CID blogwork on China — Qian Wei

Out of all the pictures, I choose the picture of the Great Wall of China. To me, the Great Wall of China is something that is very interesting and rich with history, and I hope to visit there one day. To China, it was a structure used to protect the Chinese from invaders in the past.

The Chinese were already familiar with the techniques of wall-building between the 8th and 5th centuries BC. During this time and the subsequent Warring States period, the states of Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Yan and Zhongshan all constructed extensive fortifications to defend their own borders. Built to withstand the attack of small arms such as swords and spears, these walls were made mostly by stamping earth and gravel between board frames.

Most of the ancient walls have eroded away over the centuries, and very few sections remain today. The human cost of the construction is unknown, but it has been estimated by some authors that hundreds of thousands, if not up to a million, workers died building the Qin wall. Later, the Han, Sui, and the Northern dynasties all repaired, rebuilt, or expanded sections of the Great Wall at great cost to defend themselves against northern invaders. The Tang and Song Dynasties did not build any walls in the region substantially. 

To me, the Great Wall of China does not hold any special meaning. It is only a place that I hope to visit someday and learn more about. 

To different people, different things have different meanings. Something of less importance to you could mean a lot to someone, so we should respect everyone's opinions on things in our lives.

One lesson learnt- Lim Yan Tong (10)

From the lesson "A picture paints a thousand words", I have learnt to not judge a book by its cover. Our class was shown two pictures of two beggars and choose to help one of them. The first picture shows a man holding a board begging for money while the second picture shows a woman carrying a baby and asking for money from another man. Most of us chose to help the woman with the baby as when we saw the baby, we empathize her more than the man. However, the truth was that the man only need a little more money to get back to his feet while the woman was part of a cheating syndicate.

This made me realize that judging a person by his or her exterior is quite similar to choosing an apple by its surface. When buying apples, people often pick beautiful one as their first choice. However, some apples look pretty outside but rotten inside. 

Hence it is unfair and one-sided to judging people by their exteriors because their exteriors might be misleading.

A Lesson Learnt — Qian Wei

Through the many CID lessons, I have learnt many things, but one lesson that left a deep impression on me was the lesson where we were taught not to judge a book by its cover.

We were taught to look at things from different points of view, and not to judge based on the first impression we have when we see something.

During the lesson, we were shown two images. The first picture shows a man begging, holding a board which says that he is homeless, broke and his belongings were stolen. 

The second picture shows a lady carrying a child in a arms and asking for money. 

When asked if we would help the man or the lady, most people in my class chose the lady. But little did they know that the lady was actually part of a syndicate which lies to get money from others, and the child that she was carrying was most probably not hers. On the other hand, the man genuinely lost everything he had, and needed help. I felt really sorry for the man, and instantly felt no pity for the lady, who was just acting and lying for the sake of money.

Perhaps the world now is too judgemental, and nowadays we all judge things based on how they look like. But now, I have learnt to not judge, and to be fair and give every thing, every option a chance because who knows? What you thought was wrong could be right, and what you thought was right could actually be wrong. :D

Presentation Reflections — Qian Wei

Through the process of preparing for this presentation, and actually presenting it, I have learnt many tips on how to make my presentation a good one.

For example, a good presenter should be well-prepared and know what he or she is going to talk about. 

A good presenter should also be engaging and interact with the audience. The presenter can ask questions on the audience's opinion, and in order to avoid awkward situations like receiving no response, he or she should ask someone in the audience to respond with the appropriate answer for the presentation to carry out smoothly. Otherwise, he or she can inject humour into the presentation to catch the audience's attention.

Also, the presenter should speak clearly and with confidence, and maintain a good posture throughout. This will clearly show that he or she knows what he or she is doing, and thus the audience would pay attention. 

The presenter should stand straight and not sway. He or she should also use hand gestures to emphasize the point, and also not make the presentation seem like just words without any action. 

