Sonali-Liu Yifei

A “holiday” sometimes means falling vapid. I just watched a TED talk about virtual community and felt that this meaningless online wandering is continuingly swallowing all my interests and aliveness. So I grabbed a book and went to the Mc-Donald to have some “fun”.

The girl who usually stands at the counter wasn’t there. Instead a woman, dressing like the manager served me a coffee. After the girl came back, I told her quietly that her manager did not make coffee as well as she did. She laughed out loudly and proudly said: “sure! She hasn’t been professionally trained!”

There were no more customers so we had a long chat. I always thought selling coffee was the most relaxing work in Mc-Donald since there was never long queue in front the counter. Surprisingly I was wrong. The girl said most waitresses would choose not to work at Mc-Cafe even they could get 50 more dollar a month. She needs to wash the coffee machines, sell coffee, work on data reports and other chores that I did not follow. She firstly was set to work in the afternoon and she successfully gained some constant customers. However, she was later adjusted to serve in the morning so all her constant customers left. Now she regained some morning constant customers but tomorrow she would be again readjusted to the afternoon roll. Unfortunately, if the monthly turnover did not achieve the expectation, she would be scolded by her manager, who switched her again and again.

“I regret I came to experience life here at the first time!” she continued, “the first time you join work, you will definitely feel unable to blend in. Some colleges will try to push you aside and your boss may scold you for no reason! So you must learn to be tough and strong, or they will think you are easily bullied. You are lucky you are now in school! But you will have to stay here for 6 years!!!”

Her words and stories were really scary. But nothing is certain unless I experience by myself. Every thing can be changing in the next 4 years. I am still looking forward to my university life and my further future.

After I came back, I received a message from one of my classmates in high school saying he just wanted to talk to someone. I felt surprised, firstly because he chose to text to talk (even though I admit sometimes people tend to tell the truth when not having a real conversation, but texting means having the time to organize, thus means speaking like the person one want to speak like but not one himself), secondly because we only became classmates for about 2 months after a temporary class adjustment and after that we nearly never met again. But I became the one he asked for help. I guess he just felt the future unpredictable so he blocked himself in the past memories.

The future will definitely become tougher but will also become more interesting as long as we have the courage to face it. Recalling the past is sometimes cheering and fine, but can never be fascinating. Wallowing in the recollections cannot create a glorious future.

It is amazing that these three things happened in one morning. Unpredictable though, I believe every thing happens for some reason. The reasons can only be found after experiences. 

Stockholm syndrome

Yesterday when I chatted with one of my friends he wanted me to help him get access to the foreign website (Some websites are banned in cn). Then I told him that I also cannot get access to those websites because the DNS server I used now was located in China. He was speechless and said I had the “Stockholm syndrome”. Actually I had never heard this before so I searched it on the Internet. I was very surprised after I read the information I found because I realized I really had this “disease”.

Stockholm syndrome was found in 1973 when four robbers broke into a bank in Stockholm and kidnaped four hostages. After the four hostages were saved six days later, they did not want to punish the robbers. On the contrary, they tried to protect the robbers. Since then, this strange mental disease was found and concentrated. The FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of Stockholm syndrome.

Stockholm syndrome can happen if the following four conditions are satisfied.

1.      Hostages believe that their lives are in danger.

2.      The robbers distribute grace to the victims.

3.      Hostages are separated from the rest of world. They can only get information from the robbers.

4.      Hostages believe that it is impossible to escape.

Hostages are totally dependent on the robbers, just like infants are totally dependent on their parents. Actually there are lots of similarities between infants and hostages. Some experts said Stockholm syndrome may develop from this. I agree with this and I think this is the nature of human beings. In other words, human beings are not the perfect dominators. Human beings can also be easily domesticated.

If a terrorist aim your head with a gun and told you gently “the highest right of human beings is to live”, will you be particularly feared? Will you listen to the terrorist? If the answers are “yes”, then you also have the “Stockholm syndrome”.

Do you still remember …?

Dreams are like classics, never fading but growing more precious with time passing by.                                                                                      ---《old boys》

Do you still remember what were you doing at this time last year? I still remember, there were only 8 days before the university entrance examination. At that time I was struggling just to make me better prepared for the coming exam. Meanwhile, I was also looking forward to the unknown university life. Those days were simple, but we all had a specific dream. It was laborious but ace.

Do you still remember the day you took your first step into the campus? I still remember, everything around was new and all my roommates are excellent. There were many activities to welcome us news. After a few days` freshness, the military training came. After 2 or 3 weeks training, black became the mainstream. We washed out laziness and at our best to cope with the university life. But I do not know what I will be after 4 years when I graduate.

