Last week in Jakarta
The December/Winter holidays have started, and I find myself being unproductive things, not only in the eyes of society but also in the eye of the beholder: me. I find that my addiction to the game League of Legends have taken too much time out of me. I was playing excessively hoping that playing the game would result in me getting bored. However as the game becomes more and more competitive and the standard of the game increases, I find myself spending more and more time on the game. Things have to stop. Soon.
Nevertheless I did spend my last week in Jakarta seeing my friends. Visiting them for leaving parties and dinners, sleeping over at their house, and so on. However as much as I visit them, these are close friends that I am comfortable spending my time alone with. There are friends (of which I call 'outer ring friends') that would be considered awkward if I were to spend my time with them anytime outside of school. Nevertheless I would miss them as well and most probably never see them for the rest of my life (that is, until I see them again in school). Thus is life. One of the most important motto's that I tend to follow during my social interactions is that 'friends come and go'. This is to prevent any major emotional trouble during fallout with friends, and I have followed this motto ever since I came up with it. Therefore it's important to never make a friend who would not make friends with you, and never help a friend that would not help you. Friendship is all about exchange, whether emotional or material.
My "digression": Asian competition
I look forward to making friends in Singapore. It is the inevitable. I do hope however, that they are not the over-competitive type that would sabotage the work of another for their personal gain. I have seen that.
Looking back at the past, one of my conversations with my economic teacher was the concept of the "Asian nod", a phenomenon only in Asia when one would nod their head, indicating that they understand something when in actual fact they don't. In this case it would the concept of the supply and demand diagram that constitutes the core foundations of economic theory. Being so vital, why are students so irrational as to say that they understand something when in reality they don't? As my economics teacher said "we are a class. We help each other climb up the mountain and we wait for the ones lagging behind". At that time I couldn't really formulate the rebuttal in that point in time but if he ever stumbles upon this blog I would like to reverse time and say this to him.
"If only Asia thought of education as a mountain that one must climb together. All my life I was thought that it was a race, and you had to be first. This mean't that you didn't wait for the other, and the ones lagging behind were not to stop the ones ahead. When a student were to say that they not understand and the whole class groans, there is a reason for it."
This is exactly what I don't want to see in my friends in the future. Similar to how sabotage is illegal in races, so it is in society.
However I digress.
Have a great holiday and a Merry Christmas!
Cheers,
Matthew Tan
Nevertheless I did spend my last week in Jakarta seeing my friends. Visiting them for leaving parties and dinners, sleeping over at their house, and so on. However as much as I visit them, these are close friends that I am comfortable spending my time alone with. There are friends (of which I call 'outer ring friends') that would be considered awkward if I were to spend my time with them anytime outside of school. Nevertheless I would miss them as well and most probably never see them for the rest of my life (that is, until I see them again in school). Thus is life. One of the most important motto's that I tend to follow during my social interactions is that 'friends come and go'. This is to prevent any major emotional trouble during fallout with friends, and I have followed this motto ever since I came up with it. Therefore it's important to never make a friend who would not make friends with you, and never help a friend that would not help you. Friendship is all about exchange, whether emotional or material.
My "digression": Asian competition
I look forward to making friends in Singapore. It is the inevitable. I do hope however, that they are not the over-competitive type that would sabotage the work of another for their personal gain. I have seen that.
Looking back at the past, one of my conversations with my economic teacher was the concept of the "Asian nod", a phenomenon only in Asia when one would nod their head, indicating that they understand something when in actual fact they don't. In this case it would the concept of the supply and demand diagram that constitutes the core foundations of economic theory. Being so vital, why are students so irrational as to say that they understand something when in reality they don't? As my economics teacher said "we are a class. We help each other climb up the mountain and we wait for the ones lagging behind". At that time I couldn't really formulate the rebuttal in that point in time but if he ever stumbles upon this blog I would like to reverse time and say this to him.
"If only Asia thought of education as a mountain that one must climb together. All my life I was thought that it was a race, and you had to be first. This mean't that you didn't wait for the other, and the ones lagging behind were not to stop the ones ahead. When a student were to say that they not understand and the whole class groans, there is a reason for it."
This is exactly what I don't want to see in my friends in the future. Similar to how sabotage is illegal in races, so it is in society.
However I digress.
Have a great holiday and a Merry Christmas!
Cheers,
Matthew Tan
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