A Replacement to Writing? 2005/2006

Scholarship Presentation

I went for the scholarship presentation ceremony held by mercantile co-operative society today. My father's a member because he works at SIA - CIAS. So we applied for the scholarship and to my immense surprise, actually got it. Only 8 univeristy scholarships were to be given out so I was very pleased. Got money what! School fees very expensive ok! I ended up being 1 of the 2 girls in the 8 people. It was at Furama ballroom at Eu Tong Sen street, chinatown area.

The guest-of-honour is this guy who comes down to this presentation every year from whichever part of the world he is at. He is very smart ok! If my memory does not fail me, he holds the title of Prof. Dr. Maurice Teo, PhD, DSc. Think there is something else behind, but I can't remember. FIIM is not a title, right? It is a company's name I think. He is that guy who first managed to artificially breed tiger prawns.

And he gave this very inspiring talk on how we should all thank our parents for giving us opportunities to study and asked us to stand up and shout "thank you!" to the whole bunch of parents sitting there. It wouldn't have been so bad if not for the fact that I was facing exactly the opposite direction where my parents were sitting, and that I was rather at the front. Being the true Asian that I am, I am very shy about showing appreciation and affection.

There was this part of his speech that I especially hate. He said Asians are always shy about showing affection. When westerners hug, they clasp fully together. When asians hug, it seems as if we are dancing.

Because there is a space between us.

I don't think that it is right to compare us this way. We are from different cultural backgrounds and we behave differently. We show our affection in different ways too. Perhaps not as direct, but still we will show.

Anyway it was a very prep-talk kind of talk. He was starting to talk about how youngsters now can only follow instructions and cannot make decisions. How some university graduates are only capable of writing thick reports because they are used to writing thesis, but are unable to make decisions. That I agree. He also talked about needing to respect cleaners, waiters/waitresses etc., those in jobs that we would normally look down upon. I was thinking, such a coincidence that his speech came when we were focusing on customer services in singapore. And yet I thought that he must have been away from Singapore long enough so that he does not understand how some of us are looking at these people. Perhaps some of the population would look upon them as useless, but I believe that a fair proportion of us do not do so. My friends and I don't, for one thing. I am fully aware that without these people, our society would be unable to function at the most basic levels. Anyway I was starting to think that he was drifting away and was going to give us a lecture on "Society And Its Youths".

Finally the presentation started, with about 120 PSLE students, don't-know-how-many 'O' and 'A' level students, and us 8 uni students. By the way, I think all 8 of us are from NUS (my assumption), and I am the only Arts student there. And the 2 guys at my sides started talking to each other and soon realized that they each know this guy whom they were BOTH going to his birthday party later. I commented what a small world it is.

Later on went to school for CNM project meeting. We started awfully late. But had quite a bit of fun and did part of the introduction. We still have a lot to do.

So I have blogged for 1 hour and 45 min and it is time to go back to the books. Tomorrow doing chaperoning with Yizhen. Yay! I love kids! (I am trying to convince myself)

posted by tstar @ 10:22 PM