Today, Elisia is Miss antsy-in-my-pantsy.

Never felt so nervous, yet have that “I’m so raring to go” feeling in a long time. All because we changed textbooks for JAPN204. We started using the 中級日本語 textbook today and with that, we needed to memorize about 8 short lines of conversation text to do role play in class. I hate presentations so I was all ready to be the first to go. Get it over and done with. Then we had to hold a conversation with the person next to us based on a chosen subject/question. I managed to get my idea across pretty decently…ok, with one or two broken sentences. But, I was definitely feeling more confident in speaking.

I think we’ve pretty much reached the stage where it’s no longer intensive/extensive learning of vocabulary and grammar, but more into actually using what we’ve learnt to hold conversations. Something which I need to practise and do more. I also realised that it is ok to use simple sentence structures to say what I want to say as long as the other person can get a general idea. It’s better than wanting to jump into using complex sentences, not knowing how to, then getting all frustrated, and finally giving up and speaking in English instead. And of course, I need to feel more confident and less afraid of making mistakes.

Anyway, directly after JAPN204, I had ADV483. There was a quiz today so I had to rush off quickly. (The buildings for both classes are a distance apart.) All that rushing made me feel all the more jumpy, plus the fact that I wasn’t too sure I had prepared well for the quiz.

Alright, that’s about all I’m going to say for today. Need to get some sleep especially since I think I’m about to fall sick. My nose was all blocked and drippy last night. However, before I go, here’s an interesting picture. This is what I call a “minefield.” That’s ice and not snow by the way. The unsuspecting person who walks over it will find it is VERY slippery and you’ll be lucky if you don’t find yourself on your butt. There are lots of these “minefields” all around since the last few days have been pretty cold. It snows, then melts a little, and the water freezes again as the temperature drops.

It’s supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow…

やっぱりね。

The feeling. The horror that creeps up to you and washes all over you. I knew it. I knew it all along that it was a mistake. Even as we sat in those meetings then, a small part of me knew that it was all a mistake and those who unknowingly came forward to pitch their ideas had no idea what they were getting themselves into. They will literally wasting their time for something that would never have even happened in the first place.

No. That’s not what hit me suddenly. As I was reading my ADV450 book (yup, the one that makes me laugh), the chapter assigned for reading was about those monster-type clients you’ll meet in your advertising career lifetime…I was reading about that one type – the hack. The one who talks over and over about one great idea and shoves it down your throat.

It hit me. It happened didn’t it? The way I was made to go to him and he told me his fabulous idea. The idea that someone told me later that it was used as the first version and that was a long way back. The work that I was supposed to do, but didn’t happen in the end coz I couldn’t produce it…coz I just wasn’t good enough. Fast forward. It is now produced by someone else and they’re so proud of it. Sure. The thing is that I could produce that too. Ok, anyway that’s beside the point. The point is…the colour…the buttons. It resembles what he told me. So, it happened didn’t it? そうでしょう？でしょう？酷いね。。。

Stupid 拾って。You are the cause of my losing one mark for nothing. Of all things you had to be ひろって。Now, you are the cause of my misery. I want to bite and throw a hissy fit…because it’s my first JAPN204 exam and if it doesn’t go well in the beginning, it can only get worse. We are going to use the 中級日本語 textbook on Monday. We will have to memorize and act out short passages. There will be a shitload of kanji to remember. I don’t have good memory. Argh.

On a lighter note, Christina gave me one of those My Beauty Diary masks yesterday. 谢谢你! 我爱死你了! It was quite funny. I was going to ask her if she could help me buy some of those masks when she went back to Taiwan during summer. Turns out, she uses them. She had a few left and decided to give one to me. Will get her to buy more when she goes back to Taiwan. Yay yay yay~~~

It’s too expensive for me to join those Singapore sprees and have them send it to me in USA. And anyway, I wouldn’t be going home this summer so joining the spree would not be an option. Then I had the brilliant idea of asking one of my Taiwanese friends here.

We read a passage in Japanese class about bullying incidents in school. I came up with scenarios/reasons for bullying – mostly in the perspective of a girl.

Elementary school: Bullying cases would probably be the I beat, pinch, pull your hair kinda nonsense. Usually kids go crying to the teacher saying so-and-so bullied me. Milder cases would probably just end with a “I tell my mummy you bully me” or “I don’t friend you.”

Middle school (probably around upper primary/lower secondary): Girls would probably bully other girls out of jealousy? The I-just-can’t-stand-her-face issue.

High school: Girls bully other girls probably because that bitch stole my boyfriend.

College: Sensei said that bullying cases are rare since college students are considered adults and know better. Oh no, I think at this stage girls bully other girls because that slut slept with my boyfriend.

Anyway, since we were on the topic on bullying, Jayce told me that his EALC250 Professor told the class about a case where a 7-8 year old Japanese kid beheaded another kid and hung the head on the school gate. Okaaaayyy…that kid’s psycho. もっと怖い~~~

We failed miserably. Everyone from the Spring 2010 ADV450 creative class. Our first little test of whether those creative juices flowed within us.

The test was simple. We were told to pick a number from 1 to 9. Our lecturer then had us all put our hands up. Every time he called out a number and it corresponded to the one we had in mind, we put down our hand. It only took him 9 tries to get everyone’s hand down. But of course, there can only be 9 numbers from 1 to 9 right? WRONG. What happened to 3.5 or 2.3333333 or one and a quarter? Aren’t those numbers too? He didn’t say to pick a WHOLE number from 1 to 9. We just assumed it.

The lesson was to not let our assumptions limit us, our creativity.

