Reflective Journal 1

After having the first lesson, I have the general idea that SES is a lesson in which we study about society and the economics as well as the relationship between them.

It is known to all that economics is a main concern today throughout the whole world. Because the world is generally in the state of peace and every country wants to be prosperous, people pays much attention to economics, in which way the country can develop better. Also, economics determine the role of a nation that it plays on the global stage. The big powers all have a large GDP. However, there are many things which are unstable nowadays, such as the possibility of another recession. Economics are so complicated things that even the best economist is not able to predict it correctly every time. It keeps changing all the time. Years ago, people perceived Japan to be another super power besides America, but now China has overtaken and replaced it. As a result, it may be necessary for us to do some research on it as we need to know what is happening and to have a clearer vision about it.

Previously, I thought that there is not close relationship between economics and the society. But after the lesson, I have changed my mind. On the one hand, Economics do affect the society in many ways and it cannot be separated from society. If the situation of economics is bad and worrying, the society will not be stable. This could be because of people's desire for a life of quality. Serious debt crisis and inflation have made a lot of people upset in the world now. They lose their jobs and cannot afford the high prices. There have been events which are the chain reactions of bad economics, such as Occupying the Wall Street and protests again the government in many nations. On the other hand, economics are created and run by the society. It is a circulation of money. People rely on it but their actions affect it. For example, if there are not any consumers buying products, economics cannot be sustained at all.

There are other things between the society and economics, such as cultural intelligence, which means the awareness and ability to get adapt to different cultures. It seems that cultural intelligence has nothing to do with economics, but it is also important to everyone. As the process of globalising going on, we have many more chances to meet people from different cultures and we may have to work with them closely in business. We need the cultural intelligence in order to deal with the relationship properly. There are cases that businessmen insult their clients and lose deals because they do not care about the difference between cultures.

As a PRC scholar, maybe I am concerned more about my hometown. It is true that the economics of China are developing rapidly. However, problems also exist. Besides things such as environmental pollution, many social problems are emerging. The first thing came into my mind is that the foreign culture which enters China after 1978 is affecting the young generations. Will Chinese lose our own culture gradually because of this? What should we do?

So that is why we have to learn SES: to understand the society, economics and the world better. When we go to work, we will face the problems of the world instead of problems on the exam papers. SES opens a window for us that we can be exposed to the outside. Some sceneries are beautiful, while others are not. The unknown is waiting for our exploration. Our school's mission is to nurture excellent leaders of Singapore and the world, for whom it is essential to look out to the world and care about the current affairs. Many challenges are ahead on the road of humans’ development and progress, which will certainly involve economics and the society. The solutions can only be carried out when leaders of different parts of the world come and work together.

We are told that the lesson will mainly be in the form of discussion. I think it is a good way of study this subject. Society and economics are aspects where nothing is absolutely right or wrong. The only benchmark is whether it will produce a good result or not. Therefore, there may be many ways to achieve a same goal. We can share everyone’s ideas with each other and this can be much fun, because there may be sparks when minds meet each other. Discussion can also nurture my ability of expressing myself and responding to others, especially in a short time of preparation.

In the end, I want to say that I am looking forward to this lesson. Not only because I am interested in the topic, but also because the things we are going to learn will be of great value to us in the future. Just like what Miss Yeo said, work hard and play hard.