Category Archives: University of Sydney

Application Rejected

Posted on by
2

I applied to Honi Soit, USyd’s student newspaper as a general reporter more than two weeks ago.

I did not get any replies during the two weeks plus period because of the exams and study vacation. So I waited, studied, sat for my exams and waited.

Since I haven’t checked my Gmail account for more than a week, I logged on today to clear my inbox. In the process, I saw a reply from Honi Soit. I didn’t feel excited or nervous, just a sense of relief that I got a reply from them.

It started off with the usual thing: “Thank you for your application to be a reporter for Honi Soit” and it went on to describe the overwhelming number of talented applications it received. Then I saw the word “unfortunately…”

By now, I was a veteran of rejection letters and emails. So I knew what would come after that unfortunate word.

I got rejected.

I skimmed the rest of the email and in the last paragraph, the editors invited me to flood Honi Soit with contributions of all kinds as they are really big fans of my work.

I think they said that to all the other rejected applicants too.

If it is any consolation, the editors like my post on accepting Facebook friend requests.

 

 

There’s a good and bad thing of getting my application rejected.

The bad thing: I was looking forward to explore more of USyd academia and student body through Honi Soit and getting experience of being a reporter, writing under deadlines, working with editors and reporters and probably interview some really interesting people. All in all, it would be a fun and interesting job.

The good thing: I have a friend who studied journalism and he told me that to write under deadlines is no bloody joke. I can write and work well under deadlines, but I know what he means. To have a writer’s block at the wrong time can lead to disastrous writing. As for my writing style, I prefer to write at a leisurely pace, letting my imagination flow and rewriting drafts after drafts. If I did that for Honi Soit, it being a weekly paper, the editors will probably be screaming and pulling their hair out in frustration.

So I think next semester I’ll flood the paper with the most random contributions I can come up with.

If I can even come up with anything in the first place.

As for the song of the day, to keep up my fighting spirit, nothing is better than the soundtrack from Jet Li’s Once Upon a Time In China aka Wong Fei Hung trilogy:

I’ve always wondered how over a hundred guys can carry out the same moves with military precision. And why is Wong Fei Hung the only fully dressed guy while the others are all half naked?

The Pineapple Express and Rally to End Discrimination Against International Students

Posted on by
2

Internet connection back to normal after almost one and half weeks of having dial-up speed. All I can say is fuck you Allegro. I didn’t pay $69.00 a month to have this shit.

Talking about shit, I realized that I really need to clean up my room. Dust and moth balls piling up everywhere. The last time I cleaned my room was a month and half ago? So its spring-cleaning time on Saturday. I’m not really looking forward to that.

I’ve just finished watching “The Pineapple Express”. I still can’t believe the hostel management decided to screen the show.I mean, they have a strict policy on “the forbidden use and/or being under the influence of drugs/illegal substance in the building” (paraphrased) and they screened a show that is based on weed usage. Hmm, maybe they do have a sense of humour after all. A really weird sense of humour.

The verdict for the movie? Well…. I wished I was high when I was watching the movie because it seriously used up all my powers of suspension of belief.

I mean, the ending of the movie, what a big blow-bang. Spoiler ahead: almost everyone dies. Furthermore, the concept was a bit hard to believe. And it seemed improbable that three guys can get away with the death of 100 people blown sky-high. Oh, wait, its a stoner movie. While its not one of Seth Rogan best movie and some parts did make me laugh and were really funny,  I still wished I was high when I was watching it. Then, I’ll probably laugh for the next 2 hours straight. Really.

One question though, is that real weed in the movie? Do Seth Rogan and the others really smoke up in the movie? Cause if they do, then its really, really, really… wow.

Now to the highlight of the post.

I went for a mass demonstration yesterday.

I kid you not. My first mass demonstration. My virginal one.

I spoke in one of my earlier post (“English Grammar” post) that I have to pay $13,000 per semester fees for my university education. Given that my degree is 3 years and I’m planning to take on an extra one year to do an honours course, my total education fee will come up to about $104,000. This does not includes housing, transport and miscellaneous fees. So I’m looking at a $200,000 plus debt that I’ll be owning my dad.

