I BelievE...

Many people believe in different types of beliefs, like freedom, fairness, or honesty…but I believe that nothing can be done if someone forces me to do it. So that’s why I’m telling you a story of how my mom forced me to take Malay tuition for 2 hours, twice a week.

When I was studying in my old school, (a Chinese local school), my mother used to make me study many different types of subjects and have lots of different tuitions. And of course she said it was for my own sake, however I really hated those boring tuitions and thought them as a 'waste of my time'. But my mom didn’t think that way, and so she kept making me go to these tuitions, because she truly wanted me to be good at everything, like a genius.

In my old school, I was good at every subject except for Malay. My Malay grades got no higher than a B. So one day, she found a Malay tutor for me and made me do Malay tuition, 2 hours a day, twice a week. I’ve had many tuitions but learning Malay was the worst I’ve ever had. Malay was my 4th language learning, and I had difficulties understanding the meanings, and the grammar usage. My mom thought I would improve my language skills but my grade was still below a B. After a few months of tortured Malay tuition, before coming to ISKL, my report card showed an A in every subject except Malay still stayed as a B. After seeing my report card and thinking back how I hated the Malay tuition, I realized that nothing could be done successfully if I didn’t enjoy it.

However, thinking oppositely, if I work really hard and enjoyed the time, my grade would go up and I would make my mom happy. So from now on, I've decided to do what I want to do, and if I believe in it, it would be a success.

Standing against Injustice

When should an individual take a stand against what he/she believes to be an injustice? What are the benefits and consequences of questioning / challenging social order?

I think an individual needs to take a stand against what someone really believes to be an injustice and the other people are being unfair. If they are sure that the action was wrong and when everyone is criticizing the innocent person, they should take action and explain their thinking. Saying the problem out to the public is also good idea, because people might think correct their mistake and realize that they were wrong. The benefit and consequences of questioning and challenging the social order is that they can gain people’s heart by standing up for justice. However, the people who are against justice and who are power-hungry, they might do something terrible and harm people they hate. I saw how power can be negatively used and how it impacts other people when I studied and read about the Holocaust. For example, Jews were persecuted by the Hitler's Nazis when the people in power are racist. Propaganda were also used to brain-wash people's mind, telling them that Jews are bad and they need to be eliminated. Because of these circumstances, there were really less courage for people who resist.

These courage of standing up for injustice could also be found in the Boy in Striped Pyjama. Bruno, the innocent German Boy smashed the barrier between Jews and Germans by asking questions, and making a friend naturally. Both Rose Blanche and Bruno had lack of understanding about everything around them, and they had a true heart. When we exclude people from the group, it brings bullying and cruelty to the people. However, Bruno and Rose were the people who approached to them. Approaching takes a lot of courage to do, but the people in Le Chambon risked their life and saved/ provided Jews the shelters and home. Anyone can get into big trouble if they are somehow related to Jews. However, living together and hiding Jews took A LOT of courage. Le Chambon was only 40 miles away from the Vichy Government, and people there had to live their life with fear.

Like Bruno from the boy in Striped Pyjama, like Rose Blanche, like people in the Le Chambon, if many people stand against injustice and shout what they believe is right, they CAN change the world into peaceful and harmonious world.

Band Assignment

1) I would call this story "Inside the black box", because then, the audience will wonder what is really inside the black box, and start reading.
2) I thought that Mr. Hutchinson was going to be exiled, because in the story, it seemed Mr. Hutchinson was not really happy when his name was drawned out of the black box.
3) I felt curious about the ending, and really wanted to read on, to find out the ending.
4) Because it was mysterious paper, i thought that the paper holds the ending of the story. I didn't follow the instruction, because i was so curious to read the ending.
5) I didn't feel anything special, because the black box made me think "oh, so they are now trying to follow the story..". When there was a black dot on the mysterious paper, i thought that was just a printing mistake.
6) I felt disappointing because the ending was not i expected. Also, I didn't understand the ending.
7) My prediction was not correct, so i didn't feel happy, but I was not sad. Again, I don't get the ending.
8) To help to make me better prediction, it would be great if someone helped me to understand the story more cleary, because in our group, there was lack of time, so we just skipped last 2 pages.
9) The author leave these voids in the story, to create tension and make the reader curious, eager to read on.
10) a- Made me wonder why there's no title, but I was not curious about the author at all
b- No ending made me really curious to read on.
c- Made me question 'why'... ex: Why did the boys pile up the stones?
d- Mysterious paper made me wonder and imagine what would written on the paper.
e- Delayed ending allowed me to think whatever I think.
f- nothing

BAND BLOG POSTING!!

1. Copy ISKL’s mission Statement into your blog.
2. Insert the word (silence) in the statement in the place that you think would create the most tension.
3. Explain in one paragraph why you think your VOID would create tension for the listener.

The International School of Kuala Lumpur provides an exceptional education that challenges each student to develop the (SILENCE) attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding to become a highly successful, spirited, socially responsible global citizen.

I've put the silence after 'the' and before 'attitude', because it makes the audience ask question and take more attention to the sentence. Before the 'silence', is about ISKL providing education that develops... when the sentence end like this, the audience will think 'develop what??' If there's a question, there is usually a answer. The answer to the audience's question, is 'attitude, skills...', explaining what ISKL's education can make a student develop.

4. Describe one way composers can create tension (question) and release (answer) in their music.

One way composers creates tension and release in their music, is to create a void in the middle of the piece. Normally, if something unexpected happened to people, people usually pay attention to the unexpected thing. It works the same with music. By creating a void, people ask question,(which creates tension) and after the void, continues the music, (which is release).