That I will have to argue. I told Jayce about that little interesting test. Even he said that only a creative class would allow for such answers. Any other class would just have you labeled as the class joker and smart aleck.

Because this is how the world functions. How society has shaped the majority of us to be. You would need some guts to go against it, to allow yourself to be that class joker or smart aleck kid and not be bothered by how other people think of you.

That’s exactly how Singapore functions. We mug and mug to become the elite. We mug and mug to give the correct answers in class. Creativity? Sure, they talked about thinking out of the box and all, but how come I still cringe when the teacher calls on me? How come I’m so afraid of making mistakes? How come I’m still afraid that my classmates will think I’m stupid.

I’m afraid I can’t teach you anything just because I studied overseas and you probably think I can bring fresh ideas to the table. No. I do not have the magic or capability to change how things have been done in a certain way for X number of years. Each of you have it in yourselves. You can either do it the same way you’ve been doing for X number of years or you can prepare yourself and allow the change to be made.

I’m sorry, the last paragraph is kind of a rant over a job/work.

Morning Musume is going to release a new single soon and the PV for it is already out. I gotta agree with most that this isn’t one of their best songs. The tune isn’t really catchy. However, their costumes are nice. (Bonus points for being pink.) Don’t quite like the puffy accessory in their hair though.

Who’s missing? Koharu. I’m celebrating this one. I’m sorry, I cannot stand her. Her voice sticks out like a sore thumb. She’s fine as a solo artiste, but I think she just ruins it when she was in Morning Musume. Even Sayu, having the weakest voice blends in even if all she gets to do is just that little sigh thing. If you’re wondering where Koharu went, she quit. She has moved on in her career and would like to go down the modeling path.

[edited on January 26, 2010 @ 12.46pm]

Apparently my friend is required to bring the tablet PC to class everyday to take notes and do research. So what if it is supposed to last for 4 years. What happened to the traditional pen and notebook? Haha, the teacher is soon going to regret it because half the time, students will be surfing Facebook.

[edited]

I was curious when a childhood friend tweeted about getting a tablet PC. Knowing that she is in secondary school, I was wondering why she even needed one. She said her school wanted their students to use it for research and learning purposes. I was appalled when she said that it was bought and not even loaned by the school.

My question is why would secondary school students need a laptop or even a tablet PC for that matter? I understand that technology is advancing and has become a part of our lives. No longer are the days of flipping through books and encyclopedias for information for a school project. These days, students just turn to the internet. However, to ask students to buy a tablet PC for school use is just too much. I expected the school to be loaning these technology gadgets if they thought that their students needed it for learning purposes.

Isn’t your home desktop or the desktops in the school computer lab good enough for research? How much research does a secondary school student even do to warrant for the use of a laptop? I’m a college student who owns a laptop. Even I seldom bring out my laptop for research and learning purposes.

How about students whose families can’t afford laptops for their children? Does that mean these children are going to be at the losing end when it comes to their education?

Technology and Singapore’s education system wows me sometimes.

I will try to blog more often, but for now, here are last semester’s grades.

ADV481 – A+H
BADM320 – B-
JAPN203 – A
MS326 – A

Total GPA = 3.71
Cumulative GPA = 3.72

The marketing course was a joke. It is the only reason that my GPA has gone down. Both semester and cumulative GPA. If anyone is thinking of taking it, don’t.

On a happier note, I did surprisingly well for advertising research. The “H” indicates that I took it for James Scholar credit. Yupz, I enrolled in the James Scholar Honors program. I can hear someone going “finally~~~” It was also the cause of my worries (the James Scholar program, not ADV481).  I was so worried that I’ll be dropped from the program since I knew I was going to get a B for BADM320 and I had not been doing too well on the ADV481 exams.

It was a tough time for ADV481 since I was doing a group project all by myself for the James Scholar credit. Yes, I surveyed more than 80 people myself. I figured out the data myself (ok, with the help of the professor). In short, what could have been 4-5 brains on one project, I only had one brain – my brain – to work on it. Of course the good part about it was that I didn’t need to deal with crappy group mates and I could structure everything the way I wanted it to be.

Now, I worry for JAPN204. Things are getting harder and I found myself having trouble making sentences for 2 new Japanese terms today. There is more weightage on daily participation now since homework is not graded and does not contribute to the total percentage. Which simply means less easy stuff to make up my final grade. To an extent, this is good coz it forces us to actually understand and use the language. It’s like taking off the trainer wheels on your bicycle so that you don’t rely on them too much and actually learn how to cycle. The bad side to it is…I can’t guarantee that I can keep getting an A. Which is a worrying thing coz I need to keep my semester GPA at 3.5 and above to remain in the James Scholar program.

I checked out with the College of Media office, I’ll get my cord no matter whether I was enrolled in the James Scholar program from freshman year or whichever year. I really want that cord. To other people it may be nothing, but to me it means everything. I have never been the smartest kid with the ton of awards. This cord will represent some sort of academic achievement and recognition, something which I never really had.

Annie and Michelle are giving away stuff and it looks good. Ever since I bought a bag from them, I’ve been getting updates about their sprees and pre-orders. They also have a shop on Etsy.

Head over here for the cool giveaways.

Things just got messier huh? Click to read the article.

All this media attention Ris Low is getting has got to stop. What is she even thinking? That she can play on the sympathy of Singaporeans? Get a life, please. If she thinks she’s 19, she can jolly well act her age and not her shoe size.

Thought she had learnt her lesson and was taking steps to become a better person. Clearly not. She just craves media attention so much that she would lie and twist facts.

And to those who defended her, do you still want to?