NUS AY18/19 Semester 2

today is 27/4. i'm still in the midst of exams (today first day and i just took my first one today (':) but i guess i'll just start on this first LOL. knowing my lazy ass i'll probably finish this at the end of my exchange or something like that. [edit from 28/12/19: HAHAHAHA literally i'm going home soon and i just decided to look at this again. will i finish it? only time will tell] yes!! imma be on exchange next sem! eggcites hehehhe although now dealing w all these exchange stuff is kind of difficult but oh wells once i finish dealing w it i can 安安心心的 spend my summer and then go on exchange! i'll try my best to write on exchange too! (although knowing me it's probably just gonna be one or two posts summing up my entire exchange LOL)

so this sem i did the sane human thing and took 5 mods. ohkay lah actually i took 6 but i dropped 1 because.... i cannot do dis HAHAHHAHA like i went for 2 lectures and was like nOPE. so i dropped it :3 it was a philo mod and i really have 0 philo brain.

anyway, this sem i feel like i worried about my results a lot less than all the previous sems? and i can't tell is it because i've started to gain that confidence in God to know that whatever my results are it's His plan or because i've strayed a bit further in this time. and that kind of scares me tbh :\ but i guess i'll just have to wait until my results come out to see. i'll update the intro again when grades are released! [28/12/19: gg i forgot my own grades LOL]

this sem i also took up a part time job as a barista in Jewel Coffee to save up for exchange and finally FINALLY learn how to barista haha. and tbh i rly enjoy barista-ing. maybe it's not something i want to do as an actual profession, but i'm really enjoying my time ah hahah just maybe if someone can gaodim all the cleaning for me that'd be gr8 

[27/07/19] wow would you look at that. 3 months from when i first wrote it HAHAHHA DED THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR IS BEGINNING. i think ive just been putting blogging off for so long bc i've recently gotten into video editing, graphic designing and making a proper portfolio?? also i've been (and will be) travelling quite a bit whoooo

ohkay but fr i'm dealing with some other stuff rn that may (probably not but hopefully yes) end up in a blog post soon. so i'm not gna write today. haha

[08/08/19] aaaand i'm back at it here again as i'm waiting for dohp to start. currently chilling outside nicoll rooms where a lady mistook me to be a staff for uob and wanted to ask me for directions (':

SO. let's finally get to it.

Year of Study: 2
MCs: 21
Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Modules Taken:

• HY1101E Asia and the Modern World
• LAK4202 Korean 6
• NM2103 Quantitative Research Methods
• PH2242 Philosophy of Language
• TS1101E Introduction to Theatre and Performance
• TS2243 Film Genres: Stars and Styles

HY1101E - Asia and the Modern World

Grade: B

Lecturer: Mr. Bruce Lockhart

Tutor: Dr. Sayaka Chatani

so i all honesty, i took this module simply to fulfill my minor req. i think i've mentioned it but in case i didn't, i'm taking a minor in language studies (korean). and like all minors, requires you to take 24mcs. before korean 7 and 8 was introduced, it was only up to korean 6 and since i started from korean 3, i wouldn't be able to make up the 24mcs. so the other way is to take pre-approved modules like this to count towards my minor req. 

i also took this module on the recommendation of friends who said that this lecturer is really good - and he is! i was really interested in all that he had to share. the only problem is that, i'm really really really really not a history person. so i soon started to find lectures quite boring and rushed through tutorials/smoked my way through class part. i don't think i'm a good gauge for how good this module is hahha. 

all in all, i think it's quite interesting? it's nice to hear about the history of Asia and know that we're not just some place that lay dormant waiting for the Westerners to come and conquer us. i think i used to have that kind of thinking - like if those from the West hadn't come in, maybe Asia wouldn't be what it is today. but of course, i'm wrong. and Asia really has a such a rich history that is really interesting to learn about. 

tutorials were... not bad lah i think? there was a lot of discussion and so we always had to make sure the do the readings to give valid and useful points. i think my class had a lot of international students/exchangers so it was really nice to hear what they had to say! especially i remember on the last tut there was this girl from Estonia who was vEry vocal about her country HAHHAHAHAHHAHA 

Exam Format: there's a midterm paper, which is some reflection-ish kind of paper i think? like there's not really a need to cite and stuff. it's also something you work on from home and then submit during lecture. and another paper that's in reaction to some news article later in the year that needs citations. then of course, class part. for finals it's an open book exam. there are 2 sections and you just have to answer 1 question from each section. i also deadass printed all my lecture slides and some readings bc guess who started giving up on life towards the end of the semester? HAHHAHA i thought i'd be the only idiot printing slides but it turns out a lot of others do it too!!! phewww hahha. anyway, i think it'll be good to plan first. like spend idk a good 20 mins or so planning both your essays out. or at least the first one first. the exam is 2 hours so approx 1 hour per essay. 

