Blog 9: A Memorable Night in Clark Quay

This week is really an amazing week because I took part in a lot of activities. 
 My hometown is located in the northern part of China where not many concerts are held there, especially those concerts performed by pop stars. Before coming to Singapore, one of the reasons made me appreciate the place very much is that a lot of concerts will be held here. The first time I watched a real concert was invited by Ms Jenny Gan and it seems that after one live performance, I have already get addicted to live performances. Luckily, last few days, I had a chance to see a free pop concert at Clark Quay and it was a really wonderful night.

This concert is called “Music Matters” with “Singtel” as the sponsor. Two hours before the concert started when we got there, that square had already been filled with people. Those fans were shouting. It seems that they were all in really high spirit. At first, I felt too shy to show my excitement, but gradually, influenced by the environment around I no more pretended to be calm. We clapped our hands, waved our armed with the rhythm. It was the singers’ happy face made me realize that these actions are really meaningful to those singers. In the past, I watched some interviews of BigBang. In that interview, they shared their true feelings before performing concerts. They said that instead of being afraid or stressed out, surprisingly, the feeling is a mixture of gratitude and excitement. The feeling is so strong that it will drive them cry and change them to another passionate person. And that night I think really felt this kind of feeling. Some pieces sounded really different from the CD versions and sometimes I was so moved that I couldn’t help burst into tears. I don’t know why I can be such a fragile person in front of music. Although I may not understand what the original meaning the singer is delivering, I nearly had my own feeling about every piece. Sometimes, I think neither the lyric nor the melody is important because if it is really a good song it would be easy to guess the meaning from the atmosphere it creates. Maybe that is reason I like the band BigBang so much. I don’t understand Korean or Japanese and almost all of their songs appears to be really happy. But after searching the lyrics, those songs drove me cry actually have really sad stories behind. Music is really magic for me. I still remember in one song called “Play” of Khalil Fong he said that no matter where you are from, another country or another universe, music will always be the right way to get to know each other.

 Through this live performance, I talked to a lot of people and happened to find a person who has a music taste really similar to me. It is always really exciting to meet new friends. Besides, while shouting and jumping, I felt as if I have a real myself. All of us are living under a mask. We need to find a situation to let out our true feeling. And now I feel so lucky to have such a way to find myself. 

blog 8: Why Do We Need thrillers?

  Last few days I watched a video, this video is about a special variety show of some really popular stars' daily routine. This week's content is a group of Kpop stars called BigBang, who is now very popular among youths, paying a visit to the hanted house in Fuji Amusement Park in Japan.
 This hanted house is very famous because it is a lot more than a hanted house for amusement and it was recorded in the Gunies World Record as the world's most horrible haanted house. It was transformed from a real terrifying hopsital. In the past, the doctors and nurses in this hoapital manged to kill the patients who are in good health status and try to get their oragans in order to make more money. Thus, many healthy people died mysteriously here. Later on, the police noticed this strange phenomenon and gave strict punishments to this group of people. Also.this hospital was closed because of this incident.However, the buiding is still quite new, so it was redecorated and changed to what it is looked like now.
 After a brief introduction of this place, these five people started to begin their journey in this hospital. in this program, although only a very short period was recorded and showed to the audience, it is powerful enough to show its horror. The leader, who is always very tough in front of other people even couldn't move while seeing those so called "ghosts" trying to touch him. Another member kept crying out. At last,they had to get out from the emergncy exit half way. After getting out,  all of them felt extremely grateful that this all appeared just now wouldn't happen in the real life. Seeing their complicated face, I started to think, w what is the meaning of these thrillers and these haunted houses set in the amusement parks?
 I still remember in my high school, my desk mate was very addicted to watching thrillers. She started this interest after one exam, in which she didn't performed very well. Because of the bad results, she felt stressed out. In order to release this pressure, she decided to do something exciting in order to forget this pain. However, she was trapped in a wrong direction of watching thrillers. Once I remembered that someone told me that once you are getting used to the terrible scenes in thrillers, you will gradually get addicted to them. She unfortunately became a person like that. Thrillers have been a part of wasting time instead of releasing pressure. Her marks became lower and lower as the time goes by. She slept everyday in classes because she watched thrillers every night, which took up too much of her studying time. In this case, her grades fell even behind. So she need more thrillers to release her pressure.
 This is very typical vicious circle and it reminds me of drug addiction. As we all know a lot of pop stars are claimed to take drugs due to great working pressure, for example, Whitney Huston. In my own opinion, one should learn to face the pressure instead of escaping from it. Everyone has a lot to worry about, especially when getting older so it is very common to feel depressed once upon a time. What need to do is try to be strong inside. I still remember in one of my oral reports, I shared my ways of dealing with stress. I prefer some ways that can drag my attention out of the stress such as chatting or singing instead of some words which can comfort me. Because I think when we are comforting ourselves mostly it is telling a big lie.
 As for the ways of relaxing, I think traveling is the best choice. Along the way we see different scenery, get different feelings and learn to see things from another direction. But for most of us, we are not free to travel around whenever we like. In this case, I think listening to some music is a great way. At least it is a really effective way for me. Several days ago I went to see the "Music Matters" held in Clark Quay and that's a memorable experience. During that live concert, I shouted, jumped with a lot of music fans all around. I think I found myself in that event.



