Reflection of English Journey

Throughout the whole semester studied of the English module, ES1102, I had learned the writing and speaking skills from Mr. Brad. As a student from NUS, leaning proper English become an important issue for me. As I came from a Chinese-speaking family, learning proper English became a difficult task for me. Compare with when I first get into NUS, I could felt my English get improved slowly throughout the whole semester.

Why I have such feeling of my English get improved? This is because after finished every assignments, Mr Brad would ask us review and evaluate each other works and provide some comments to each other. Through this, I can learn from my friend’s comments and make some improvements from their comments. From the overall of the assignments that assigned by Brad, I was pleased with the writing of the globalization essay on expending to the aspect of globalization. After few drafts done by us, Brad arranged few conferences for us to have a small discussion on our works.

After finished the essay writing, Brad also provided us a chance for us to present our essay in front of the class. This presentation would be the first presentation in my university life, as a student from Faculty of Engineering, there will be a rarely of chance to practice the presentation skill. This is because most of my school time would be focus on practical skills and report writings. Before the presentation, Brad had taught us some tips for us to prepare our presentation. After the presentation, Brad also provided us a chance to let the class identify our strength and weakness and then provide some feedbacks and suggestions of improvement to each other.

In conclusion, I believe what I had learned from this module would be useful not only in my university life, but also would be useful in my entire of life. I really appreciate I could be one of the Brad’s students, as he really different from my entire previous English teachers and I really learned a lot from him. After studied this module, I will continue my English learning journey by writing and speaking more in my future life.

Feedback on Presentaion

I do agree with the presentation should add as an official grading component in ES1102. As I am a student from Faculty of Engineering, there will be rarely of chance for me to practice my presentation skill, because most of my course times would be focusing on practical skills and report writings.

  In Brad’s class, he taught us several tips to prepare our presentation. During the presentation, Brad would ask us listen to our classmates’ presentation and learn from each other. After the presentation, Brad also provided us a chance to let our classmates to identify our strength and weakness then provide some feedbacks and suggestions of improvement to each other.

  I really appreciate I could be one of the Brad’s students, he really different from my entire previous English teachers and I really learned a lot from him.

Essay Draft 4

Lee Keng Hwa (A0112509N), Group A03

  In Goldin’s TED talk (2009), he mentions that climate change is one of the factors that had resulted from rapid globalization. Climate change is the result of global warming that is caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs), which are emitted from the human activities that are used to build the modern lives. The majority of these GHGs were emitted from the buildings around us and the fossil fuels used in transportation, industries and electricity generators. These GHGs have the ability to trap heat around the atmosphere, which has induced the glaciers in the North and South Poles to melt and sea levels to rise. As Singapore is a small and low-lying island that is surrounded by the sea, the rise in sea level will have major effects on Singapore. According to National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) (2012), there has been an average increase of 3mm of sea level per year over the past 15 years. While the Singapore government is encouraging the reduction of the emission of GHGs to reduce global warming by settling up some policies within the transportation and building sectors, there are still a number of people who refuse to follow the policies.

  Singapore government has been focusing on reducing the emission of GHGs from the transportation throughout the years. According to the data of Singapore’s GHGs Emissions from NCCS (n.d.), there are about 19% of CO₂ emissions were contributed from transport in year 2005. In order to reduce the emission of CO₂, LTA had set up some policies to encourage people to take public transport. First of all, LTA has been manages the vehicle usage and traffic congestion by implementing the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) to discourage people from purchase a car. LTA also has been improve and promote the public transport in order to make the public transport be the first choice of mode of transport for every people. Through these solutions, LTA had reduced the CO₂ emission from the fossil fuels in transportation in an indirect way and the NCCS is expecting to reduce the CO₂ to 14.5% by 2020. Although the Singapore government manages to reduce the CO₂ by providing an efficient transport system, there are still a number of people who refuse to use the public transport due to the reason of overcrowd on the MRT during peak hours. In my opinion, LTA can try to shorten the current waiting time of the train from about average 2miniutes to 30 seconds by increasing the frequency of the train during peak hours. On the other hand, LTA can also collaborate with MOM and MOE to reduce the crowd of peak hours by rearranging the school and work release time to spread the peak hours more evenly.  In short, the Singapore government was made public transport as one of the mode of transport for every Singaporean to reduce the CO₂ emission by the fossil fuels in transportations. Every Singaporean should appreciate what had the government did and follow the footsteps of the government to protect the environment.

