OELP REFLECTIONS:))

Mingyi:

In the past 8 days of OELP learning journey, I had learned and experienced a lot. On our first day, we visited 西安附属大学. Their school had majors in art and the students had specific days that they will have art lessons from morning to as late as 9:30 pm. I was so surprised to hear that as in RV, the latest students stayed for lessons will not exceed 6pm. Yet we still complain all day long that we have too less time to rest and complete our homework. The students there also have no choice in what food they get to eat during their lunch breaks unlike us who can buy any food sold in canteen that suits our taste. We also visited Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP). At the Suzhou Industrial Park, I realized how important relationships between countries are. As China continuously improves in both their economy and country development, it is important to maintain a good relationship with China. SIP is also a good opportunity for Singapore to venture into China's big market. As China's economy improves, Singapore businessmen in China will also have more profits. Thus, a good relationship is important. Day 2, we visited 星海实验中学 and Humble Administrator's Garden. After the school immersion, I realized how different our school is from theirs. Their classroom is very small and it has to fit more than 40 students. Their tables are very small and there is hardly any space for us to walk. The students there also have no choice in what food they get to eat during their lunch breaks unlike us who can buy any food sold in canteen that suits our taste. Their lessons except for English were all taught in Chinese and I could not understand most of it! They use chalk and blackboard instead of whiteboard and markers which are what all schools in Singapore use nowadays. The students in the school do not need to wear their uniform everyday but only on Mondays when they have morning assembly. On other days, they can wear home clothes and do not have morning assemblies. Instead, they have morning exercise every morning. We also managed to learn the Suzhou traditional dance. The teacher said our moves should be graceful and we have to dance with a fan. It was very hard as we tried to be as graceful as we can, from our fingers positions to our postures. I think it is very meaningful as we understood more of Suzhou's culture through the dance. The women in the past used to be very graceful and took small steps as they have small feet, unlike us nowadays. After this, we went to the Humble Administrator Garden. I realized that Chinese in the past are very creative. They thought ghosts will haunt them at night when they take walks at night, thus they built bridges with turning points, so that ghosts will not haunt them. How superstitious! Also, Chinese in the past liked very strong animals like lions, tigers and dragons. They would place sculptures of these animals around their house to get good luck and fortune and to show that they are strong. Day 3, we returned to 星海实验中学. We joined them for their morning exercise and it was very interesting! Also, after a few lessons, they would have a short period for the students to massage their eyes. Sadly, students there only have CCA once a week for merely 45 minutes only. We also met our school buddies who told us more about their school life. Some of them are chosen to go overseas for school immersion but not all of them are that lucky. They have to apply and pass an interview for them to have an opportunity to participate in school immersions. Unlike us RVians, all of us get a chance to travel overseas in this CID program and I realized how fortunate we are as compared to them. Lesser homework, lesser time spent in school, more opportunities but we complain about having more homework, not enough time and that even when we are overseas, we still need to reflection every night. Next, we visited the No.1 silk factory in Suzhou, where we get to see machines that extract silk from silk cocoons in action. I realized how more advanced technology helped us lessen the workload of workers. In the past, people needed to use their own hands to unwind the silk from silk cocoons. It was very troublesome and a lot of manpower is needed. However, with new and advanced machines, workers only need to monitor the machines while machines pull out the silk from cocoons. Day 4, we visited the Suzhou museum and Shan tang street. At Suzhou museum, the design was very new and designed by a renowned architect. However, the things inside were very old, up to a few hundred years old. They even kept clothes from the past! The Suzhou museum is built