iHongee - English!

6th Post | Assessment

2009-04-15T23:44:00.001-07:00

Commentary on “Exam Obsession Churns out Rote Learners”

Summary

This forum article by Mr Jonathan Kwok points out the main problem in Singapore’s exam-centric education system. He compares our education system to that of America’s, which he quoted from Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam as being a “talent meritocracy”. He points out that Singapore’s education system constantly creates rote learning top scorers that “lack the initiative, creativity, passion and courage needed to succeed in the real world.” He suggests a change, where companies even out the starting pay of graduates with different academic degrees.

Commentary

Rote Learning, as commonly defined, is a study method which mainly focuses on repetitive work and intense memorization rather a thorough understanding of the subject. During the exams, the student merely regurgitates the information that he memorized. It has been a popular exam study strategy used in many Asian countries.
Mr Jonathan Kwok mentions rote learning Singaporeans lacking talent and very few became successful in the future. I beg to differ.

Singapore does indeed have a strong reputation for rote learning. However, as much as our reputation goes, Singapore also constantly produces globally required talents which later go on to shine in their respective fields and success stories which follow one after the other, and not just from test results.

Singapore students annually participate in many globally renowned competitions. Examples such as Thinkquest, Destination Imagination and many Mathematics and Scientific Olympiads, all require one or more of the following, research work, creativity, linguistic skills, scientific understanding and knowledge inquiry. All these skills could not simply be memorized or perfected through repetition alone. They also require the students to have a degree of talent and a highly in-depth of the subject matter. Singapore has shown its talent by doing very well in these competitions. Year after year Singaporeans clinched the top few positions and the various awards the competition has to offer. Exam centric, yes, rote learners, maybe, but still the results are shown, we have talent and we have an important part to play on the world stage.

The adult community in Singapore is an even more obvious example of Singapore’s numerous talents. For instance, Mr Lim Chuan Poh, the chairman of the famous local research agency A*Star, was recently noted as one of the top 8 people in the research world to watch in 2009 by the prestigious Science Journal, which is based in America. This is clear evidence that Singapore’s scientific contributions to the world is not to be overlooked, as this recognition doesn’t just come from Mr Lim’s work alone, but the whole of A *Star, who had worked fervently to provide Singapore and the world with top of the line research facilities, such as the Fusionpolis and the Biopolis, which is going to be finished this year, would be even better equipped with scientific instruments. And why do they bother doing so? It is because Singaporeans have talent, and a lot of it, and all these talents can be used to contribute to the fields of Life Sciences, Engineering and Physics.

(A*Star chief in top-8 list of Science journal –Prime, The Straits Times)

Another serious flaw of Mr Jonathan Kwok’s argument is that he claims that Singapore produces very little of top scientists. This might be true to an extent, but one must realize that he was comparing with America which, is not just bursting with resources, people and top grade universities, but the scale of it is much bigger than Singapore as well. Singapore admittedly has many limitations, such as land, manpower, money and resources. But even with those limitations, we could still be highly prominent in the scientific world, we are still being recognized as a hub of learning and research, and we have produced talents which are on par and even better than many of American’s top scientists, how much is rote learning in our education truly pulling us down? Considerably little!

Perhaps Science is Singapore’s forte, and you may argue that by applying a few memorized concepts it is still possible to make a few scientific discoveries, and what about literary and performing arts you say, the fields that require creativity and specialized talents? Singapore does equally well. We have top musicians such as Kit Chan, and scriptwriters that have been on Broadway and many talented composers that are not ashamed to name Singapore as their homeland. They grew up in similar environments as you and I, and undergo the equally exam demanding education system, but did that cause them to lose talent, creativity and all the abilities to succeed in life. Were these talents lacking in exam scores as the Mr Jonathan Kwok mentioned? Many of them were educated in world class colleges and universities and the top schools of Singapore, and many yet come out, rote-learner or not, as worldly recognized talents and artists.

5th Post | Summative Commentaries

2009-04-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

Commentary on I'm not the cat killer
The New Paper 13/02/2009

The whole issue of stray animals had been a topic for discussion for many years. From keeping cats in HDB flats to the treatment of captured strays, many people has voiced out their comments on the right way to deal with stray animals.

This article refers to a man living in the Seletar region of Singapore, capturing over 300 stray cats and handing them to the AVA to be put to sleep. He has been a subject of many online discussions regarding his act, including suspicion of him being also responsible for a recent cat massacre of over 45 cats in the same region.

In my opinion, however, Cats could have gotten better treatment.

Cats are not the cleanest animals, but nor do they deserved to be subjected to such a large scale genocide. Cats are not vermin, nor should strays cats be treated as vermin. The man’s capture of over 300 strays and sending them to the AVA to be culled could more or less be compared to how people had treated mice in the past. There are definitely much more humane methods to deal with stray cats. For instance, should the owner be irritated by stray cats entering his yard and disturbing his household, he could use cat repellents, which could be loaned from the Cat Welfare Society.

The man’s claim of helping the community reducing the number of stray cats in the region is also a flawed argument. He could have called the SPCA to handle the situation in the area. Even though some of the cat population would be culled eventually, many could be kept by the SPCA and to be put up for adoption. This, in any case, would be a much better way to handle cats than to cage strays en masse and hand them over to be culled. His method was unnecessarily cruel.

There are many methods to keep down the cat population in a housing estate. Quoting from Mr Tan Chek Wee’s article “There are more humane ways in dealing with stray cats”,

In the last few years, some of us residents have trapped almost all the cats in the area for sterilization.

From here, it is shown that there are possibly better ways to keep the cat population at check, by reducing their amounts gradually through a process of sterilization. A genocide of stray cats could neither effectively solve the problem nor have a very long term impact on the cat population in the area, as cats who manage to escape could continue to reproduce.