Furthermore, the presenter should memorize his or her script so as not to keep referring to the screen if there are powerpoint slides, or a hard copy of the script as it would cause him or her to have less contact witht he audience.

CID blogwork on china - Ruo Qing

the Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China in part to protect the Chinese Empire or its prototypical states against intrusions by various nomadic groups or military incursions by various warlike peoples or forces. several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC; these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall.
I think the emperors of China believed strongly in the usage of the wall to protect china. also, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced; the majority of the existing wall from the Ming Dynasty, which shows the determination of each emperor in preserving the wall until today, and there is great effort shown. despite the many people who died while building the wall, the emperor insisted on continuing the works. the emperor might seem cruel, but if I were in his shoes, I'd probably do the same; sacrificing some lives in exchange of the safety of more lives. it seems like pretty good a risk to take, doesn't it ?
to china, it would probably be the representation of their history. after all the suffering people went through just to construct the wall, and both succeeding and failing in protecting themselves in wars, it would somehow be like preserving a big part of their history, and culture. a huge probability is that the wall remains till today, to teach current chinese about their past, to let them remember how china was like before.
but to me, the Great Wall of china never really meant a lot. sure, when people mention china, my first thought would be "the Great Wall of china", but it is just a place of interest to me, and it doesn't carry any meaning. but while doing this task, i learnt that about the hardship of how the Great Wall of china came about, and what it was used for. I learnt about the perseverance, determination of each emperor/and the current government of china to keep the wall 'alive', by reconstructing it and maintaining it for such a long time that it is still here for is to visit today. also, the workers who helped in building the wall also endured a lot of hardship and risked their lives to build the wall for the safety of china then. i really learnt to appreciate the Great Wall of china after knowing the behind story of it. i should change my perspective of it being "just a place of interest/one of the seven wonders of the world" which we have to visit when we are in china, as the Great Wall of china is so much more than just a 21.196km long wall.

presentation reflections - Ruo Qing

through the chingay presentation, i learnt certain presentation skills. hehehe i shall let you guys in on what ive learnt !
first, we must have confidence ((sadly i dont really have much)). it is the key to good presentations ! if you are confident, you will be able to speal loud and clear so your audience can hear your points well. you will also seem like you are not nervous ((even when you probably are)). confidence will lead to all the other skills im going to tell you about soon.
second, we have to stand upright and maintain a good posture so that it shows that you respect your audience. it would seem rude if you hunch your back or lean agaisnt something. if you have confidence, you will naturally stand straight.
third, we have to be engaging. adding a little jokes amd humour here and there throughout the presentation would really help your audience focus on it. some people have very short attention spans, so you have to make the presentation as interesting and engaging as possible as to get the attention of most of your audience. a change in your tone of voice at certain words or expressions would also greatly affect how much your audience enjoyed your presentation. you will be able to deliver the jokes and stress on the appropriate words if you have confidence.
there are still many presentation skills but thats all for now ! as you can see, confidence is the basic thing we need for a good presentation. i really have to build up my confidence !! i feel that im lacking in confidence thus my voice would get softer and softer when im speaking. also i wasnt confident enough, thus i only looked at liqing ((because shes my good friend hehe)). thus building up my confidence will be really important for me.
so the next time you have a presentation, chin up ! and dont forget to smile ! because 'a smile is a curve that set everything straight' -phyllis diller(:

a lesson learnt - Ruo Qing

through the few lessons of cid, one lesson i learnt is to never 'judge a book by its cover'
when mr chua showed us the pictures of a man and a woman carrying a baby both asking for monetary help, most of us chosed to help the woman. why ? because we think that since the baby is still young, we have to help her mother so that the baby will be able to grow up in a better environment and that the man is able to actually work to provide for himself. but what was the story behind the two pictures ? the man has been working to provide himself but his things got stolen thus he required some money to get back on his feet. as for the woman, she was part of a syndicate who cheat money and used the baby to gain sympathy from others, so the baby might not even be hers.
people say, 'a picture speaks a thousand words' but sometimes, we understand the pictures wrongly. just like sometimes when we see a person we may tend to judge him/her from the appearance, but it all depends on how we think and how we process their appearance. sometimes when we know the person well enough, we realise our first impression might be different from how the person really is. so we must not judge someone by their appearance and come to conclusions of how the person's personality is hastily. making assumptions of people/objects are wrong, just like how we aren't supposed to assume when we do math sums as it would affect the whole working and answer, because we would sometimes be bias to certain thoughts since everyone has different preferences.
we have to listen to the full story/get to know someone well, before we can finally conclude. a story might really be able to say alot, but that is if we understand the full picture and not only judge based on the picture itself. this probably explains why the paintings in art galleries usually have a brief description of it right beside the paintings ((or maybe not)).
well, the cid lessons sure taught me one rule; not to "judge a book by its cover". and the rule surely also applies to humans, objects, pictures and more ! :D
i'll always remember to never judge:
a book by its cover,
a person by his/her looks,
an object by its appearance,
a picture if you dont know the story behind it.

Lim Yan Tong (10) CID Blogwork on China

I chose the picture of the Tiananmen Square. The Tiananmen Square had 2 protests held there. The event that Tian An Men Square represents in this blogpost is the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989. The protests were triggered in April 1989 by the death of former Communist Party General Secretary, Hu Yaobang, a liberal reformer, who was deposed after losing a power struggle with hardliners over the direction of political and economic reform. University students who marched and gathered in Tiananmen Square to mourn Hu also voiced grievances against inflation, limited career prospects, and corruption of the party elite. They called for government accountability, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the restoration of workers' control over industry. At the height of the protests, about a million people assembled in the Square. 

It means to me that the Tian An Men Square is a place of major student demonstration where young people voiced out their opinions. One of the most famous image that appears during the Tiananmen Square protests was when a man stands in front of a moving tank and refuses to move. This mean to China a revolutionary icon in fighting against the government at the time.

History: The Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City was built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty. Towards the demise of the Ming Dynasty, heavy fighting between Li Zicheng and the early Qing emperors damaged the gate. The Tiananmen square was designed and built in 1651.

Lesson learnt: We should have integrity and not have corruptions and violence does not solve a problem.

Daven Lim (27) CID Blogwork on China

I chose the picture of the Great Wall of China. It means to me that China is trying to keep its history to let the future generations to know and see what China had done in the previous dynasties to defend and protect China from the invasions and attacks from other countries, for example from the Manchurians and the Mongolians. It was built under the order of Qin Shi Huang in the Qin dynasty. Also, it can be served as a memorial for those people who worked hard all-day to build the Great Wall of China to defend the country from attacks from other countries, whereby many of those people died of starvation and dehydration. It might mean to China as a way to keep and respect what their ancestors had done in the past to defend the country to be what it is today. It says that in the past, there are many wars and enemies often invaded China, therefore the Great Wall of China was built to protect China from enemies. However, the Manchurians successfully broke through the Great Wall and siezed Beijing and establish the Qing Dynasty in China.  The Great Wall symbolises perseverance to me as it can be seen as a bodyguard which protects its master under any means, and to persevere through hardship to protect its master, just like how it serves as a defence to China. Also, I feel that the reason why China want to keep the Great Wall is to educate the future generations to persevere and not give up. I can also learn that we must cherish the things we have now and must protect them from being taken away by others, because once it is lost, it is difficult to win it back, as explained in the loss of China to the Manchurians and the hardship went through by the Chinese to gain independence for China again.

Oral presentation reflections -- Jing Xue

ORAL PRESENTATION!

After this oral presentation, I found myself more confident when speaking infront of the audience, and also gained some valuable learning points when making an oral presentation.