to preserve China's history and culture. One example will be the 鼎 that is used by the people in the past to cook. Also, people in the past are superstitious and thought that if their body is covered with jade after their death, they will go to heaven. The trip was very enriching and interesting! Next, we proceeded to Shan tang street. It has a very traditional and old look as the whole street is lined with shop houses with olden designs. Day 5, we visited Shanghai 交通大学 to learn more about why shanghai prospered and advanced so much in the last few years. One important reason would be Shang Hai's geographical location. It is located at the intersection of two very prosperous rivers. Another reason why Shanghai is one of the few cities of China to prosper so quickly after China opened up to the world would be the western influence that was already present during the opium war period. They had a lot of western influence, especially after the opium war where China had to sign the Nanking treaty and open up more ports to the westerners. This resulted in an increase of foreigners going to Shanghai. I did not know there are so many factors contributing to the fact that Shanghai is so prosperous now. In the past, there were many foreigners in Shanghai and the system was very messy. There were different currencies used, different languages used, different religions and different holidays for different groups of people. When a person commits a crime at a concession and escapes to another concession, he is considered not guilty and will not be punished. Thus it was very messy and unorganized in Shanghai in the past unlike now, where there are specific holidays for everyone and a standardized currency in China (RMB). Next, we went to Shanghai Urban planning centre. It showed the different structures of important buildings in Shanghai and the public transport system. It showed that there will be more roads and train lines so that China’s transport system will be more efficient. With more efficient public transport, more people will choose to take public transport instead of paying a huge sum of money for their personal car. Also, with more efficient public transport and uncongested roads, they would prefer to invest in Shanghai. Lastly, we went to watch an acrobatic show. It was amazing as we stared and awed after each performance. It seemed like an easy feat for the performers but one wrong move and they might hurt themselves. To show us the amazing performance, they had to practice for a very long time and must have injured themselves in the process but the performance was definitely a success! “台上三分钟，台下十年功” Day 7, we visited the Lu Xun memorial hall, Oriental pearl tower and Nan Jing road. Lu xun memorial is a museum to remember Lu Xun, who is also known as 人之子, who wrote books and stories to try to start a revolution. He won a scholarship and went to Japan to study on medicines. He was shown a picture of a Chinese man being killed but the other Chinese there were not trying to help him but simply stared and looked on to see what will happen. He was deeply impacted and he decided to be a writer to influence people in China to make a difference. As there were many foreigners in China at that time, he wanted to chase all the foreigners out and allow China to be independent. Due to the large number of foreigners in China, many decisions made are often influenced by foreigners and might affect Chinese staying in China badly. He wanted to change the mindsets of people in China and to improve China. Next, we proceeded to the Oriental Pearl tower. It is one of the very famous landmark and tourist attraction for Shanghai as it is the third tallest TV tower in the world. We visited the 259 metre transparent observatory, which was in the second sphere. From there, we could see the beautiful scenery of the whole Shanghai and the floors and walls were all transparent. Although it was very scary, we enjoyed the breeze and scenery there. Lastly, we visited the Nanjing road, which was like the China version of Chinatown. Day 8, our last day in ChinaL, we went to Shanghai’s expo, the bund and Cheng Huang Miao. The shanghai expo was the world expo held in Shanghai in 2010. It had different exhibitions of different countries and different cities in China. We also visited the bund, where there was awesome scenery. We could see the Oriental Pearl tower and many skyscrapers although there is still haze in the air. Lastly, we went to Cheng Huang Miao, which is a place that looks traditional. It even had one of the olden bridges. There are many roadside stall and shops on carts that sell a variety of things.

