Lecture by Dr. Choi Sai Peng

Before the lecture on Wednesday, I kept thinking how it would turn out to be as our guest for the lecture is Dr. Choi Sai Peng, the cousin of our Chief Executive. After the lecture, I was so surprised because I thought that lecture should have been boring while it turned out that it wasn't AT ALL!!!

What did Dr. Choi do to surprised me so much? Just be patient and read then you'll find out.

Acutally the whole lecture was mainly about urban planing in Macau, but that was not the surprising thing I mentioned. So let's skip it. The most surprising thing always comes the last. After talking about urban planning, Dr. Choi had added something more on his prepared PPT, which is how to be a human well.

I am so inspired that he said knowledge can change your life. And I believe so. I think the teens nowadays only spend most of their time on the computers. They rarely read newspaper or even watch news on TV. Acutally I do have the same mistake as most of the teens do. I rarely read newspaper. The only source from where I know about the world is from TV news or Internet news.

As Dr. Choi said, some of the news that we have read may not be used in future. But if one day someone asks you about something that is related to what you have read or what you have heard about, then that piece of news is definitely useful.

Dr. Choi inspired me that we have to equip ourself well little by little. Knowledge is never enough for us. No one would blame that the knowledge he has is too much. As a potential leader, we have to grasp even more opportunity to gain knowledge than anyone else. As everyone says NO PAIN NO GAIN. If we put more effort, we will have gains, of course there must be luck too. This is what I got from the lecture. Knowledge and luck are two main key things to achieve success. But I do believe that knowledge weighs more than luck.

And the surprising thing to me is that Dr. Choi he put on our HC t-shirt right after we gave him. His act told me that a leader should not always be serious. A little funny act can ease the tense. This is the reason why I think this lecture is so different from the previous ones.

HC News Forum

This Wednesday I participated on the News Discussion Forum hold by HC students. I didn't have time to join it at first because of my make up class. However, the class turned out to be finished earlier so I had the opportunity to join the HC News Forum.

There were two topics at the forum, one is General Education and the other one is Internet Addiction. We were divided into 3 groups. Each group had a different role. We had to express our thoughts in the group and let the leader to speak out for us.

Although I didn't speak much because of my lateness, I noticed that everyone had participated so eagerly even the ideas they had were sometimes banned. I realized that was the attitude a leader should hold. Never give up to speak out as long as you think you have a good idea. The communication method is also important when you persuade others to buy you.

So to be a leader, you must have good communication skill and be able to think critically. You have to express your idea clearly in a right tone and at a right speed. This is what I still have to improve. I think the forum provided me a platform to learn from others and force myself to use my brain to think things deeply. I think from now on, I have to read more news so I can gain more knowledge about different things in order to speak out more next time!

SHOW TIME for One Minute

Today I had my second class of HONR202. Today's feature was the 1-minute performance. Dr. Udani divided us into 6 groups. Each group had 5 people. He gave us 5 minutes to prepare what we were going to perform.

In the beginning, our group didn't have any idea of what to perform. Each person had different thought. We had thought about singing, reciting poetry, and even dancing. We didn't come up with any feasible performance until one of our groupmate, Polly told us about the idea of singing Because of You at the last minute. Since this song is a catchy song and almost everyone in our group knows about it, we decided to sing this song.

However, there's a problem. We could not recite the lyrics. So Polly was trying to look for the lyrics on her phone but all we know that the screen is not enough for 5 people.  Then I asked the group whether we could use Dr, Udani's laptop to search for the lyrics in order to present everyone. The group agreed and finally we  performed the song sucessfully. We even asked the others to join us singing!

From this activity, I learnt that as a group, everyone's opinion is so important no matter it really works in practice or not. Even their plans don't work, the plans may still inspire other people so the other people can improve theirs. Also, once we approve the plan, we have to stick to the plan with no other evil thoughts (being jealous at other people because their plans have been approved while yours has not). Helping each other to practise the plan and doing something to improve the whole process are two significant parts in group work. In short, We have to work together so that our plan will work perfectly.

So many first times of mine this week! (part II)

Apart from what happened on Wednesday, there is another event that made this week unforgettable. It is what I did yesterday. Yesterday was our HC second retreat. I was so excited to expect the day to come this whole week. Why? Because I would do my first sky walk, have my first buffet in Macau Tower. It is funny that i didn't feel any nervous before the day came because i knew I wouldn't have to do the bungy jump.

On Saturday morning, I arrived the tower on time. And later we headed to the open space of the tower bottom and had some games. Our first game,hmm i may say our first task, was to build a tower which can stand firmly on its own with newspaper. We had to apply the knowledge we learnt from Physics. With appropriate teamwork and Jackon's lead, we became the winner of the task. From this task, I think a good leader is required. With a leader, we know what to do and so we don't do things out of order. And sometimes, a leader should listen others' advice. So the whole team can improve.

Actually the second game 'deliving message' is more or less the same, which also requires teamwork. After we played a few games, we headed to the top of the tower. And it is also the most important part of the day. We were required to cover our eyes with pads when we did the sky walk. The idea is to learn how to trust your friends. Because you can't see anything, what you could do to move on is to put your hands on the shoulders' of the person who is in front of you. And to do the sky walk, you need to be brave. A leader always walks ahead of his followers. And a leader loves to explore new things to broaden his horizon.

After the sky walk and lunch, we had a game which is to build net to bounce ball. The main idea is to learn how to cooperate and bounce the ball at same speed. We needed to make decisions about where the string should go and we had to shout out the number as well as move at the same speed. And we needed a person to act like a leader to say the number.

After all the games, it came to a game that could burn our calories and required us to show our encouragement to others, which is rock climbing. To do this, first you have to be brave enough, and second you have to be presistant. This is what a leader should be. Whenever our friends are stuck, the people on the ground would give them support by saying GO GO!!! , and we gave them directions when they couldn't see. This is what people should do to support their teammates.

From the retreat, I learnt how to be supportive, how to be cooperative and how to be BRAVE. Every leader has his fear, but they know how to face their fear and it made them leaders. Hopefully, I will apply what I learnt from this week to my future life!

So many first times of mine this week! (to be continued)

Warning: Below is the FIRST blog I have ever typed, so please bear with the mistakes if I make any!

This week is the beginning of the second semester of my year 2 studying. I couldn't wait to come back to the university to meet my friends. On Wednesday, I had my first lesson by Dr. Udani. I have learnt about him from other students long before. So I was curious what knowledge he would give us.

Before the lecture, Dr. Udani had asked us to bring a pair of chopsticks and I knew the lecture would be unusual as there would be a game on class. Just as I expected, Dr. Udani prepared us magics and game to show us what teamwork is. Unlike Prof. Mok's lecture, it focused on practice more than theories.

During the game, everyone was so dedicated to the team. They figured out which way we could do to transfer the ping pong ball without letting it fall. Even some people had made their turns, they still helped to safe guard the ball. I could see the selflessness of them from this move. They could have just chatted after/before their turns but they didn't. This is what the team members should be. After we finish our part, we still have to provide help for the other members.

Everyone is equally important in this game. None of us can achieve the success on its own. We need support from others and provide support to others. If one fails, encouragement is needed but not blame. This is what I learnt from Wenesday's game. I really appreciate Dr. Udani's teaching method. He passed us a clear idea of what a team should be from real practice!

                                                                                                                           (to be continued)