Term 1 Week 6

  Monday: Posting Literature's lesson on Monday. Mr Chua started a new topic of Shakespeare play, "Romeo & Juliet". He instructed us to group ourselves into pairs. I paired with PeiQi. Mr Chua then showed us the movie on act 1, scene 5 where Romeo and Juliet met. Here's the url to the script:

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/romeo_juliet.1.5.html

And the movie:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y9Vd4tGPi0

  Mr Chua then gave each of us a worksheet on the character traits. He told us to do 3 character traits individually. PeiQi and I did a character on Juliet, while the others did characters on Capulet, Romeo and Tybalt. Mr Chua told us to do a mindmap in pairs and to pass up on Monday.
  I think that Romeo is a romantic person. He fell in love at the first sight when he spotted Juliet.
The choice of words that he used is to described how beautiful Juilet was, and how Romeo felt about the rest of the the people at the hall. I felt that the movie wad quite romantic. (Except when Mr Chua ran over and censored some part) But honestly, I think I preferred mordern romance novels and movies. 


Friday: Posting for Friday's lesson. There were two Literature lessons on Friday as we had a make-up lesson for the 10th anniversary concert. Mr Chua discussed the religious' example of their gods' qualities of mercy. I mustered up all my courage to share about my example of Buddhist's gods' mercy.
  Mr Chua gave us another worksheet on Imagery. I went to search for the definition. It means Imagery is used in literature to refer to descriptive language that evokes sensory experience.
It is to test our level of understanding. We emphasize on the words that Romeo used to decribe Juliet's beauty. We had to define the phrase and to understand. It taught us about personification and simile. Mr Chua gave us an assignment. We had to write an imagery on our loved-one. It has to be completed and handed up on next Monday. 
  After school, we had our make-up lessons. Mr Chua brought us to the Mover and Shakers Gallery and have our Literature lesson there. He told us to pair ourselves again, and work together to complete a worsheet that he gave us. Mr Chua told us to put in our best effort as it would be graded. I think that it is important to know what our founding fathers contributed as our school is a national educated school. It is also important as we are Singaporeans and we ought to know about our own nation's history. Ending my post here. 

    Term 1 Week 5

  Hey guys, updating about Literature lesson on Friday. Mr Chua came in our class and told us about the topics that would be tested in the common test. This is the format of the test: 

1. Cinquains - Topics (5m) / Character (7m)

2. MacBeth

3. Merchant Of Venice - Character traits (Antonio, Bassanio, Portia and Shylock)

                                        - Qualities of mercy (Portia's speech)

                                        - Friendship (Antonio and Bassanio)

                                        - Revenge

                                        - Prejudice / racism

                                        - Details of scene

4. Romeo & Juliet - Characters (Romeo, Juliet, Capulet, Tybalt)

                                - Sonnet

                                - Imagery 

  After that, Mr Chua moved on with our assignment on Heroes / Villains worksheet on Shylock. He went through the worksheet with us. We then handed up the worksheet. He then gave us a news article on forgiveness of Pastor Tan's insults on Buddhism.

Here's the link to the article: http://www.transitioning.org/2010/02/09/buddhist-taoist-leaders-accept-pastors-apology-st-10-feb/

 

   The Buddhism and Taosim leaders gladly accepted the pastor's apology. The Buddhism leader told that we must be mindful on what we said. I think that even if a person insulted my religion, I think that that person should not be punished for the insults. I think that he/she should be forgiven as he/she is ignorant and immature. He/She should need some time to realise his/her mistakes. Ending my post here.

                                                               Term 1 Week 5
Monday:   Hey, posting my Literature lesson that I had on Monday (I would not be posting on Friday as there is no Literature lesson). Mr Chua came in and was quite pleased with our class as we were sitting in an orderly manner and no one left the class without the teacher's permission. Mr Chua gave us a worksheet about 'The Merchant Of Venice'  and discuss 'What is justice? Is Shylock really the villain?' 

   Mr Chua told us to do the worksheet and hand up. He chose some students to answer the question that we did on the worksheet. He gave us another worksheet on an earlier scene before act 4, scene 1.  Here it goes:

Shylock: (aside, bitterly) How like a fawning publican he looks!

                  I hate him for he is a Christian!

                  But more, for that without thinking of the consequences

                  he lends out money easily, and brings down

                  the amount of money that we moneylenders earn in Venice.

                  If I can catch him once when he is out and down,

                  I will surely avenge the ancient grudge I have against him.