It has always been my strength to wander out of the topic. But whatever, I hope all of us can find the rights ways of dealing with pressure and live a healthy life both physically and mentally~

Blog10: I Love Old Songs

If you ask me what songs do you like best, I will give you the answer---old songs. Yes, it is not rock music, jazz, blue, countryside or something, I even cannot tell the difference between them. It is also not Michael Jackson’s songs, Wang Lihong’s songs or other singers’ songs. It is old songs. 

I loved music since I was four or five years old or even younger. At that time, I was crazy about listening songs and singing songs. To be honest, I was a good singer. People always said,” Oh, listen, how well this boy sings.” Certainly, as a kid, I would blush. I could sing most of the songs that were popular in that period. For those that I could not sing, I remembered their melodies. I really thought those songs sounded wonderful. 

I had a hobby of learning theme songs of TV series. I so loved watching TV series when I was in my childhood. Also, those TV series were very classic. For some of them, you could not just watch only once. As long as I watched a TV series, I could sing its theme songs.

After I entered middle school, I suddenly dislike music but I did not know why. During the three years in middle school, I never sang or listened songs. I hardly know any popular songs or singers. I did not have any equipment to enjoy music until I bought a MP3 in my grade two in senior high school. From that time, I fell in love with music again.

If you think I love old songs because they could remind me of childhood, it will be a huge mistake. I love old songs because they themselves sound great. 

I love old songs. Do you like them?

Blog 10: From the Beginning to the End of the Day

As we all know, the English bridging course is coming to an end. Almost all the assignments are finished. It is a relief to know that there will be no essays, oral reports and blogs any more in the course. As a result, almost all the students are becoming slack and lazy to some extent. Some of them may spend the whole night watching TV series until midnight; some may go out for recreations without studying for even an hour in the weekend. Is it good or bad for us to do so?

First let me tell you a story. It was reported that after the World War 2, the British air force once estimated the numbers of dead pilots. They found that the majority of pilots died when they landed their aircrafts rather than fighting with German fighters. It was very astonishing that a pilot could survive from his enemies’ attacks but fail to move his plane down onto the ground.

After some researches, scientists gave out the proper answer to this phenomenon. They believed that a pilot survived in fighting because he paid full attention to it; however, after he won the combat, he was so relaxed and happy that he controlled the plane incorrectly, and that led to the destruction of both the plane and himself.

Now let’s come back to our current situation. I think we are just like pilots who are about to land our planes. We almost succeed but we haven’t reached our success. So there is no any reason for us to relax entirely. We should not play with our phones in the class; we should not sit in front of our computers overnight. Once study is postponed, we will be thrown behind by other hardworking classmates.

Besides, the learning of English language can be a lifelong process. It will not terminate when bridging course ends. The view that once people pass the QET test, they don’t need to learn English any more is wrong. We don’t learn English for any test and we should practice it as more as possible in order to master it.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen once said, “The revolution is not yet completed, all my comrades must struggle on.” So let’s work hard to realize our dreams from the beginning to the end of the day!

Blog 10: My favorite novel

Among the novels I have seen, the Note Book of Robbing a Tomb is my favorite one. Though it is neither written by a famous writer nor be widely advertised, it stands out in the ocean of contemporary Chinese Internet novel. It is because it has so many unique advantages, Firstly, the description of people’s mentality and language is very appropriate and vivid. The novel is based on modern society, so it is easy for us to know whether what the people think and say is proper. When reading it, I can hardly find out what is improper or false. Conversely, I was totally attracted into the plot of the story and felt as if I was beside the stars experiencing the adventures together. I also admire the writer’s intelligent mind because the relationship of gains and losses between different characters in the stories are very complex. So the writer has to think out what the people may think in different situations. Secondly, the imagination of the writer is very excellent. The writer combined the history and imagination perfectly. He used some Chinese ancient mysteries, such as Nvwa, Chiyou and Huangdi’s stories and the real history of Country Lu in Zhou dynasty and Wang Canghai in Ming Dynasty which makes his imagination seem very rational and convictive. He also creates many different kinds of tombs with ingenious and grand designs with many kinds of zombies and many different ways to defeat them that you can never think out. Last but not least, the story is not superficial but has a very big hidden truth. The thought of the writer is so grand that I can hardly recognize it at first. The writer gives us clues in many details and lets us guess the truth gradually. Actually, after the first time of reading it, we will have a lot of questions so we have to think and infer through what we have known. This strongly increases the interest of the novel. That is some reasons why I love this novel very much. Actually, it has many other advantages that need you to appreciate. Only if you read it by yourself, can you feel that. Hope you can read it and have a good time.

Blog 9: An Amazing football match

I saw the final of the UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) Champions League on the morning of May 20th from 3 am to 6 am. You may not know what it means. I will make a comparison to explain it. If the winner of the World Cup is the best football team with players from the same country, the winner of UEFA Champions League is the best team with players from the same club. So the final is very important for football fans and the two teams actually gave us a great treat both in sight and in thought. The two teams were Bayern Munich and Chelsea. On their way to the final, they defeated many strong teams, such as Real Madrid and Barcelona at the cost of losing many important players, especially Chelsea. Four important players could not get on court, so the experts all thought that Bayern would win the match. Actually, they guessed most of the game correctly. Bayern controlled the match from the beginning to the end and they got a goal at almost the end of the match after wasting a lot of good chances to goal. After seeing the goal, I almost wanted to go to bed because Chelsea could hardly get any chances to goal. However, the scream of the football announcer told me that Chelsea had made a marvel that they drew the score at the end of the match. So I had to stay up. Actually, in the overtime, Bayern got a penalty, but Robben wasted it. After that, they had to play penalty to decide who the winner was. You can hardly imagine that four years ago, Chelsea was in the same situation, but they lost the shootout. However, this time, they won with great morale and confidence, though they did not have any advantages through the match. From the match, I know that even if you have great advantages, you are not bound to win the match. The one who can seize the few chances but not the one who wastes a lot of chances is the real winner. The one who drags himself out of the tragic history and cherishes today’s opportunity can win. Because of the persistence of Chelsea, it became the champion and made me go to sleep 1 hour later with a wonderful dream

Blog 10:When you meet mean people

There is an element of truth that we need to believe that a lot of nice people are around us. However, we also have to admit there is a time when we meet those mean people.When it  happens, we need to know what is the right way to do.

There are people who come with their words like knives and they use them against us. There are people who come with their voice like nails on a chalk board calling us out. There are people who come with their switching sides and their wildfire lies and their humiliation. They like to point out our flaws again and again as if we have not seen them yet. I try to block them out because I know I can never impress them. Sometimes I may even come up with the idea that they will be scolded and will feel cold, but the cycle should come to an end. I do not want to be turned into a mean person like them.  All I need to do is to be strong enough so that they cannot hit me anymore. I just need to prove that they are wrong and that they know nothing about me.

This is how I should fight back.

Blog 9: When We Meet Aliens for the First Time

Blog 9: When We Meet Aliens for the First Time

Curiosity is the nature of human being. Columbus finding the new land is an exact case. When the technology develops into a new level, human cannot satisfy with the cognition of earth. The exploration of universe is a consequent trend. The complex feeling of curious and fear cannot stop the temptation of unknown space and the possibility of the existence of alien life. Movie is a way to spread the imagination of aliens.

I have watched the District 9 these days. The movie is set in a situation in which an alien space ship comes to the earth. The space ship stays in the sky of Johannesburg. It is convinced that that space ship is for mining and because of lack of energy and the wrong guide, it fell to the earth. The phenomenons on the ship almost die out and the survivors are most unwise labor. After human cannot bare the curious, they try to connect the aliens actively after the waiting of three months without any action of alien. It is absolutely out of imagination that the aliens are like refugees and stay in a really unhealthy status. District 9, the refugee camp, has finally been build up under the space ship.

Endless non-reward help and the disturbance of aliens make people there cannot stand them. The most important part is the discrimination of alien that the alien gain in vain. There must be a reason why aliens can stay here. That is benefits. A big company MNU wants to gain the weapon technology from aliens.

Aliens in the imagination of human ether from movies or novels are magical and with high-level civilization and high tech. But it is thoroughly not the same in the movie. The figure of alien in the movie is completely a socially inferior. In this situation, abomination, aversion and disdain spread among people. Thanks to the “human right advocates”, these prawn-like aliens will not go through the same disaster like Indian.

