Day 7 *APPG & 汉字*

*YAWNNNSSS*


Here comes the first MONDAY. I hope I am having my 6 weeks of holidays when my alarm clock rang early in the morning. Today we had APPG class early at 8.30am. I really worry about my APPG, programming is always my WEAKNESS. Anyway, I hope I can catch up soon. I did put in effort ):

After APPG, we had Chinese language class again. Today, the teacher taught us about the Chinese word (汉字) and where the words come from. Even though we had learn these things before; Even though we had learn the words 晶，品，炎，森林，木; all those very simple words,

But still, most of us pay attention to him.

The way he taught was so interesting; he showed us how a word can be form from a picture. What I have learnt from this lesson is how human could use the imagination to improve the words little by little.
Human being can change the picture into a word, that’s really AMAZING.

*Words are something that we cannot live without.*

I was impressed by Thir and Alif,(the only 2 Malay in our trip) because they can catch up CHINESE very fast. Some more, their handwriting is quite neat and nice. The lecturer was very cute; he told us that the surnames of Chinese in China are normally following the 汉语拼音，even if in English. For example, we normally write 黄 as Ng, but in china, they use Huang instead of Ng. Then I realized all my China classmates’ name is follow the 汉语拼音 instead of using the words like Lee, Ng, Tan…etc.

After the discussion about Chinese words, we continue with the 杜拉拉-升职记 second part.
The girl was asked to make choices between her family, friends and her future. If I were her, I would choose my own family no matter what. Like what Dean said, family is the only one that will stand by you to help you and support you anytime. Family is the most important thing for me. (: I believe that most of the people are also like that~

After the movie, we attended a talk, it was based on the economics in Tianjin. I think I have learnt something through the talk. The professional also shared with us some information on the china economy. He also talked to us about the ECO City and I’ve cleared my doubts on the place too.

How does a government able to manage the city until it becomes so well? We ended class at around 4pm; we went to photocopy the APPG notes until $120 RMB. >.

Lesson of the day:

Think carefully before you make any decision.
Every road is different and you must be able to bear the consequences for every road you chose. Sometimes, the road not taken might be the better one, but sometimes not.

Anyway,
just concentrate on what you have chosen, be persevere.

Jiayou People (:

Day 5. *南市食品街 & 古文化街*

Yuhooooo!! Today is a Saturday!! (: NO SCHOOL! Hahaha.


We gather at Hotel lobby at around 10.30am before we off to 南市食品街in Tianjin.

19 of us, who first time came to Tianjin went to explore Tianjin without Mr. Tan and Mr. Chua’s accompany. We took bus 829 at the busstop new our hotel, it tooks about 40 minutes.

(The sign board that shows the bus fare)


(Information board on the bus)

The buses in China were totally different from the buses in Singapore. Although there are many people squeeze into the bus, but still, we can balanced ourselves. BUT, at Tianjin, it was very difficult to stand still, very hard to balance yourself even though you were holding the pole or the seats. Apart from that, I realized that the bus driver were all very impatient. They don’t really wait for the passengers to get into bus before they drive off the bus. This is totally different from Singapore. One of the china students told me that there was an old lady wanted to alight but because of the action was too slow, the driver just drove away and caused the old lady fall on the steps. The possibility of this incident happening in Singapore is very LOW. That was an experience that I gained when taking buses in Tianjin.



We sent a text to Wee Hong’s buddy, 杨芮 and she came to find us. We tried many foods in Tianjin, we ate the 麻花. That taste of麻花 is different from Singapore, but still nice. Besides, we tried others famous food too. We walked while we were eating, and we were walking while we were eating and drinking. We saw a man is doing something with the 麦芽糖. He is so called “Candy Man”. I wanted to interview him for the IS homework, but too bad, he doesn’t have time and he said he can’t understand what am I talking. I think I must learn a little bit of Tianjin people’s slang throughout this few weeks.






(Photos of Variety of food at the food street)


(Photos of the shop owner were drawing Thir and Eugene )

We went to the 古文化街. That was the very first time I saw people drawing other’s portrait right in front of me. The feeling was interesting. We took around half an hour to wait for him to draw about 8 faces. When we want to walk to another side, Gary saw a watch, they wanted to buy but the prices were too high, they started to bargain. In the end, their mission succeeds. Gary, Eugene, Jonathan, weehong and Dean bought new watch at a reasonable price ^^



(Photos taken at gu wen hua jie)

The 古文化街 have a lot of small little cute things, I bought something for my mum too. (:
After shopping, we went to PIZZAHUT for dinner! 20 of us went into PIZZAHUT and everyone is looking at us. Is there any special on our face? I realized there were some differences between china’s PIZZAHUT and Singapore’s PIZZAHUT. There is alcoholic drink in the menu and they got no chili cause. They even run out of flour when we wanted to order large pizza. That sounds a bit wrong, but… Besides, the PIZZAHUT in Tianjin don’t have the delivery service! OH NO~~!!After dinner, some of them went to Carfour to buy something, after that we took bus and went back to hotel. Once again, WE (20 PEOPLE) MANAGE TO SQUEEZE INTO THE BUS TOGETHER AT THE SAME TIME.!!

ANYWAY, today was quite fun! I’ve learnt something and have fun together.

I enjoy every moment that I spent with you guys.
Weather is getting cold, wear more!