                  Antonio hates our Jewish nation, and he complaints about

                  me, my business, and my hard-earned profit,

                  which he calls interest. I will curse my own race

                  if I can forgive him for that.

.......(Speaking to Antonio):

Shylock: (remembering past insults) Antonio, many times and often

                   in Venice, you have insulted me

                   about my riches and my moneylending business.

                   Still I bear with your insults patiently

                   because we Jewish people are known for being patient. 

                   You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,

                   and spit upon my Jewish clothes,

                   all because I use what money I own to do business.

                   Well then, it now appears you need my help.

                   What the - you come to me and you say,

                   'Shylock, we want money.' You say this.

                   What should I say to you?(bitterly) Shouldn't I say.

                   'Does a dog have money?' Is it possible that

                   a cut-throat dog can lend you three thousand ducats?

Antonio: (scornfully) I want to call you a dog again,

                   to spit on you again, to reject you too.

                   If you want to lend me this money, don't lend it

                   like you're lending to your friends, because when did friendship

                   involve gaining interest from a friend's loan?

                   Rather, lend it like to your enemy,

                   which if your enemy fails to pay, you can with a clearer conscience

                   demand the penalty for the late payment.

   
                   I think that Shylock was not a villain in the story. He did not suggest to make the penalty if Antonio failed to pay the sum of money. Unfortunately, Antonio, himself
suggested it. My reflection on justice and evil is that I don't think it really exist. From my point of view, I think that no one is really evil. I think that people committ crimes out of despair, desperation and hatred. Criminals did not really intended to commit a crime.
Example, Shylock. I think that he is not a villain, nor Antonio. Villains existed as they hated someone, more than the person hated him/her. Shylock hated Antonio for despising his religion, and Antonio felt the same too. They hated each other so much that they wanted to kill each other due to some misunderstanding communication.

          People that are called villains are actually not evil. They think the things that they did was justice. Their point of justice are different from people. In fact, everybody have different opinions on justice, but it's just that many people have the same opinion on justice(which most people think is right). An example is the movie/anime/manga DeathNote. Light Yagami (main character) killed many criminals just because he think that he is doing it for justice but in the wrong way. He wanted to decrease the crime rate, and he did succeed. The crime rate decreased by 70%. As he was doing it in the wrong way, he was stopped by the police. I will be ending my post here.

Term 1 Week 4

  Hey, here to post about Literature lesson on term 1 week 4. Monday: Okay, so basically, we only did reading for that lesson. This lesson is all about mercy. Mr Chua explained to us about the play. We asked some questions about the meanings in the play.

  After all the explanation, I roughly know what the play is all about. Mr Chua gave us a worksheet about qualities of Mercy. Mr Chua told us to do the worksheet as homework. We were supposed to write an example of our religious gods' example of mercy. Free thinkers and Hindus were suppposed to find Hindus' gods example of mercy. I was finding about a Buddhist example of mercy. This was what I had found out on the net:

Let thousands of people

Receive the light of mercifulness

Let thousands of people

Bathe in the great grace of heaven

Let thousands of people

Transcend from the sea of sufferings

Do not compare with the others

Do not compete with the others

Establish a right objective

Do not hesitate or hinder yourself

Accept the sufferings and live with the sufferings

Feel the tragedies of mankind

Give joyousness whenever required

In return, you shall receive mercy.

  I think that everybody has their own nature of mercy. It depends on how natural mercy is in us. It depends how kind hearted we are and how we judge people.

Tuesday:

  Mr Chua punished us as our class was in chaos. He told us to bring down our Literature notes and I was wondering where was he bringing us to, but I knew that he was going to punish us.

  Mr Chua made us sit at the grass patch under the sun.(Well, not directly under the sun, but it was really warm). He discussed about this year School's theme; Friendship.

He explained to us about the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio. He then questioned us about the qualities of friendship.

  He gave us time to discuss with some of our classmates and he invited Amy, Er WeiSheng and Daryl to share about their opinion. We went back to class after that. Mr Chua each gave us a blank, white post card and told us to decorate the post card to our best friend. Mr Chua told us that he would give each of us a envelope with a stamp and send it to the reciever.

  I think that friendship is really important as friends is somebody that we can love, someone that we can share our secrets to, someone you feel that you can share things without feeling awkward and they can push you beyond your boundaries. They provide you the shoulder that you can lie on, someone that is loyal to you, a soul mate, friends are fated to meet each other. I shall end my post here.