HIPSTER(DOT)COM

If you guys do not know, HIPSTER(DOT)COM was original the group name of NFC(HYPE)

The team comprising of Radhi, Mardhi, Sandra and myself. The 4 of us came together for the report writing and presentation in Effective Communications.

We started off slow, during the first day of draft idea of proposal , honestly we did it on that day itself.  However , after that day when the topic was agreed on, we knew the direction to be heading. From interviewing Mr Ang from SMRT @ Bishan Depot, to taking 'Hipster shots' in the middle of the railway track. To meeting over the weekends to rush the report submission and rehearsal of presentation over skype. Not forgetting fun under the sun having time out from projects to play tennis, and having pizza.

Well besides HIPSTER(DOT)COM, I am truly thankful for everyone in the class for this module. everyone was great sport and fun! 

Cheers,

Nic

Letter of Transmittal and Personal Statement

Letter of Transmittal

7 October 2015

Mr. Blackstone

Senior Lecturer

Centre for English Language Communication

20 Dover Road

Dear Mr. Blackstone

RE: Proposal for ‘NFC-Enabled smartphones with universal NFC-Chip compatibility’

We are pleased to present to you our proposal idea of ‘NFC-Enabled smartphones with universal NFC-Chip compatibility.’ This report has been prepared to demonstrate how people can make full use of their smartphones and consolidate all EZ-Link and credit cards into one device. In addition, have a minimum standardized NFC Chip compatible to all phone brands to allow all users to enjoy the privilege of NFC-enabled phones. The current example would be how commuters are scanning their EZ-Link card every day for public transportation. Hoping to enhance the current system of scanning cards, the team would like to up it to the next level of scanning your smartphone on the go without having to face the hassle of searching for your card somewhere in your pockets, wallets or bag.

The time and effort taken to read our report is appreciated. This team hopes you would consider implementing our idea for better convenience for the commuters and travelers.

Yours sincerely

NFC Hype

Personal Statement

Nicholson Yeo:

I studied Electrical Engineering for my diploma at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Being exposed to

electronics and electrical technology, I am taken aback by such rapid technology advancement

every year. In this era, almost each individual uses a smartphone to surf the internet, check social

media and email or even do Bluetooth transfers. It would be great if there is a better and smarter

way to use the smartphones, such as doing daily transactions for food, drinks, entertainment and

even transportation with the use of NFC technology. With a 2 billion smartphone users till date, I

am sure with our project, the team will be able to build revolutionary smarter society.

Critical Reflection on Effective Communication

From the very first day till the last, I wholesomely enjoyed every class.

How has this module improved my 'Effective Communication'.  From the first blog post on how is "English important to me", the initial draft was just horrible. With the compulsory feedback, it was then I realized that my English language was indeed quite bad.  With Reader's Response to report writing, in small but impact-ful parts of the learning journey. One example would be my 'sentence fragmentation',the present and past tenses. Even though it has been emphasized to me, I must admit it is I still make the same mistakes. 

During group presentation process, that was the most memorable moment of the module. The pre-presentation period, my group met up diligently."Team effort!" The first presentation,there were many learning pointers from everyone to learn from, such as maintaining eye contact, posture, tone used. When giving feedback to other presenters, I felt a certain responsibility as it served as a tip to the person, it should be constructive and at the same time, not offensive. As for me receiving feedback about my presentation, some feed-backs like my tone was little aggressive, nervous, were all constructive feedback for me. As during our group's encore presentation at LT1A, I was more wary of the mistakes I made, but my nerves still got the better more me. The take away from presentation and learning from everyone was that one should really be calm, and posed, do not panic, as it shows. Nonetheless, everyone was fully supportive at everyone's presentation.

Blogging is not only fun but very useful as we can refer back to it at any point of time when you need to do a report, or just relive the happy moments. It was enjoyable blogging every post.

The takeaway from this module is just simply every part of it. Being constantly reminded of the English language usage , should it be makes me more wary of myself both presentation and writing. I am sure, even after this module, everyone benefited in ways like report writing, because throughout our degree program, there are many reports to be done. We can all look back to our fantastic blog posts.