Do you still remember the first you come to Singapore? I still remember how exciting I was.  At that time I do believe I had gone to a better place where I will be better than someone. We traveled around this new country and know more about it. The first time I went to Jurong Point, the first time I took the MRT, culture tour, bridging course, learning journey and till now we have adjust the life-style in Singapore.  I still, however, do not know my future after 4 years but luckily I have this course, I have you my friends, I have our lovely tutors and at least I have a dream.

What I want to say is memories are your treasures, do not forget them. Our bridging course is coming to an end and I will miss you all my friends and tutors.

China's sorrow

 

(In case of any political problem, I declare that this is only my own opinion...)

  There is a hot current affair which is highly discussed around China. This case is about Confucius institute. On May 17th, USA government made an announcement that all Confucius institutes in USA should be identified(ps. Other countries' similar institutes do not need to...) and their Chinese teachers should leave USA before June 30th . But on May 27th, USA government made another announcement saying that Chinese teachers do not need to leave US this year and Confucius institutes in USA is legal. This case turned out to be a technical issue--"strict visa policies"(ps.as reported...). However, Chinese people got hurt by this, they think that USA government did this deliberately. 

  Because of this case, I started to learn something about these institutes which are named with Confucius. First of all, these institutes are mainly to teach foreigners to learn Chinese rather than spreading the "Ru" culture as some Chinese people think. Secondly, all these overseas institutes are all built by the invitation of foreign countries, and all the fees are paid by the Chinese government. That is to say, foreigners are using Chinese people's money to learn Chinese! I think the reason why Chinese government does this is because they want to promote China and have a better international image. Chinese people felt hurt because even we paid money for American, our institutes are still treated unfairly and our teachers are forced to leave by an excuse which is even like a joke. 

   This case reminds me a comment made by a famous host in CCTV, Bai Yansong,he said that :why China always helped other countries but still had few friends? Yes , that is China's sorrow. When we were short of food, we bought food to help Albania, but at last we became enemies with each other. We supported Vietnam freely, finally we had war with them. In 2007, CNPC(China national petroleum corporation)became "Asian's most profitable enterprise ". When wenchuan broke out an earthquake in 2008,they only donated 10 million yuan. But when Japan suffered from earthquake, they donated money and oil which worth more than 200 million yuan! Why they donated 20 times of the money as they donated to wenchuan to Japan, a country which invaded us last century! What's more sarcastic , Japanese still said that we Chinese did not donate money to them after earthquake and burned our national flag! What else can I say? Well, I am speechless. Why Chinese still treat foreigners far away so well while our own people still struggle to survive? 

  I am not against foreigners, I just want China to be clear that taking good care of ourselves first before we help others.   

Our English Tutors( Part Two)

Hi, I am back now! This is my last blog. I will try to write as much as possible XD.
Our Thursday tutor is Ms Yap. The first time she entered the classroom and said hello to us, I found her a graceful lady. She always wears beautiful tradition clothes which I learn a lot of Singapore culture from. Sometimes she will tell us about some Malays and my most familiar Hokkien which made our classroom very interesting. She only speaks English and Cantonese which make me have more chance to use English other than my mother tongue. When we talked about Ms Yap, we may think about a word that I will never forget which is "Subtle". Why? You may wonder the reason. Actually Ms Yap trained us not only to learn the word but also use the word. She always said " Subtle influence" to remind us to speak English everyday. Ms Yap always bring some traditional Singaporean food like Nian Gao (Whether it is called Gui here?) and share with us before New Year or some other days. She bring Indian dessert for us, too. We not only enjoy the food but also learn the Singaporean culture. For me, some Singaporean food is quite similar to some Hokkien food like the Nian Gao which makes me warm as if I was still celebrating the Spring Festival in my beloved hometown. Ms Yap's topic for oral reports are very difficult but I think it is nice to have chances to report in Thursday. We all remember the most classical topic is " If you are a .____ ( flag, one Singapore Dollar, a song,etc), explain your one-day life or what kind of song will you be" After our report, our tutor will give us her version which is very beneficial for us to learn how to describe things in a more native way. Anyway, thanks to Ms Yap so we learn some different and useful things,too.
The last tutor is Qizhong. You may wonder what I am so rude to call him directly without proper address. If you come to our class, you will understand the reason. The first time I saw him, I guess the whole class are shocked. He wore the earphone and carried a cup of coffee.He was in a very hip-hop style cool dressing!  He looked like a student among us and sometimes he seemed to be regarded as a student who enter the teacher office without permission. He is a very easy-going person. From him, I learnt an different aspect of Singapore youth life style. To tell the truth, I really learnt a lot of things from him, I mean the attitude or some other things which I cannot learn from our " American" textbook. You know we all live in Singapore and we will stay in Singapore for at least ten years, but after half year in Singapore. It is essential for us to know more about local people. He is a musician so he need to play a lot of shows in his spare time. Sometimes he will show us the video which recorded his playing. I used to go to Mosaic Music Festival at Esplande to see his performance. I was very happy to see a person I known  foreign country!!! He told us what happened to him in his life and shared his true feeling to us. He told us about his high school life and the university life. We cannot experience the Singapore Junior College life and we are lucky to get this chance to know about the local high school life. He will set aside the books sometimes and analysis our English essay for a long session. Since his major in Linguistics, he told us about a lot of professional knowledge. Even though we cannot remember all of them but we have a better understanding in how to write the native English essays.