Recommend? honestly, because i don't enjoy history as much as i hope to, i started suffering quite a bit in this mod towards the end. but of course, if you like history, then go ahead. i won't say that it's an easy module to take to clear basket, because i think you need to have the history mind or the history way of writing to score well in essays. that is something i don't have (': 

LAK4202 - Korean 6

Grade: B+

Tutor: Ms. Chi Seo Won

WOW IT'S A HUGE JUMP. 

i strutted into Korean 6 thinking ohkay lah, not too bad, it should be fine. BUT NO IT'S A HUGE JUMP. i went from discussing idols and learning languages to discussing societal issues and the fourth industrial revolution.

[28/12/19: let's see what i rmb] like no kidding

[23/04/21: congratulations at this rate i'm just tryna not let this die. i'm also technically graduated and unemployed and wasting away so here's to making myself feel a bit more useful] 

AANNYYYWWAAAAYYYY yeah Korean 6 was honestly quite daunting. like i still enjoyed learning Korean and all just that the topics just took such a huge turn??? like hello what happened to my "what is your hobby?" kind of topics? LMAO 

kay but honestly 선생님 was super passionate in what she taught. and she really went out of her way to find opportunities for us to practice Korean! for our presentation, we had to do a presentation on some kind of topic (i can't really remember what, but definitely a societal issue and not about our hobbies) and she literally found a Korean living in Singapore for each group to interview???? our interviewee was the owner of a Korean restaurant and honestly the interview was so much fun!! it was kindda daunting honestly because my Korean's not great and i was talking to another Korean for a FORMAL interview and all. but he was really so friendly!! and also bc in my group literally we were 96, 97, and 98 so that's how our interviewee called us HAHAHHA oh now that i think about it i think it was about education. we were talking about education in Singapore versus education in Korea i think. 

then for the presentation, we had to present infront of not just our teacher and friends but like GUESTS. like i think 선생님's connections like some of the interviewees (ours didn't come) and all. wow stress much?? to make matters worse, 96 fell pretty sick really close to the presentation so 97 and i were struggling so hard bc we didn't know what to do??? 96 wasn't completing her work (although none of her fault bc she was so sick) and we didn't know what she wanted to do so we couldn't complete it for her either. we submitted the slides at like 3am lmao. and i was nearly late for class in the morning. i think 96 was late in the end. we were supposed to be the first group to go or something but then we were pushed to second or third i think. 

it's really like that kind of situation where you just wna get frustrated and take it out on someone but there's really absolutely no one to blame??? it's not like she chose to fall sick and i'm sure she'd much rather be healthy and complete all her assignments. so it was honestly quite tough and i think we scored quite badly for that segment ahaha. also apparently we presented on the wrong thing (the interviewee was supposed to only be a small part of the presentation but we made the entire presentation about him bc miscomm lol) so welp (': 

Exam Format: i'm not sure if it's changed, i heard that the workload's been lightened but it was really heavy then. like for class, we had to prepare some stuff through the e-lecture which tbh wasn't much but yeah, yknow. a bit mafan sometimes but oh well that's a student thing. then we had a lot of exams. 2 orals i think? and like when she says study what was taught it really means STUDY. like in the oral i rmb we were talking about movies and she literally asked me about the Korean movie websites (their version of gv/shaw/filmgarde/etc.) and asked me how it was different from Singapore's or which one i liked better and i was like ??????? we did this ????? about two months ago ??????? i don't remember the site ????? i came fully prepared to talk about my newfound interest in filmmaking but was completely blindsided lol. and then one of them was 편의 시설 and sister here totally forgot all the 편의 시설s in the world except for 편의점 LMAO. but yeah. then there were 2 exams, midterms and finals. AND the presentation. so it's really a lot. it's not like other levels where sometimes the presentaiton takes over as the oral. so yeah. it was honestly quite tough but back then i think i was able to pull through it bc i was taking the human amount of mods. 