Scientist Hawking once has predicted what aliens will be like and said human should not explore the universe blindly. Only if the aliens who we find are with high level of intelligent, they may treat human as slaves. However, nobody knows when the best time to get contact with extraterrestrial life is.

Same as dreaming of flying, human are “lonely” now and are eager to find partners. At the same time, we had better to improve ourselves first. No one knows what the universe is like and whether there is alien. What will happen when we know the whole universe and what will us curious about?

Like many extraterrestrial theme films, District 9 is just an imagination. Without stars in it and take the form of interview and reports, District 9 achieves great success. If you are interest in it, it deserves to be seen.

Blog 9：Some Reflections of Give Programme

Recently, I always hear my friends complaining about the Service Programme and I feel quite sorry for them. They have gathered such a lot of money, but because of many reasons, they could not go to those institutions to help the children, and they could only donate the money to them.

As for me, I took part in the Give Programme. As it has just ended last week, I’d like to talk about some reflections of it. Unlike some classmates who have the opportunity to teach the students something about Chinese or Chinese Culture, my teammates and I were only expected to help the teachers in a Secondary School to correct the Chinese compositions of the students. Although it may not seem to be as meaningful as being a teacher, I still learned a lot from it.

When I was correcting the students’ Chinese compositions, I found that it was not an easy job for me at all! The students made some grammar mistakes and they could not write the Chinese characters correctly, either. Sometimes it is obvious that they just composed their works in English and then translated it into Chinese. Thus, it could be difficult for me to understand their writings sometimes. This reminds me of our own English essays. I am quite sure that when our tutors are correcting our essays, they share the same feeling as well. In some occasions, the sentence structures are wrong, while in other cases, it just doesn’t sound natural to a native reader.

We have been told by our tutors many times that we could not express ourselves in a native way and we all know that this is because that we share different culture backgrounds and different language backgrounds. However, from my experience of correcting the Chinese compositions of some Singaporean students, I have better understandings of this issue and I consider it a big barrier that we have to overcome as quickly as possible.

As we are going to study in NUS, we will have to write a lot of essays in our university studies. Therefore, I sincerely suggest that we all look into this problem and try our best to avoid making such mistakes from now on.

Blog 10 My last blog

    This is the last blog that I should write in the bridging course, and it may be the last one in my whole life.

    I have wrote nine blog so far, and all of them took me quite a long time to think, analyze and type. To be honest, I like think, speak rather than write. However, through the blogs I have done, I found that sometimes write your thoughts down is indeed the better choice.

While writing, we need to 1. Write enough words(This means we must search or come up with more ideas.) 2. Use complete and brief sentences(Put our opinions in order and combine similar arguments.) 3. Express strong opinions(This helps us to choose proper ideas and requires us to think twice before write.) 4. Find our whether or not are we interested in the topics we choose(I was always changing topic while writing blogs.)

In conclusion, the experience of writing blogs did teach me something about the importance of writing. However, as I mentioned before, I still do not like writing-- no matter what kind. Maybe because I am too lazy to hold a pen or type. A wise man should develop the habit of reading and writing, and I am struggling on the way to it. 

As I am not good enough in writing, I want to share with you some of my reading experience and suggestions. If you can hardly agree with me, please argue with me. 

1. Internet novels may seem interesting and exciting, but reading them is actually a waste of time(I know because I tried......)

2. History stories are quite useful for writing essays in China, and they will also lead you to the life principle which is suitable for you.

3. Philosophy books are usually boring(except for the very famous one: <<Sophie's World>> ), but they are good for forming a critical mind, the ability of asking good questions and the courage to imagine.

4. The kind of books that I like best is called Wu Xia, and my favourite writer is Gu Long. His words are really beautiful, and the plots will always hold your breath. My suggestion is : Try it only if you have plenty of free time.

Now, let's come to the Q&A part.