I feel that this OELP trip taught me many things about the relationship between Singapore and China, the history of Shanghai and how it progressed so much. We also learned that there are many differences in our education system as compared to China.

WENQING:

One of the learning objectives of this Overseas Exchange Learning Programme(OELP) is to understand more about China and it has surely achieved its aim. One of the most memorable example is when we were brought into the classrooms of the Suzhou Experimental High School.

I remember vividly how their lessons were taught. They studied everything in the Chinese language, whereby they call it the Putonghua. I felt that the reason why they are so good in the Chinese language is because they communicate in mandarin and write in Chinese very frequently. However, we Singaporeans, often communicate in English, and not our Mother Tongue. Hence, when we communicate with them in Chinese, we had alot trouble as we weren’t fluent and did not practise communicating in Chinese often. This made me feel ashamed of ourselves. As Chinese, we should also be able to speak Chinese as well as them! This thought gave a sudden motivation to improve my Chinese. Firstly, I think that I should start communicating in Chinese with my classmates. Secondly, I am going to read more Chinese books such as the Chinese magazine, 少年文摘。

During their lessons, I can also see the undying passion for learning from the students in their eyes as well as their hunger for success through their eagerness in participation in the various class discussions, striving to be even better than they can be.

As a student studying in Singapore, I can safely say that all these excellent traits are not seen in most Singaporean students. As Singaporeans living in such a developed and prosperous country, we often lack that drive to work hard, that eagerness to succeed, causing many Singapore students to be extremely lazy and complacent. All these excellent traits are often seen through the perseverance and determination in our ancestors, who were just like these students at Suzhou Experimental High School. We need to be extremely hardworking even though we are living in comfort, and we need to be just as hungry for success as these students and our ancestors, to ensure that our country continue to progress beyond now.

Through this trip, I also learnt more about China’s culture and their traditional beliefs. Although China has been rapidly developing themselves, they still preserve historical sites and even opened them to tourists to let others know more about their traditions and cultures. For example, The Humble Administrator’s Garden. In Chinese it’s called 拙政园.

It is originally built in the fourth year of Zhengde Period of Ming Dynasty. On the whole, it has kept the style of the Ming Dynasty. Most of the things inside has been preserved the way it is(with slight renovation), hence making it one of the best tourist attraction in Suzhou. From the nicely build towers and bridges inside, I can see that Chinese in the past are very traditional and superstitious. For example, their bridges build are slanted with sharp turning points as the Chinese thought that it resembles the body of a dragon, one of the 吉祥物 in China. Dragons represent success to them and Chinese in the past thought that if they were to build dragon-like bridges, they would achieve more success. Their corridors are also built with curves as they think that that will prevent ghosts from entering their homes. They believed ghosts walks in a straight line and their curved corridors will protect them from ghosts. From these example, I can infer that Chinese in the past are very superstitious.

Chinese in the past also put a lot of attention to the designs of the garden. For example, the 花窗in The Humble Administrator’s Garden are all differently designed in a unique way. Also, the different 花窗 allows people to see different sceneries of the garden, allowing people to enjoy different types sceneries.

Chinese in the past are indeed very traditional and tries their best to preserve their culture. Even in some streets of China, they build 花窗and I think that it is very unique 。However, in Singapore, people nowadays hardly apply traditional values and cultures into their daily lives. I feel that although developing the country is important, culture and history should still be kept as it is passed down from our ancestors and it is a part of everyone of us. Without our ancestors, we would not have progressed till today. Hence, we should always remember what they have passed down, their cultures, history and traditional beliefs. Therefore I encourage Singaporeans to keep improving ourselves and at the same time, try our best to preserve our culture. It is one of the things that makes Singapore unique and different from countries. It is also one of the things that makes us Singaporeans.

I learnt a lot of things during this OELP trip that will never be learn in Singapore and it made me a more knowledgeable person. This OELP trip was one of the most memorable and fruitful overseas trip I ever had and I really hope that the school would arrange another trip like this for us again.

Yih Jie:

After this OELP to China, I have learnt and experienced a lot about China. What I learnt and experienced is mostly about the culture, history and the development plans.

I learnt many things about China from the trip and for example, on Day 2 we visited the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park or also known as the SIP. At the SIP, I was surprised by what I saw and what I learnt. Before the trip, there were pre trip preparations where we learnt more about the places we were going to visit. I was under the impression that the SIP was just a small park to merely show the relationship between China and Singapore. However, after the visit to the SIP, I saw that the park took up a very big land area and is huge. I learnt that the SIP is a major project, for example, there are many industries set up there and to my amazement, there is even a school there! We visited the school for a short few hours and I learnt from seniors in the school the basics of drawing and exchanged the small gifts which we prepared. The visit may be short but I still learnt a lot from them. Another thing which causes me to think of the SIP as a major project is that it is very well developed. For example, there is advanced machines there to aid the handling of goods. All these thoroughly changed my idea of the SIP. And out of all these that I have seen or learnt, one of them that impacted me the most is that China’s economy is growing rapidly. I always thought of China as a less developed country. However to my surprise, China’s economy is developing faster and faster every year that it slowly surpasses Singapore’s. Hence, it surprised me a lot. I feel that Singapore can learn from China through the Singapore-China relationship the ways and methods to achieve a better economy. Singapore can also break into China’s market with the relationship and benefit.

