Reflective Journal 5: Reflect
on SES. You may want to consider
the curriculum, the learning process, the assessment, difficulties you faced,
how you overcame them, and how might SES be applicable in time to come.
We have taken SES for one and a half term. During the valuable time, I
really had a deeper insight about the society in China and America.
As a PRC scholar, I have learnt more about Chinese society. To be
honest, at the beginning of Term 1, I felt quite uncomfortable that we regarded
China as a Confucian society. When I was in China, ‘Confucianism’ is seldom
mentioned and I felt that everything went on just like what it should be. It
was a bit strange for me to link China directly to Confucianism. However, as we
did more case studies and reached the core of the issue, it started to make
sense to me. Although Chinese do not often say ‘We do it because of
Confucianism’ like Americans saying ‘We do it because of our rights and freedom’,
the ideology really influences Chinese in all respects of the society,
including how Chinese behave and how Chinese companies are run. The reason why
I could not feel it is because I am so used to behave according to the rules of
Confucianism which are hidden in subconscious, just like a Chinese saying ‘Stand-by
see more than gamesters’.
SES let us see more mostly by reading and
discussing. Before every lesson, we can get access to adequate and useful
readings giving us background information and experts’ ideas. Once there were
too many readings and we suffered from the preparation, but the split of the
questions is a perfect solution as we can focus on one question, while the
interconnection between the questions can help us understand other questions under
the same topic without much difficulties. Then we can enjoy the readings as
they bring us interesting facts and ideas. Class discussion is when we can
exchange thoughts and condense them. There are sometimes debates and they make
us scrutinise the problem and have a more comprehensive view. At first, I was a
bit worried about taking part in the discussion as I confess that I am
sometimes too shy to express my opinion, partly due to Confucian ideology and
the rote learning in China. However, as I gradually got adapted to the
environment, I became more confident about sharing my ideas. Improvement in
this respect will be beneficial, not only for SES, but also for the future. I
have not done my presentation yet, but I believe that I will do well after
watching others’ presentations and learn from their lessons. Another task of
SES is to write reflective journals. It sometimes makes me ponder the
viewpoints we have discussed in class, but it is usually a recapitulation of
what we have learnt and how we ourselves perceive the issues according to
individual experiences, i.e. a process of linking what we learn with the real
life. To require comments on each other’s journal is a wise decision as it gives
us the chance to learn from each other and help mutually. It is very like the peer
review in Google in the purpose of encouraging creativity.
Though what we learnt about China and America
seems a little far away from real life application now as we are still students
in Singapore, the knowledge prepares us for the coming future. Our school aims
to nurture global leaders, so it is important for us to have a high CQ and know
about the two big countries’ different societies in order to collaborate with
people from China and America. Also, Singapore’s nature determines that its
economy can only flourish with foreign investment and interaction with countries
all over the world. After so many SES lessons, we have a better idea of what has
happened, what is happening and what is going to happen in the world. This leads
to a clearer worldview which will be helpful after we step into the society.
By the way, I want to give one suggestion about
the readings. Can we have more readings written by Chinese? Since we are
comparing the society of China and America, it is better to hear voice from
both sides. At present, most of our readings are from the Westerner’s angle of
view. I agree that their vision is very good, but after all, Chinese and
Westerners often see the problems differently because of different ideologies
and habits. If we can read about Chinese’s point of view, our perception about
the issue may be more holistic. Also, we can do a comparison of the different
views and apply what we have learnt. Thus, we can have a better understanding
without any bias. Websites like People’s Daily may be a good source of
articles.
I hope that our learning journey will continue
smoothly and beneficially in the time to come. (786 words)
