Descriptive Paragraph--Boats Waters

The shy little sun peeped at the vast sea from behind the strong dark clouds, caressing the water with a gentle touch of yellow glow. The boats, exhausted and crestfallen, wandered aimlessly towards the silver shore. They bobbled above the lapping waves like a bunch of innocent young children hopping towards their home for a rest. They moved like impatient turtles.

From the distant shore, the bell of a cathedral wailed. The sadistic sun smirk at the boats before disappearing into the comfort of the fluffy dark clouds. The smell of wind seems to be encouraging the boats, boasting them towards the line of swaying coconut trees, who are anticipating the arrivals of the boat with a compassionate smile. Their greying leaves seemed to be billowing gracefully around them. As the first boat reached the distant shore, the waves slowed into a crawl. While the reluctant wind left the gleeful boats once again.

Singapore Identity: 'Kiasuism' or Afraid to Lose

Theme: 'Kiasuism' -- Afraid to Lose

Why did you choose the different background?

How do the pictures affect the elements of your narrative?

The setting is at a supermarket and it would remind the reader of a particular morning at the supermarket where it is very crowded and housewives and maids would be jostling around and adding more groceries into the shopping bag. In a place like the supermarket, it also arouses a stereotype of Singaporean, which is 'Kiasuism'. In other words, being afraid to lose out to others.

The comic focuses the scene on three women. These three women had reacted very quickly on hearing there was a discount. The climate appears next. All three women all wanted the cake(can be interchangeable) which was sold at a discounted price. So they began to debate about who should have the cake. After a while, the first woman finally said that she would take the largest piece, which is the piece of cake at the bottom, the second woman took the second piece, thinking that "at least it was not the smallest cake." The last woman declared that she take the smallest piece and all the candles and tiny decorations on the cake and she thought she had received the most from the cake.

How did you make use of the different elements to contribute to the theme you have chosen?

The setting at the supermarket is helps to create curiousness in the reader

>what is so special about the incident that it must happen in the supermarket,which is a very common place?

>what would the supermarket reminds the reader of?

The character in my narrative has the almost important role. To be specific, it is their conversation which has an important role because from their conversation, one would figure out that all of them would not want to receive the least from the cake. Fortunately, in this scenario, all of them felt that they received the most. Therefore, none of them felt that they would lose out. This sounds much of an irony but the main theme is still being conveyed through this narrative.

'Prejudice' in Real Life

Have you ever been part of a group of people that were unkind to one or more individuals? Describe the circumstances. What caused you to behave the way you did? How did you feel then? How do you feel about the circumstances / events in retrospect?

It was only last year when I had seen such circumstances.

Last year, 1I2 (currently 2I2) often had discriminations against some particular members of our class. There was a boy named Tom(Artificial name). They ignored him, neglected him and often bad-mouthed him. I have to admit that since the first day of school, I already had a bad impression Tom. He had a poor posture and he acts differently from the rest of us. In other words, he is weird. He kept making weird noises (on purpose) and tried to taunt us (with silly actions and words) and I began to dislike him. I began to avoid him. At the same time, I could sense that some other classmates of mine were also calling Tom names. Nobody wanted to work with him for projects and assignments because he was not very serious in his work. Tom was often late for school and also absent from school without reason.

In the later part of the year, Tom skipped school even more frequently and whenever he came back, he would definitely be made fun of. Soon, we learnt that Tom was addicted to computer games and slept at 3am to 4am each day, causing him to wake up late and therefore be late for school. At that time, I don't really pay much attention to Tom. Because I feel that he shouldn't belong to this class. I gave him some advices in the past but he turned a deaf ear to them.

After the National Day holidays, we never see Tom again. We phoned him but his family members simply said he slept very late and could not wake up. From them on, I never paid any attention to him again. But my classmates often bad-mouth him in front of teachers. However, I stopped them whenever they wanted to spread rumors about him. I felt that had we been more patient and caring towards Tom, he would not have skipped school too much and he can even make friends with us. I think our class should have organise some enriching activities for him to curb his addiction. He is probably afraid to attend school as he often get mocked at. This was not surprising. But I guess, this was not entirely Tom's fault. Some of us were to be blamed too. For example, I already had a poor impression of him since Day 1. I think some of my classmates were like me too. Thus, this might have caused him to feel lonely and depressed and led him to the wrong path.

I learnt that one should not have a prejudice against others as this would affect their lives dramatically and they might feel hopeless and depressed.

Know What Learn 11 Jan 2011

Prejudice

What do I already know about prejudice?

I guess prejudice is about a kind of discrimination towards a particular group of people which is not shown directly but could be felt.

What do I want to know/learn about prejudice?

I want to know more about how prejudice begins, why some people has prejudice against a particular group of people and how prejudice can be prevented.

What have I learnt from this activity on prejudice?

I learn that prejudice is to judge a somebody without actually knowing them. Prejudice is to 'pre-judge' somebody's personality simply base on outer appearance or first impression. Therefore, many starts to develop stereotypes(usually negative) about these people. And when there is stereotypes(negative) about a particular group of people, they would not be given fair opportunities in society like others and they can also be harmed either physically or emotionally (discrimination).

Note:

Prejudice is a negative opinion about a group of people without actually knowing or seeing them.

Discrimination is unfair treatments, acts or which harm people who are being discriminated. It could be caused by prejudice.