In the following two days, we had School immersion at Suzhou Experimental High School. Because this is my first time at a School immersion, I learnt and experienced a lot and I felt that it is the highlight of the OELP trip. We visited the school and attended lessons with the students there. We had a very good experience of their school life. We attended lessons with them for half the day and even had lunch in their canteen. I noticed many differences between their education system or school compared with ours. One of them is that all of their lessons is taught in Chinese while our lessons are all taught in English except for Chinese lessons. Even their English lessons seem to be taught in Chinese as the teacher frequently gave translations to English words from Chinese. It might be because of this that I also observed that most of the students might have no problem doing written work in English but have trouble speaking using English. Despite this one negative point about them, there are still many positives one. One of them would be that the school is very concerned about the well-being and health of the students. After a couple of lessons they would conduct this activity which aims to rest their eyes. Aside from their physical education lessons, they would also gather all the students at the school field where they will do some exercises after a few lessons in the morning. All these is done by the school to ensure that the students there remain healthy. This is a very good initiative and I feel that Singapore schools can learn from them and do the same to ensure that students are healthy and do not fall sick easily. Out of the many positive points they possess, one of them which impacted me is that they are very disciplined. It impacted me a lot because there is a huge contrast between the students there and the students in Singapore. At Suzhou Experimental High School, their rules were less strict. For example, facial hair, wearing homeclothes and coloured shoes to school is allowed. While back in our school, all these are definitely not allowed. This shows that the rules at their school is significantly less strict than ours. Therefore it impacted me a lot as despite having less strict rules, the students put up a better behaviour and is more disciplined. As I looked around the classroom during lessons, I could not spot anyone dozing off or not paying attention. The students may make noise before lessons start but however they know the appropriate time to talk and would keep quiet the moment the teacher enters the class. Most of the students also complete their homework on time. They are generally more well disciplined than students in Singapore. It might be also because of this that they generally do better in exams and is more efficient and each lesson only takes up 40 minutes of their time while lessons in Singapore are usually conducted for an hour. Hence, I feel that Singapore can learn a lot from them.

Afterwards, we visited many attractions in both Shanghai and Suzhou where we also learnt a lot about China. We visited the Humble Administrator’s Garden and the garden is a very beautiful place and I enjoyed the trip there a lot. I experienced and learnt a bit of the Chinese culture and history. I learnt that the Chinese are very hardworking. For example, the crafted and built out beautiful houses and furniture without the use of technology that was not available at that time. In order to create such beautiful things that almost seem to be perfect, extreme skill and effort is needed. Therefore causing me to feel that Chinese in the past were extremely hardworking. I also saw that the Chinese were very superstitious. For example, they would build a ghost corridor to prevent ghosts from entering. In the present, there is no scientific prove that ghosts exist and many people refuse to believe in ghosts. Compared to the present, the Chinese were very superstitious. Out of the many examples, one of them which impacted me the most is that the Chinese would build slanted and sharp bridges because they think it looks like a dragon. This once again shows that the Chinese are very superstitious as they want the bridge to look like a dragon as they believe that dragons are lucky and brings them fortune. Since I do not know the techniques and methods to build a bridge, I view building a bridge as an extremely difficult task. However they even chose to build slanted and sharp bridges which further adds on to the difficulty. Like I said previously, they do not possess technology of our time which makes building one even more difficult. Despite all these difficulties, they still want to build a such a bridge because it resembles a dragon. This shows how superstitious they are as they would go through so much trouble to just build a bridge resembling a dragon as they strongly believed that a dragon would bring them fortune and luck. Singapore can learn from China and build or preserve places like the Humble Administrator’s Garden which will allow tourist to learn more about Singapore’s history.

