RECESS Day 1 - Accomplishment?

We arranged to meet at Ang Mo Kio Hub at 12 noon. I reached the place half an hour early. I waited for Wan Yee outside New York New York. When she came, we decided to lunch at Dian Xiao Er. I told her that I felt a little drowsy after taking some medication. It was not long when Cabrina turned up, appearing very sick. Wan Yee joked that we were "sick cats"!

Our purpose was to record and analyse customer service agents' speeches for their pronunciations of certain English words. We approached one guy from the hello! shop and bombarded him with many questions (ranging from payment to technical), hoping that he would chunk out as many mis-pronounced words as possible. Unfortunately, he seemed quite well-versed in his English.

Upset by what we had, we decided to travel to Compass Point to collect more data. We made our way to hello! (our primary research target) and the girls managed to talk to a male agent. It seemed that the result was not ideal. I took a queue number - 1035 and waited patiently for my turn to come. It turned out that this time, we had a female staff. We concluded that staff at hello! seemed well-versed in their English.

Got to work harder next time!

Truly Undesirable Attitudes, Man!

a) If one of your group members is late for a group discussion for 1 hr 15 min, what would you do? How would you feel?

It happened to me on 4 September, Tuesday morning. We agreed to meet at the NIE library at 11 .30 A.M. As usual, I arrived some 10 minutes before the appointed time. A female member SMSed me that she and the other member were hungry and they wanted to grab a bite. Fine. Anyway, earlier on, I was told by another male member that he would be late too. So I took out my notes and plunged into them.

The girls came up eventually. One was sensitive enough to ask me if I was angry with them. I shook my head and told her not to ask any more, citing that I really would if she persist to probe any further. So they sat down and we decided to start our discussion without the other guy. Our discussion was coming to an end when I suddenly received an SMS from the fellow. He was still on the bus - 199. I glanced at my watch and shook my head. Should he have taken a taxi when he is late?

He arrived at 12.46 P.M. He smiled to us and sat down. We presented to him our suggestions which we had brainstormed while waiting for him. He looked at them and nodded. We then drafted the research proposal and delegated tasks. The girls wanted to do the CRITIQUE together and I had no objection. Then he said he wanted to write the CRITIQUE. Fine. I passed him the only resource book that we had. As we were packing, he looked at us with surprise, "You guys are leaving soon?"

(To be continued...)

As Wiped Off Unhappiness...

My unhappiness over the B+ I had for AAE101 Research Proposal was immediately wiped off by 2 As the following day. I would have never thought that I could get an A for my AED105 essay on Moral Education. What later came as a surprise was that our group managed to score an A for our AED105 seminar presentation! I was overjoyed!

This was my first A in essay writing, especially for Educational Studies modules like Educational Psychology I & II (taken in 2005) and the current Critical Perspectives on Education. Frankly speaking, I was totally impressed with myself for the first time! Consequently, it re-ignited the spark in me wanting to do well in this programme and for the next essay on Religious Education. I began to feel the stress to write a piece of essay capable of demonstrating critical thinking. Will I be able to get another A?

Upset by a B+...

The grade of AAE101 Research Proposal, which has a 5% weightage, is troubling me so much that I doubt I have the mood to work on other things at the moment. Frankly speaking, I am easily upset by results or grades. I am not a competitive person. I am a perfectionist. But however perfect or meticulous I try to be, I will still make poor judgment or minor errors. Oh, dear! I still have not printed out my work for tomorrow's seminar presentation and attempted the 3rd question for AAE202 tutorial 5.