Any questions?

blog 9: Visit a grave to cherish the memory of the dead

I just want to say-death is not a pathetic thing.
 Every year on the day before the New Year’s Day, my father, my uncles and I would visit some graves of elders in family. Some graves are far away from my home. Hence, we need to get up early so that we can not miss our breakfast. By the way, we should visit all the graves before breakfast. It is a rule which everyone knows and obeys.
 I cannot remember which year it was. It was rather cold then. Every year at that time the temperature is rather low. All of us were in feather dresses and gloves. After about fifteen minutes’ ride, we arrived at our destination. Our eyebrows and hair were covered with white frost. Those graves located on a barrow which swelled outwards from the surface. It was because the soil of the other part of this land had been taken away to play the role of some house’s foundation. Beside the graves was a river. It was frozen then. I tried to slide on it, but my father called me back soon. I surely didn’t have enough fun there. Well, now, I dare not do that anymore. I have watched the first episode of The Ten Commandments in which a little boy drowned in a frozen river. Some jujube trees surrounded the graves, which was convenient for us to hang our firecrackers.
 We set off our firework, burned some paper made to resemble money and burned as an offering to the dead and kowtowed to the graves one by one. After all, we were going to leave. Right then, a fat man appeared in front of us. He had fur clothing and glasses on, with a basket of firework and ghost money in his hand. Apparently, he had the same aim as us. But he was so well-dressed that I doubted whether he was there enjoying some kind of scenes. Of course he was not enjoying. Who would wander alone among some no-leaves trees, stepping on bloody hard earth and dead wood and leaves with the bloody low temperature under zero? In addition, he did look a little fidget.
 Now, he asked. I cannot remember every word of his question. It was probably about the graves which belonged to some typical family. He said that they had been there the year before. Well, now, he found himself not able to find them.
 “Do you know what happened to them?”
 “No!” we were quite sure about it, “we don’t know anything about it.”
 To be honest, we felt quite delighted on our way back. We were all the time talking about that fat guy, who had lost his root.

Blog 9

Blog 9 My reflection on bridging course With the time flying, our bridging course is going to its end. When I was reviewing the words in my vocabulary book, thousands of fragments of memory were flashing in my mind. Then, I realize that I have spent more six months here. I remember that six months ago, everything is fresh. At that time, we were all unfamiliar with each other. I could not find where to eat my lunch. I dare not eat foods in the class. Also, I expected that I will get a big improvement in English. I planned to study English very hard. I intended to spare no efforts. However, that is not I have done during the last six months. I have spent a lot of time playing computer games, watching movies and hanging with friends. During that time, for many times, I had found that problem, I had thought of various ways to change. I have made up my minds many times to study and do not play games. However, I did not keep any of those plans up. Not long after I began each of my plans, during the past six months, I would quit. There were many reasons for me to explain why I had quitted, but I do not want to, because the result is that I did not form any habits during the six months. I have not insisted doing one thing which makes me upset. So, now, I get a belief: in the rest of my life, once I have decided to do one thing, I will try my best to achieve it on matter how hard it is. Maybe, during the process, I will think it is inefficient, and I may think I can make a better plan to follow, but I will not quit it. I will keep it up. I am glad I get this feeling. I consider this one of the best lessons that I have learnt in CELC. Look, just now, I have made another resolution. I really hope I can keep it up.

Blog9: Dream

In this blog, I want to talk something about dreams. What is the dream? You can say “I dream a dream”. You can say “I have a dream”. You also can say “I have achieved a dream”. In different situations, “dream” represents different symbols, but there is one thing in common. That is, dream is the hope. This hope maybe is small. Just like eat a delicious meal. This hope maybe is splendid. Just like the ambition to change this world. No matter what the dream is, it is our own decision. I think every dream has its reason to exist. Why? It is because every dream could have significant meaning for certain persons. Even though the dream is merely to drink a cup of water, perhaps it is a tiny thing for you, but it could be the only and invaluable dream for an adventurer who gets lost in a desert.

What are my dreams in the university? I think they are quite simple. First of all, I want to keep a healthy body. In my opinion, regardless of staying in any circumstance, we should give the first priority to “health”. There is Chinese proverb saying, ”health is the prerequisite for doing anything (身体是革命的本钱) ”. Without health, even though we have countless money, I do not think we could lead a happy life. I love playing tennis. I will stick to this hobby. After all, playing it is not only wholesome, but could help me to get CCA. We only have one time to live. From the time our mothers tolerated an immeasurable pain to give us life, we should know that we are not only living for ourselves, but for the people who love and worry about us. Thus, to some degree, we carry a responsibility to take good care of ourselves. Second, I want to get a good result in my study. I do not agree with someone’s idea that study is suffering and useless compared with “communicational ability”; instead, I think it is the study that gives avenge people an equal opportunity to fulfill their self-worth and help them to live better. I know in the world, some people, like Bill Gates and Ma Yun, have enough aptitude in a certain area, so the tertiary experience may only postpone their time to succeed. Nevertheless, I do not think I am a person like them. Therefore, I really cherish this opportunity. Third, I want to cultivate my social skills. In the contemporary society, we need to cooperate with others and become a competent teammate. This age is no longer the time when our life could be changed by a single person. On the contrary, nowadays, the advancement of technology should be based on collaboration and optimal distribution of the labor resource. I could remember in my Chinese university, a senior once told me that “if you only study well in the university, you are not a winner.” Every moment what he said fleshed through my mind, I cannot help but to reflect my life, encouraging myself to become a well-rounded person. Last but not least, I want to have romantic love. In the past 18 years, I did not dare to touch it and bravely pursue it. Now, I will no longer cover my emotion. From my perspective, without love, a person’s university experience is not intact. Maybe this comment is too absolute, because in many cases, love is a kind of destiny(缘分). Of course, I will not force myself to get love for the sake of drawing away loneliness or using it as a symbol of becoming mature. I am very serious and prudent about love. I hope this love could become my one but the only one love in my lifetime. Love could give us excessive happiness, but it could also badly hurt us. No matter what the result is, when I graduate from university, at least, I could say that there “is” or “was” a girl that let me want to do anything for her.