  Other than focusing on cutting down the emission of GHGs from transportation, the Singapore government also has been focusing on reducing the emission of GHGs from buildings. Based on the data from NCCS (n.d.), the building sector emitted about 16% of CO₂ in 2005. To reduce GHGs emission from the buildings, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) implemented the BCA Green Mark Scheme in 2005 to raise the awareness of sustainability as well as to encourage building developers to develop more environmentally-friendly buildings in Singapore. The Ministry of National Development (MND) provided 20 million dollars for this Green Mark, while BCA also provided some new grants to attract the developers to build or upgrade more green buildings. Other than that incentive, the National Environment Agency (NEA) launched the Energy Efficiency National Partnership (EENP) programme to encourage the private sectors to maximize the building energy efficiency to reduce the carbon emissions. With these policies, the NCCS is expecting to cut down the CO₂ emission from 16% in 2005 to 13.8% in 2020. Through these effective policies, NCCS should be able to achieve their goals by 2020, but from my point of view, the government could improve their policies by providing extra cash incentives as a motivation for the designers to produce new creative ideas in their designs. 

  In conclusion, the global warming issue is getting more serious and it will have major effects on Singapore. Throughout the years, Singapore government had set up many policies to reduce the carbon emissions from the transportation and building sectors. Thus, this is the time for every Singaporean to work with the government to protect our environment by taking a few small steps toward energy conservation. In this way, we could have an immeasurable effect!

797 words

References:

Building and Construction Authority, (n.d.). Code on environmental sustainability measures for existing buildings 1^st edition. Retrieved March 8, 2014, from

     http://www.bca.gov.sg/EnvSusLegislation/others/Code_Env_Sus_Measures_Exit_Building.pdf

Goldin, I. (2009). Navigating our global future. Retrieved from          

     http://www.ted.com/talks/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future?language=en

National Climate Change Secretariat, (2012). Impact of climate change on Singapore, Retrieved March 8, 2014, from

     https://app.nccs.gov.sg/(S(bumm2x45rx4wgv550lqpk255))/page.aspx?pageid=160&secid=157

National Climate Change Secretariat, (2012). Projecting Singapore’s greenhouse gas emissions, Retrieved March 1, 2014, from

     http://app.nccs.gov.sg/nccs-2012/projecting-singapores-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html

National Climate Change Secretariat, (2012). Sectoral measures to reduce emission (up to 2020). Retrieved March 8, 2014, from

     http://app.nccs.gov.sg/nccs-2012/sectoral-measures-to-reduce-emissions-up-to-2020.html

National Climate Change Secretariat, (n.d.). Singapore’s national climate change strategy_chapter 3: mitigation of greenhouse gas emission, Retrieved March 8, 2014, from

     http://app.mewr.gov.sg/data/ImgUpd/NCCS_Chapter_3_-_Mitigation.pdf

National Geographic Society, (1996-2014). Causes of global warming. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from

     http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-causes?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=20131016_rw_membership_n1p_intl_se_w#

National Geographic Society, (1996-2014). Global warming solutions, Retrieved March 1, 2014, from

     http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-solutions

---

 

Essay Draft 3: How does the Singapore government reduces the greenhouse gases (GHGs) to counter global warming in Singapore?

In Goldin’s TED talk (2009), he mentions that climate change is one of the factors that had resulted from rapid globalization. Climate change is the result of global warming that is caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs) which are emitted from the human activities that are used to build the modern lives of today. Majority of these GHGs were emitted from the buildings around us, fossil fuels in transportation, industries and electricity generators. These GHGs have the abilities to trap the heat around the atmosphere, which induced the glaciers in the North and South Poles to melt and sea levels to rise. As Singapore is a small and low-lying island that is surrounded by the sea, the rise in sea level will have major effects on Singapore. According to National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) (2012), there was an average increased 3mm of the sea level per year over the past 15years. Thus, while Singapore government is cutting down the emission of GHGs to reduce the global warming by setting up some policies to reduce carbon emission from transportation and building sectors, but there are still a number of people refuse to follow the policies that set by the Singapore government.