So yesterday, I joined a mass demonstration to ensure fair education rights for international students and end discrimination against us. Just to let you know what we’re (I’m) fighting for, I’ll give you a bit of background history.

In 1988 (or 89), the NSW government ended transportation concession fees for international students, on the basis that we don’t pay taxes or provide to the economy. Which, is a really what the fuck logic.

First off, international students still have to pay taxes when we work. So that means our income are still tax-deductible. So it means that we still contribute to the economy. Although international students are allowed to claim back their taxes before they return to their home countries, I am told that the procedures are so complicated and convoluted that most can’t even get back their tax refunds. Talk about outright stealing. 

Secondly, on what basis are we not contributing to the economy? Is $26,000 per academic year not enough? 20% of Sydney University comes from international students like me while the rest comes from government funding, donations and the university investment portfolios. 20% is a lot, if you take account the proportion of international students against local students. 

Yet, despite these, the NSW and Victoria state governments still do not want to grant international students concessions cards and provide safe, affordable housings. So international students effectively pay the full transport fares while local students only pay half the price.

As for housing, none is provided for first year students. In the UK, first year students are automatically provided a room on the university campus or somewhere near the university campus. I can’t say this applies to ALL UK universities but the Scottish universities I applied to (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee) provided housing for me. However, in Australia, although Sydney University does have a Housing Accommodation Office to help students with their accommodation, first year students are generally left on their own to find their own accommodation, which usually leads them to be cheated by unscrupulous landlords as international students are unaware of the housing rules, regulations and their rights. 

When the NSW government passed the 1988 ruling to end transport concession for international students, it meant the start of a 20 year discrimination against international students. In 2006, a lawyer (or human rights activist, can’t really remember) pointed out that what the NSW government was doing is effectively illegal discrimination against international students for 2o years. Shortly, the NSW government changed the laws so that it can continue the discrimination ‘legally’. What this means is that I, or any other international student, will be unable to bring this discrimination up to the law courts because, after all, its legal and it IS the LAW.

So on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009, student unions/ representative councils from the NSW universities like Sydney University, UNSW, UTS, Newcastle University, Macquarie University and others from private colleges joined forces with the National Union of Students marched to the NSW state parliament house to protest against the discrimination.

International and local students including some people from the general public took part in the National Day of Action for Fair Education.

 

At Sydney U, outside Fisher Library

At Sydney U, outside Fisher Library

 

 

Outside Fisher Library

Outside Fisher Library

 

 

 

A silent man gathering his strength.

A silent man gathering his strength.

 

 

 

The banner

The banner

 

 

 

Marching off

Marching off

 

 

Leaving Sydney Uni

Leaving Sydney Uni

 

 

 

Riot Police in Sydney Uni

Riot Police in Sydney Uni

Is that riot police on the right smiling at my camera?

 

There were a lot of police around. First of all, this was a legal demonstration, so the police were informed, I think. I don’t think you’ll get this in Singapore where a one person demonstration is already considered illegal. But I couldn’t help thinking about this, was the police there to keep us from the public, or the public from us? That is something I’ll think about for a long while. 

 

 

Outside UTS

Outside UTS

 

 

 

Outside UTS

Outside UTS

 

 

 

Outside NSW State Parliament House

Outside NSW State Parliament House

 

 

 

Outside the NSW State Parliament House

Outside the NSW State Parliament House

 

 

We marched from Sydney Uni to the UTS and then proceeded for about an hour through Sydney’s CBD to the NSW State Parliament House. Throughout the march, we were on the roads, so the police had to make the traffic give way to us. The whole demonstration took about more than two hours.

We made our voices heard, our intentions known but we will have to wait for the NSW government response.

But like one of the rally organizers said, we will not stop the fight until we end the discrimination.

The day Daer born and died at the Debates

Posted on by
2

I’ll never forget this day.

I made myself look like a total and complete idiot.

I’ll take that back.

I probably made George W. Bush looked like a genius.