After reading the above paragraph, you may think jiangze’ s dreams are quite commonplace. This is me. I do not want to have sensations. What I want to have is just leading a peaceful life with the people who I love deeply.

“There is no perfection only life”. (Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being) Cherish what we ever had. Enjoy what we already have. Pursue what we want to have. Forget what we cannot have. This is the life, filling with unpredictable changes but happiness and love never leave us away!   

blogger 9: Initial D----Jay's show

     Last weekend, I watched a famous film called Initial D, which tells a story about car racing and the development of a genius car racer. In fact, as a fan of Jay Chow, it was a pity for me to not see the film entirely before, although I have listened to the theme song. The name of the film may sound strange at first. The Initial D refers to the word Drift, which means a kind of driving technique---passing the turning without the revolving of the back wheels. This can help racers drive at a fast speed, even at turnings without lowering speed.
      When it refers to "car racing", people tend to think of the charm and excitement as well as danger. The main character in the film is a school student who helped his father send tofu early in the morning in his adorable car---AE86. Somehow like Jay, the character was a shy and humble boy. He never boasted how great he could drive although his talent was excellent, and even when he faced the girl he loved, he was too nervous to say a word. He led an ordinary life before he digged out his potential, and he was often beaten by his drunk father who was also once a promising car racer but he gave up his career and started selling tofu.
      The fisrt time Jay drove  his car sending tofu was when he was only a secondary student. He had to drive across a mountain which had a lot of sharp turnings. Gradually, he could master one of the hardest driving technique---Drift and spent less time finishing his task. When some part-time car racers came and  competed with him, he won by his outstanding driving talent. However, his fame spelt some professional racers who had much better cars. Jay was so anxious as he could not catch up with them that he drove his car breaking down. His strict father taught him that the most important thing for a racer is never to mind competing with others but yourself. If you want to win, the first and the last one the beat is yourself. This may sound contradict but it quite true, as if one always focus on winning other, he may be distracted by the results.
      After enlighted by his father and learning some professional knowledge, Jay managed to win those arrogent all-time racers. However, he found that his girlfriend was not perfact and even committed something that was not so graceful, he was so frustrated. Maybe this is the true feeling of youth, full of happiness and sadness, excitement and disappointment.
       When watching the film, I could still see the unmature big boy--Jay, who now is a 33-year-old super star. Recently, in the film---Green Hornet, Jay showed his talent in music and performing to Americans. Likely, in Initial D, I want to taste the authentic feeling of youth---challenging the extreme of myself.

Blog 10: Christianity and Me

Since I came to Singapore, I have been receiving much religious information, most of which is about Christianity. For instance, my "host family" is actually a church; I took a learning course (Cultural Cornerstone) conducted by tutors who are pastors; I joined in a youth camp organized by Salvation Army and so on. Nowadays, I has formed a habit to go to the church I always went to on Saturday to pray.

After more than 5 months' experiencing of Christianity, I has formed some opinions of my own about this most well-known religion in the world and also about what attitude we Chinese students should hold towards it.

The first point I want to mention is that I think Christianity is a positive mature religion in Singapore. In every district, you can find churches and there will always be prays in weekends. According to my experience, these followers really believe in Jesus and always make efforts to evangelize. Also, it could be strongly felt that Christianity has play a great an positive role in their life. All of these shows that Christianity has developed into a mature and positive religion in Singapore.

Moreover, I think we Chinese students, especially scholars like us in Singapore should try to learn something about Christianity and experience the life of Christians. Since we are bound to live in Singapore for at least 10 years and there is a great chance that we would go to western countries for further development, it would be better for us to know about Christianity. At least, it is no harm to do so, isn't it?

