Many things happened, 2nd semester of poly

Today is 2 December 2013,after my final submission for 2nd semester 1st term which is on ice kacang....Wow so many things happen since the last post so many.....
I got into the subcommittee of SP japanese cultural club,I also did a bunch of stuff during the holidays like painting glass and visiting Gillman Barracks....I should do a separate post for that...
The below is what I wrote in my phone after my very 1st submission during the 1st week of this term which is like 6 or 7 weeks ago:

"After completing the printing and binding of my coffee table book for the submission I feel really lifted in spirits as though a burden had left me.While listening to Arashi's happiness I walk happily back from sunshine plaza to bugis junction.I went to mos burger to eat mos burger with ice milk tea in the salad set.I ate with true happiness as I think about the JCC subcommittee interview tomorrow,I think about exciting things that I dont have to worry about unlike submissions. I shall pause typing to finish the bit of salad and start on my mos burger"
Wow to think about it,I got pass the interview,probably due to the happiness from above.

One other major thing is the meeting with the japanese exchange students,I originally was stressed about it cause the teacher say we need to have small talks with the japanese students,turns out it was AWESOME!! I was surprised that they were not actually students but  future business leaders from a variety of field from advertising to banking to self defense etc. There was a Q&A which I tried my best to answer which is where something awesome happened!!! A japanese guy that asked a question said that he is impressed by the way I answer and gave me a namecard to his advertising agency "Dentsu" which is the biggest advertising company in japan which also has a branch in Singapore. Now I dream of interning at "Dentsu Singapore" in year 2 and will keep his namecard safe,I should probably mail him sometime as he suggested. I also talked to alot of the other Japanese people and it was a lot of fun,we got to eat at a high class restaurant called i think "lei garden" in chimes near city hall.We talked about a whole bunch of stuff ranging from my personal life,my dreams to japanese minimalism etc and also dramas which I say like like "niji sekki..."then they fill up "shonen!" I did high fives with them and they were surprised I even know "Hanzawa Naoki" and they suggested "Amachan"....I got to meet the principal as well which I was very thankful for,I emailed him a feed back about the session which is below:
"Dear Mr. Tan,

I am Shannon Teoh, one of the 4 SPOT students at the KAIL Delegation talk. I am extremely grateful for the wonderful opportunity. Initially, I was hesitant to do it as I doubted my japanese skills , with only a few months learning this language. However, I really have to thank Ms Pearl for the encouragement, as I know that I will definitely regret letting this opportunity go.

I was surprised to know that these visitors were future business leaders from a variety of fields. It was a rare and exciting experience to meet these Japanese professionals. The climax for me was when Tsuyoshi Tawarada from Dentsu shook my hand and said that he was impressed with me, I also got his name card which I treasure a lot. I was really touched as I have watched Dentsu's commercials that gave me goosebumps or made me laugh, hence motivating me to try interning at the Singaporean branch of Dentsu at year 2.

I was really amazed by Mr.Tan's fluent japanese, I even asked other SP students if they knew about it and they were all surprised by the fact. I am also relieved to have my worries about my inadequate Japanese skills disappear when  you personally translated my answers. I am really thankful for this and I got reminded about how leaders should act.

 

Through this experience,I realised that in this globalised world, knowing more languages is imperative and I aspire to be as good at Japanese one day and I will work even harder to achieve it now. I even learnt more about SP itself through this experience such as SP having its own Pokka drink done in collaboration with the students.

We were specially given the opportunity to dine with them and the 4 of us got split into 4 tables each, forcing us to try communicating with the Japanese professionals. With a mixture of body language, minimal Japanese and English, we managed to talk about many topics ranging from my personal life and dreams to the difference between Art and Design and consumer psychology etc. Most of the other design students have western or local influences rather than Japanese influences so I was really happy when one of them recognised the names of my favourite Japanese designers such as Naoto Fukasawa and Shigeru Ban, and he talked to me about the minimalistic nature of Japanese design as well. These future leaders kept on engaging me into the conversations and talked kindly to me. They also encouraged me a lot saying that they think I can do it when I expressed my doubts about entering a Japanese Art University in the future. Through all this I can see that all these potential leaders possess great communication skills that I can learn from.

The overall experience is really an eye-opener for me and allowed me to learn about how leaders should act. I aspire to be a creative director one day and this inspired me even more. I got to know more people such as the other SPOT students that had really impressive speech and social skills and some of the Japanese professionals even added me on Facebook. I read about 兰樱之交 (the friendship between Orchids and Cherry Blossoms, national flowers of Singapore and Japan respectively) which symbolise the sharing of Singapore and Japan’s culture and knowledge, hence I find that this can describe the event well as we learnt alot about each other's culture.

I honestly feel extremely happy for such an enriching experience and I will be grateful to join if such an opportunity arises again. I will like to thank you,  Mr Tan , as well as Ms.Pearl and anyone else that gave me this chance again from the bottom of my heart.

Yours Sincerely, 

Shannon Teoh

Diploma in Visual Communication and Media Design

Year 1

"

One other thing was me getting to Diploma Plus for theatre performance and production...It started off well with many new friends and I also had a chance to perform a monologue where I used the speech from Charlie Chaplin's the great dictator which I memorised for my english comp for o level last time. But as time went passed,I realised that my acting was cringeworthy and cannot compare to my peers...I was not afraid of the grades as I have enough to worry about for my official diploma but I was afraid of embarrassment...Nonetheless I got pass the 1st test where I performed a monologue from a play called "Getting Married"...Now I will be sure to practice a few scripts during the holiday.
I got through a lot of submissions with motion graphics of a word "sensitive" in my case, illustrations for Ice Kacang and graphic illustrations for 3 walls for VDS...I was extremely happy when my works were chosen for the 1st time for VDS as one of the better works,after that day I was so happy I went to watch 3 peas in a pod with my sister.
For ice kacang,there were many time constraints but I experimented with many mediums such as paper clay,acrylic,tracing paper,salt,water colour and masking fluid. I self binded all my sketchbooks,a worthy new skill to help save money.
Well I probably have many more to say such as my dream to get into Tama Art University or Tamabi or Tama Bijitsu Daigaku .....but I'll save that for another post....well to end off let me post my 15 second submission for 2DMG,my motion graphics module.

Now I will finish typing away here in the library before getting some food quickly as it is 5;48 now and i have diploma plus at 6 so I better hurry...But I guess its okay to be slightly late,a bad thing I learnt in poly haha....Till nest time