As per Rajan’s (ex-Pres of SMU Debating Society) recommendation, I joined the Sydney University debating team.

Now, Sydney University’s debating team are one of the top-ranking teams in the world. They even beat Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge at some World Debating Finals.**

Yeah, Sydney U have a lot of argumentative and eloquent people.

Rajan told me to join cause he told me that I’ll have a heck of experience and meet all sort of oddballs. Oddballs in a good way. He asked me to join the debating team so that he could experience it through me. Remember the scene from the movie “The Girl Next Door”? The scene where the protagonist’s friend screamed at him to fuck the girl so that he could ‘experience’ it too? It went something like this:

Friend: “FOR ME, MATT! FOR MEE!! FUCK HER FOR MEE!!!!”

It was like this, except the screaming and fucking.

Anyway, I e-mailed the Pres of Sydney U Debating Society, expressing my interest in joining. I only got a reply from him 3 weeks late, telling me to turn up for the next session at 5:15pm. Which was today. (Technically, yesterday, as its 12am here now).

So on the previous night, I got Rajan on MSN and asked him for some advice and this was what he told me:

Zareth says: (12:14:20 AM)

yo, you there?

rajan says: (12:17:06 AM)

yeap

Zareth says: (12:17:30 AM)

going for the debates tmr

Zareth says: (12:17:34 AM)

got any tips to survive?

rajan says: (12:19:35 AM)

urm, enjoy?

rajan says: (12:19:43 AM)

i dunno. don’t drink too much?

Zareth says: (12:20:24 AM)

wow, thanks for the sage advice, hahaha

rajan says: (12:20:31 AM)

lol

rajan says: (12:20:35 AM)

it’s your first day

Zareth says: (12:20:45 AM)

yep, first day

rajan says: (12:21:47 AM)

don’t break a leg. because debaters aren’t very good at first aid

Zareth says: (12:22:44 AM)

lol

rajan says: (12:22:54 AM)

if your first impression is “omg, so many weird people” you deduced right. if your first impression is “omg, so cool”, you are a true debater. if both, a smart debater.

Zareth says: (12:23:26 AM)

LOL

Zareth says: (12:23:35 AM)

what a weird viewpoint

rajan says: (12:23:47 AM)

lol

I highlighted the advice the Rajan gave me in bold red. One of the reasons I joined the debates was because Rajan told me that they served free beer. WOW! FREE BEER. If there is one ‘poison’ that can get me talking, beer is it. Actually let’s make that any alcoholic drinks. One beer and I probably debate the house down.

Hell, I know cause at the student orientation party, after drinking a beer, I went around getting phone numbers from people that I’ll never see or talk to again. I even got hit on by a gay Irish guy, but that’s another story.

But at the debates, there were pizzas. Rajan was right on this count. The pizzas were great. Really delicious. Unfortunately we only had 15 minutes to gobble it down before we went on to debate.

But.

NO BEER.

Maybe the debaters didn’t want any raging drunktards arguing. But I only argue well when I’m a drunktard. Cause when I’m sober, I’m Too. Damn. Quiet. I don’t really give a shit about what’s going on in an argument. But when I’m high, I give a shit about everything.

To add salt to my injury, the president gave the topic as “Why the government should NOT play a role in healthcare.” Then my partner and I was assigned to defend the position of why the government should just back out of the healthcare industry. Even better, we were both the opening team. So that means we had to go ahead first.

What the fuck man.

I’m all for the government playing a role in healthcare. I believed its something that the government should do. So of course I was lost for words when I had to put myself in an opposite position.

How? Think, Zareth, think? Why should the government fuck off from the healthcare industry and privatize it??

Then I hit on a solution. Why, of course, let’s follow Singapore’s policy.

This is the one time I love Singapore. If there’s any policies that make Singaporeans lives more miserable, trust the Singaporean government to do it.

The Singaporean government’s stance on healthcare is the citizen pay for their own medical care. As the PAP like to say: “Children should provide for their parents’ welfare. Its filial piety. You cannot always depend on the Government. We don’t follow Western ‘models’ of state welfare. We Confucian society.” Something along this line.