Lastly , I just want to share some personal feelings. I am not a Christian and I don't think I would be one in foreseeable time. However, my church gladly received me, a rather strange member. The pastor allows me to go to the church every Saturday and receive the Holy Communion. It gives a warm feeling and reflects the open mind of Christians. What's more, every time I go to the church, I would achieve absolute peace in my mind. All the worries, concerns, tasks are left behind me. With the melodic hymns among the devout believers,I can feel a pure joy rising from my heart. It is a kind of euphoria much superior to the superficial joy i get in my daily life. The last point I want to mention is that in the church, we can make friends with a group of people who are straight, honest, kind and devout. Although my friends in class, in hostel are also good people, I feel extremely warm and safe with them, especially in a foreign country without my parents. The suggestions from the pastors, the comfort from friends, the study we together did all gave me much help in fitting into the society here and did make some changes to my life.

Thus, wish we could learn Christianity and be blessed by Jesus, Father Almighty.

Blog 9: My First Debate

Today, May 15^th, is a memorable day in my life because it is my first time to be a debater. I used to think that debates are rather boring. However, it is today when I realize that debates are instead quite interesting. It is true that sometimes you can never tell what things are like unless you take them. If you do so, there may be surprise.

In fact, debates do good to improve one’s ability to deliver his or her opinions to others. Debaters can also polish up their skill of collecting and selecting information that is used as proof.

First of all, it is always a challenge for most of the students to make themselves clear and understood. Many people will say: “I don’t know how to say” during their speeches. However, in a debate, there is no time for hesitation. One must keep talking and delivering his or her thoughts to the audience; if one hesitates or pauses, he or her may be shot down by the opposite debaters and thus, lose the debate. Time is fairly precious during the debate. As a result, a debate can urge a person to reason and rebut quickly, forcing him or her to improve unconsciously. I was surprised by my performance today: I talked quite fluently with firm tone as if I was speaking in my mother tongue Cantonese. When my classmate told me that I sounded not nervous at all, I couldn’t believe it but of course, I was also glad that I’ve achieved a lot in my oral English during the bridging course. I’ve conquered the fear in my mind.

Besides, if a debater wants to win, it is necessary to bring up enough supporting details to back up his or her stands. I think that is one of my shortcomings and also the reason why we did not win today. If there is not enough proof brought up, even if you are a native speaker who masters the language quite well cannot win. Facts make the audience believe what the debater claims. To make us convincing and persuasive, we should speak with evidences.

Today’s debate is a very good chance for me to improve. I’ve gained a lot from it, which makes me even happier than winning the debate, honestly speaking. I am not hesitated any longer; I will seize every chance that I encounter to improve myself in the future.

Blog 8: My Favorite Card Game

When it comes to card games, I will think of the Chinese famous card game---War of Three Kingdoms, which is also my favorite card game. In three years, the game has been very popular in China or even some other countries. Why is this game so popular? Now, I will introduce it to you. It is a perfect card game with a wonderful combination of history and game. The game has four kinds of cards, which are character cards, identity cards, life cards and fundamental playing cards. As for the character cards, their designs are based on the historical incidents and stories and the characters are the famous historical people in the last few years of the Han Dynasty and the time of three kingdoms. Moreover, every character has its own special skills according to the history and even between characters there are restrictive or beneficial relations. Thus, when playing the game, we have a lot of fun because of the complex relations between different characters and in the meantime, we can have a much deeper memory of the history and greater respect and pride for our culture. There are two kinds of characters, which are civil officers and military officers. Civil officers usually have three lives and two skills and military officers have four lives and one skill. As you can see, the game is well designed to keep a good balance between characters. The fundamental playing cards are including equipment cards, basic cards and scheme cards. The variety of playing cars of fundamental cards strongly promotes the strategy and the interest of the game because which character uses which kind of cards at what time all needs your careful thought. Apart from the cards, I will tell you some other fantastic features of the game. There are four styles of games, which are identification game, one-to-one game, three-to-three game and one- god-character-to-three game. Among these styles, the most popular one is identification game because in this kind of game, every character has its own task. What they should do is to guess others’ identification and try to win with whatever ways. So it strongly increases the game’s enjoyment and usage of strategies. To play the game, we have two ways. One is to play online and another is to play with friends face to face with cards. Both ways have unique advantages. The online game has good background music and characters’ dialogues. Face-to-face game gives us opportunity to communicate with others and have fun. From the game, I have learned a lot of wonderful strategies which can also be used in real life. There are two things that make me love this game more. One is that I received a set of complete edition of cards on my birthday. Another one is that I gained a wonderful victory with my friend online to celebrate my birthday. I love this game so much. Do you love this game now?

Blog 9: A long gaze

Today is Mother’s day. When I count the days, I am surprised to find that I have left mother for 183 days. Actually, though mom always keeps garrulous around me before, I really miss her. When I recall the scene that mother and father saw me off in the airport, I remember a piece of prose which moved me for a long time: parents are predestinated to watch their children drift further and further away forever. It’s just like standing at one end of the road and looking at the child’s back until he or she eventually turns a corner and vanishes. It’s like sending a message: ‘Just stay there and fole with your eyes,’(我慢慢地、慢慢地了解到，所谓父女母子一场，只不过意味着，你和他的缘分就是今生今世不断地在目送他的背影渐行渐远。你站立在小路的这一端，看着他逐渐消失在小路转弯的地方，而且，他用背影告诉你：不必追。----《目送》) Since we are a child, we kept struggling going out even not turning back and watch for a time. It is because we know that there must be the firm and selfless love behind us to support us, so we are accustomed to take it for granted. Moreover, for me, when I am outside, I always try to be a good student, a kind friend, even dreaming to be a good wife in the future, but I am not consider to be a good daughter at all. When I call my mother, I am always not willing to tell her many things happened around me because I think we have a deep gap and she cannot truly understand me. It is not until in Thursday I sent a bouquet to her, she was so moved and showed off to all her colleagues. When I called her and told her some very simple things happened around me, she was so excited. Actually, I have never thought that even a very simple thing can make her so happy. I feel so guilty and regretful for what I have done before. Maybe when we are middle aged, we will possess all the wealth, reputation and status we keep pursuing. However, when we calm down, we probably find that our parents are old, our children are struggling to escape from us, our friends are estranged with us, our relatives are busying to run their lives. I, a person that be thought have possessed everything, just have inability to keep them stay and just leave a long gaze on their back. When we grow up day by day, we always ignore something precious. I just want to say, as their children, at least during the days of our parents, we should try to keep in touch frequently with them instead of making them leave a long gaze on us. Actually, there is a video moving me for a long time, just share with you:http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjM5NjU3MjQ=.html

Blog 8:We are young

We are young

  When talking about young, how is young? I think differernt people will have different opinion. Copared with our parents, not matter how old are we, we are still young. Compared with the nature, human beings are always young. Compared with the sun, the earth is young. Compared with galaxy, the sun is young. Compared with universe, the galaxy is also young. Everything and everyone can be young, so how can we identify young. For human beings, we can define youth by age. Maybe, 14 years old is young, maybe 18, maybe 20, even 30, 40.

 

  However, I think “Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind.” For all human beings, without a young and energetic mind, no matter how young in physical they are, there is no difference between them and geezers without any vitality. Thus, to keep young, the first thing what we need to do is keeping our hearts young and holding a positive attitude. At the same time, cherishing our precious time should not be neglected either. We should not be addicted to computer games and entertainments. On the contrary, we need pay more attention to academic aspects. Opportunities favor the prepared mind. Thus, we need enough preparations to grasp opportunities and achieve our goals.

  

  To be young does not mean naive. On the contrary, I think it is sagacious. Nobady can be eternal, but change our attitude, we can always be young, isn't it? I think no matter when, we are young.

  Follwing is a poem introduced by Xiangyu. Thanks for is introduction

 

YOUTH POEM

By: Samuel Ullman

Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind,

it is a temper of the will,

a quality of the imagination,

a vigor of the emotions,

a predominance of courage over timidity,

of the appetite for adventure over love of ease.

Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.

People grow old only by deserting their ideals.

Years wrinkle the skin,

but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

Worry, doubt, self-distrust,

fear and despair - these are the long,

long years that bow the head and

urn the growing spirit back to dust.

Whether they are sixteen or seventy,

there is in every being's heart

the love of wonder,

the sweet amazement at the stars

and star like things and thoughts,

the undaunted challenge of events,

the unfailing childlike appetite

for what is to come next,

and the joy and the game of life.

You are as young as your faith,

as old as your doubt;

as young as your self-confidence,

as old as your fear,

as young as your hope,

as old as your despair.

When the wires are all down

and all the innermost core of your heart

is covered with the snows of pessimism

and the ice of cynicism,

then you are grown old indeed.

But so long as your heart receives messages

of beauty, cheer, courage, grandeur

and power from the earth,

from man and from the Infinite,

so long you are young.