TOK: How does perspective affect the way you see the world?

Everybody has their own perspectives of the world. Everyone grew up in different countries and was raised with different cultures. So, the way you might draw a map of the world might completely differ from someone else. I think that this is totally normal and people should not be ashamed of having a different method of drawing the world map from others.

Each person would most likely have more elaborate drawings for their own country. For instance, if an English person who was raised in England, places the UK and Europe in the centre of map, and has a detailed sketch of the country, it is totally understandable, since that was the way he or she was taught in school. A week ago, we had 5 minutes in class to draw a map of the world. I, myself, placed Europe in the centre, North and South America on the left, and Asia and Australia on the right. I had more intricate drawings of Asia, and included Hong Kong and Taiwan in my map, since I was spent almost all my life in Hong Kong. My depiction of the North and South American continents weren’t very accurate. In fact, I forgot that the two continents were connected together. This was due to my lack of knowledge of the American continents because I don’t get the chance to view the American continents very often. Víctor’s map was different from the rest of the students. He had more detailed outlines of the South American continent, since he is Brazilian and spent most of his life in Brazil. The education he received in Brazil clearly affected the way he perceives the world and the way he drew his map.

Everyone also has a different perception of the world. Depending on where they are from or where they grew up, they will believe that that country is superior to others, and so they would most likely place themselves in the centre of the world map. I think that there is nothing wrong with this. Again, in the map drawing exercise that we did in class, King, who was raised up in China his whole life, placed the Asian continent in the centre of the map with Europe on the left and the Americas on the right. This was due to the fact that the country perceives the world this way and believes that China is the “master of the universe” and should rightfully be in the centre of the world map.

Essentially, there is no correct or incorrect map to be found in this world. Some maps might depict very detailed sketches in a certain continent or country, other maps might have countries placed in odd positions that you yourself would never think of placing. People have their own way of expressing the world on a map, and so there is no correct or incorrect version of a map.

Language “I used to think… Now I think”

I used to think language was simply a form of communication which people use in everyday life. I didn’t find language very fascinating. Now I think language is a fascinating way of expressing peoples’ opinions and ideas, and I now find the topic much more engrossing since there are so many different things that can have an influence on it.

Culture is something that can affect the meaning of a word or phrase. A certain word might have a completely different significance in another country. Facial expressions are another example that can change a context. If someone says “Oh, great!” with a smile on their face, this would mean that he or she is happy or satisfied, whereas if they said the same thing but with a frown or frustrated look on their face, it would mean that they are unhappy or displeased.

I also find this line, “when a language dies, we lose the possibility of a unique way of perceiving and describing the world” very intriguing. I highly agree with this line because every language does have its own unique technique of expressing their perspective of the world. This is why we should preserve languages and try and prevent languages becoming extinct.

After reading some given texts, I now have much more interest in language. I used to think it was dull and boring, now I believe that it is a very fascinating way of sharing thoughts and ideas with people around the world.

 

 

19th Century European Literature Multi-Media Project (Update 2)

Our group (Me, Josh and Collin) have been progressing in our project in the past few weeks. We have also altered our research question quite a few times.

First, we decided to focus on romanticism by using Beauty and the Beast and The Phantom of the Opera texts. But then we wanted to concentrate mainly on dark romanticism, since it would contain darker and more interesting elements. However, we realised that both texts are not written in the 19th century, so we had to change our focus to other texts.

In the end, we changed our texts to Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and because these two stories, especially Les Misérables, does not have a lot of dark romanticism elements, we changed our main focus back to just romanticism.

We have already produced a video explaining the Romanticism elements in Les Misérables, and we are currently working on a poster to describe the elements in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We are hoping to finish this project as soon as possible.

 

lol

 

19th Century European Literature

This past week, we have been focusing on European Literature in the 19th century. I am working with Josh and Collin to produce a multi-media presentation.

We have spent the last few weeks studying Romanticism and Realism, and the difference between the two. Romanticism was portrayed very poetically with emotion. Realism was portrayed realistically through literature. In other words, Romanticism is an “artistic perspective of society”, and Realism being an “actual perspective of society”. We also looked at some Romantic poets, such as William Wordsworth, who was an English poet that had written many famous poems.

For the next weeks, we will be using The Hunchback of Notre Dame and possibly Beauty and the Beast and The Phantom of the Opera as our main focus. I am very interested in using these three novels because I remember myself really enjoying the Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast and quite liking The Hunchback of Notre Dame when I was a kid.

Passion Project: Minecraft Reflection (Update 2)

It has been approximately one month since my last update. We have built many parts of the school in the past month. We have completed the admin building, and we are currently working on the high school section. Since we don’t have a large amount of time left, we are trying to finish it as soon as possible by spending approximately 30 minutes on it each night.

As a whole, I think we did a pretty decent job so far. I think many of the rooms we have constructed look pretty alike to the actual place. That being said, we did struggle quite a bit trying to build the music room, the art room and some other more complex and larger rooms.

