Nothing much happening these few days....that's the hols for you i guy....well i've just been playing 2 hrs of com everyday and reading chinese bks for leisure....i guess you could call that weird but i've been bucking up on my chinese ever since my tuition teacher accused me of becoming slack. Not that it's my fault...i mean i'm in ACS...notorious for bad chinese...the environment matters....here i am in a sch where almost everyone cares nth for chinese...sometimes not even the teachers....how am i supposed to learn the stuff that my couz learns??? join NYGH??! (lol)

Oh btw....apparently NYGH is darn pro...they learn lots of those chinese cultural stuff that we don't get a chance to learn, stuff like poetry, calligraphy, lion dancing....they have one whole period devoted to chinese culture.....in fact...that's the stuff that matters most in learning a language...the culture...!!! i don't see why we don't learn that in ACS...stuff like stories, poems and stuff...that's more interesting for one thing. even the wu xia xiao shuo that ian reads have more cultural learning value than the txtbks. now there's the education system change...and the chinese paper's changing to less memory, but face it...there are still questions on the comprehension of cheng yu and ci yu....that's still not very relevant.

Wad we should be focusing on is the big picture of chinese as a language and a culture...not on definitions of cheng yu and stuff...that's ridiculous. Of course it helps to a certain extent...but it won't benefit ultimately. We should do more on poetry and stuff and gu(3) wen(2). Esp after the exams XSH shld take some time to do those things...not sit ard in class and slack for the whole period. Of course i understand that even if she tries to teach us these things, no one will care, no one will want to pay attention. So it's not just the teacher's fault...it's our learning attitudes.

now that nth's happening during the hols...i might as well spend blog posts rambling abt these things and these issues of great concern. I think the education system is still a bit flawed....ok maybe not a bit. It's the restrictions of exams and txtbks that cause the teacher to be unable to teach. Txtbks are important yes...they keep things on a right track, but there is still too much emphasis on txtbks...that's not right. If the govt wants to change the education system, wad they shld do is to get rid of txtbks, or reduce them a lot....basically besides the new exam format...nth's changed in the past yr...the txtbks are still just as long and stuff....and all this talk abt reducing syllabus...i feel it's still plain talk.

We need to salvage the situation, the govt. shld free up the curriculum a bit....not so txtbk orientated...they say they're trying to do it....but i don't think we've actually seen it yet...and abt us...we shld change our mindset towards the cultural things...and we shld be more open toward them, so if XSH starts teaching abt poetry and stuff, let's pay attention and not disregard it. Don't forget that you haven't learnt a language for real unless you've learn't the culture.

well enuff rambling for today...cya!!! and watch the toilet bowls...they're evil.

btw try this method and tell me whether it works!!! this is for a magic square!!

MAGIC SQUARE METHOD::

FINAL METHOD 2: THE SHORTCUT

1) Split your year into 2 numbers. For example, split 2002 into 20 and 2.

2) Further split the first number (eg. 20) into 2 numbers that add up to it. For example, split 20 into 15 and 5.

3) Let each of the first 3 numbers be A, B and C respectively. In this case, let 15 be A, let 5 be B and let 2 be C.

4) Find the number: Magic Total – (minus) [A + B + C]. Let this number be x.

5) Split x into 4 numbers that add up to it. Let these numbers be D, E, F and G.

6) Now that you have numbers A, B, C, D, E, F, G, fill up the square below to obtain your magic square. Note the magic year is also in the right position.

B + C	D + E	F + G	A
A + G	F	B + E	D + C
E	C + G	A + D	F + B
D + F	A + B	C	E + G

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