‘By Michael Biech (Philosophy) / Wikimedia Commons’
Philosophy is often misunderstood. Many NTU students tend to see philosophy as a chim (profound) subject because when they think of philosophy, they think of or remember how difficult philosophical text can be to understand. For example, here’s a quote from the French philosopher, Jacques Derrida in his essay, Différance: Continue reading
Groupies for life
Although The Huckleberry Friends were only formed in 2012, they already have numerous public performances under their belt. From NTU’s The Quad to live music restaurant-cum-bar Timbre, there is seemingly no place this up-and-coming acoustic/folk rock trio hasn’t played. Continue reading
Post-exchange travel rarely happens smoothly, especially if it’s also your first time travelling alone, like it was for me. All sorts of problems can materialise: delayed flights, missing an interstate bus, leaving something behind, overweight luggage… the list is endless. For me, my constant worry was about luggage weight or missing an interstate bus or flight.
While travelling in the United States after my exchange at the University of Missouri-Columbia, I mainly rode the interstate bus, Megabus, from state to state. Besides the lower cost, it’s better than flying as you get to admire the scenery zooming past. Like planes though, interstate buses in the US have weight limits on luggage, set at 50lbs (about 23kg). Because I had just spent a semester on exchange in Missouri and accumulated a pile of school notes, university merchandise and band T-shirts from metal concerts that I attended, I constantly worried about being denied entry when boarding the bus.
My dorm room the night before I left the University of Missouri-Columbia. Notice the remaining items that still need to be packed into the almost-full suitcase. Continue reading
As I wrote in my previous post, Japan was the last stop of my post-exchange travels.
From cashiers giving you change on little trays to heated toilet seats, Japan has no shortage of little amusements. Everywhere I looked, visually pleasing objects caught my eye, like sleekly designed, open-air smoking corners. Continue reading
A furnace. That’s what Singapore feels like after returning from a nearly five-month getaway in cooler countries such as the US and Japan. Although, to be fair, I was only in those countries during late winter, spring and early summer. I heard that summers in the US and Japan could be warmer than it usually is in Singapore.
The University of Missouri-Columbia
It had always been my dream to visit America some day. This is mainly because it has an individualistic culture that I can relate to better than Asia’s collectivistic culture. Also, it is simply a new place to explore. As I travelled alone, I relied on Google Maps heavily. Even though I’m back in Singapore, I now find myself consulting Google Maps even when travelling to everyday locations.
Sightseeing is typically the focus of a student’s post-exchange travels, but it was different for me. While I still went sightseeing, my post-exchange vacation was more social and musical. I’m an appreciator of heavy metal and its various sub-genres, and I have been writing about metal on and off for five years now.
Many metal bands hail from America, with Metallica being the most famous. (Although I’d argue they are a hard rock band.) And many fellow writers I’ve befriended on the Internet are from the land of the free, Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks coffee, too. Continue reading
I’m in a reflective mood. As a member of the graduating Class of 2014, seeing a chapter of my life come to a close gives me pause to reflect.
Once you leave the confines of the University, there are no more modules, no more exams, no final grades, just a daily series of life assessments with no end. The day you graduate is the day you’re admitted into the postgraduate course of life, where as a working adult, you’re no longer given as many opportunities to make mistakes.
I believe that the working world is an opportunity to find greater meaning in life though, and I look forward to becoming a freshman in the “institution of life”.
What I want to focus on in this post is: regret. I don’t know why working people reminisce about the beauty of their university education, but I have a feeling it’s because they had more freedom then.
In an article in The Guardian, a palliative nurse describes the five most common regrets people have at the end of their lives. None of them are about worldly achievements:
How does all this relate to your four years in university? Continue reading
Hi, everyone! It’s been awhile since I wrote something related to school. In this post, I’ll be touching on something not new to most of us – watercolour painting.
My ADM professor, Asst Prof Ng Woon Lam, is a well-known watercolour painter in Singapore. He recently won his second Bronze medal from the American Watercolour Society. I’m very inspired by his work.
So, what is there to learn from watercolour painting? Quite a lot, as I recently found out from a module I’m taking that teaches watermedia landscape painting.
Four years ago, I stepped into NTU a bleary-eyed freshman, unsure of my passions and still finding my footing in life.
Now, as I’m about to graduate from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information (WKWSCI), I’m proud to say my decision to study here was the right one.
Here are some of my best undergraduate moments:
1) Travelling to Durban, South Africa, for an international conference
Last year, my group mates and I were lucky to obtain a travel grant from the school, which subsidised the cost of our trip to South Africa for the International Association for Media and Communication Research conference. There, we presented our research project on the thought processes that people engage in when forming attitudes on nuclear energy use.
I’m really grateful to WKWSCI for giving us this great opportunity.
The academics we met at the international conference were both surprised and impressed by the fact that we were only undergraduates.
The saying goes: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
Like most NTU undergraduates, I had never given much thought to the pursuit of a new language. After all, being effectively bilingual was already a delicate balancing act; what more trilingualism? That would seem like a tall order.
Last year, I was introduced to a German film by a friend who felt it was one of the best in German history. That got me excited and piqued my curiosity. Das Leben der Anderen, or The Lives of Others, promptly became my daily staple on YouTube over the next few days.