"Experiencing another's culture may open doors that were previously closed... but the choice to walk through those doors is entirely up to you."
Last week of Term 1, we were given open doors that were previously closed and we decided to walk through these doors. These open doors refer to the opportunity to embark on a learning journey and travel to different places with our classes in hope of learning more about other cultures and races. In order to learn more about the many different cultures and races in Singapore, we decided to try our best not to fool around and instead listen and observe the things others do and why would they do such a thing. For example, on the last day, we visited the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple and somehow, I noticed that all the hindus who enter the temple would ring the bell at the door first and when they leave, they will ring the bell again, after asking one of the hindus, I found out that they ring the bell when they enter and leave the temple to tell god that they are entering and leaving the temple.
Most impactful lesson? Well, after spending some time walking from places to places in Madrasah Aljunied Al-lslamiah and learning more about the Islam religion, I feel deeply saddened by the fact that a lot of people are currently biased against Islamic people just because most articles say that most of the terrorists are muslims and Islamic, they are usually stereotyped by others which may make it harder for them to find friends that are not muslims as people from other races may be biased against them just because of the fact that most terrorists are muslims and Islamic, it will also be harder for them to find good jobs with a high pay if they meet bosses that are judgmental and are biased towards certain races. The fact that most people judge and put down islamic muslims just because some of their people are terrorists makes me angry just thinking about it, it's like just because there is a rowdy kid in our class, it does not mean that the others are rowdy, some may actually be peaceful and quiet. Based on the learning journey to Madrasah Aljunied Al-lslamiah, I found out that most of them are just like us, they like playing games such as VainGlory and they are actually very friendly, when we walked past their classes, we waved to them and in return, they smiled and waved back, some even doing the heart shape sign. The only thing that separates us from the Islamic muslims is just their skin colour, therefore, l would like to state that we should not judge them just because they are islamic.
Well, the programme could actually be improved in many various ways but I would like to state that the main questions for some of us is the lack of time. For example, when we went to Little India on the last day of our learning journey, the timing was a bit messed up which caused us unable to gather some useful information from shop owners. Additionally, when we went into the temple, we could be given more time to ask for information and compile them as there were very little people who we could speak to there, either due to the language barrier or the fact that most of them are praying and we would not like to disturb their prayers just for the sake of gathering information. Therefore, I think that the timing could be extended such that we would be able to provide a quality work on the last day of the EnC week as we would need to gather information from many different stalls and compile them such that the information would be more accurate and reliable.
Hmm, the main objective of this programme? Well, I suppose the main objective of this programme is not only to educate us about other races and their beliefs but also remind us that there are actually many amazing and special religions and cultures around us. By sending us on learning journeys to many different places and given us a booklet filled with questions and space to write down our notes, we would be able to use the booklet to record answers and questions we have in mind which will make us more efficient in gathering data and storing them. Also, by going on this type of learning journey, we were able to get a break from the normal boring school life and engage in something much more interesting which included giving us freedom of movement, as in we can go anywhere freely and not get controlled by teachers which was something we never had before in primary school; in the past, I thought that I knew a lot about the Malay and Indian culture but when I was given the booklet, I realised that there were actually many blanks in my head regarding these two cultures, for example, I realised that the only thing I knew about the Indian culture was that they celebrate Deevapali and nothing else but after embarking on this meaningful learning journey, I found out that they also celebrate festivals such as Thaipusam and Pongal. This proves that going on this type of learning journey and forcing us to do something which we needed to present to the class, we were actually able to learn a lot of things.
At first, I thought that this programme would be really boring, puts me to sleep and the only interesting part about the trip would be the bus ride from the school to the places. However, once we reached Kampong Glam and we were given the freedom to go anywhere we want to interview people but within a certain area immediately made me excited about the trip, not because of the fact that we could buy toys freely but the fact that we were able to travel with other groups to many places and engage in conversations with the shop owners and learn more about their culture. By having a positive attitude, even though we were scolded by our chairperson for stupid things we did, my spirit was not dampened and I really enjoyed myself at the 3 venues throughout the week with some of my best buddies. In conclusion, even though the bus rides were once of the highlights of the trips, the programme and the knowledge it has gifted us made the learning journey a much better one with my best buddies.
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