Reader's Response to Cho's Article -Draft 4 (Final)

Reader’s Response to Cho’s Article title page:

Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities – Draft 4

(Final)

Nicholson Yeo

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho (2014) states that urban challenges must be considered in developing  sustainable infrastructure. She mentions that the 'Envision  Sustainability Rating System' is designed to assess the performance of project infrastructure. Infrastructures in this era should efficiently serve communities by improving the quality of life. She further shares her focus on the assessment on King Abdullah Economic City project(KAEC) and how it helps the communities in certain ways. Cho explains that the right projects will be able to help the communities and cities to function more efficiently as a whole. She shares that through Envision, it helps a project in Mexico to be successful. Although the writer does talk about urban challenges, she does not clearly provide sufficient coverage of the challenges that surround future infrastructure, such as population growth and rising cost of living. If these issues are not addressed properly, this might affect the projects. Therefore more substantial support needs to be offered on the writer’s part in order to justify her claims.

The first claim that makes Cho’s article insufficiently justified is when she mentions "I’m excited to be able to address what I believe is one of the key challenges of urbanization this century: the role of infrastructure sustainability in the context of rapid urban growth, especially in new cities."(as cited in Cho's, 2014).  In another article, “Explosive growth in Asian Cities”, Khanna (2015) proposes that the trend seems to be that Asian cities are now leading in urbanization. In fact, Asian cities are facing large population growth, which can result in poor utilization of infrastructures if the authorities are not making the right plans and decisions. For instance, he mentions that in Jakarta, the traffic congestion are  much worse when compared to congestion in most European cities. He also emphasizes that the authorities ought to adapt to these arising problems. However, in Cho’s the article, she did not analyse in depth in her article as to how important the Saudi authorities’ flexibility and decisiveness, can impact her project in KAEC roads in relation to the rising population growth. In this way, the article could leave readers with superficial understanding that rapid population growth is indeed a challenge in future, but not how it affects the communities in other parts of the world, in terms of urban challenges such as transportation congestion, housings and more, thus causing her debate as insufficient.  

In contrast, in another article, “Explosive growth in Asian Cities”, Khanna (2015) proposes that the trend of explosive growth seems to be that Asian cities are now leading in urbanization. In fact, Asian cities are facing large population growth, which can result in poor utilization of infrastructures if the authorities are not making the right plans and decisions. For instance, he mentions that in Jakarta, the traffic congestion is worse when compared to congestion in most European cities. He also emphasizes that the authorities ought to adapt to these arising problems.  As mentioned earlier regarding Cho’s claims, for this case if Indonesian government are not able to access and solve the traffic congestion in the main cities, the main issues are poor road designing. Of course, even if public transportation is introduced to Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, the issue of road congestion will still be there,  poor road planning.

In another explanation, however, Cho did share that because of Envision rating system, her projects in Mexico, Peru and Saudi were able to create a difference by improving the lives of the communities, as projects focuses on the right areas to work on , which are decided from Envision. She also observes that through sustainable road infrastructure, how accessibility of transportation can contribute to access to education and, local business opportunities, and how this can boost housing, in return benefiting the communities, as she included links of detailed explanation in her article. In another article, “Advancing Sustainable Infrastructure with Envision”, Nelson (June 2015) claims that Envision puts forward designing sustainable infrastructures. Envision assists in judgement, but also the system enriches funding plans. Therefore, with the introduction of Envision , it further assures the decision makers and end users that the project will be the most appropriate and that it will benefit everyone in the right areas.

In conclusion, Cho’s article does not emphasize on possible problems which urban challenges could pose to the development of infrastructure in the long-run. However, she asserts that the Envision rating system is proven effective, as it gauges how well her projects can benefit on the respective areas that were discussed. Apart from Cho acknowledging that issues such as natural disasters, explosive population growth, economy factors are real, developing sustainable infrastructure should be implemented by government authorities from the very beginning if possible so as to reduce future problems, and the ability to advance with technological growth.


References

Cho, H. (2014, December). Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities. Retrieved from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

Khanna, P. (2015, June). Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to 'seize the urban moment.' Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/explosive-growth-in-asian-cities-bright-ideas-to-seize-the-urban-moment

Nelson, D. (2015, June). Advancing sustainable infrastructure with Envision. Ccivil + Sstructural Engineer. Retrieved from http://cenews.com/article/10098/advancing-sustainable-infrastructure-with-envision

Presentation Reflection

Our team, NFC(HYPES) presented our idea of 'NFC enable Transportation feature'  on Monday the 9th of November. Indubitably, it was satisfying but at the same time nerve wrecking as well. As it was a team effort, instinctively I felt I had to do my utmost best to not let them down.