Recommend? if you're interested in learning Korean and are pursuing a Korean minor, do it!! it's tough, but it's really so much fun! now it's probably a bit more difficult w COVID-19 and all, but back then 선생님 went out of her way to invite guest lecturers from so many different industries to talk to us!!! in Korean too!!! waaaa send me to Korea to study yo HAHA also felt really bad bc i couldn't attend one of them due to school stuff and i think the turnout was pretty bad?? i'm sorry cher )':

NM2103: Quantitative Research Methods

Grade: B+

Lecturer: Dr. Elmie Nekmat

Tutor: Mr. Chen Zhuo 

kay lbr i only took this because i needed to graduate HAHAHA and i think it was definitely reflected in my group as well. none of us really wanted to do this and we were throwing in random things just to make it seem like we were doing work. like we'd meet and set stuff to do in the google docs but by the deadline none of us would've done it HAHAHAH i think we even submitted our report late because we didn't realise that it was due 6pm and not 2359 so i literally did it standing up in the train w my laptop in one hand to the point that someone offered their seat to me OTL 

but yeah we did something about social media. something about emojis i think. honestly i wasn't that interested so i don't remember anymore. 

we had to learn spss and wow that thing is SUPER POWERFUL but unfortunately i am completely not interested in academic research so while i amazed, i was not inclined to learn the ropes about it. yet somehow i was the most proficient in it in my group LOL 

we basically just followed literal step-by-step guides from lecture and tutorial to get some numbers that we can plonk into our report and type some bs about how it's valid and accurate. i strongly believe that the people reading our report were NOT IMPRESSED AT ALL and for that, i apologise. 

Exam Format: if i'm not wrong, we had 2 exams: midterms and finals, and the research project mainly? nothing much i feel? like it's not really CA but more huge projects that we had to do. maybe there were a few milestones that we needed to meet and submit but not anything too significant that i remember. we also have to complete some research participation thing that i'm sure a lot of psych sudents are familiar with. but for NM it's pretty simple and probably just some online survey for a senior's thesis or something. 

Recommend? well, if you don't need this to graduate and are just considering a UE, i'd say take it if you like quantitative research and are proficient in it. if not, there's a lot more interesting NM mods out there : - D

PH2242: Philosophy of Language

yes, i dropped this mod so i have no grades neither do i remember my lecturer but i think he was some angmoh guy. but i thought since i took it for two week's i'll just talk about why i took it then dropped it. i took it because i didn't know that she school offered Korean 7 yet and i needed 2 mods that aren't Korean to finish my minor (bc i started from Korean 3 so Korean 3 to 6 is 18mcs and i neede 24 so i had to take 2 recognised mods) and there were 3 to choose from. one is history intro which i already took, the other was this, and the last was some idk which major but it's about international relations and a 3k mod. so i took this because i felt that i'd rather take a 2k mod that i can SU rather than a 3k in a major i've never studied in yknow (': 

i remember my first lesson vividly. first, i had absolutely no idea what the readings were telling me and only understood it when the teacher explained it slowly in class. BUT the first thing we talked about in class was launching into a hugeass debate about "can a colourblind person understand colour? mary is colourblind and sees the world in monochrome. however, she has studied everything about colour and knows what hex code green is, what the wavelength is and all that. can it be said that she knows green?" and i was like.... i'm not ready for this HAHAHA

i sort of made a friend (basically just the guy sitting next to me in class) and he was a philo major. so i told him that i was experiencing culture shock bc im nm. and i said that i was expecting an introduction for the first lesson. dyou know what his reply was? "this is very introductory" and it was at that moment, i reconsidered my choices. HAHAHAHA like whaaaaat such debates?????? i was stressed lemme tell you that. 

then i went about debating with myself if i should drop the module before the W grade takes effect. then when i glanced at the second week's reading, i was like yup bye. so that's how i dropped a philo mod :D also i think natasha was in uni this time too and taking a philo mod so i complained to her about it but unforunately she can't drop hers so sorry natasha (': 

TS1101E: Introduction to Theatre and Performance

Grade: B+

Lecturer: Dr. Maiya Murphy

Tutor: Ms Nora Samosir 

honestly took this mod bc i was hella salty that i couldn't take TS2237 (as if: actors and acting) simply bc i didn't take the intro mod bc in nm the intro mod's not really needed for anything other than the nm core mods and i really really wanted to take TS2237. it was interesting, honestly, to learn about the history and all of theatre and performance but definitely quite dry for someone like me who isn't that invested into theatre. 

there was a lot of new content to learn that admittedly i did not always pay attention to. although i think i did make good notes for this so i was able to study from them! although my grades beg to differ lol. 

we had to watch a play for this show and for us it was Late Company by Pangdemonium and yo it was great!! they promoted another play called This is What Happens to Pretty Girls and honestly ugh at myself for not getting the tickets to the show ))): but yeah we had to write a report about the play so uh i spent quite some time typing after the play about my observations. i also went alone but i don't really care about that so meh. 

then we also got to watch the performances by the students in TS2237!!! yes, salt, but wow it was really nice! hehe 

tutorials were really fun too! because it was a lot on practical and Ms Nora was great!!! we also had some exchanger friends and it was nice talking to them! there was quite a bit of preparatory work though, like reading plays (that weren't just like 20 pages yknow) that i admittedly didn't really do and that pissed her off which i felt so bad about )):  