  Singapore government has been focusing on reduce the emission of GHGs from the transportation throughout the years. According to the data of Singapore’s GHGs Emissions from NCCS (n.d.), there are about 19% of CO₂ emissions were contributed from transport in year 2005. In order to reduce the emission of CO₂, LTA had set up some policies to encourage people to take public transport. First of all, LTA managing the vehicle usage and traffic congestion by implementing the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) to discourage people purchase a car. Next, LTA also improve and promote the public transport in order to make the public transport be the first choice of mode of transport for every people. Through these solutions, LTA had reduced the CO₂ emission from the fossil fuels in transportation in an indirect way and the NCCS is expecting to reduce the CO₂ to 14.5% in 2020. Although the Singapore government managed to reduce the CO₂ by providing an efficient transport system, there are still a number of people refuse to use the public transport due to the reason of overcrowded on the MRT during peak hours. In my opinion, LTA can try to shorten the current waiting time of the train from about average 2miniutes to 30 seconds to increase the frequency of the train during peak hours. On the other hand, LTA can also collaborate with MOM and MOE to reduce the crowd of peak hours by rearranging the school and work release time to spread the peak hours more evenly.  In short, Singapore government was made public transport as one of the mode of transport for every Singaporean to reduce the CO₂ emission by the fossil fuels in transportations. Thus, every Singaporean should appreciate what had the government done and follow the foot step of the government to protect the environment.

  Other than focuses on cutting down the emission of GHGs from transportation, the Singapore government also has been focusing on reduce the emission of GHGs from buildings. Based on the data from NCCS (n.d.), the building sector emitted about 16% of CO₂ in 2005. To reduce GHGs emission from the building, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) implemented the BCA Green Mark Scheme in 2005 to raise the awareness of sustainability as well as to encourage the developers to develop more environmental-friendly buildings in Singapore. The Ministry of National Development (MND) provided 20 million dollars for this Green Mark, while BCA also provided some new grants to attract the developers to build or upgrade more green buildings. Other than the incentive, the National Environment Agency (NEA) launched the Energy Efficiency National Partnership (EENP) programme to encourage the private sectors to maximize the energy efficiency to reduce the carbon emissions. With these policies, the NCCS is expecting to cut down the CO₂ emission from 16% in 2005 to 13.8% in 2020. Through these effective policies, I agreed with the expectation of NCCS that the Singapore government could achieve their goal by 2020, but from my point of view, the government could improve their policies by providing extra cash incentive as a motivation for the designers to produce new creative ideas in their designs. 

  In conclusion, the global warming issue is getting more serious and it will have major effects on Singapore. Throughout the years, Singapore government had set up many policies to reduce the carbon emissions from the transportation and building sectors. Thus, this is the time for every Singaporean to work with the government to protect our environment by taking a few small steps toward energy conservation. In this way, we could have an immeasurable effect!

803 words

 

Reference

Building and Construction Authority (n.d.), Code on environmental sustainability measures for existing buildings 1^st edition. Retrieved March 8, 2014, from

     http://www.bca.gov.sg/EnvSusLegislation/others/Code_Env_Sus_Measures_Exit_Building.pdf

Goldin, I. (2009). Navigating our global future. Retrieved from

     http://www.ted.com/talks/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future?language=en

National Climate Change Secretariat (2012), Impact of climate change on Singapore, Retrieved March 8, 2014, from

     https://app.nccs.gov.sg/(S(bumm2x45rx4wgv550lqpk255))/page.aspx?pageid=160&secid=157

National Climate Change Secretariat (2012), Projecting Singapore’s greenhouse gas emissions, Retrieved March 1, 2014, from

     http://app.nccs.gov.sg/nccs-2012/projecting-singapores-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html

National Climate Change Secretariat (2012), Sectoral measures to reduce emission (up to 2020). Retrieved March 8, 2014, from

     http://app.nccs.gov.sg/nccs-2012/sectoral-measures-to-reduce-emissions-up-to-2020.html

National Climate Change Secretariat (n.d.), Singapore’s national climate change strategy_chapter 3: mitigation of greenhouse gas emission, Retrieved March 8, 2014, from

     http://app.mewr.gov.sg/data/ImgUpd/NCCS_Chapter_3_-_Mitigation.pdf

National Geographic Society (1996-2014). Causes of global warming. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from

     http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-causes?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=20131016_rw_membership_n1p_intl_se_w#

National Geographic Society (1996-2014). Global warming solutions, Retrieved March 1, 2014, from

     http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-solutions

Reader's Response Draft 3: Globalization of Culture through the Media - Marwan M. Kraidy

In Kraidy’s article, “Globalization of Culture through the Media” (2002), he mentions about there are various debates on how the Western countries have influenced the media and then impacted the developing countries. The cultural imperialism and globalization are then evolve in these counties. After that, he also discusses on the hybridization, and he agrees that the transnational mass media increases the hybridity that is present in the cultures over the world. Therefore, Kraidy has concluded “cohesion and fragmentation coexists” for globalization of culture, but not the “process if complete homogenization”.

