Reflective Journal 5: Reflect on SES. You may want to consider the curriculum, the learning process, the assessment, difficulties you faced, how you overcame them, and how might SES be applicable in time to come.
SES is a study about the social and economic makeup of the
east and the west, a world beyond the boundaries of Singapore. Mastering the
art of SES is just like installing the latest Intel core i7 processer onto your
computer; it gives you a competitive edge in today's knowledge based world.
The study of SES affects my lifestyle, my perceptions and my
personality. As a neighbour, it was interesting to find out the reasons that
account for the different behaviours of American nationals in my estate. As an ethnic Chinese, it was definitely
interesting to learn how my ancestor's motherland faired against others
socially and economically. As a Singapore citizen, it was even more interesting
how and why we adopted some of China's and America's beliefs. Somehow, the
topics taught here have a soul, and are not as abstract as other topics like
factorisation in mathematics, or kinematics in Physics. Therefore, SES has been
one of the most enjoyable and enriching subject that I experienced as I really
felt connected and engaged to it.
Next, SES exposed me to different sides of a coin, and this gave
me the knowledge for me to discriminate. By this, I mean discriminate right
from wrong, not segregate or divide something into black or white. For example,
just because SES revealed what 'Apple' company was doing to thrive, I no longer
thought that Apple was a perfect company which should be modelled after at
first. In this case, SES showed the flaw in this system and exposed my
fallacious logic. In general, it kept me well informed and helped me develop a
clearer and more holistic understanding of the world.
However, I would be fooling myself if I were to say that this
process of learning SES was easy, especially since it had such a gruelling and
intimidating mode of pedagogy. Firstly, I had to participate actively in class
discussions to be awarded marks. I was not in the habit of speaking up, as I
felt uneasy over the inferiority I would get with a wrong statement made in
such a competent class. The result was that I avoided speaking as much as I
could, and let active participants like Daniel and Nathan run the show. Besides
that, I had to run a discussion for 15 minutes, which was daunting when I had
never made a presentation more than 10 minutes, let alone an individual
presentation more than 8 minutes. I knew I would be very self conscious while I
was in the limelight, but yet, I did not know how to do well with my
presentation skills no match to some of my other classmates. On the day of my
presentation, while I was narrating out my points, my head was still whirling
with fear. What would my classmates ask? Will I be able to stand firm on my
point?
Just one term ago, I remembered mentioning in my reflective
journal: "As I am strongly influenced by the
principle of maintaining "harmony", I prefer shielding my innermost
thoughts from others, and following the dominance." To a certain extent, this still
applies to me, but I know I am changing gradually.
Evaluating
this now, I fancy this change was in part because of the "no right
or wrong answers" mentality of SES classes. Generally, I felt that this
mentality helped me build confidence in selecting a few relevant points and
expounding on them based on my own reasoning. I was willing to do this solely
because I knew that I would not be wrong as long as I made logical sense. That
said, I must also extend my acknowledgement to my friends and teacher for
giving me moral support throughout the classes. Today, I periodically force myself to speak up, to be
more confident, and to only focus on the task at hand.
Turning back our attention to the big picture, we need to
understand that every modern society is interconnected; their cultures spread
and evolve. It is imperative to note that Singapore's future depends on its
citizens interacting and communicating with culturally diverse groups of people
from other countries. I must understand that finding a bride in China wearing a
Western Wedding Dress is not unusual anymore. I must be wary about giving pork
to a Muslim. I must recognise that the knowledge of other cultures is a
pre-requisite to effective communication in whatever field I choose to be in. In
the future, I am sure that the knowledge of this study will aide me in the
workplace, when I interact with other people.
Just like a ram in a computer, SES is the key to future endeavours.
It is a subject that can never be diminished in importance.
(Words: 800)
