OELP - A Brief Personal Reflection [Highlights] (Ying Han)
“The world
is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
― Augustine
of Hippo
This quote
speaks my mind. Although this trip to Hangzhou and Anhui in China was a short
one of just eight days, it was undoubtedly both educational and enjoyable. It
has broadened my mind set of the culture and traditions in China, something I
can never learn just by reading off textbooks or even the internet. Seeing
how the students there study, play and live enabled me to understand them
better, and sometimes even appreciate my life in Singapore more.
Our class went on this trip with three
overarching objectives in mind:
1.
To experience and understand history, heritage,
culture and economy of China.
2.
To draw lessons from the experiences gained during
the experiential learning programme and immersion programme in China through
critical thinking and critical reflection.
3.
Comparative study between Singapore and Anhui.
Of course,
although these are the three main goals meant for learning, I also have my
own personal goals:
4. To forge
tighter bonds with my friends and classmates.
5. To create
new friendships with the students in Anhui.
All these
goals were part of the reason why I chose to go on this trip. Learning about
these aspects of China and being able to compare it to Singapore definitely
sparked great interest in me. In addition, as they say, “Friendship... is not
something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of
friendship, you really haven't learned anything.” Indeed, the importance of
friendship is huge. This is especially so as we are currently in secondary
school, the period of time where the longest-lasting friendships are forged. Hence,
it was also one of the motivating factors for me to go on this trip.
Before
embarking on this trip, I had much to consider. Am I independent enough to
take care of myself? Will I learn new things that are useful to my life?
Although I had my doubts, I knew that this learning trip will definitely be
something that will broaden my knowledge by leaps and bounds and teach me
important life values, hence, the decision made was to go on the trip without
worries.
The things that
I had hoped to learn on this trip also include those stated in the objectives
and goals. They comprise of the history, heritage, culture and economy
of China. True enough, the visits to the factories, museums, school, homes,
scenic sites and restaurants taught me enough of all that. However, now that
we are back in Singapore, I want to further explore how some of the
innovations and systems in China can be implemented in Singapore’s context. Also,
I want to understand more deeply how the Chinese culture in China and the
Chinese culture in Singapore are different. This no doubt will help me
understand our foreign counterparts better and be able to forge good diplomatic
relations with them in the future.
During the
second day of our School Immersion to the high school in Hefei, my whole body
felt weak, my eyelids felt heavy, and I was sneezing continuously. At that
point in time, I knew that I was having flu. This stopped me from being able
to focus during the special lessons being taught. Luckily, the principal of
the school realised that I was not feeling well and brought me to her office
to take a nap and offered me hot water to drink. This touched my heart to a
large extent. However, the story of my flu did not just stop here. The next
day when I went to the buddy’s house, I had still felt drowsy and was still
vomiting. The buddy and her parents displayed an extremely caring side
towards me, allowing me to sleep in their car and house and even specially
cooking porridge for me. The actions of the principal and the buddy and
her parents made me extremely touched. They displayed warmth and helpfulness
and made me comfortable. These commendable qualities are just some things
that I hope to learn from them to display in my personal daily life.
However,
they are not the only ones who exhibited the qualities of warmth, care and
helpfulness. The students of the high school were no different. When we
attended their lessons with the students, there were a myriad of habits,
customs and traditions in their classroom that we were unfamiliar with. One
of them includes the language medium that the lessons were being taught in.
There, all other subjects besides English were being taught in Chinese.
Despite the fact of Chinese being our second language, the lessons being
taught were still a challenge to understand. The terms brought up in Chinese
were difficult to comprehend for those of us who are so used to learning them
in English. As if being able to read our minds, the Chinese students put in
utmost effort in trying to explain the ongoing lessons to us, even searching
for definitions and writing them down in English. In addition, they also
tried to learn more about us, including our likes, dislikes and our learning
habits in Singapore. Their actions made us feel their genuine sincerity in
helping and understanding us, making us feel at home. These life values they
uphold although were displayed mostly in a classroom setting, but as a matter
of fact, are some things that effectively cannot be taught by a teacher in a
classroom.
This trip,
although meant mainly for learning in other aspects, actually made me
understand the true meanings of warmth, care and helpfulness. The principal,
the buddies and their parents and the students in the school all exhibited
these precious values in one way or another. In fact, there are many more
examples of how this is shown. For example, when it was raining and we had to
travel through uncovered areas, students we have never seen before helped
shelter us with their umbrellas and led us around the school. Helping and
caring for others you do not even know – now that is no easy feat. Hence, the
warmth, care and helpfulness displayed during almost every point of the
school immersion impacted me greatly.
My attitudes
and future behaviours will no doubt be affected greatly by this trip. In
fact, my previous point about helpfulness still applies. This trip has taught
me to be more independent, to work more efficiently, to show better teamwork,
to do the right things at the right time, to help each other in times of
need, to understand others and many other useful values. As a matter of fact,
all these values are life-long and can be used in numerous situations, especially
when we go out into the workforce and have to work with others. However, they
can undeniably be used even during our current daily lives. For example, when
we are doing group work with our peers, we can work together better by
cooperating with each other, doing the right things at the right time and
listening to and valuing each others ideas and opinions. This will enable us
to show better teamwork and eventually propel us to greater heights. Also,
the importance of caring and helping others is definitely not little. Simple
deeds such as cheering someone up when he is upset or donating some money to
the homeless on the streets are just some of the little things we can do to
make this world a better place.
Additionally,
I have also gained insight on many of China’s amazing innovations and
systems that are keys to their country’s success. These can be implemented
into Singapore’s system to further improve our country. For example, from our
visit to the two factories, we have learnt that companies in China invent their
own machineries to make work more efficient. Wahaha, a drink company, makes
sure to use machinery that can produce their drinks and package them at the
fastest rate possible. This enables them to produce large varieties and large
numbers of bottled drinks every day, owing to their success. As a plus point,
they also produce their very own plastic bottles and caps in order to save
money. This gives them more money for other aspects of their business, such
as advertisements. If they can do it, Singapore can do the same. With more
inventions coming from our own country, a boost will be seen in our economy. Of
course, however, we have got to admit that Singapore already has some great
systems and innovations that uncountable other countries are trying to
replicate. These systems include our very own education system and innovations
include the numerous forms of technologies used to keep Gardens by the Bay
alive.
In
conclusion, this trip was an exceptionally enjoyable yet educational one. I
not only got to forge closer bonds with my classmates and make new friends
with the students in China, I also got to learn more about the systems and
methods companies in other countries, specifically China, implement for
improvement. This has led to me having a broader mind set about not just
China and Singapore, but the world as a whole.
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