Since I was brainstorming with my partner, I shared my ideas with him. I meant everything. Which, in hindsight, was not a very good move.

As the opening government (team), my partner went ahead first to give his opening speech. He was a very impressive sight. It was his first time debating too and he managed to make a very eloquent and fiery speech. Of course, whatever I wanted to say, he said EVERYTHING! Oh crap, what am I going to say?

Next up was the opposing team opening up their side of the debate. Now, these people are real pros. They spoke fast, really rapid fast but you could still understand what they were talking about. And their arguments had real structure, meaning and all the bullocks. After the girl finished her speech (and shot down a few opposing questions from my team) it was my turn.

“All right Daer, it’s your turn,” the adjudicator turned to me.

That’s right, I’m now known as DAER.

How did this happened?

Well, when the President was typing everyone’s name onto a Excel spreadsheet, I got this typical response:

Me: “Zareth”

Pres: “Sorry?”

Me: “It’s Zareth. Z-A-R-E-T-H”

Then to my horror, I saw on the screen as he typed out “DAVER”.

Me: “No, no, no, it starts with a Z”

Pres: “Oh,” and he proceeds to delete the V and hence, “DAER” was born.

I couldn’t be bothered to correct him cause I was in the middle of a lecture hall and I would have to walk down to the front and changed my name to the correct spelling in front of the entire debating team. So Daer it was.

I’m fucking irritated by this. Zareth’s a cool name. But whenever I S-L-O-W-L-Y enunciate my name, the next party will go: “Eh? Jared? Gerad? JEIETH? JEDI?” Even when I spell out my name, I have to do it 3 fucking times before the other party get it.

Hey buddy, pay attention.

_________________________________________________________________________________

I got up to the front and calmly cleared my throat. And then I made a fucking lame introduction: “Guys, this is my first time here. Yeah, so don’t have too high of an expectation of me.”

Meanwhile, my partner was rooting like crazy for me.

I like that guy.

While the other side of the house was ready to pounce and tear the flesh from my bones.

Shit.

With that lame introduction, I make a total fiasco of myself. For the first time, I had stage fright. I actually experience what stage fright was. I couldn’t get the words out. I mumbled and 3 minutes into my speech, I gave up and just went back to my seat.

Our speech were supposed to be 7 minutes.

To describe how bad it was, I’m going to post a clip of George W. Bush debates:

Go to 1.36 of the video. Now imagine that, but 10 times worse.

That’s how I sucked today.

Oh well, they know me as Daer.

And Daer never existed.

** Rajan told me that Sydney Uni Debating Society is THE BEST, not one of the best.

Secret Societies and NDP.

Posted on by
7

Warning: Very Long Post and Rant Ahead. For Sharmen and Gilbert, skip if you don’t want to waste your “2 years”.

Happy reading.

I’ve been blogging a lot the past 2 days and I have 3 reasons for this sudden spurt of inspiration:

1) I’m procrastinating on my studies. My reading list is just piling up and up.

2) I’m bored

3) I’m procrastinating and cannot be bothered to study. What’s the point in doing things half-heartily?

4) I’ve got a lot of things to say. Might as well do some verbal diarrhea now cause I’m not going to blog for the rest of the week (I’ll be studying very hard to catch up on the readings).

Okay, that’s 4 reasons.

Anyway, I got off MSN with Ranga a few hours ago and we were both talking (me talking, he bitching) about NDP. For those non-Singaporeans, NDP means National Day Parade. NDP falls on 09 August and its the day when Singapore was unceremoniously kicked out of the Malaysia Federation in 1965. We are the only country to be given our independence against our will. What a fucking irony.

Yes, I know a lot about Singapore’s history. I am FASCINATED by my country’s history. I’ve read Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs: “The Singapore Story” and “From Third World to First”. And not the abridged versions. The thick, proper ones. And not because I was in History class, I read them out of my own free will (and time).