Day 4 *Paper Cutting*

Yeah! Today is FRIDAY. It was like a FINALLY. (:


As usual, class started at 8.30pm. I don’t feel like waking up early in the morning everyday. The weather is cool and comfortable to sleep, seriously. But I know that our time in Tianjin is limited, so we have to make good use of every moment here!

Early in the morning, pulled myself out of my bed early and went for APPG class. We had a pop quiz for APPG and kind of caught us off guard. Most of us cannot finish the whole quiz.

Anyway, after Mr. Chua gone through the quiz question one more time, I think we have better understanding about APPG already. *finger cross*

After the APPG class, we went to have our lunch and went back to the school again. We had our Chinese class just now. At first I thought it will be a very boring class, because language class, other than language, still language. What else? But the Chinese class just now was awesome! We watched a movie called 杜拉拉- 升职记 (Go Lala! Go!). It was a movie about a normal girl in China, who is busying with finding jobs, attends interview and her working life. I think I learnt something from the movie. The scene in the movies happened at anywhere in this world, not only china. We must think carefully what we are going to do before making decision. Once decided, we must persevere. I think I must learn from the girl in the movie. Despite of all the obstacles met during her journey to promotion, she carries a positive attitude, trying her best to give her boss the best outcome. The fun part was that we had a group discussion; we explained the questions to Alif and Thir so that they can also take part in the answering session.

I think I have learnt quite a number of things throughout the lesson, including the video that we watched in the afternoon. I was impressed by what he said, and I felt that what he said was really helpful and encouraging.

“I Have A Dream”.

If one’s trying hard, not giving up easily, dreams will come true one day.

After the Chinese language class, Master Wang (王修彦) and his students showed us their talents in doing 中国明间工艺. One of his students showed us his talent by writing out Mr. Tan and Mr. Chua’s Chinese name. After that, we did some paper cutting. It is one of the 中国明间工艺.





(Photo of master Wang)

Master Wang taught us how to fold the paper and how to start the first cut. He is very patient towards us. I told him that I did not catch the thing, and I asked him weather can show me one more time. He taught me slowly and asked me to see carefully then try to do it slowly. In the end all of us cut a flower (:I wanted to say a BIG BIG thanks to master wang and his students, so as everyone because normally I can only see this talent on TV.



(Photo of Master Wang with his student)



(Photos of everyone with Master Wang and also our outcome)




And today, I did it together with you guys!! ^^

After dinner, we went back to school for APPG tutorial class. The school was better than what I thought. There were still many people, the hawkers were selling fruits and the shops were all opened. This is quite different from singapore’s school. The local students were still studying in the classroom, some of them studied alone in class. I felt that the school was dark at night, the weather was so cold yet the locals are willing to stay in the classroom and study, do revision. I think this should be the attitude that we should learnt from them. Do you think that a Singaporean will stay at school alone and study until late night?

After the class, I went back to hotel and start APPG again. I hope I can understand it better ASAP. Anyway, tomorrow is SATURDAY!! Let’s go and have fun together!!

Take care people!

Day 3 *First Class In Tianjin*

Today was the first day we having lesson at Tianjin. Started APPG at 8.30am, maybe is because of the weather and most of us were lack of sleep.
BUT, this is only the first week!!




After lunch, we attended a Chinese class, conducted by 康老师. She told us many things about Tianjin, including Tianjin’s history, Tianjin’s cuisine, Tianjin’s dialect and some of the food etiquette. From the lesson, I knew that Tianjin was promoted to a prefecture by Qing Dynasty at 1725A.D.Year 1978 was a very meaningful and important year for Tianjin. Besides that, I have learnt the different type of cuisine in Tianjin, breakfast, lunch and dinner. In china, they said the people in north area love to eat noodles while people in south area love to eat rice. Throughout the class, I knew that Tianjin breakfast are normally 果子（guo zi）,煎饼果子 （ jian bing guo zi）and锅巴菜 （guo ba cai）. One of the famous foods in Tianjin is the 狗不理包子 (gou bu li bao zi). At year 1858, at Xian Feng,(Qing Dynasty), “gou bu li” is the nickname for the owner. The teacher told us this is because when the owner is making bao, he will be very concentrating in doing that and totally ignore the surrounding around him. I felt that is very interesting to know, because normally we only know about the cuisine in a place, but not including its history.






(Photos of Tianjin cuisine)



康老师also showed us some places in Tianjin, for example, The Food Street, The Jue Wu Society Museum, The Eye of Tianjin, The old residence of Feng Guozhang and etc. Since we will be doing the food and etiquette in Tianjin, I hope we got the chance to go to the food street to take some photos of the real food. She also taught us traditions and taboos in China. For example, they normally leave a bowl of rice at New Year’s Eve. This is a different tradition from ours, we normally won’t do that. China people are also very particular in the order of seats (坐次). For example, she mentioned that during a dinner event, the hosts must be seated facing the door and the most important guest is seated on the high hand side. Sitting opposite the host would be his/her secretary who would cheer on the guest to enjoy and drink more. I realized that the Chinese culture over here and back in Singapore has some differences even though we are also Chinese.



At the end of the day, I have learnt more about the China Chinese culture. Almost everyone of them is brought up in a way where respect and ranking are important factors to consider no matter what. I felt that these kinds of manners are those we need to learn from them.

Tomorrow will be another new and challenging day in Tianjin! (: