Hello, Senior Year!

Hello, SENIORS of 2018! Welcome back to ICS!🎉🎉

It’s now time to get back to school again for our last year of high school ever! I actually don’t know how this year is going to end, but it surely will be one of the most memorable year in my high school life. I am happy and excited to see teachers and you guys once again.

Since we are officially being seniors right now, that means it will also come up with more responsibilities for us such as CSP, homework and projects, school events, and so on. I know this could be a tough year trying to get accepted from colleges especially for myself, but I hope we all will finally get through this together. Moreover, I am so excited about all the upcoming events that we now started to prepare for everyone’s best experience. As I can see from the first mission selling notebooks and agendas, we got through this really well than the past seniors. All notebooks are now sold out since the first two days of school which is AMAZING! It allegedly seems that our events might meet our goals yet people’s demands pretty well.

My goals for senior year is that I can successfully finish my CSP, go on a senior trip, and graduate from high school with you all. I want to make sure that I can spend this unforgettable year with you guys more and get to know some of you who I barely know and talk with. I hope that this year will be great even when we get through thick or thin. Therefore, I personally keep this as the definition of my senior year. Also, I might not be a really friendly or extrovert person for people I barely talked with; I am not arrogant by the way. Please feel free to say hi and talk to me whenever you like😉.

I will finish this blog by leaving you an awesome quote from my favourite person, best friend, cool sister, and anytime consultant.

“🔥World Lit is LITTTT!!🔥” – Minnie, 2017

Mr. Mark will love this!, I guess😂 It’s short but clear.

See you again in my next blog post and don’t forget to like and share your comments down below! LOVE YOU LOADS❤️😘

第四十博客 － “FAREWELL BLOG!”

Guys, it’s almost time to say good bye to you all or at least most of you… since this is going to be our LAST WEEK OF HIGH SCHOOL EVER…

From my first blog of the year, I was wondering about how my senior year is going to be. I was excited of being a senior, excited of school events that we were going to host, afraid of Capstone Presentation, and many more. I a bit expected that this year would be better than the past 2 years in ICS which was very difficult for me to adjust myself at first. I would say coming to ICS is another big transition of my life where the school has shaped me into a another person.

Throught this year, it has been a lot goong on and many things happened to teach me somehow. Even though sometimes it’s thick and sometimes it’s thin, I still appreciate that I still can through them. Our class performed really well on advertising, trading, and seeking for more money in order to support our senior trip which was an amazing trip. Thank you Senior Council for working hard and all of you guys for being nice and making the trip memorable.

As I randomly went through my friends’ Farewell blog posts, I found someone mentioned something about me that made me really thankful for. That person is Fon.

A Message to My Thai Class

I was scared at first because it’s all guys. The only girls were Kru Siwaporn and me. Well, you guys were very funny. I enjoyed procrastinating with you guys. I appreciate Pammy a lot for joining the girls in the 2nd semester. 😀 Thanks.

Fon, 2018

I will also want to say that it was such as fun and enjoyable Thai class. Everyone was nice and you guys made our class environment really comfortable to learn and to share our thoughts. And thank you myself that I decided to change to Thai block D because classes were not fit. But I still love you Thai block A.

Also, I’m going to miss my Mandarin 3 class so much since there are only 3 people in the class so Mrs. Diane is pretty chill and gives more priviledge to eat, talk, go to sweetie, play on the phone, and less homework. However, she said we have done better quality works and the best presentation of all 4 mandarin.

I’m going to miss my art class this year too. Mr. Tyler and Mrs. Denise taught me lots of good skills and I have really improved my art skills throughout this class and learn to express my feelings and intention towards my artworks.😊

For Mr. Mark World Literature, I loved how Mr. Mark divided the year by “thematic units” that related to each region we learned. It encouraged me to think deeper about the issues as well as the solutions in the book and through out the world holistically. We went through lots of presentations, discussions, essays, reading, artwork assignments, and lastly, TED TALKS!. Even though I had a lot to do during the year, but right now I am so thankful and grateful for what I have learned from this class. Since Mr. Mark’s lessons are well-organized and use a variety of teaching techniques. I can feel that my English skills has improved, one of the reasons is because Mr. Mark gave us assignments everyday or almost everyday and also an essay and a presentation in each quarter. This demonstrates that Mr. Mark uses various methods to assess my performance which was good for students to perform their talent or aptitude the way they were strong at. To me, Mr. Mark is my first literature teacher and my last literature teacher here at ICS! Thank you for your kindness, mercy, and the knowledge you gave, Mr. Mark.