Anyway, Ranga was complaining how NDP was just the same old, same old. Halfway through, he mentioned that it was 8:22pm in Singapore and he was feeling very irritated. I asked him why and he said something about the pledge. Then I realized and started LOLing at him through MSN.

Apparently, I read on Temasek Review’s website that every Singaporean is encouraged to say the National pledge at 8.22pm. Ranga said he was not going to do it and said that serving 2 years in National Service was equivalent to saying the pledge 100 times. I couldn’t help but agree.

I don’t see the point of having a country-wide mass pledge because it seems too co-ordinated and seems like another Singaporean attempt to break the world record. Okay, let’s say our 3 million odd people says the pledge, what happens after that?

Nothing.

Why?

Cause if you think about it, every morning from Monday to Friday, thousands upon thousands of school kids are saying the pledge during school assemblies. So essentially, we are having a mass pledge day after day during school weeks. I know cause I sang the National Anthem and said the pledge everyday for 6 years in primary school.

So after the 3 million odd people said the pledge, they’ll just continue with doing whatever they’re doing in their life. What an anti-climax. Same old, same old.

Halfway through our MSN coversation, Ranga asked if I had to celebrate NDP in Sydney. I told him that the Singaporean Student Society in the USyd might be holding a dinner celebration or something like that. I don’t know cause I didn’t join the society and frankly speaking, I only know one Singaporean student, a girl, from the university. The rest are my army khakis and I’m pretty sure that the 3 of them are not celebrating NDP too.

Coincidentally, my dad SMSed me to ask if Singaporeans were celebrating NDP in Sydney. I told him I didn’t know and he asked if the embassy were celebrating.

I replied: “Don’t know, not sure.”

He asked if I was registered with the Singaporean embassy. I returned his question with a question, asking if I had needed to register with them. Wait later kenna called back enlistment, then how? He told me to register with them so that I’ll be inform about any Singaporean celebrations or events.

I think I’ll register with them. But only if I run into any difficulties or problems in Sydney. But for me attending Singaporean events? Forget it.

Back to the MSN conversation.

Ranga said that he finds these Singaporean Student Societies stupid. In fact, when I told him that it was not only Singaporeans doing it and the Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese, French, German and Vietnamese and majority of the international students have their own societies, he said he found all of them stupid.

I agreed with him, more or less.

I agreed with Ranga because it was kind of pointless on congregating together in a foreign country. I mean, you go to a foreign country to either work or study for the next few years and to me, you’ll need to submerge yourself into the local culture. I mean, what’s the point of staying to a foreign country for a few years and not learning anything?

I understand that the purpose of having these societies are to provide support and help for their own nationalities. Yes, we all get homesick in a new country and we all feel lost. These nationality societies provide some comfort by reminding us of our home country and hey, you get to speak in your home country lingo and probably get to meet some hot chicks/hunks!

I don’t find anything wrong with that but I find it rather ironic.

Let me pick on my own nationality (who else can I pick on?).

I bet the majority of the Singaporeans student here complain about Singapore constantly. Hey, I admit I’m one of them too. Weather fucking hot and humid. Government fucking restrictive. We guys have to serving 2 years of NS. Fuck lah. Singapore not fun at all lor. Singapore boring lor. Singapore where got 4 seasons, HAH? Singapore no hot chicks/ hunks. Singapore boring, Singapore boring, Singapore sucks, Singapore fucks, Singapore and the list goes on.

Yet, over here, they congregate together. For what? Just like what Ranga said, when they are in Singapore, they complain and complain. Yet once they are out of Singapore, they form Singaporean societies. He also added that if they loved Singapore so much, they should have just stayed on in Singapore. Exactly my point.

Step out of your comfort zones! Explore new cultures! USyd has so many international students! Explore their cultures! This goes to all the nationality societies. In fact, USyd, or more accurately, the USyd Union has a society called UniMates and I’m a member of that. UniMates is formed just for international students. They organize outings to explore Sydney and Australian cultures and to provide support for international students. Homesick? Join UniMates. Lost and sleepless in Sydney? Join Unimates. Not sure of what to do with your course? Join UniMates. Want to meet your future BF/GF? Joing UniMates. UniMates. UniMates.