Although it was presenting to familiar faces, there was a certain struggle. Being restricted to not using any presentation aids, except for slides, it was a huge obstacle to cross at first as with  two years of national service. During the presentation, we have to present in a story-telling manner. Being the last presenter for the day,the pressure was there. "How to get everyone's attention and make them felt good listening to me?" It was beneficial that Brad had everyone to give feedback for the first week presenters. From there, one important take away was, not to memorize it as a script, instead, just pointers or visual aids around, or else when you get stuck, it shows

I felt the after presentation opinions on each presenter from the floor were all very constructive feedback's for everyone to learn from. For instance, I was not aware that the audience felt I was aggressive, in terms of tone usage, which I will surely keep it in mind and improve on. 

In the end, I felt good presenting, it boosted my confidence level. Although this is the first actually presentation in during the course, I believe that there is more to learn from, not just by myself, but from others as well.

Yours Sincerely,
Nic

Reader's Response to Cho's Article -Draft 3

Reader’s Response to Cho’s Article title page:

Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities – Draft 3

Nicholson Yeo

Singapore Institute of Technology

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho (2014) states that urban challenges must be considered in developing  sustainable infrastructure. She mentions that the 'Envision  Sustainability Rating System' is designed to assess the performance of infrastructure. Infrastructures in this era should efficiently serve our communities by improving the quality of life. She further shares her focus on the assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (project) (KAEC) and how it helps the communities in certain ways. Cho explains that the right projects will be able to help the communities and cities to function more efficiently as a whole. She shares that through Envision, it helps her own projects in Mexico to be successful. Although the writer does talk about urban challenges, however she does not clearly provide sufficient coverage of the challenges that surround future infrastructure, such as population growth and rising cost of living. If these issues are not addressed properly, this might affect communities as a whole, therefore more substantial support needs to be offered on the writer’s part in order to justify her claims.

The first claim that makes Cho’s article insufficiently justified is when she mentions "I’m excited to be able to address what I believe is one of the key challenges of urbanization this century: the role of infrastructure sustainability in the context of rapid urban growth, especially in new cities."(as cited in Cho's, 2014) In another article, “Explosive growth in Asian Cities”, Khanna (2015) proposes that the trend seems to be that Asian cities are now leading in urbanization. In fact, Asian cities are facing large population growth, which can result in poor utilization of infrastructures if the authorities are not making the right plans and decisions. For instance, he mentions that in Jakarta, the traffic congestion are much worse when compared to congestion in most European cities. He also emphasizes that the authorities ought to adapt to these arising problems. However, in Cho’s article, she did not analyse in depth in her article as to how important the Saudi authorities’ flexibility and decisiveness, can impact her project in KAEC roads against the rising population growth. In this way, the article could leave readers with superficial understanding that rapid population growth is indeed a challenge in future, but not how it affects the communities in other parts of the world, in terms of urban challenges such as transportation congestions, housings and more, thus causing her debate as insufficient.  

In another explanation, however Cho did shared that because of Envision rating system, her projects in Mexico, Peru and Saudi were able to create a difference by improving the lives of the communities, as it focuses on the right areas to work and improvised on, which are decided from Envision. She also observes that through sustainable road infrastructures in her projects as mentioned, how accessibility of transportation can contribute to access to education, local business opportunities, and how it can boost housing, in return benefiting the communities, as she included links of detailed explanation in her article. In another article, “Advancing Sustainable Infrastructure with Envision”, Nelson (June 2015) claims that Envision puts forward designing sustainable infrastructures, it not only assists in judgement, but the system also enriches funding plans. Therefore with the introduction of Envision, it further assures the decision makers and end users that the project will be the most appropriate and that it will benefit everyone in the right areas.

In conclusion, Cho’s article does not emphasize on possible problems which urban challenges could pose to the development of infrastructure in the long-run. However she asserts that through Envision rating system, it is proven effective as it gauges how well her projects can benefit on the respective areas that were discussed. Apart from acknowledging that issues such as natural disasters, explosive population growth, economy factors are real, developing sustainable infrastructure should be implemented from the very beginning if possible so as to reduce future problems, and the ability to advance with technological growth.