We also visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. The urban structure of Shanghai is beautifully presented there. I also learnt a lot about their Urban Planning. For example, they plan to develop the transport system more. They plan to have 22 train lines by the year 2020 instead of the 12 they have currently. In a short span of 6 years, it might almost seem impossible to develop 10 train lines. All these shows that the urban planning of Chinese is very well done. I also learnt about the urban history of Shanghai. Singapore can learn from China’s Urban Planning and improve its own urban planning.

Out of all the attractions we visited, one of them which I was most interested in is the Shikumen museum at Xintiandi. Almost all great cities in the world have their unique cultural and leisure districts such as Montmart in Paris, or the Ginza in Tokyo and for Shanghai, it would be the Xintiandi. Xintiandi encapsulates Shanghai’s past. Its old Shikumen houses are remodeled to meet the needs of modern lifestyle and is currently occupied by restaurants, bars and shops. The Shikumen houses were especially interesting to me. I learnt about the interesting structure of the houses and its history. For example, I learnt that Shikumen was popular among Shanghai residents because it promoted communal living and its common wall, courtyard and attached houses enhanced interaction among neighbours and gave residents a strong sense of security and belonging. In fact, from the 1850s to the 1940s, 60% of Shanghai residential housing was built in the Shikumen style. I learnt that the Shikumen buildings are mostly 2 to 3 stories and normally one family would occupy the entire building. The front gate would lead to a spacing courtyard and behind that would be a living room where guests are received. From this trip to the Shikumen museum, I saw and learnt a lot.

Placing the educational component of the trip aside, we went for a bit of shopping at the Shantang Street and Nanjing Road. However, there were still things we could observe and learn from their culture. Before going for the cultural visit to the Shantang Street and Nanjing road, we were constantly reminded to look after out belongings and watch out for our own safety. Crimes that were committed can range from pickpocketing to kidnapping. It was not just the casual reminders and we were told strictly to move around in groups. Later on as we made our purchases at the shops, I also noticed that when making payment, the casier would check the dollar notes. I can infer that they were checking for counterfeit notes. At almost every shop I visit, they would do the same to check the notes. This tells me that counterfeit notes appears very frequently in China. All these shows that China’s security is very low and is considered quite a dangerous place. Compared to Singapore, China’s security is quite low. However we cannot assume that such crimes will not take place and we should learn to be more cautious about our surroundings even in Singapore.

This OELP trip to China is very enriching and I learnt a lot about the culture, lifestyle and history of China.

SIMIN:

At the end of this 8 days Overseas Exchange Learning Programme trip (OELP) , I hav learnt and experienced a lot. One of the most memorable experience is our visit to the Xinghai Experimental High School.

I still remember how I felt before I attend their lesson. I thought that they would be slower than us in terms of the contents of the lesson and that we would be able to understand their lesson eventhough it is conducted in Chinese. But when we really experience how their lesson were conducted, I realized I was wrong. They were learning stuff that year 3 learnt and the fact that it was conducted in Chinese , it nearly "killed" us. I also found out that they don't use electronic device in class such as electronic calculator which is like a "daily necessity" for us in maths lesson. This made me think that Singapore children moan a lot . We always complain a lot , like having a lot of test or when not being able to use the calculator in a maths test. We should learn from them in terms of not complaining about minor stuffs when we are more fortunate than others. After attending their lesson , I realized that even though we are bilingual , our mother tongue isn't strong at all as compared to them. We always think that we are one step ahead of others as we are bilingual . But when we come to China then I realized that we had trouble communicating with them using Chinese. Thus I have decided to read more Chinese books to strengthen my Chinese foundation and use chinese to communicate with my friends and family more.