Yeah, this is blatant advertising but I couldn’t care less. The only thing I see good coming out of these nationality societies is national solitary. Seriously, its a waste of time and money if you don’t make full use of the diverse cultural and social life in university.

Won’t it be funny if you studied in a foreign country and went back to your homeland, not knowing anything about your host country??? Let’s take this scenario for an example. Let’s take ME for an example:

Parents: “Ah Boy, ah, so how’s Australia? Got learn anything new?”

Ah Boy (Me): “Got lor, economics lor.” (I’m doing Arts but majority of the Singaporeans are in Econs and Business).

Parents: “No lah, I mean, about Australia, Sydney.”

Ah Boy: “Like what?”

Parents: “Like their culture, what they eat, drink, how they dress, what’s the lifestyle.”

Ah Boy: “Err… the shops close very early. Like 9pm. No 24 hours food outlet.”

Parents: “And?”

Ah Boy: “Err… uh….. ya, that’s all loh. Oh and got a lot of Singaporeans friends.”

Parents: “KNN, spend 3 years just to make friends with Singaporeans. Then pay $100,000 for what?”

I’m not saying that it’s not right to make friends with our fellow countrymen. Neither am I saying that we should start adopting Australian mannerisms, accent, style and et cetera. No, what I’m saying is that we should stop being so insulated in our own little world. It irritates the shit out of me to see every nationality congregating together in the university. Each world making minimal contact with each other or the local population, each world minding their own business. Maybe I’ve only been in school for one month and haven’t explore much of the dynamics of the student population.

Damn, I should take up anthropology next Semester.

But yeah, so far what I noticed is each little bubble bouncing around without making contact at all. It’s really a shame for USyd, really.

I once told the Singaporean girl that I would never identify myself outright as a Singaporean to the Singaporeans in USyd. I’m not trying to avoid them or reject them but for me, if I wanted to make any new Singaporean friend, I would have stayed on in Singapore. If a Singaporean here asked if I am a Singaporean, I would say yes, I’m Singaporean, I won’t deny it. But when I hear a group of Singaporeans chattering nearby, I won’t go up to them and introduce myself as a Singaporean.

Which brings me to yet another point.

Neil Humphreys, a British writer who stayed in Singapore for 10 years once gave this remark. During his student days in the University of Manchester, he noticed that the Asians tended to stay within their own groups. They cooked rice, ate rice, spoke Chinese, Thai and other Asian languages and hanged out together instead of mixing around with other nationalities. So Chinese with Chinese. Thais with Thais and so on.

Now he’s not being racist. No, he’s not. Hear me out first. Or you can go read his travelogues on Singaporean culture. I bet he knows more than the typical Singaporean teenager. So shut up and listen.

Neil Humphreys came from a working class background. A blue-collared background to be exact. A single parent (his mum) home to be more exact. Now, at that point of time, the class system was still quite entrenched in the British mentality. So for a working class, blue-collared boy like Neil to make it to university, it was quite a surprise. Really. Neil also added that his London Cockney accent was quite distinctive within the student body as most came from the middle to upper classes.

Instead of trying to blend in with those classes and hiding his blue-collared background, Neil said he decided to stick to his accent and stick out like a sore thumb. He stuck out even more when he befriended a Scottish guy who spoke in very thick Scottish accent. But that’s another story.

What Neil said was that he found it rather absurd that all the Asians stuck together instead of learning more about their host country’s culture. The only Asian friend he made was a Hong Kongker, who rather succinctly told Neil that if he wanted to make Hong Kong friends, he would have stayed put in Hong Kong.

Therefore, Neil also encourage one to absorb the local culture. During his 10 year stay in Singapore from the 1990s to 2000s, he stayed in a HDB flat in Toa Payoh and ate in coffee shops. And was subjected to many pokes and prods from Singaporean heartlanders. He did not go to Singapore on some expat packages with some MNCs. He just plop himself in Singapore and called it home for the next 10 years and worked in local, quasi-governmental organization like SPH (Singapore Press Holdings) and as a teacher.