After reading the article written by Kraidy (2002), I am going to evaluate the idea of hybridization. I agree with the point of view of Kraidy that the transnational mass media increase the hybridity that is present in the cultures over the world. According to the article (2002), the cultures have been connected through different ways, like Western colonialism, migration, or media for a long period of time. In the past, majority of the developing countries were colonized by the Western countries, hereby the western and local cultures were mixed and a hybrid formed. For example, when British attempt to colonize Singapore, the English language was became the domain language in Singapore, but as time passed, English language was mixed with some local languages which formed the “Singlish”. Simultaneously, the technologies of the global media have formed transnational images that connect throughout the world. As a result, it helps to speed up the hybridization around the world. While we look at the current global situation, the global media also helps to speed up the spread of message around the world. For instance, people in many Asian countries started to learn to speak English since the British Colonial period, but due to the transitional mass media increase, the usage of English has been speed up and English has become the world language throughout the years. The same was true to Japanese language, when the people of the countries that were colonized by Japan were forced to learn Japanese during the colonial period. After World War-II, people have been getting less interest to learn Japanese. However, due to the impact of global media, the usage of Japanese has increased and eventually this helps people to build up the leaning interest of Japanese.

In conclusion, the cultures from different countries were spread out in the past through colonialism, trade, migration, slavery, and other different ways. These countries had used the media as a tool for them to speed up the hybridization of cultures around the world.

 

word count: 423 words

Reference:

Kraidy, M. M. (2002). Globalization of Culture Through the Media. Retrieved February 13, 2014, from University of Pennsylvania, http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1333&context=asc_papers

Essay Draft 2: Singapore government is cutting down the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to fight against the global warming by set up some policies to reduce carbon emission from transportation and building sectors.

  In Goldin’s TED talk, he mentions about the climate change is one of the factors that resulted from rapid globalization. Climate change is the result of global warming that caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs) where emitted from the human activities that used to build the modern lives of today. Majority of these GHGs were emitted from the buildings around us, fossil fuels in transportations, industries and electricity generator and these GHGs have the abilities to trap the heat around the atmosphere which induced the glaciers in the North and South Poles are melting and sea levels are rising. As Singapore is a small and low-lying island that surrounded by the sea, the rise in sea level will have major effects on Singapore. According to National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) (2012), there was average increased 3mm of the sea level per year over the past 15years. Thus, Singapore government is cutting down the emission of GHGs to against the global warming by set up some policies to reduce carbon emission from transportation and building sectors.

  Singapore government has been focused on cutting down the emission of GHGs from the transportations throughout the years. According to the data of Singapore’s GHGs Emissions from NCCS (n.d.), there are about 19% of CO₂ emissions were contributed from transport in year 2005. In order to reduce the emission of CO₂, LTA had set up some policies to encourage people to take public transport. First of all, LTA managing the vehicle usage and traffic congestion by implemented the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) to discouraged people to purchase a car. Next, LTA also continue improve and promote the public transport in order to make the public transport be the first choice of mode of transport for every people. Through these solutions, LTA had reduced the CO₂ emission from the fossil fuels in transportation in an indirect way and the NCCS is expecting to reduce the CO₂ to 14.5% in 2020. Although the Singapore government managed to reduce the CO₂ by providing an efficient transport system, but there are still a number of people refused to use the public transport due to overcrowded of the MRT during peak hours. In my opinion, LTA can try to shorter the current waiting time of the train from about average 2miniutes to 30 seconds to increase the frequency of the train during peak hours. On the other hands, LTA can also collaborate with MOM and MOE to reduce the crowd of peak hours by rearrange the school and work release time to spread the peak hours more evenly.  In short, Singapore government was made public transport as one of the mode of transport for every Singaporean to reduce the CO₂ emission by the fossil fuels in transportations.

