Reflective Journal 4

As the Chinese say "in the blink of an eye", one term of ten long weeks has passed, whether we like it or not. Many things have happened, some we wish could happen again and some we most definitely hope not. In these ten weeks or so, there were many holidays which restricted the amount of Cultural Differentiation Elective (CDE) lessons we could have. An example is Chinese New Year.

However, with all the set backs that we had, we still managed to complete 7 tutorials in total. Personally, I feel that CDE is a wonderful subject and I have definitely gained a lot of enriching experiences just by being in the class. CDE is a completely different subject comparing to others such as Maths, Science, English Literature, etc. If possible, I definitely wouldn't mind if we can have CDE lessons throughout the year and not just for one semester.

I feel that by joining the ip-BSP was a privilege as I can have CDE lessons, unlike most of my friends. By having CDE lessons, I have improved myself as a person because for each passing CDE lessons,I start to talk more, contribute more in the class as a student. Not only in just CDE lessons, but also other subjects such as our Integrated Humanities Core, which is Social Studies. This can help me not only for getting higher Oral Participation marks which is a crucial 10% of our End of Year grades, but it also helps me improve in a sense that I realize that no matter how stupid the thing I said is, it is still useful to the class because it might lead to another idea being formed or it might even be a good one itself. The point is, nothing I say will be harmful to the class as long as it is well thought out.

One of the most important thing is that I have indirectly grew an interest in the differences between the East and the West. I started to do online researches about the differences and why are they so different, etc in order to exploit them myself and I find great joy and satisfaction when I successfully find out something I didn't know about. I believe that this will no doubt benefit me whether in the form of knowing more about their cultural for easier interacting or understanding, or so that it will be easier for me to decide to work in Eastern countries or Western ones.

On the other hand, I also feel that there are things that can be improved on during our CDE lessons in order to help the students improve as well. I realize that even though there are much contributions by the students in class, most of them are shared by the same students, such as Shuen Rong, XiaYu, Jia Wen, etc. some of the relatively quieter ones have not much chance to participate in class orally because their points might be taken by others or they are afraid that they might say something wrong. Hence, I feel that the solution to this is by making all students present on their reflective journals at least one time each term. It will be judged not by content but by the fluency of the speaker, his speaking skills, etc. This can contribute to the Oral Participation criteria as 5 marks or so. This can help the quieter ones to gain some marks so that at least this criteria of the grade would not totally "kill" them. However, this might be a waste of time if everybody was to present on every reflective journal, and so, I suggest that every student will only be given one chance to present on one reflective journal for the term. We can have one student to present every lesson and will start from those who speaks the least in class. This way,some of those who are very active in class might not have a chance to present and so, their Oral Participation marks will not include this criteria.

In conclusion, I find that CDE is a very fruitful subject mainly because it is interesting such that I do not fall sleep easily and thus, I gain more knowledge in CDE than other subjects.