 

 

 

十三博客 － “Damage and Healing”

Through the book, Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton describes South Africa in several ways of both beauty and damage. For the beauty, Paton illustrates the city of Ndotsheni where it is rich in nature and is composed a sense of community that people live and help each other. However, Paton also demonstrates internal and external damage through people and society.

The idea of Apartheid that spreads through out the book teaches us about racism and discrimination in South Africa that “The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that they are not mended again… It suited the white man to break the tribe… but it has not suited him to build something in the place of what is broken” (56). Alan Paton states to the readers based on the true story in which the Whites have no intention of offering education and any other privileges to the natives even though it is not their country. However, they try to seize South Africa and oppress the natives in every way of life especially education. Because if they do so, the natives will become intelligent as much as the Whites do and eventually fight for their own country and rights back.

For the solution or healing that can be found in the book is already described through the following impressive, fascinating quote:

“But there is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power. I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it.” (71)

– Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country

Msimangu emphasizes on the power of love and good for each individual and the country. If one loves one another, then one will gain love plus power in return as love has its own power to cure, to heal, to calm, to unite, and even to change the world. Love will bring people back together regardless of their races, skin color, religions, and much more. Even though Msimangu mentions the message since the beginning of the book, it does not only display his wisdom of prediction but also his heart of patriotism.

Mentally, Paton portrays a character, James Jarvis, who loses his son by Absalom’s bullet. “[Jarvis] put the papers back in the drawer and closed it. He sat there till his pipe was finished. When it was done he put on his hat and came down the stairs. At the foot of the stairs he turned and walked towards the front door. He was not afraid of the passage and the stain on the floor; he was not going that way any more, that was all” (159). The “stain on the floor” actually means Arthur’s blood that he had shot in the kitchen of his home. To me, I think Paton is very well-described the context of social conditions which create a contradiction of Johannesburg’s society within itself. Since Arthur was working on his manuscript devoting his life for the sake of rights of the Africans, he was shot by a black thief. This shows irony and contradiction leading to rising crime rates among the city.

The suggestion to all hardly acceptable social issues is…

“Pain and suffering, they are a secret. Kindness and love, they are a secret. But I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering. ” (261)

– Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country

Personally, kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering like God always teaches us the way He does and I, too, believe that it can be real and truthful to love and be kind to human beings as much as I can. Because I always believe that when we are kind, nice, and love one another or people you surround yourself with, we can at least get merits and good deeds by doing so in order to help shape you as a better person with a better future life regardless of others’ thoughts.

 

第十二博客 – “Othering”

“Otherness is a fundamental category of human thought.  Thus it is that no group ever sets itself up as the One without at once setting up the Other over against itself.”

According to Cry, the Beloved Country, there are several examples of otherness in races such as segregates services, division and conquer, and the legislative and judicial system. In part II, we noted that segregation plays a critical role in the institutionalization of othering by channeling resource distributions inequitably across social groups. Paradoxically, segregation generally arises as a policy response to resolve social tensions and improve outcomes. For example, gender-segregated schools are sometimes demanded, even in the United States, as a way to improve learning outcomes for boys and girls, who, its defenders argue, have difficulty learning in cross-sex environments, which manifest more behavioral problems. Similarly, military officers long advocated for gender-segregated military units for reasons of cohesion and morale, although, more paternalistically, military leaders privately fear negative public reaction to female casualties.

 

“How to Write about Asians”

In this modern days, the world become more diverse and composed of various types of people, nationalities, and races. I can see that modern people become more receptive and open-minded towards other races. On the other hand, there are still lots of westerners who don’t consider to accept these things. As being an asian, I found that many people profane us as yellows and there are several reasons for them and I think some of them are not reasonable.

I’m not good at math.

I don’t like math.

I don’t watch anime.

I don’t talk loudly when I am in quiet places.

I don’t know Kung Fu.

My language does not define me.

I don’t dogs or cats, I pet them.

I don’t want to be a doctor.

I dye my hair in crazy colors so I must be looking for attention.

Muslims are not all terrorists.

I’m punk so I must rebel.

I’m a person so I must be stereotyped!