JC Immersion

It has been one week since we finished our JC Immersion program. For me, I really cherish the memory of the week I spent with my buddy in Hwa Chong Institution school. This experience gives me much understanding of the local students and education system   in Singapore.

At first, we had a small meeting with our buddies. We watched a video about Hwa Chong and then played many games with our buddies. We had a lot of fun during that time. I met my buddy Amanda, a quiet and cute girl who accompanied me in the following days. After the first meeting, we followed our buddies to take classes. The realistic classes are slightly different from what I had imagined before. It actually surprised me that they had a fixed class bench instead of a classroom. They have to walk to different classrooms or lecture room to take lessons. Lecture class always combines many students from different classes together, just like college life. Lecture classes are serious than tutorial classes. Sometimes the lecture room was extremely quiet and students fixed themselves to what teachers have taught. The tutorial classes are totally different. When I first stepped into Amanda's chemistry tutorial class, I was shocked by the active atmosphere. Everyone was talking something about the questions and I nearly can't hear what they have said clearly. The teacher wrote the equations and answered students' questions patiently. This circumstance reminded me of the classes in China. We usually keep quiet and listen to what the teachers said carefully and record the questions that we feel uncertain about. After the class we will consult our teachers and get teachers' opinion about the questions. The way we did in China is really different from that of Singapore, we can't judge the two ways into good or bad because each way has its own advantages and disadvantages. Aside from the classes, they have CCAs after school. There are many kinds of CCAs for students to choose, some students learn Chinese kung fu, some learn dancing and some learn instruments. These CCAs makes students' life colorful and meaningful. The most interesting part is communicating with local students in Chinese. Their Chinese is really good that they can communicate with me smoothly. Furthermore I taught them the accent of my hometown and they were interested in it.

After the immersion, our buddies arranged an activity for us on Saturday. The beautiful park and forest byways really surprised us and the fresh air let our walk become more comfortable. After the walk, we have a knowledge competition which is really funny. On the one hand we answered many questions about Singapore. On the other hand, they also answered some questions about China. Our connection ended up with a well known song that moved me a lot. With this song going on, I said goodbye to my buddy and hugged her tightly. The plenty of scenes with my buddy in these six days welled into my mind and I finally found this immersion a precious wealth to me.

The one-week immersion passes quickly, but it did give me much precious memory.

My language learning experience in Singapore

How time flies. It has been three months since I came to Singapore in December. Everything is completely different from China, the climate, people, culture and the most importantly the language. It is unbelievable that so many different languages can exist harmoniously in this amazing island. During these three months, I gained a lot in this environment, and I will share my experience with you.

In China, we have English classes every day, and we focus on reading rather than speaking. Before going to Singapore, I considered many different forms of English study here and some of them have already come true in the three months. First of all, we have classes in NUS, there are four tutors teaching us English. Different tutors have distinct characters, some are serious and some are funny. We have four textbooks in total, RATJ is the largest one which is quite interesting and meaningful. My first way of learning English is reading the articles in RATJ and doing the exercises. Silent reading is another way that is so attractive to me because I can choose what I like to read. From my perspective, reading is better than reciting words from day to day. Well, the most important and exciting part is doing the project. It is what I have thought about before and project Singapore gives me a chance to know Singapore. During "Project Singapore" preparation, I searched the information from the Internet and wrote essays about the aspect our group chose. Giving group oral presentation and painting our own poster was also exciting. I improved my speaking and writing a lot and enjoyed them at the same time. By the way, we have another project named happiness. We are currently working on it.

After classes, a few activities such as "JC Immersion" and "Give Program" decorate our life. February 27^th is the first day I went to JC. I met my buddy, who I will always remember. We communicated with each other about the school, hobbies and classmates. I had five classes every day which is difficult for me to catch up with the JC teachers because I didn't know many terms in science subjects. Today is the last day of JC Immersion. I am really disappointed to leave my buddy who brings me much great memory. It’s an unforgettable experience in my life where I gained both friendship and language skills. The Give program is another activity arranged for us. We will work as teachers to teach local students in secondary or primary schools. I am selected to teach Chinese composition and comprehension. Frankly speaking, this is really a challenge for me, but I will try my best to do it successfully. These after school activities really give me many chances to experience a comfortable school life of local students and construct a comfortable language environment for me.

By the way, I had some interesting experiences during three months. As you know, we are from different provinces of China, every province has distinctive accents, so learning accents of other provinces is really an interesting thing. I learned a little Hainan, Guangdong and Dongbei accent. It's so funny!

In conclusion, these interesting experiences in Singapore let me feel the charm of language. I strongly believe that I will learn English and other accents deeply in the future.