8th and 9th March

FIRST blog, 8^th March

It had been two day since I reach China, TianJin. A lot of things had happened during these two days             – waiting at airport, boarding plane and first time at TianJin – Watching the scenery on the plane for the first time is quite exciting to me. But it cannot compare to the excitement from the time when we almost miss our flight from Guan Zhou to TianJin. We went to the basement boarding area to wait for our plane. We are not sure whether we were at the correct place, but we just make do with our assumption and decided to wait at the basement. We felt something is amiss when we spent over 40 minutes waiting at the basement. Gary and Dean took the initiative to ask the people at the reception counter and found out that we were at the wrong boarding gate, it is at the 3^rd floor. We were late, time is pressing! We ran like our lives depend on it. We were lucky as when we reach the right boarding area, it was still in the last call for people that are late.  

Two things can be learned from this experience. Firstly, every decision that we make is important, we need to clarify our doubts before making a decision, not hastily. Only with the correct information, than can we make the correct decision. Lastly, do not assume! For example, only one person in a group needs to bring an item. If the people in the group assumed each other will bring the item, in the end, there will be no one that will bring the item out.

9^th march

Yesterday, In the afternoon, there was an orientation that lets us understand what will we be doing during the IS lesson, also let us getting to know our partner from the TianJin university and interacting with them. There was a tour around the school after a 5 minutes introduction. I was just walking around aimlessly with my buddy until we were called back to meet the teacher. We were allowed to go after meeting the teacher. There was no clear instruction on what was needed to do. So I assumed that it was free time and went to eat dinner before walking back to the hotel. At night, my teachers told the class that we should have contacted the teachers before deciding what to do. I thought about what the teachers had said and felt that it was true. The teachers are responsible of the group, they will be worried if they do not know where we are at. So with just a sentence of where I will be, is able to let the teacher to worry less. This taught me to think more of the situation for the people responsible for me.

Learning Plan

To: Mr Tan, Mr Chua

Wong Jia Wei, S10084407G

Individual Learning Plan

v  Things to learn from the trip:

Culture, ethics and history of china.

v  Why?

Culture

As a Singaporean that is born in Singapore, having lived in Singapore for almost 18 years, I can say that I know most of the culture in Singapore. But I am still ignorant of the cultures all around the world, outside of Singapore. That is why I also wish to find out and understand more about the cultures of others countries. So using this chance of going to Tian Jin in china, understanding the culture in Tian Jin can be the first stop in my pursues for my learning of the cultures of other countries.

Ethics

Ethics in every countries is different. For example, people in Japan feel that when eating noodles, it is a necessary to slurp while you eat. As it is a form of showing that the noodle prepared by the cook is delicious and the cook will be happy. If not, it is a form of insult to the cook. But in western countries and even in china, slurping while you eat is very disturbing to the people at your surroundings. As the ethics practiced let them think that slurping while eating is not polite. So if people from Japan travel to other countries and slurp while eating noodle, it will offend the people around the Japan tourist. Therefore, learning of the ethics in different countries allows you to leave a good impression on the people in the country you are visiting.

History of china

As I am a Chinese, I want to know about the history of my own race and the place where my ancestors comes from. Without all those history, I will not be at here. And also the history of China is very vast and fascinating. To me it is very interesting. For example, the events of the three kingdoms and how the Qing dynasty unify china and built the great wall of china. Knowing the history of the country enable you to communicate better with the locals.

Main focus

My main focus will be on learning the history of china. Especially about the history of the Great Wall Of China. I have chosen this as among the history of china, this is one of the biggest accomplishment and also one of the history that I am most interested in.

5       Questions

        1)        What is the culture of China?

-          The differences between China and Singapore.

        2)       The ethics of China?

-          Differences between China and Singapore.

        3)       How is the Great Wall of China built?

-          How many people were used and who is the person that built it.

        4 )       Why Great wall of China was built?

-          The uses of it.

        5)       Any other accomplishment done in the Qing dynasty?

-          Things that are accomplish like the Great Wall of China.

v  Global skills

Comfort level with strangers

As I will be uncomfortable around people unless it is people that I had known for a long period of time.  So whenever I change into a new environment with total strangers, I need to take quite a long time before I am able to become friends with the strangers. This skill is important as in future, the changing of environment and meeting of new people will be very often. For example, even in poly, every five or six months, there will be a change of class. So learning this skill can let me be able to adapt to new environment faster.

Willingness to take initiative

There are many occasions whereby I have something that I want to do, but do not dare to take initiative. Letting the opportunity to slip away. By learning this skill, I hope to be able to grab hold of chances when it appeared and not let the chances slip pass again.

Interpersonal skills

Communicating with people is very important and also a necessary. But I thinks that I am not able to communicate well with people, so I hope to acquire this skill. So that in future, it will help me in working aspect or others.

v  Ways to learn

To learn the history of china.

-I hope to go visit the places where it happens. As going in real life to visit these places will be a totally different feeling compared to watching it on televisions.

-I will research using the internet, as internet contains a lot of information.

-Watching video regarding the history will also help me to understand more about it.