Reflective Journal 5

SES in the previous semester has definitely been extremely enriching for me. Being a person who enjoys ideas compared to content, SES has been a platform for me to be exposed to my classmates’ ideas and reflect upon them within. I extremely enjoy the class discussions although I would have very much liked to speak up more in class. I think this could be due to my lack of enough depth in preparation at times due to the extremely hectic Hwa Chong curriculum. While I find the topics very interesting and the materials engaging, I rarely find enough time to read up in depth and often only skim through the content. However, whenever I have the time to do so, I would spend hours reading up on topics related to SES. SES mainly touched on the Chinese and Western culture in different aspects, and I am able to see the gradual rise in level of thinking as the weeks go by.

We started off with what Chinese and Western culture is, which gradually leads us to how this has affected economically, which builds up to our Semester 2 module about Economics. I remember in our very first lesson where we were introduced to this idea on cultural intelligence. SES has definitely equipped me with a better understanding both sides of the world and showed me what there is outside this little red dot. The exposure to both the Western and Chinese culture has give me a better understanding of how Singapore has actually played both of these elements in our society. Singapore’s culture and the mindsets of the citizens are extremely influenced by both the Chinese and Western perceptions of self, which I was exposed to in Term 1. Being a child born in a very Chinese-influenced family, I was able to look more into how this perception of self has actually been able to influence people. Being introduced to the Chinese perception of self, I was able to discuss more about this and show more of my family members about the bigger picture. The introduction of the American perception of self has also allowed me to show them what is out there, out of what they are comfortable with and what they have always been practicing. As a teenager living in the 21st century, where the wide usage of the Internet has exposed much of the world to the American perception of self, being exposed to the formal mechanics of this ideology has better shaped my opinion on it. More importantly, by having a wider view of the world, it has allowed me to grow into my own perception of self. One that is a synthesis of both, which I prefer and am more comfortable with.

 A difficulty I encountered would be the depth of the materials given doubled with the amount of time I actually had to read through them. With the depth of the materials, I would haven needed much more time to read through them and digest them to be equipped for discussion. However, due to the lack of time, I was only able to skim through it and only absorb a portion of it, sometimes barely understanding what the topic was about. After a few weeks of struggling with this, I managed to resolve this issue by going online to read up on the basics of the topic, gaining a rough understanding and gauging what I can expect from reading the materials. I also talked to a few of my friends from Bicultural Studies Program to get a rough idea of what the topic is about, especially those regarding China. SES would definitely be useful for me in the future. Not only has it broaden my knowledge on what is happening around the world, building on the knowledge and strategy part of cultural intelligence, it has also inspired me to want to talk to more of the people involved in the culture.

 Regarding this, the two Chinese scholars in my class has definitely made the lessons more interesting and giving us more insights from experience. SES has also helped me reflect more about myself and find out my perception of self. Knowledge and exposure is the first step towards reflection and emotion, and knowing about all these has allowed me to reflect more on myself. Writing the reflective journals has also improved my writing skills partially and more importantly has provided me with a platform to put my thoughts into words and learn better how to express them such that another can understand. The compulsory submission of reflective journals and the comments given has told me how I can improve in my reflections, and shown me that EVIDENCE is needed in order to reflect on something- counting on my own thoughts and partial logic is not enough.

Lastly, listening out to my classmates’ opinions and presentations has allowed me to have a more diverse view and not only my own perception of what is happening. I have definitely learnt a lot from them. I hope the next semester of SES would be equally, if not more, enriching as Semester 1!

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