From my two blog, I guess you must have a overview about our four tutors. As our senior said, the four tutors shall be very different. I cannot help praising the arrangement done by CELC. Our four tutors all tried their best to help us adjust ourself to the new life here. They brought their stories to us. They shared their views with us. I am very lucky to have chance to listen to our four tutors' classes. Now the English Bridging Course is going to end. I hope all the best to our four tutors and our group members. Thanks to all of you, we are not alone in this country. I hope we all can get a nice result in our QET. Thanks again to our tutors sincerely !

To grow up or not to grow up

I still remember the scene when I did my first oral report in front of the class. It was more than five months ago, and all the strangers in class have already become friends since then.

The topic I chose in the first time of my oral report was Peter Pan. Though I have already watched the film and read the book for tens of times, I still think of this little boy all the time. As we all know, Peter Pan is different from others because he is the only one who will never grow up. As long as he stays in the wonderful island, Neverland, he will be a boy forever.

I guess that most people wish to grow up as fast as possible when they are young. At that time, adults have countless authorities in their eyes, such as staying up late at night and refuse to eat something they don’t like. After saying goodbye to their childhood and really become an adult, however, people will wish again that they could never grow up, for there are much more things that you have to do even if you are unwilling. Children think adults owns so much freedom while adults find the freest period is their childhood; this is why so many human never enjoy their life.

Well, what confuse me a lot are the reasons of the different choices that different characters make in the story of Peter Pan. Why does Wendy insist to leave Neverland, go back home and grow up? Why do others homeless boys choose to go with Wendy and grow up together? And why does Peter keep refusing to leave with Wendy and prefer never growing up? 

Suddenly I recall the famous poem, The Road Not Taken: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both.” To grow up is one of the roads, and not to grow up is another one, even though it seems that we do not have the right to choose at all. We have to grow up.

Sometimes it is very sad to see a naïve kid becomes sophisticated, for he loses his courage to say no to unfairness and all he cares is his salary. Peter believes that he will be sent to school and then become a bank clerk if he grows up, so he choose to stay in the Neverland alone and never grow up. Our life cannot be so simple and predictable as Peter’s, but it will not be relaxing for sure. We will learn to take our responsibilities.

To grow up or not to grow up, this is a problem. As far as I am concerned, I hope I could be forever young, but I also know it is impossible. Maybe all I can do is trying hard to keep my childishness. I am proud of my childlike innocence, and I wish I could still say so after ten years.

On the way

It’s a long long journey

Till I know where I’m supposed to be

It’s a long long journey

And I don’t know if I can believe

------Journey 

This is one of my favorite songs.

Someone has said, “Go travelling, or do some reading. Either your body or your heart, at least one of them should be on the way.” I cannot agree more. People ought to keep themselves on the way, otherwise they can hardly make any progress.

I like travelling, and there are so many places I would like to have a look. The first option is Taiwan. It is known that Taiwan is famous for its human landscape and abundant culture, as well as delicious traditional food and fresh fruits. What is more, a lot of Taiwanese literature works have not been imported to mainland, which attract me a lot. Japan is another place where I always want to travel. It is said that the view of Chang’an in Tang Dynasty can only be seen in Kyoto. It is sad but true. Besides, I also look forward to going sighting in Korea, Thailand, Europe, and so on.

However, for such a lazy guy as I am, travelling is not an easy thing. If go with travel agency, there is very little freedom; but if go by myself, I have to start preparing everything long before the journey, which is so tiring. This is one reason that I prefer do reading rather than go travelling. Meanwhile, another reason is that travelling costs much more than reading. As we all know, an ordinary book is no more than twenty or thirty dollars, but we can read it again and again until we get tired of it; if the book happens to be a masterpiece, we will never be tired of it. Compared with travelling, which costs us thousands of dollars at once, it is so obvious that books are much more worthwhile. No wonder it is said that we can never pay a book up.

For these reasons, I spend most of my spare time reading various books. Most of the books that I have read are novels, including fairy tales, romantic novels, Kung fu novels, science fictions, and so on. These books teach me a lot about how to deal with the complicated real world. Poems and stories about poets are my favorites as well, especially Chinese ancient poems. The world inside books is so fabulous that I cannot leave it at all.

St. Augustine said, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” You see, travelling and reading combine together again. Be on the way, and always gain something new. Thus the life must be rich.