is partially due to the police efforts to reach out directly to parents of youth loitering late at night.
By doing this, it keeps the parents more informed of their children’s action. With more awareness, they can thus play a role in monitoring them and help curb youth crimes. Children will usually go astray if not controlled and taken care of properly, leading to them committing crimes which could ruin their life. Initially I thought that what police did was not going to work because I had the impression that such juvenile delinquents do not really obey their parents. However, seeing the report from the article, it shows a result that is otherwise, proofing the power of parental influence. Not only at home, even in school, the principal emphasizes on discipline. Usually before the holidays, the principals will give a speech and remind us not to commit crimes. Their constant reminders sometimes might not be really registered in our mind, but at least I feel, it is more or less useful in helping to prevent youth crimes by telling us the right from the wrong.
Family plays a critical role in a society. Do you agree?
MARVEl TAN
I agree that a family plays a critical role in a society. It is from a family where everything begins. Family is a base unit of a society. It is what constitutes to form a country. From a macro perspective, it shows the society’s identity. It tells us a lot of it from the way a family thinks, work, play and behave. Comparing a typical and traditional Asian family to a normal European family, both have a different way of doing things. Asian families are usually very conservative in their way of thinking. For various situations, they settle it according to beliefs and mindset based on strong morale values and in a conformist way, whereas for European families, they are more open minded on various issues, thinking that if it does not harm and hurt anyone or themselves, it will be fine. And so families in this case actually serve as an ambassador of a society. They are the ones that give outsiders a certain impression of a society, setting a reputation.
When zoom to see it from a micro perspective, it is a place where the imparting of knowledge occur. In a family, the parents educate their children, teaching them various values, guiding them towards adulthood. As the children are often with their parents, they are heavily influenced by them. Whatever the parents do, the children will follow suit. This is the point where it is important. The younger generation is the future of tomorrow. They must be guided properly so that they, with the necessary skills, will be able to bring the country to greater heights. The society and nation depends on them. Hence family plays major role and it is about the nurturing of good citizens and future leaders of the nation. If the family does not do its part properly, it will be more of a disadvantage to the nation in the future and the society will have a hard time progressing.
Family is a place where warmth can be felt. Members of a family will share love, care and concern to each other, felling his sense of attachment; their close relationship will be even more bonded. In this way they can feel the essence of living and be able to enjoy life to its fullest extent since humans have emotions. With such a positive atmosphere and united spirit, it will definitely do more good than harm to the society.
I agree that a family plays a critical role in a society. It is from a family where everything begins. Family is a base unit of a society. It is what constitutes to form a country. From a macro perspective, it shows the society’s identity. It tells us a lot of it from the way a family thinks, work, play and behave. Comparing a typical and traditional Asian family to a normal European family, both have a different way of doing things. Asian families are usually very conservative in their way of thinking. For various situations, they settle it according to beliefs and mindset based on strong morale values and in a conformist way, whereas for European families, they are more open minded on various issues, thinking that if it does not harm and hurt anyone or themselves, it will be fine. And so families in this case actually serve as an ambassador of a society. They are the ones that give outsiders a certain impression of a society, setting a reputation.
When zoom to see it from a micro perspective, it is a place where the imparting of knowledge occur. In a family, the parents educate their children, teaching them various values, guiding them towards adulthood. As the children are often with their parents, they are heavily influenced by them. Whatever the parents do, the children will follow suit. This is the point where it is important. The younger generation is the future of tomorrow. They must be guided properly so that they, with the necessary skills, will be able to bring the country to greater heights. The society and nation depends on them. Hence family plays major role and it is about the nurturing of good citizens and future leaders of the nation. If the family does not do its part properly, it will be more of a disadvantage to the nation in the future and the society will have a hard time progressing.
Family is a place where warmth can be felt. Members of a family will share love, care and concern to each other, felling his sense of attachment; their close relationship will be even more bonded. In this way they can feel the essence of living and be able to enjoy life to its fullest extent since humans have emotions. With such a positive atmosphere and united spirit, it will definitely do more good than harm to the society.
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