His Singaporean travelogues should be read. Seriously. But I’m just diverting away from the main issues.

Right now my favourite ‘Singaporean’ author is staying in some city called Wallagoong or some obscure place, probably trying to absorb Aussie culture there. But that’s not the point.

The point is, if I wanted more Singaporean friends, I would have stayed in Singapore, innit? INNIT? If I wanted to congregate with other Singaporeans, I would have studied in NUS, NTU or SMU.

So please stop congregating in nationality societies. It defeats the purpose of studying in a multicultural university.

Finally, I’ll like to bring up another matter.

One cold, cloudy day in school, I was trying to walk as fast as I can to the bookstore to get some novels that were required reading for English class. I was only wearing a thin cardigan and sweater and so I was trying to get to the warm bookstore as fast as possible. Along the way, this Chinese woman stopped me and I made a mistake of slowing down for her.

Before the words came out of her mouth, I knew exactly what she was going to say.

“Are you a student? Do you go to church? I am from a church nearby and would like to invite you to our bible studies.”

This have happened to me 4 or 5 times. I realized they always target the asians and never the caucasians. And then they always target ME. WHY? Anyway, I declined her offers as usual and started to increase my walking speed. It was FUCKING cold. The sky was overcast and there was no sun that day.

Then she asked me where I was from.

I was still walking, so I said “I am SINGAPOREAN”

“Oh, so you are Japanese.”

Well, I was so shocked that I actually stopped in disbelief. The Chinese women took the wrong hint and thought that she caught my attention and so she went on blabbing about some ridiculous thing about how 1 in 2 Japanese are atheists or don’t believe in God or want to but have no idea where to start. She hopes to convince those 1 in 2 Japanese that there is more to life and God is the way and so on. All this while, she kept looking at me.

So I guess I must be those 1 in 2 Japanese.

After she finished her little speech, she stared expectantly at me, waiting for my reply. I was cold, tired and irritated and so I gave her a curt “not interested” and walked off.

Well, halfway to the bookstore, I decided to stop at a bench to readjust my heavy backpack. From the corner of my eye, I saw a couple creeping up towards me.

They really creep up towards me. I’m not joking. Seriously. They approached me silently and cautiously, eyeing my every movement.

I felt cornered.

Before I knew it, the couple were standing beside me and they just stood there, not saying anything.

I looked up and politely asked them if I could be of any assistance. After all, USyd has dozen of tourists walking around the campus and the couple could be one of them.

But they were not tourists.

The male started hesitantly, he asked me in a rather soft voice if I would like to join their bible study and that their church was just nearby. Would I care to join them for one session.

No, I didn’t care and declined their invitation. Fortunately, they were not as persistent as the previous Chinese lady and so they smiled and left me alone.

Damn it, I think I need to re-grow my facial hair and look like a hobo. In that case, these people would leave me alone and stop approaching me. I mean, out of all the asians walking around me (and there are A LOT), they always target me. WHY? WHY? WHY?

Maybe the Singapore Student Society are out to get me through these means?

Scary.

I’m fucked.

P.S. Its 3am and I’m really, really tired. So I’m sorry if this blog just goes on and on randomly. I tried to structure it coherently but am just too tired.

English Grammar

Posted on by
3

Its the end of Week 2 at school. Tutorials started this week so it was the first time meeting up with all my tutors and group members.

All my tutors are women.

It was just something that got my attention. Nope, no hot tutors. I’m not saying they are ugly but they’re normal people. All doing PhD. Some attached, one just gave birth.

Having a hot one would be an incentive though. I’m just saying.

We have to attend 9 out of 11 tutorials, about 80%. Anything less than that will be considered as absent. And it means I might be failed or suspended or kicked out.

Not a nice thing to think of, especially with a AUS$13,000 per semester fee hanging over my head.