Body posture:

-Always stand confidently and not fidget around

  ~This tells the audience that you are well prepared for the speech. Fidgeting includes: swaying of your

     body, shuffling of legs etc.

-Stand straight and don't lean back!

  ~Leaning back shows that you are making this speech for the sake of doing it. It shows that you are 

    not at all intending to engage the audience.

-Remain EYE CONTACT!

  ~Engage the audience, tell the audience with your eye contact that you are indeed talking to everyone 

    in the room. And make sure that you make eye contact with everyone, but not only one single party.

Voice:

-Clarity

  ~Speak clearly, pronounce every word clearly. To ensure 100% clarity, speak at a suitable pace that is 

    not too fast and not too slow. Most importantly, do not stutter, as this shows lack of preparation!

-Voice projection

  ~Be bold enough to speak loudly and project your voice. Make sure EVERYONE in the class can hear       you CLEARLY! Don't mumble.

ENTERTAINMENT!

Entertainment is what makes your content interesting and engage your audience in your talk! You don't want your audience to get distracted or doze of in your sleep!

-Add FUNNY jokes

  ~Make jokes to make the audience laugh out loud (LOL :D). This ensures that the audience is paying 100% attention at you. Make them laugh so that they will be more willing to listen and pay attention to your presentation.

 ~BUT, make sure the jokes are understandable, and funny enough! 

-Occasionally ask questions

  ~Ask questions to your audience, and hopefully they will answer back. This tells us whether our audience are paying full attention to our presentation. 

This is what it takes to make a good presentation! 

Great Wall of China! ~Chinese History by Jing Xue

The Great Wall of China! What comes to your mind whenever you thought of the Great Wall of China? An endless flight of staircase, or merely something you can see from space? Well, there is actually hidden meanings and the importance of this landmark to China...

Brief summary of its history and facts

-Built to fend off foreign tribes i.e. Manchurians and Mongolians

-Built in the Qin Dynasty, by order of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang

-Many people died during construction of the wall

-After its collapse, it is revived during the Ming Dynasty

-Successfully defended empire from Manchu invasions in around 1600.

-But the Manchus successfully broke through the wall, seized Beijing, defeated the rebel and establish the Qing Dynasty rule all over China.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, the Great Wall of China is still standing, renovated several times, and it is one of the most famous tourist attraction in Beijing, Capital of China. 

To me, the wall represents hardship. It is a special landmark and a 'defence shield' against the foreign tribes during the Ming Dynasty. Without the wall, I doubt China would be able to defend its empire againts the Manchu invasions, at least for a short period of time. 

This landwark shows how much China is willing to protect its empire in the past. And although they failed several times, they will try to strengthen and fortify the walls to repel against the invasions. Many chinese worked in hardship to fortify and build the walls, to protect their country. As descendants, the chinese citizens in China will be reminded of how much sweat and blood their ascendants produce to protect their own country. Hence, China keeps this landmark not only for tourists attraction purposes, but to also teach the descendants valuable lessons.

Lesson learnt:

We should always be willing to put out hardship to protect and fortify our own country, and to be always ready to stand out for our country when necessary.

我们要保家卫国！！！

Daven Lim (27) Presentation Reflections

To be a good presenter, there are points which we must comply. 

Firstly, a good presenter must be out-spoken. This is so that everybody can hear what the speaker is speaking about, as his or her voice is loud and clear and not soft-speaking. If the presenter is soft-speaking, the audience would lose their attention as they cannot hear what the presenter is speaking about and therefore, when the presenter loses his or her audience, the presentation is not a successful one. We, the presenters, must also speak at an appropriate pace and not rush through the presentation. Most importantly, do not speak like a robot! We must have expressions and emotions that can make our presentation a lively one. This can also allow the audience to feel the same way as us. 

