Day 23 (26th Mar 2010)

Today is also the last lesson for IS module. It is conducted by Ms Grace and we were taught about traditional Chinese Philosophy. Here are some mottoes that I have learnt:

1. “学而时习之，不亦说乎？有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？”
Which means: How pleasant it is to review regularly what I have learned before; Here come friends afar, exceedingly how happy I am.

2. “知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也。”
Which means: When you know a thing, recognize that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, recognize that you do not know it. This is a wise attitude

3. “敏而好学，不耻下问”
Which means: Fools learn nothing from wise men, but wise men learn much from fools.
An intelligent man wouldn’t feel shameful when he seeks advice from other people who are inferior to him.

At first, we were supposed to have lesson in the afternoon but we negotiated with Ms Grace that we finish everything in the morning so that we don’t need to attend afternoon class. And she agreed! We were given a worksheet which consisted of 8 exercises and we are supposed to write the difference between Chinese views and our own views. After we completed it, Ms Grace went through with us and this marks the end of IS lesson. So, me and jean went to 江汉路after that. At the bus stop, I bought popcorn from the vendor as it was freshly made. The popcorn is handmade and not by using the popcorn machine. The bus came soon after that.

The utensils for making popcorn

Freshly made popcorns!Something real disgusting happened on the bus. There was an old man flossing his teeth and he left his “flossed food” on the floor and it was totally gross!! Reached the mall and we start our shopping spree! We shopped in the mall at first and bought quite a number of clothes. Then, we went to the night market(步行街) near the mall and we saw even more nice clothes that are much cheaper than the ones we saw in the mall! Everything is so cheap at 步行街 and eventually we lost control. Cheap deal for awesome stuffs gets you this excited! At was 9 plus and we have to get back to the hostel by 10.30pm. So we intended to take a cab back. However, there wasn’t any cab in sight and even if there was, it was not empty. In the end, the bus came and we took the bus back.

Reflection:
Through the various IS lesson, I have learnt many things from Ms Grace and Ms zhao. Now I know more about china, its culture, philosophy, doing business in china, business etiquette, etc. If given a chance, I will want to know more in depth about the history china. Overall, I enjoyed the IS lesson be it taught by both Ms Zhao and Ms Grace.

The bus here is very different. Unlike Singapore, we can’t eat in the bus nor bring any durians on board the bus or we’ll get fined. Worse still, we can’t even drink plain water or eat a sweet on the platform of MRT. In china, we can eat in the bus and bring any food we want onto the bus. The bus stops at every stop and they will announce what’s the next stop. I find it better this way as we can still know what the next stop is even if the bus is crowded and we can’t see the surroundings. However, I think they should be stricter with the hygiene here. The bus driver should have stopped the old man from leaving his “flossed food” on the bus. It is totally unglam and it spoilt the reputation of china and also affects the people on board. They should implement fine system for hygiene to stop this from happening again.