Yeah, AUS$13,000. 20% of Sydney U funds come from us, the international students. I’m pissed that there are no grants, fee helps or scholarships. Even if there are scholarships provided, I’ll either have to be on the dean list or one of the top students. Don’t even get me started on transport concessions.

All I can say that international students get screwed left, right, front, back, top and bottom. I should have went to Aberdeen instead of coming here. Sure, the cost of living might be higher in Scotland, but I can say that there’ll be probably more financial help in UK compared to Sydney.

But what can I say? After all, I’m part of the AUS$15 billion education industry. I’m just a fucking product.

My only option now is to grit and bear it. Study the shit out. Party the shit out. Drink the shit out. Okay, not so much on the last two, probably more on the first, lest my dad decides to withdraw from his $100,000 ‘investment’.

So to increase my dad’s ‘investment’, I turned up for every single tutorial. There were four, one for each subjects. The first tutorial of the week was Psych. Pretty easy tutorial, mostly just talking about the introductory material and introducing ourselves to each other. Second was English (the film and fiction one). Pretty easy tutorial too, just introducing ourselves, citing our favourite movie (I mentioned American History X, to impress the shit out of everyone. And yes, I watched the movie twice) and our favourite novel (mentioned Life of Pi even though I’ve only read 10 pages).

Third tutorial was World Politics. Same thing, basically just introducing ourselves and then on to yabbing about the  theory of realism. My group was mostly girls and all of them were discussing passionately about international relations while the four guys (me and three others) just sat there like stone. We made non-committal remarks and just left it there.

But the last tutorial, English (Text and Language) was a killer. For this subject, we were studying about the structure of the English language, something like linguistic but not quite. For this week, we were studying English Grammar. Now, of all things, I suck, suck, suck at English Grammar. Countless of of my essays were marked by English teachers, stating I had excellent vocabulary, great writing skills, great this, great that, BUT horrible, terrible grammar.

I mix up my past tense, present tense, future tense, past continous tense and what not. I still can’t tell the differences from a pronoun and noun, adverb and verb, adjectives and what not and et cetera.

Well, our tutor made us pair up and made us go through a paragraph to hunt for all the pronouns and nouns. Thank God I did a bit of reading the night before, so I roughly knew what pronouns and nouns were. The whole tutor group went silent while we went through the passage, looking for the said pronouns and nouns. After 5 minutes of doing that, we went over our work with our partners.

Then, right there, in front of my partner, I made myself look like a total idiot.

First, she had those startlingly, misty gray eyes. Now, misty, gray eyes usually transform me into a blubbering idiot because all I can do is to stare at them dreamingly.

And that was what I did. Stared at her for 30 seconds, which was like eternity when she asked me whether this particular word was a noun. And the whole time she was looking at me with a puzzled look, wondering why I was not answering her.

The second time was when I actually told her that the world “white” and “straight” are pronouns. She gave me another puzzled look and said: “Really? I thought they were adjectives.” I shut up and didn’t offered anymore opinions.

Really, FML. It seems like I have to start studying and reading more again.

Most of the class contributed to the discussion about English Grammar while I just sat there like a block of stone. Oh FML.

Seriously, these people are fucking geniuses. The worse thing? They don’t look like it. That’s what I hate. They don’t look like a geniuses until they open their mouth. First, you underestimate them. Or you think that they are like you, average. Then you get screwed by them. God…..

But they are nice people, really. I remember the particular conversation I had with my partner during the English Grammar tutorial, which went like this:

Me: “Did you do this week readings?”

Her: “No. Did you?”

Me: “Nope, neither did I.”

Then we both smiled at each other, comforted in the fact that we both didn’t prepare for the tutorial. Of course, that illusion was shattered when I realized that even if my partner didn’t do any readings, she was still smarter than me. And her English Grammar could kicked the shit out of me.

Hmm, maybe she did do the readings. Maybe she was just trying to make me feel better. Or maybe she paid attention during lectures.

Crap, I need to start paying attention instead of zoning out all the time.

P.S. I’m still a bit freaked out by last night nightmare and keep expecting a MINDEF e-mail to pop up in my inbox, telling me to report back to Singapore.