We participated in the TFI Learn Journey for a day.

I met with some new friends from NTU, NUS and SMU, they are from Combodia, Thailand, Singapore and China.

During the meeting, we were asked to discuss about what problems we will face with in 2050, this question is quite interesting and makes us rethink about the scocial melieu.

Thanks TFI!

I realised the difference between the big cities in China and Singapore is that the race and religions here are more divergent, thus the interaction between people may be different. People from the same countries, race or religions will tend to gather in groups and students of course will do so.

However, to fix this and encourage people to communicate and interact, I think SUTD has done very well. SUTD is small, so it sets many places like the exhibition area in the library and the rooftop accessed three main buildings, where students, staff and researchers can meet to discuss and communicate freely. These were shared with me by a professor I met in SUTD’s library, when we are both watching the exhibition there.

One other interesting thing I learned about is that before students graduate from Zhejiang University and most of the other Chinese universities, we complete a graduation thesis or design work on our own. But in SUTD, students have to finish a capstone project in teams in order to graduate. These teams are randomly allocated using an algorithm, so the team members may not know each other. And they are basically from different pillars, which increases the difficulty of communication.

Some students may think this is a terrible idea, placing them in a setting, not familiar with anyone in their team. However, in my opinion, it is a wonderful way, which obligates the students to communicate, connect, and walk out of their comfort zone.

We volunteered in Tampines West Community Centre to mentor the children at YEAH programme.

at Yeah program, I also reflected on my mentoring experience with the children and, compared that with my previous volunteer and teaching experience in a remote village in western part of China.

I found some differences. Singapore is a developed country with good education system. Hence those children whom I mentored are basically all well-educated. Even though they call us ‘mentor’, we are mostly playing the role of a friend to company with them, playing games and sports together. While in the rural western part of China, where schools and educational resources are scarce and the local economy is underdeveloped and primordial, children really need good teachers and people from outside the community to bring hope and new ideals. Otherwise, most of the youth will graduate from school and back home to help out in the family animal farms.

However, I do feel that though the children here are better educated, they may not be happier than those in the west part of China. Some of the children shared they are stressed because of exams. This is very similar to the big cities in China, where enrolling a good school is the students only aim.

The study journey is alike a competition because there is only one destination. In big cities, you can only choose those jobs, and as population grows and people keep migrating into cities, we either choose to use our innovation to create new jobs or compete against others in order to survive.

As volunteers, we participated in the Handicaps Welfare Association Flag Day to raise funds for the wheelchair bounds.

During the flag day, I was astonished by the people’s generosity. I was just standing there, holding my can while smiling at passer-bys beckoning them to donate. There were people walking up to me to drop coins and dollars in the cab I was holding. Many people gave more than 2 dollars and one even offered 10 dollars.

So during the day, I was reflecting about the reason behind Singaporean’s generosity. Are they really so wealthy that do not care about their daily meal’s expenses?

By observation, I thought there were 2 reasons which could explain this. One is that the reward system works well. Rewarding people with stickers is really interesting and useful. In this instance, I saw parents using this opportunity to educate children to give. And this becomes a habit and many students come to donate on their own.

But the other reason, the real reason, is that people do trust the fund raising system. They believe the money they donated will be used in a right way, and the systems in place discourages fraud. Imagine that if there is no such a system or welfare, people will not be able to discern which charity is genuine or honest. I searched online and discovered that Singapore has a really strict law on the raising funds. Parties are required to obtain an approval from the Singapore Police Force or the National Council of Social Services to obtain a fundraising permit.I think that China still has a long way to go on the education of giving and laws to govern this.

This Saturday, we went to the universal studio to get a temporary rid of the school work. We have great fun playing the roller coasters. The show performed in the water land was really fun. We also enjoyed taking photos in the dream scene with different postures.

I had witnessed how beautiful the light was in Little India when there was a celebration of Indian.

The light gates were all along the street, where people bought things and held other events. One thing impressed me a lot was there was Singing competitions of India by the road.

Then we enter the area of markets. Too many kinds of colorful things shone inside the market. I could feel the happiness of people there.

There is a cat that I see almost everyday lying on the bench outside Anglican High School, where I stay, whether it is in the morning or at afternoon or in the evening.

One day in the morning:

One day at afternoon:

One day in the evening:

I thought this was really interesting at first. But later I began to wonder whether the cat was feeling well. What if it gets sick but others like me just pass by without caring about it? What if it feels upset for losing a good friend?

Nobody will know that. But the first sense told me that it is lonely.

During my stay here, I begin to realize that the only thing that can make people positive is still people. Not the nature or success. Just like traveling, many times it is not about the beautiful scenery but about the others’ company, about a sense of belonging. Sometimes we want to travel on our own, but during the trip we always miss our friends or parents. And we will talk with local people to prevent ourselves from loneliness. That is because we cannot enjoy the nature without companion for a too long time.

Why I talk about all these things is that as I think we, as human-beings, should make friends and expand our social circle, it is our way of living on this planet.