(657 words)

References

Cho, H. (2014, December). Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities. Retrieved from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

Khanna, P. (2015, June). Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to 'seize the urban moment.' Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/explosive-growth-in-asian-cities-bright-ideas-to-seize-the-urban-moment

Nelson, D. (2015, June). Advancing sustainable infrastructure with Envision. civil + structural Engineer. Retrieved from http://cenews.com/article/10098/advancing-sustainable-infrastructure-with-envision

Reader's Response Draft -2

Reader's Response Draft -2 for topic "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities."

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho (2014) states that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She mentions that 'Envision Sustainability rating system' is designed to access the performance of infrastructure. Infrastructures in this era should efficiently serve our communities by improving the quality of life. She further shares her focus on the assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) as to how it helps the communities in certain ways and its key challenges of urbanization. In context with sustainability against economy and population growth, she hopes that with the right projects, it will be able to help the communities and cities to function more efficiently as a whole.  In the other hand, as the writer did not clearly emphasize on the consequences if the future infrastructures do not consider these challenges which will in the long run affect communities as a whole, therefore more evident supports is needed to support her believe. 

The first reason that makes Cho’s stand inadequate is because the article only discusses how urban challenges should be considered to enhance the cities as a whole. Take for instance, from an article, “Explosive growth in Asian Cities”, Khanna (2015) he proposes that the trends seems be to be that Asian cities are now the leading in urbanization. In contrary, Asian cities are facing with large population growth, which can result to poor utilization of infrastructures if the authorities are not making the right plans and decisions. For instance, he mentions that in Jakarta, the traffic congestion are much worst when compared to most cities. He also emphasizes that the authorities ought to adapt to these arising problems. However, in Cho’s article, she did not analyze in depth as to how important the authorities flexibility and decisiveness can affect the placid the population growth. In this way, the article could leave readers with only understanding it will affect, but not how it affects the communities, impeding her debate as insufficient.

Moving on, Cho did shared that with Envision rating system projects like " Nuevo Necaxa - Avila Camacho Highway in Mexico, Highways Vias Nuevas De Lima in Peru and KAEC ", it will create a difference by improving the lives of the communities. Take for instance, she observes through sustainable road infrastructures, how can accessibility of transportation contributes to access of education, local business opportunities, boost in housing, in return benefiting the communities. Speaking of which, from another article “Advancing Sustainable Infrastructure with Envision”, Nelson (June 2015) claims that Envision put forwards designing sustainable infrastructures. Not only it assists in judgement, but the system also enriches funding plans. From above, we can then understand that building sustainable infrastructure is important In addition with the introduction of Envision, it further assures the decision makers, executes and end users that the project will be the most transcendent and it is implemented in the right areas.

In a nutshell, while Cho’s article does not amply emphasize on how urban challenges will affect the development of infrastructure in the long-run. In contrast, she asserts that Envision rating system is useful as it opts how well the project will impose on the respective areas. Apart from acknowledging that natural disasters, explosive population growth, economy factors. The issue is real, developing sustainable infrastructure should be implement from the very beginning if possible, and of course advancing with technology and times.

(558 words)

References :

Cho H, (2014, December). Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities. Retrieved from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

Khanna, P. (2015, June). Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to 'seize the urban moment' Retrieved http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/explosive-growth-in-asian-cities-bright-ideas-to-seize-the-urban-moment

Nelson, D. (2015, June). Advancing Sustainable Infrastructure with Envision civil + structural Engineer. Retrieved from http://cenews.com/article/10098/advancing-sustainable-infrastructure-with-envision

Reader's Response Draft -1

Reader's Response Draft -1 for topic "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities."

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho (2014) believes that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She further mentions that 'Envision Sustainability rating system' is design to ensure the performance of infrastructure. Infrastructures in this era should efficiently serve the community by improving the quality of life. She further shares her focus on its assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and its key challenges of urbanization. In context of sustainability against population growth, she hopes that with the right projects, it will be able to help the communities and cities to function more efficiently as a whole. However, she did not emphasize on how much will the growth of population growth in Asian cities effects the economic and thus improving the cities as a whole.