Myself, Josh and King will put in a lot of effort to try and make the campus as well constructed as possible.

“Unit 4: Media Matters” Reflection

Introduction

In this unit, we looked at how media campaigns work by watching a documentary film called “An Inconvenient Truth”. In the documentary, Al Gore reflected on how pollution has caused drastic effects to our society. Afterwards, Victor, Eva, Daphne and I worked together as group and created our own media campaign, which addresses why marine pollution is a serious issue.

How was this unit connected to what I already knew?

I knew that pollution is something that is causing great harm to our environment and destroying the beauty of our planet. I also knew that in many places, people are trying to limit the amount of pollution. Moreover, I knew that people use advertisements, posters and leaflets as a way to spread the message and inform others that pollution must be stopped.

What extended my knowledge?

Before starting this unit, I knew that pollution was a serious issue. However, after researching about marine pollution, I realised that it is much more devastating that I previously imagined. Also, I always thought that people littering was the main cause for the deaths of marine life. However, I found out that oil spills and eutrophication are two major factors that contributed to the countless fish deaths. Doing research online regarding marine pollution was the main tool that extended my knowledge.

What challenged me?

I think the biggest challenge for me in this unit was creating the actual advertisement itself. Once I have gathered all the information, I needed to present this on a video creatively and stylistically. So, I downloaded some stock footage from YouTube and I used iMovie to edit the clips and add audio and my own information. Finding a suitable audio track that fits well with the video was tricky. Also, choosing suitable sections from the stock footages and editing them together took a lot of effort too. Luckily, I had Victor by my side, which made the task easier for the both of us.

Clearwater International

Which activities make you lose track of time?

There are plenty of activities out there that really make me lose track of time. Usually, it is something that is distracting, entertaining and something that I can’t put down or stop doing.

One example of an activity is watching an entertaining movie. When a movie is so fantastic, my eyes are literally glued to the screen. Sometimes, I feel like I am currently inside the movie’s world and what I am seeing is happening right in front of my eyes. Because of this, I am unaware of what is actually happening in the real world and this definitely makes me lose track of time.

Another example is playing a computer game. One of my favourite computer games is Minecraft because there are just so many things you can do in Minecraft. You can build, try to survive, play PVP (player-versus-player), play online servers etc. When I am playing Minecraft, I am always very focused and most of the time I neglect everything that is happening around me and I most certainly do not keep track of the time.

A third example is when I am hanging out with my friends. We do plenty of things when we are together. Sometimes we go to the movie theatre to see a movie, sometimes we go to play arcade machines in Global Centre, and sometimes we simply just wander around places. But whatever we do, we usually lose track of time because we always have so much fun together. There was a time when we finished eating in a restaurant and we started chitchatting. By the time we were ready to leave, we realised that we had sat there for nearly two hours.

There are many other activities that make me lose track of time, but the three activities above works every time for me.

Passion Project: Minecraft

These past few weeks, Josh, King and I have been progressing on our passion project planning. What we have in mind is to build the school campus in Minecraft. We thought that this was a good idea for our passion project because it will enhance our creativity skills and develop our collaboration skills. We have decided to focus mainly on the main buildings of the campus (excluding the dormitories and some non-important facilities). We will try our best to make the structures exactly as it is and produce a skilled piece of work, but in order to achieve that, it will require plenty of effort to be put into the making of this.

Reflection on Language Arts Exams

Last week I took two exams for Language Arts, as they have been split in two parts. I am so glad that they are finally over!

Overall, I think I did quite well. I did especially well in Part 1, since I had very few mistakes in the vocabulary section and no mistakes at all in the grammar and comprehension section. My writing task for audience & purpose was also done really well, so I am proud of myself for that. I had a few slips in Part 2 (linking the paragraphs together), but as a whole, I think it was still a pretty good essay.

I think I can improve by practicing how to link paragraphs together and how to write a very strong topic sentence. I can maybe find some sample essays online and use that as a reference to improve my skills.

Generally, I feel taking exams is alright and is helpful, since after the results come out, you know your own weaknesses and how to improve. You will also enhance your test-taking skills, and gradually get better for future tests.

My goal for this semester is to review everything that I have learned on that day. My way of achieving this goal is to take more notes during class so I can review them at the end of the week.

Music Concerts

On November 22nd, I performed at the CDIS Holiday Bazaar along with Josh, Daphne, Anya, Sibel, Tae Woong and the choir. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as well as I expected. Firstly, the pedal for the piano was not working, which made the overall quality not as good as it could be. Also, it was really cold at the time, so I could not move my fingers as fast as usual.

On November 27th, we performed at the St. Regis Hotel. The piano that I used was tiny and there wasn’t even a pedal. Luckily, the songs that we performed at the hotel did not require the pedal. However, at least we performed indoors, so it wasn’t freezing.

Hopefully, the winter concert on December 12th will go smoothly without things going wrong.