Exam Format: midterms and finals and a report on the play. for midterms and finals it was mcq, short answer, and essay. so you can study it, but then for the essay part in midterms, you have to watch a snippet of a play in the lecture (so it's played once at the start and once in the middle i think) and write about it. for the finals, it will be a question about the play everyone watched. in tut, there were two performances i think. one was where every group would adapt a scene from a play we all read and the other, we were split into 2 groups only and each group was given one play to read and sift out which scenes we wanted to do. i personally felt that i did terribly for the first one bc i didn't understand my character well. i hope i did better in the second one!! 

Recommend? it's an intro mod so if you have to clear basket or are interested in taking more TS mods, go for it!! especially because in TS, there are a lot of mods where you need this as a pre-requisite. 

TS2243: Film Genres: Stars and Styles

Grade: B

Tutor: Dr. Edna Lim

so this was when i started getting interested in filmmaking. also, i tried to apply for another mod that's about writing the short film but it was all snatched up by the TS major students so oh wells (': this mod, although super heavy, was pretty enjoyable!! definitely not something that i was good in because i'm not someone who does a deep analysis on every movie i watch, but i was really interesting going through the analyses of the teacher! 

tbh, this class was pretty heavy because on top of watching a film each week, you also had to watch a prezi before coming to each class. the film and prezi added up together can be about four to five hours (some weeks you even have to watch two films) and then class is three hours.s o yknow maybe this isn't that bad in terms of workload and i just had shit time management but hey it was really difficult taking down the notes in the prezi (bc the navigation was pretty crappy if i remember correctly) and then watch the film not just to enjoy but to analyse also. i mean, overall i enjoyed the class and it was nice to be introduced to so many different genres that i was not familiar with although definitely quite discouraging to the then-starry-eyed filmmaking enthusiast in me when i was faced with the harsh reality that i know nothing LOL 

Exam Format: we had written midterms and finals. it was both something you could study for (e.g. the clichés of certain genres) and things that you couldn't study for (e.g. analysis of a random picture from some movie that will be shown during the exam/a snippet of a movie you have to watch). i remember we had mcqs and short answer questions that are about a page long. tbh i don't think i did great on those exams (my grades sure say so LOL) but yeah i guess if you're a good student it won't be too bad. then we also had to make a short film that was sort of like a research? where we had to choose a genre or two and make a film researching about it. e.g. we learnt that it's convention that musicals will have an instrumental to accompany it and one of the groups did a musical with no instrumentals. or we also learnt that in action films there's danger to the body but one of the groups did an action film that didn't include the human body (although lemme tell you it was terrifying HAHAH). my group pretty much screwed up the prompt otl so um... yeah. :'D also back then i hadn't gotten into editing as i am now so i didn't do any editing and i didn't have a direction and neither did my group so all in all it wasn't that amazing :\

Recommend? if you're someone that loves films, go for it!! really, really. it's amazing how much there is to learn from it and i'm sure you'll enjoy the excuse to watch so many films during the week hahaha. if you're interested in filmmaking also, why not! you literally make a short film for your final assignment! (that i think is 30% of your grade) overall, i would say that this is quite a niche interest type of mod. it's not something that i would recommend for someone looking to take any mod to fulfill their UE. you really have to be interested to have fun in this mod and not want to murder everyone HAHAHAHAHA

wouldya look at that! literally two years after i'm done with the sem and i finally complete this!! tbh pretty much done with school already too so uh HAHAHAH welps. finally took the time to type it out and ah, typing is really so much fun. i don't really have much to say for this sem since it happened so long ago, although i can say that i think from y2s2 to y4s2, i've definitely become a better student following the introduction of my dad's tablet that helped me keep up with readings and better understanding of myself and my working style (that is: treat myself like an idiot 5-year-old that needs to write things down in her to-do list step by literal step so that she can tick things off when she does the bare minimum, feel good about it, and ideally do more work AHHAHA) 

so, off to the next post, whether it's about some reflections on life or about y4s1/y4s2 (i think i'll give exchange and internship the least priority since academically-wise there's nothing exciting about that LOL) we'll see! until then~

Hope™

DISCLAIMER: idk if i'm gonna kena anything for talking bad about teachers/modules over here. or if there will be changes to the modules in the future and people end up being misled for a module. but i'm here to say that all these are my opinions; they may not be right or accurate, but this is what i felt. and all information is correct as of the time i took the modules (i.e. Semester 1 of Academic Year 18/19 at the National University of Singapore).