Father and Son

After watching two short clips on Forever Fever - the first having the highly-favoured son announcing on his 21st birthday dinner that he was going for a sex operation; the second portraying the son who was cross-dressed (ie. man in woman's clothes) and facing his father. It is vital to remember that the son, Leslie, said that he studied Medicine only because he wanted to live up to his parents' expectations and that he actually hated the subject all along. At age 21, he has now made a decision to stop living the kind of life that his family wanted; and it is time for him to be who he really wants to be.

In Singapore, we have to face our family and society's traditional values and judgement. To Leslie, he felt that he could only be the good son that he had always wanted to be by living out his parents' dreams for him to become a doctor. His father, in the second clip, could not even recognise him when his son came home looking for 'Hock' (his elder brother) dressed up like a woman.

Likewise in our Literature story, Father and Son , Andrew was influenced by several factors around him and decided to pursue his dreams. He also cross-dressed like Leslie and even boldly entered the Oriental Queen Competition. His father chased him out of the house like the one in Forever Fever as he claimed that he could not face his friends again. To him, he has lost a son (and thus published an obituary) because (1) his son has literally turned into a female (2) he wanted to forget his son (3) his expectations and hopes of his son had died. However, it is important to note that Andrew did not fulfil his parents' expectations by doing well in school or qualifying for the Medicine School.

Reflection question:

If a close family member of relative is Andrew, how would you and your family react?

*Remember to discuss about tradititions and expectations that your family will have and why it is wrong / acceptable to have a member of the family becoming a transvesite.

Watching Movies During Lessons?

Hello to all, my babbling brood!

This is the first entry and the topic for the fortnight is......

Watching movies during English lessons and completing English class/homework based on them is fun! Do you agree? Or do you disagree?

Do write your thoughts in proper English (because I will be reading them and probably respond) and address them to your classmates. You are also allowed to respond to your classmates' comments in a civilised and polite manner. That means no name calling or hard feelings to one another.

We all must agree to disagree.

As all of you have experienced, Miss Ang never takes a simple 'yes' or 'no' when she asks a question. Likewise on this class blog, I expect you to support your arguments. Be it a four-liner paragraph or a four-paged essay, I want your response.

Lastly, if your parents might ask you why is your (pretty) English teacher (ahem) requiring you to blog, please show them this post: -

Blogging is current the technology rage in Singapore (and worldwide) and it is essential for students to be IT-savvy in their work and research in order to be on par or ahead with our fast-paced society. Through class blogging, students are tasked to think coherently and analyse introduced topics before acquiring confidence (and supporting arguments/evidence) to share comments with the class. At the same time, they are given an opportunity to practise and hone their writing skills and grammar as their comments are moderated by the English teacher. Also, discussion of the posted topics in and outside the classroom encourages class cohesion through this form of online interaction.