Cats are also a part of the neighborhood. Stray cats help keep the vermin population in the neighborhood low, and are great companions for many of the older folks in the neighborhood. Though some may argue that cats are living a terrible life in the outside world, and putting them to sleep would actually be taking them out of their misery, it is still unnecessarily cruel to kill off large amounts of cats within such a short period of time. The cats may not totally be living in happiness in the neighborhoods, but nor are they as miserable as some states. Neither are they a complete nuisance to the population and many of their acts are overly exaggerated.

note: To comment on this article, click the box containing the date below here and scroll down to comment. Not very neat at the moment, but until I have time to refine it, thats the best I could do.

4th Post | Black is Beautiful

2009-04-05T02:19:00.000-07:00

Since the dawn of time, mankind has been intrigued by the color black. Black is color of nothingness, black is the darkness. The color black is always surrounded by an aura of mystery. Which is the reason why it is so beautiful. Human beings fear the unknown, they fear what they do not understand, they fear the sky (falling upon them) and the darkness. However, as much as they fear them, they revere upon it. The example becomes more clear in recent years. The color black had became something of fashion, something that is "cool". Dark colored sunglasses, black suits, black iPods even, give off the sense of "coolness" that other colors will find it hard to emulate.

- Perhaps this the reason why the theme I finally finished making is black based =P. Its a rather stripped down theme, focusing on simplicity and patterns, which, I feel, are the most representative features of the color black. NOTE : I think some people might have noticed, but there are randomly spaces in between footers, the main content and the top banner. This is caused by the simple fact that I used tables to do this theme, since I was lazy to do so much CSS for such a simple theme.

3rd Post | Critic on Santokh Singh's Article

2009-03-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

I am, being of low language standards, not in any position to critic Mr Singh's article ("Pull a prank, but don't get caught"), but still, I would like to offer my views, in comparing Mr Singh's article against my criteria from the previous post on a good exposition.

Formality
The article is written in a semi-formal tone, with a few references to experiences of his own, and the article in general, not structured in a form of a standard expository essay that I or you would write. However, upon closer inspection, it is still possible to pick out the various parts of an exposition from the article. However, the article is directed to a less formal audience, being part of a tabloid and a discussion section.

My take - B+

Opinion
I feel that the author has a very strong opinion on this matter. By comparing the morals behind punishing students for such acts, with comparisons to other issues of a greater magnitude, the idea of the author had been clearly brought across.

My take - A+

Examples/Quotes
This would be a slightly more complicated section to judge. Some people would feel that his example is not strong or relevant enough to be directly compared with the subject matter (violence, murders vs pranks). However, I beg to differ. The way the author handled his evidence, I must say, is exemplary. By first moving the individual examples from the evidence from a high magnitude in a foreign context and slowly bringing it closer and more relevant, the comparison actually becomes quite clear. The author also drew another similarity between the evidences, which was how average these students are, which basically brought the whole point out of the article.

My take - A+

Clarity
I think the author made his point rather straightforward here, albeit in a rather not-so-organized fashion. The facts were there, the arguments were concrete and there was not so much of beating around the bush in his writing.

My take - A

Depth
This is the main area where I think the exposition lacked. Although Mr Singh did give many various examples of average people who ended commiting crimes beyond their "average"ness, I think there should be more examples to further elaborate the points made by him. There should be a larger scope of examples that should be considered, not just the few outstanding events with what they call "average" people.

My take - B

Final Verdict - A

2nd Post |The 5 Most Significant Features of a Good Exposition

2009-03-24T09:19:00.000-07:00

The five most significant features of a good written exposition.

1) Formality
It is essential to be formal in a exposition as the ideas being discussed should not be discussed in a lightly manner. Slangs and colloquial language must be avoided.

2) Opinion
An exposition does not simply require one to have a "yes" or a "no" stand. The main idea of the argument must be captured clearly in the thesis. The exposition should also have a firm yet unbiased stand.

3) Examples / quotes
What is an exposition without examples? One's own opinion alone can not stand alone without evidences backing it up. The use of quotes and significant examples strengthens one's opinion and shows knowledge in the topic.

4) Clarity
An exposition delivers an idea across. This makes it even more important to be clear and concise in writing. The idea should put forward in a straightforward manner, which also avoids people misunderstanding the essay.

5) Depth
The exposition should show depth and a deep understanding in the subject matter. It makes little sense to write opinions about something even yourself is unsure about.

1st Post | Whats is an Exposition?

2009-03-22T06:59:00.000-07:00

Exposition - from the root word expose, we could simply understand it as to expose, in writing, a certain topic or subject.

Well, but as most will agree, its not just as simple as "exposing". An exposition includes a thesis statement which is your take on the subject matter, arguments, which argues your stand on the topic, and evidence which is what backs your arguments.

There are more than one type of exposition writing. There are commentaries, reviews, critics etc etc etc. Expositions are found in many areas, from magazines to even simple blog entries criticizing the newest iMac.

And of course, there is the dictionary definition.

ex‧po‧si‧tion noun

1 [uncountable and countable] formal a clear and detailed explanation

exposition of

a lucid exposition of educational theories

2 [countable] a large public event at which you show or sell products, art etc

From the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

The First Post

2009-03-21T07:15:00.000-07:00

As I did with every single blog, I always have a first post, just to make sure wordpress doesn't generate one for me.

Oh right, this isn't wordpress.

Anyway, should you somehow google this blog from somewhere while searching for iHongee (I do recognise the amount of people visiting it, although I don't know why), please just go to iHongee.co.cc.

One more blog theme to design. Ugh.