Secondly, the presentation must be engaging. We can add some light jokes to the presentation to lighten the atmosphere and to entertain the audience so that they will listen to us. Without the engagement of the audience, the audience would not feel involved and therefore feel that our presentation does not involve them and thus, the audience would not pay attention. Also, having some light jokes would be be beneficial as the atmosphere is tense and we can lighten the tension. We must also have eye contact with the audience so that the audience know that we are talking to them. We must have eye contact with everybody, not just at one part or a group of people. This is because it will make the rest of the audience feel that they are not involved and so the presentation is not engaging. We would not want the audience to feel that our presentation is boring and would fall asleep, so we should choose our points that we are supposed to talk about mor carefully so as to fit the age group of the audience. We can also ask the audience some questions, for example 'do you agree with me?'. This can further engage the audience as they would be paying full attention to us if they can answer our question. 

Thirdly, the presenter must be confident and prepared so that the audience know that the presentation is a well-prepared one and will be a good presentation. This will attract their attention and focus and therefore the audience would want to listen to the presenter. A nervous presenter would not attract anyone as nobody would want to listen to an unprepared presenter. We must try to smile :) while making the presentation so that the audience know that we are prepared and not nervous. 

Lastly, a good presenter must be stood upright and not slouching or leaning against something. This is not a respectful manner of standing and this might lead to the audience that the presenter is reluctant to share his or her presentation. Therefore, we must be mindful of our standing posture. Also, fidgeting and swaying of body can cause the audience to think that we are not well-prepared for it, or we are not willing to make the presentation. 

CID reflections - Jing Xue

So, after these 3 lessons of CID, I've earned myself some valuable lessons...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~LESSON 1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Valuable lesson: UNDERSTANDING 'CID'

For lesson 1, I learnt the importance and purposes of CID as a subject: CID aims to cultivate artificial thinkers who will be able to reflect and draw lessons from different experiences.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~LESSON 2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Activity: A PICTURE SPEAKS A THOUSAND WORDS ( Beggar, beggar )

We are asked to draw out inferences from a few pictures the teacher flashed to us. From there, we are asked to draw conclusions, and explain how we draw this conclusions. How each picture depicts a particular aspect of life, happiness or fear? 

-Valuable lesson: DO NOT judge some one by its appearance. Looks my be deceiving. We must know more about the person's personal profile before juding him or her. For example, someone may look cheerful everyday, but in fact his/her life is depressing, but he/she is just faking a smile.

Conclusions should not be made immediately!

Take a moment to think. How many people in the world a facing poverty? There are countless of them, in fact, although poverty in Singapore is rare. Perhaps, you had recently just gave some money to a beggar begging on the street, with one leg amputated? Now think again. What if the beggar is a con-man, unwilling to look for jobs? What if we DID have four limbs, but was just putting on an act? These are some of the possibilities. We have to think before giving away our money. Some beggars are genuine, where they really faced life difficulties, and they indeed do not have the ability to look for proper jobs. On the other hand, there is a big portion of people who have the ability to look for jobs, but they are just lazy to do so. These people do not deserve our help at all. Giving them money is encouraging them to continue resort to such lazy activities, and discouraging them to find a job. Instead, we should donate to legal charity organisations, for the people there really deserves our help.

Hence, before we judge a 'beggar' on the streets, we should always hesitate helping them first.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~LESSON 3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Acitvity: OBSERVATION SKILLS - SCHOOL LIFE IN RV AND COMMUNICATION

-Valuable lesson: WE MUST OBSERVE OUR COMMUNITY i.e. Stay updated and be aware of what is happening in our community.

Communication is viral in the modern world. We communicate using handphones, over the web or just simply, verbally. Communication is essential in everyday life. We communicate amongst others, staying updated about the events happening in the world, and in out community.

By observing, we can understand the truth behind each event. E.g. Being an eye-witness in an accident. By observing, we can also understand someone's feelings or emotions. E.g. We know that someone is feeling down when there is a frown on his face; we know someone is happy when we see a smile on his face.

Hence, by observing and communicating, we can have a deeper understanding about the community, and understand someone better.