The first reason that makes Cho’s believe is inadequate because the article only discusses urban challenges must be consider for an enhanced city as a whole. From an article, “Explosive growth in Asian Cities” KHANNA (2015), he proposes that the trends seems be to be that Asian cities are now the leading in urbanization. With Asian cities facing large population growth, it can result to poor utilization of infrastructures if the authorities are not making the right plans and decisions. For instance, he mentions that in Jakarta, the traffic congestion is the worst compared to most cities. He also mentioned that the authorities must adapt to the arising problems. However, Cho’s article did not analyze in depth as to how important the authorities flexibility and decisiveness can affect the placid the population growth. In this way, the article could leave readers with only understanding it will affect, but not how it affect, impeding her debate as insufficient. 

The writer shares that with Envision rating system, Nuevo Necaxa - Avila Camacho Highway in Mexico, Highways Vias Nuevas De Lima in Peru and KAEC, as to how they improve the lives of the communities. She observes through sustainable road infrastructures, the accessibility of transportation leads to access of education, businesses, boost in housing. From another article “Advancing Sustainable Infrastructure with Envision” Nelson, (June 2015), the writer claims that Envision put forwards designing sustainable infrastructures it assist in judgement, enriching funding plans. From above, we can then understand that building sustainable infrastructure is important. With the introduction of Envision, it further assures the decision makers, executers and end users that the project will be the most transcendent in the right areas implementing it.

In a nutshell, while Cho’s article does not emphasize ample on how the population growth will affect the communities in the long-run. In contrast, she asserts that Envision rating system is useful as it opts how well the project will impose on the respective areas. Apart from acknowledging that natural disaster, the explosive population growth, economic factors. The issue is real, developing sustainable infrastructure should be implement from the very beginning if possible, and of course advancing with technology and times.

References :

1) Heidi Cho (2014,December 14). Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities. Retrieved from http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/evaluating-sustainable-infrastructure-development-new-cities/

2) PARAG KHANNA (2015, June 15). Explosive growth in Asian cities: Bright ideas to 'seize the urban moment' Retrieved from Straits Times

3) Denise Nelson, P.E., ENV SP, LEED AP (2015, June) Advancing Sustainable Infrastructure with Envision civil + structural Engineer. Retrieved from Feature Aricles , Sustainable Design.

Summary for "Developing Sustainable Infrastructure in New Cities"

In the article “New Cities Foundation”, Cho (2014) believes that urban challenges must be considered in developing a sustainable infrastructure. She further mentions that 'Envision Sustainability rating system' is design to ensure the performance of infrastructure. Living in this era, infrastructures should efficiently serve the community by improving the quality of life. She further shares her focus on its assessment on King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and its key challenges of urbanization. In context of sustainability against growth, she hopes that with the right projects, it will be able to help the communities and cities to function more efficiently as a whole.  

The person who has Inspired and Influenced my Life- Aunty Maria

                   The person who has Inspired and Influenced my Life drastically, Aunty Maria

(20.09.15)

You guys might not know,I come from a single parent family, I lived with my mother and brother ever since.  God was kind, he sent us an Angel, at Thirty-eight years young,she was my domestic helper ,the kind and beautiful Miss Maria Elena Casilang. She first came in June ,year 2001, she was a skinny,petite sized fine lady. If memory served me right, I was nine and my younger brother was seven back then.


However, her eyes were Esotropia(Squint), my mother's initial thought was to reject her and get someone else.Well imagine someone at the age of twenty-four,came all the way from the country side of The Philippines, all alone. Thankfully we chose her in the end, it was the best decision ever made.

Since then , from the first meal she cooked , simple steamed rice accompanied with fried eggs and luncheon meat,we enjoyed every heartfelt home-cooked meal she prepared with love for us ever since. Whenever my family and I had a hard day outside, we knew we when we reach home,there will always be that tiny Maria greeting us with a warm smile.

Around eight years later, we decided to provide her eye operation, aunty Maria became prettier from her already pretty. She then got married around four years later to her very loving,humble,good,caring husband Marlon (Well he better be or let him off!).
We also gave her some money to build her lovely house.

