Qi Ting's colour, symbol, and picture

Colour: Red

 I chose the colour red because red in Chinese culture usually represents good luck. Like the red packets that we receive or give to people during the Chinese New Year, red is a symbol of good luck and prosperity in the coming year. I also chose red because according to myths and legends, there was once a monster called Nian who would visit the people every year during Chinese new year and terrorize the people. However one day, Nian saw a child wearing red and ran away in fear. Since then, people found out that Nian was afraid of the colour red and decorated their houses red and wore red especially during Chinese New Year so that Nian would not come back and terrorize them again.

Symbol: 

This symbol is the Chinese character fu, upside down. Fu, in Chinese represents good fortune and luck. It is upside down in this symbol because in Chinese, this would be fu dao (福倒/到), and the dao which means upside down (倒), has the same pronunciation as the Chinese word for arrived, dao (到), so this upside down fu could be read as fu dao (福到), as in luck or fortune has arrived and not the word being upside down. I, too, hope that this new year will be prosperous and that I will have good fortune this year.

Picture:

This was a photo taken in Chinatown when my family and I went shopping for new year goods. I would always like to buy a lot of Chinese New Year snacks to eat but my parents always don't allow me to eat too much or buy too much as I will get a sore throat and cough. Other than snacks, we also buy Chinese New Year decorations sometimes to put up in our house.

Ming How's three weeks consolidation

When I was first introduced to CID 2, I still felt that it was quite interesting since during the first lesson, it was very interactive and enriching. I also felt very exited when the teacher said that we were going for a OELP trip to Taiwan/China as a class this year. However, the homework of blogging did not appeal to me as much since I do not really have the habit and experience of blogging.

The most memorable lesson I have gone through was the one about using different perceptions and point of views to look at things. Specifically, the teacher gave us to two pictures for us to look at (One was a man begging by the streets and the other was a woman with a child approaching person by person for money) and made us apply the 'See, Think and Wonder' skill to write about about how we felt about the picture. The teacher also gave us an mini-activity to let us think about "If you had one dollar and you can only give it to one person to help him, who would you help?". At first, even though both people are very pitiful, I thought that the woman with the child needed my help more since it would be hard on her to support two lives. Even if she could find a job to earn some money,  it would be hard for her to find a place to settle down her child. On the other hand, the man could have went to find a job to support for himself.

However, my teacher told us that what we see with our eyes might not be really true. She told us about the real living conditions of both of the beggars. Apparently, the man had his cart which he used to use it to collect old stuff and sell it for money got stolen and so he need to have some money know to get a new cart so that he can back on his track. Meanwhile, the woman belonged to a syndicate and was forced to beg around for money with a child whom she did not even know. Only a small portion of the money she begged from would be given to her for her to live. After knowing both of their real living conditions, I felt that the man now need my help more. The man just needs a little help from others for him to get back on his feet and earn money for himself. With my small amount of my money, he can probably carry on with his life while for the woman, I do not think that just giving her money is good for her since her money would just be taken away by the syndicate. Even if I gave her one dollar, probably only a few cents would be given to her and this would not be of any help to her at all. I feel that the best way to help her is to break her off from the syndicate so that her income will not get sucked away.

In the other CID lessons, I have also learnt about the poverty in Singapore and we were also told to make more keen observations about RV. There was also one worksheet teaching us about photography. I feel that all these activities and exercises are trying to train us on our obersavation skills and inferencial skills. Probably all these skills and things we learnt now would be used once we go for our OELP trip. In a nutshell, CID lessons are still quite thoroughly enjoyable and fun for me although sometimes I might feel a little stressed about the homework given since quite a lot of homework is given at one go sometimes.