I also found out that the students there are optimistic. They won't be discouraged if they failed their test. Instead, they would find another way to improve I that particular subject. However, when we failed our tests , we would be very sad and might start to hate this subject and get very discouraged. Thus, we should learn from them how they doesn't get daunted by setbacks

We also went to another school, 西安附属大学. This school was more of a traditional school as compared to Xinghai Experimental High School which is more like the schools in Singapore. The definition of a traditional school in China is that they focus more on arts than studies. When we were chatting with our china buddies, we found out that they study from 7am to 9pm. Their school is so different from Singapore school while the latest we were release from school is 6pm. I realized that even though their daily school routine was very hectic , they didn't complain at all. From this , I think that the China students are very serious in their studies and in my opinion, I think that Singapore students doesn't treat their studies seriously as compared to china students. As in break times , we always use this time to play and gossip about others but the china students use this time to revise on their studies , ask their friends about questions they don't know. Thus, we should learn from them , from how they treat their studies seriously.

From this trip,I have also learnt a lot about China's History and Culture. For example, we went to the Humble Administrator's Garden. We had seen how well China has preserve their history and culture. They preserve it well as if it was newly built. As compared to China, Singapore does not have such attractions , i think that Singapore should preserve attractions similar to the Humble Administrator's garden so that visitors to Singapore can learn and understand more about our history.

Eugene:

The time spent during this trip was truly memorable and I for one would wish to be able to stay there even longer just to continue learning and having the company of my friends Throughout this whole learning journey to China, I have learnt many things and experienced a lot. For example, China's education system, the old and new side of China, and I also learnt that our bonds with China is very important.

Firstly about China's education system I think that their education system is very academically based which means that they have barely any time to do other things for example Values In Action(VIA) or Co-Curricular Activities(CCA). They have so little time to do other things like relaxation and their hobbies as they study continuously from 8.30am in the morning to 9.30pm at night with breaks for about 15 minutes for every 45 minutes of lessons conducted. This can be good as students will focus a lot on their studies and examinations which will stretch them very far in terms of their academics, however, children in China would then not have enough time to be exposed to many different things unlike how Singapore children would be able to have more free time to learn things like basketball or dancing which can develop the China children to be more hands-on on doing things. To add on, when Singapore schools do this to develop us to be more hands-on we tend to be well versed in many things but not specifically very good in a certain aspect. Their education system would also cause them to have to be very efficient in a sense that they have to rush finish all their school homework immediately after they end school at 9.30pm and they have to have enough sleep to wake up early to reach school before 8.30am. In addition, with such long hours in school their homework would definitely be a whole lot which thus they barely have time to rest after school and they have to be very on-task when they do their homework. As compared to Singapore children which complain about a lot of homework what about the China children? Do they ever complain with barely anytime to spare for themselves? I think that us as Singaporeans can definitely learn and stop complaining as everyone has their own 24 hours thus when they can do it we definitely can learn and improve ourselves to be able to be as efficient or even better than them.

The old and new sides of China can definitely be experienced from this trip. The new sides of Suzhou was in the Suzhou Industrial Park which was very modernized as it had schools, factories and many different modern facilities. This park was a collaboration between Singapore and China thus Singapore imparts the skill on how we govern our country and how we develop so fast in such a short period of time to China. This collaboration allows China to industrialize quicker than usual and this Suzhou Industrial Park also acts as a springboard for Singapore to be opened to the China market. This would allow us to benefit if the China market improves as our economy would also improve. On the contrary, the old sides of China was like the Humble Administrator's Garden we visited. The Humble Administrator's Garden showcased the thoughts of how the Chinese in the past thought which as compared to us is very different. The place is built so that it resembles the body of a dragon as dragon represents superiority and is thought to be very prosperous to the Chinese community. Their pathways of the of the Humble Administrator's Garden is purposely made to be curved as it was thought that ghosts could not walk on curved roads but can only walk on straight roads. I really think that the Chinese at that time were really creative to think of things like this. Another thing to show that they were really creative was that their stairs have only 3 steps to it in which every step represent the Chinese characters “步步高”. I think that the new side of a China can really be of competition to Singapore as China is industrializing even faster than us now and that they would take over us sooner or later. This can be a threat to Singapore as we might never know when China does not have the need to collaborate with us anymore when they are self-sustainable this would mean a competition for Singapore and this shows that we have to learn to be humble and also look for China for help and strengthen our bonds to prevent that day from happening. The old side of China which shows their cultures can be very meaningful and they are preserving their cultures for future generations to learn. We Singapore have barely anything to remind us of our culture in the past so I think that we must learn from them and continue preserving what is left for now. Even if we are Chinese and we have our culture in China we must still have some of our own in Singapore as Singapore is a multiracial country we must treasure it as not many counties can achieve that and this is our culture.

