Do we need mega-sized food?

I was quite shocked when I saw this on the MacDonald's menu recently, look at the size of it! And after a while, I started seeing Burger King having huge burgers like these too, and with the new 'prosperity' burger MacDonalds came up with this holiday season, they decided to mega-sized it too.

I hope you guys know that fast food is processed food that is as unhealthy as it can get. To make that burger patty, meat parts has been minced up and all sorts of things added into it makes it a terrible food for nourishment and nutrition. And now they are trying to get you to eat 4 patties at one go, that's real madness! Don't fall for it!

Have a Happy New Year!

Hey everyone, hope your new year break was good! It wasn't a nice one for me at all, as for the other teachers, as we got lots to do; but at least I got to visit relatives of my extended family as usual, and had a good reunion dinner.

At different times, I had different feelings with regards to the New Year. When I was much younger, it was a happy time because I get to stuff myself with nice food and was delighted to get the ang baos, but after a while I thought that it was a rather boring holiday as there's no place to go after all that visiting (except to watch movies), and I couldn't understand why we have to go from house to house to visit, sitting there watching TV while waiting for the adults to finish their conversations. Do you think alike too?

But now that I'm sort of grown up already, I am starting to appreciate it all over again. Over the years I only see my cousins once a year during this time, and I realise I missed out on seeing them grow up. At least this holiday gives me a chance to stay in contact with them. Trust me, you will appreciate these traditional Chinese customs as you grow older!

Obama Inauguration!

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, just had his first day at work yesterday. His inauguration ceremony (to make him a president) was one of the most watched event on TV on 20th January, and tickets for it were sold out in minutes.

Even I feel excited about him being president! We all should be, even though we are not Americans. His election showed that world that most of America has looked beyond racial differences to elect their first Black president, and it is a victory for democracy and meritocracy.

Let's hope it will be a smarter, more tolerant, and more environmentally-conscious world with more presidents like him!

Romeo and Juliet movie screening

Ok classes, I'm going to try show you the movie version of Romeo and Juliet, featuring the dashing Leonardo Di Caprio and the angelic Claire Danes. I am thinking of next week's Wednesday the 28th, as there are no CCAs on Wednesdays. I have to see if I can book a room for that though. Think it's a good idea/date? Let me know!

Can we think without words?

From Thirty Days to a More Power Vocabulary

Wilfred Funk and Norman Lewis

The study of words is not merely something that has to do with literature. Words are your tools of thought. You can’t even think at all without them. Try it. If you are planning to go downtown this afternoon you will find that you are saying to yourself ”I think I will go downtown this afternoon.” You can’t make such a simple decision as this without using words.

Without words you could make no decisions and form no judgments whatsoever. A pianist may have the most beautiful tunes in his head, but if he had only five keys on his piano he would never get more than a fraction of these tunes out.

Your words are your keys for your thoughts. And the more words you have at your command the deeper, clearer and more accurate will be your thinking.

A command of English will not only improve the processes of your mind. It will give you assurance; build your self-confidence; lend color to your personality; and increase your popularity.

Your words are your personality. Your vocabulary is you. Your words are all that we, your friends, have to know and judge you by. You have no other medium for telling us your thoughts – for convincing us, persuading us, giving us orders.

Count Dracula

Some of you guys were asking me about the story ofp Dracula, and why he is a 'Count'. First of all, a 'Count' is a nobleman, people of the higher classes or the royalty, and it comes from the French word comte.

The story Dracula was modelled after a Romanian ruler called Vlad III, or more commonly as Vlad the Impaler. To cut a long story short, he was extremely cruel has a habit of executing any prisoners he takes in war by impaling them on tall stakes. In Romania's history, there was already legends of people who are 'undead', and this English writer Bram Stoker uses Vlad's nickname 'Vampire' to create this legend.

Dracula starts with a man called Jonathan Harker who goes to Count Dracula's castle to handle a property deal, but eventually, he find that the Count doesn't allow him to leave, and notices that he does not have reflections in mirrors and can climb down the steep walls of the castle like a bat. He also finds other vampires in the castle, but was saved from them by Dracula himself. After he escapes, his fiancee helped him recover from the trauma but she herself was bitten. With the help of scientist Van Helsing, they eventually managed to kill Dracula.

Interesting thing is, why would an English writer have the idea of writing a story about a Romanian monster? It was because at that time, Western Europe started to feel threatened by the Eastern European citizens, who started to migrate in to work and live. The story reflects the fear and suspicion that the English have of these strange people, by showing them as being weird gypsies and blood (money) suckers, to put it simply.

Should we start school later?

Now you all know I have not been a teacher for very long, and although I have by and large enjoyed my experiences of being with you all, there are some things that I am not used to, like having to wake up at 6am. I cannot stand my friends who complain about having to wake up 'early' for work when they only have to wake up at 8am.

Two days ago, a journalist of the Straits Times wrote an article to suggest that school starts later so that students can get smarter! Yes, it's actually old news that more sleep makes you more able to absorb information better, hence the 'smartness' increase.

I'll love to have that happen, because the truth is I'm a natural late sleeper and always sleep at midnight, so I'm not actually very energetic that early in the morning. And of course, if we start school at 9am, I can have time for a proper breakfast too (which also contributes to IQ!), and recess break will be just at lunchtime.

Would you like that? Why or why not?