Totto-chan book review

The story is about a little girl called ‘Totto-chan’ who is going through her school life. Totto-chan was expelled from her previous school and she was posted to a school called Tomoe Gakuen. Her new school was very unique and different from other schools. For example, the headmaster of the school, Mr Kobayashi, teaches things that other schools do not. Totto-chan finds the school rather interesting and she loves the school. During World War 2, the school was bombed and was never rebuilt again. Mr Kobayashi aim was to build the school again but that never happened because He had died.
I had learn that we should try our very best to make our school life interesting, so that we could learn things in a more fun way. Every day, there will be something new for us to learn and we must continue to keep learning as it would help us in the future. I would recommend this book to other people because it shows us how important learning is.

In July, A riot had taken placed in the City of Urumqi between the Muslim Uighurs and the Han Chinese. Both ethnic races had conflict against each other ever since July. It all started when two Muslim Uighurs were killed in a dormitory by a Han Chinese workers. These had led to a riot where over 600 people had died. I feel that these two races should try to resolve their problems by peaceful way instead of having riots. The police of Xinjiang should try to prevent more fights from happening so that no more innocent people would get killed.

History of Sri Lanka.

· Sri lanka was colonized by the British between 1796 to 1948. During the British rule, it was known as Ceylon.

· Different types of race in Sri lanka. (eg.)

-Sri lankan tamil

-Indian tamil

-Moor

-Sinhala

The majority of people in Sri lanka are Sinhalese

Most of the Tamils are located in, Batticaloa , which is in the eastern side of Sri Lanka.

Ceylon Citizenship Act 1948

This act only granted citizenship to those who were born in Sri lanka and whose forefathers were born there.

These had caused many Indian Tamils to be stateless which means that they were not citizens of any country.

The Indian tamils do not have basic rights such as education, jobs, housing and voting.

Resettlement Policy 1950

The different races in Sri lanka are not evenly distributed throughout the island.

Sinhalese peasants were moved from densely populated southwestern and central areas to tamil areas.

The tamils were not happy

-Buddhist monks and the Sri lankan army which comprised of mostly Sinhalese came to occupy their lands.

Official Language Act 1956.

In 1956, Sinhala was declared as the official language in Sri lanka.

Most of the tamils were given a choice.

-They were given three years to learn Sinhalese or they will be dismissed.

Most of the tamils find it hard to find jobs and or be promoted.

New university admission criteria 1972.

In 1970, the government introduced new university admission criteria.

Tamils students had to score higher marks than Sinhalese students in order to enter the same course together.

A fixed number of places in the university are reserved for Sinhalese.

These had caused the number of tamil student entering university had decreased over the years.

Should Singlish be the official language in Singapore?

Singlish should not be an official language in Singapore. However, lots of people in Singapore, especially teenagers, are used to speaking Singlish.

The reason is firstly, Singlish is not understandable by people from other countries. Since English is encouraged to be spoken throughout the whole world, People from other countries might have problems communicating with the people in Singapore if Singlish were to become an official language in Singapore.

Secondly, Singlish is an impression of a bad English or also broken English. If we were to speak Singlish in public, People will think that we have not been studying our English properly and that will drop our image.

Thirdly, Singlish is not a good way to communicate among our friends because if we were to keep speaking Singlish, our English will become worse and that would be the reason why some students find it hard to pass their English.

If Singlish were to become an official language in Singapore, All Singaporeans would have a hard time communicating to each other. And people from other countries will look down on Singaporeans.

Are Singaporeans gracious and socially responsible?

Social responsibility is important to everyone. When we are out in the public, we must take care of our image. We must preserve our identity as a Singaporean. For example, especially during this H1N1 outbreak, those who are not feeling well should stay at home so that the disease would not be spread to other people. Still, there are some irresponsible people who do not wish to stay at home and go to the doctors even though the person is not feeling well. These are some the factors that shows not all Singaporeans are socially responsible.

Besides being socially responsible, we must also be gracious to people around us. For example, in a public transport, an elderly person had just got on to the bus and there are no empty seats. People who are fit and healthy should offer their seats to the elderly. However, there are some people who still do not want to do so, not offering seats to the elderly, pregnant lady and disabled ones. These are some of the examples on how Singaporeans can be ungracious

In conclusion, Singaporeans are gracious and socially responsible. However, there are some who still need to learn more on how to be gracious and socially responsible.