Aunty Maria was a part of the family. From travelling with us to countries like Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia, Thailand and many more. To celebrating life's important days with us, not to mention the Fourteen Chinese New Years, fourteen birthdays x4(Mum,brother,herself and mine).

She settled almost all of my everyday life stuffs to the finest details, without a doubt she did everything with her utmost love for the family .How we used to call her were :"Shorty, Fatso, Aunteh!, Maria"

She had became a part of the family ,our family,our Aunty Maria.

_________________________________________________________________________________

I decided to write this blog dedicating it to her because she has parted my family and I goodbye on this very day. 20.09.2015 21:48pm, this very moment writing this blog, pains me so deeply, she really gave her all for us. Not only she was my domestic helper, she was my family member, my teacher, my elder sister, my second mother, my father to me.

She was already planning to go home for good a couple years ago but stayed on because of my army and university, my brother Brian's army ,which he just "PoP" two days prior to this. Today 20.09.2015 at 15:30 we parted her farewell in Changi Airport terminal 2, at 21:08 she texted just text me to notify of her safe arrive to Clark Airport in The Philippines and safely arrived home at 00:45 (Thank you Lord!)

She taught me to be a good person,have integrity,be kind to others. Every time when I did something wrong, she would tell me off, for example, the most common everyday, talking back to my mother. she will always tell me to be good to her,which now I really will, sorry Mum I love you. It might be quite ironic but I must admit not for those daily nagging, I would not have molded to who I am today.

(Watching her wave goodbye was the heart ache of heartaches) 

This is my greatest wake up call ever, I must admit, prior to today, since the two weeks of university had started,I am still lazy in doing anything as I had just came out of National service. After today,when aunty Maria left us for The Philippines for good, I decided it is time to get it right, I cannot day dream anymore, it is now! It hit me real hard, it is time to take my own destiny to my own hands, I have to start my rusty engine, and move on for what she entrusted me with!

Treasure those who loves you, don't wait till only after they leave you to feel you had not done enough.
_______________________________________________________________________________

 She has been a part of the family, and always will be. Take care my dear Aunty Maria quickly give birth to many beautiful children! God please keep an extra eye on her like you always did!

Having her leaving us to move on with her life,but she had been part of my life for the past fourteen years,spending the most time with me, just aches my heart

My small family#❤My dearest Aunty Maria! You will always be a part of our family.  Come back anytime when you want to see us! Bless you forever healthy and loved!
Hope Brian and I have made you proud!

Signing off,
Nicholson

20.09.2015

The Importance of English for Me,

From my point of view, human beings living on the Earth should have a certain level of interaction amongst people and that is accomplished through communication.

English is used widely on a global scale, and is not only an important language, but also a tool and an important skill needed not only in education, but in our day to day life.

I feel that speaking English is equally as important as writing it. However, it has come to my attention that since the introduction to social media and mobile chat platforms such as Facebook and Whatsapp in recent years, people tend to abbreviate more often than not with notable examples being: “lol,ttyl,bb” and so on and so forth.

I believe that in recent times, we tend to speak English less frequently with each other and instead choose to use text messages, as it is, at times, a better and more efficient way to communicate. However, this makes us lose the ability to express ourselves effectively in English and we have degenerated into using short forms to get our points across.

I enjoy traveling, but I tend to feel a certain lack of confidence when conversing with foreigners, especially in western countries.Well, Perhaps I am just too used to "Singaporean Pronunciations."

As I mentioned earlier, English is considered the main language for a large majority of countries, and Singapore is of no exception as it is a globalized nation. As Singaporeans, we tend to use a lot of Singlish, which is a smattering of English, Chinese, Hokkien, Malay, and Tamil; hence the people here tend to be more laid back about speaking proper English. This proved to be a challenge for me as I went to Hong Kong just a couple of weeks ago, and my broken English was all the people of Hong Kong could understand, and what made matters worse was the fact that my Chinese articulation was execrable. I felt rather down and out after that as no one could understand me, and it was like a kick in the bum to me.

In closing, I feel that being confident in speaking English and the way we use it all starts with making the effort to practice and having the yearning to better yourself, be it pronouncing words properly as practice, reading the newspapers everyday and watching documentaries. It all starts now!



Edited on 13/9/2015 9:03PM
Edited on 16/9/2015 9:52PM
19/09/2015 6;42pm