The bonds with China and Singapore is very important as this can affect us a lot. Through the entire learning journey to China I have deeply experienced this as the point of us going to China was to learn from them and when China students come to Singapore they would be wanting to learn from us too. The learning journeys between us can strengthen our bonds with China as future collaborations might be with the friends that we made in the school that we went and this friendship that we made would be beneficial to the collaborations. This would also be shown in the Suzhou Industrial Park programmer which shaped the bonds between the countries such that we were allowed to use it to expand and open up new markets in there and at the same time we help them modernize the place. However, the bonds between our countries may not last long if we do not continue finding things to collaborate as we may be complaisant and think we are better than them but the fact is that they are already improving faster than us such that all the countries have been setting sights on them. We might be left in the dust one day as China has cheap labor cost with a lot of manpower needed for their industrialization. This can teach us to strengthen bonds with other countries as we are a small country we have to learn from other countries in order to catch up with them, this would mean to have more collaborations with other countries so that we have a good relationship with all of them. I think that Singapore should also send people to parts of the world like Europe and United States of America to be able to learn from the west, learn how they govern their country such that they can be one of the huge markets in the world for example Manhattan is the Global Economic Centre.

I have described everything on top as all those are my observations and my thoughts about this learning journey. I think that applying back to Singapore starting out with our education system I realize that our education system is different in a lot of ways in which that their schooling hours are from 8.30am-9.30pm, however, our schooling hours are only from 7.30am-3.00pm latest for our year 2 level. Another thing I notice that is different from Singapore is that their tests and exams are considered as very prestigious things in their country which they would block of all surrounding roads to their school to minimize the noise level which would affect their students in their exam. I think that that is a very drastic measure to be taken to as the other people that need to use those roads would be affected and the noise level would not be a problem so long as there is a room which is enclosed for tests like lecture theatres in our school. The old and new sides of Singapore can barely be seen as we have the limited space in Singapore and lots of these spaces are used mainly for our urban development. These can lead to problems such as our future generations may not even know who Sir Stamford Raffles is if we do not try to preserve his history and remember the benefits that he has left for this country. By bonding with China, Singapore can benefit from this and this shows us that having a good relationship with other countries is really good as we can rely on each other on different things for example China is learning from us the way we improve in this small little country of ours, and at the same time we are learning from them their rapid development in Shanghai which may one day seek to take over Manhattan’s position as the Global Economic Centre.

After my whole experience in this learning journey I have learnt to improve on my bicultural standard as Singapore have to learn to be bilingual as we have to be able to break into the United States market and the China market as this are the very big market in the world. I have learnt to be strong in both my Chinese and English so that we can catch up with the world. I have learnt to also better my bicultural learning experience so I can understand both cultures.

All in all I really enjoyed the whole learning process and I think that I have learnt a lot and I hope that I have also contributed to my buddies in China, one way or another. This whole trip has been a fruitful experience and at the same time I hope to be able to go on such a learning journey with my friends again as their company always let me live life to the fullest. I am able to do things that are really fun and enjoyable and may not be able to be done with anyone else in the world. To end my whole reflection, I think that as a class we all learnt that China is a very strong market and our current bonds with them can give us an edge with better collaborations in the present or in the future.