  Other than focused on cutting down the emission of GHGs from transportations, Singapore government also focused on reduce the emission of GHGs from buildings. Based on the data from NCCS (n.d.), the building sector was emitted about 16% of CO₂ in 2005. To reduce GHGs emit from the building, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) implemented the BCA Green Mark Scheme in 2005 to raise the awareness of sustainability as well as encourage the developers to develop more environmental-friendly buildings in Singapore. The Ministry of National Development (MND) provided 20 million dollars for this Green Mark, while BCA also provided some new grants to attract the developers build or upgrade more green buildings. Other than the incentive, the National Environment Agency (NEA) launched the Energy Efficiency National Partnership (EENP) programme encourage the private sectors maximize the energy efficiency to reduce the carbon emissions. With these policies, the NCCS is expecting to cut down the CO₂ emission from 16% in 2005 to 13.8% in 2020. Through these effective policies, I agreed with the expectation of NCCS that the Singapore government could achieve their goal by 2020, but from my point of view, the government could improve their policies by provide extra cash incentive as a motivation for the designers to produce new creative ideas in their designs.  

  In conclusion, the global warming issue is getting more serious and it will have major effects on Singapore. Throughout the years, Singapore government had set up many policies to reduce the carbon emission from the transportation and building sectors. Thus, this is the time for every people to working with the government to protect our environment by takes a few small steps toward energy conservation and we could have an immeasurable effect!

749 words

Reference:

National Geographic Society (1996-2014). Causes of Global Warming. Retrieved March 1, 2014, http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-causes?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=20131016_rw_membership_n1p_intl_se_w#

National Geographic Society (1996-2014). Global Warming Solutions, Retrieved March 1, 2014,  http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-solutions

National Climate Change Secretariat (2012), Projecting Singapore’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Retrieved March 1, 2014, http://app.nccs.gov.sg/nccs-2012/projecting-singapores-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html

National Climate Change Secretariat (2012), Impact of Climate Change on Singapore, Retrieved March 8, 2014, https://app.nccs.gov.sg/(S(bumm2x45rx4wgv550lqpk255))/page.aspx?pageid=160&secid=157

Building and Construction Authority (n.d.), Code on Environmental Sustainability Measures for Existing Buildings 1^st Edition. Retrieved March 8, 2014, http://www.bca.gov.sg/EnvSusLegislation/others/Code_Env_Sus_Measures_Exit_Building.pdf

National Climate Change Secretariat (n.d.), Singapore’s National Climate Change Strategy_Chapter 3: Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emission, Retrieved March 8, 2014, http://app.mewr.gov.sg/data/ImgUpd/NCCS_Chapter_3_-_Mitigation.pdf

National Climate Change Secretariat (2012), Sectoral Measures to Reduce Emission (Up to 2020). Retrieved March 8, 2014, http://app.nccs.gov.sg/nccs-2012/sectoral-measures-to-reduce-emissions-up-to-2020.html

Goldin, I. (2009). Navigating our global future. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future?language=en

Essay Outline

Question: How does the Singapore government reduce the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in Singapore to against global warming?

Thesis Statements: Singapore government has cutting down the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to fight against the global warming by improve the energy efficient usage and raise the awareness.

Introduction- problem:  The global warming issue was getting serious nowadays, which caused the glaciers in the North and South Pole were melting and the sea levels were rising. All of these global warming effects were mostly caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs) that emitted by the human activities that used to build the modern lives of today. Majority of these GHGs were emitted from the buildings around us, fossil fuels in transportations, industries and electricity generator.

Introduction- Solution: the best solution to prevent this issue getting serious is to stabilize the concentration of GHGs and Singapore government has supporting it to fight against the global warming by cutting down the emission of GHGs from building and transportations.

Body Paragraph 1- Topic Sentence: Singapore government has been focused on cutting down the emission of GHGs from the transportations throughout the years.

Body Paragraph 1- Description of the problem: According to a data from National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS), there are about 19% of CO₂ emissions were contributed from transport in year 2005.

Body Paragraph 1- Description of one existing solution:

In order to reduce the emission of CO₂, LTA was improving the energy efficiency of transport sector through varies solutions. First of all, LTA managing the vehicle usage and traffic congestion by implemented the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) to discouraged people to purchase a car. Next, LTA also continue improve and promote the public transport in order to make the public transport be the first choice of mode of transport for every people. Besides that, Singapore government also encourages people to buy green vehicles with the promotion of Green Vehicle Rebate (GVR) since 2001.

Body Paragraph 1- Evaluate the existing Solution:

Through these solutions, the Singapore government is expected to reduce the CO₂ to 14.5% in 2020. Although the Singapore government managed to reduce the CO₂ by providing an efficient transport system, but there are still a number of people refused to use the public transport due to overcrowded of the MRT during peak hours.

Body Paragraph 1- improvement on existing solution:

In my opinion, LTA can try to shorter the current waiting time of the train from about average 2miniutes to 30 seconds to increase the frequency of the train during peak hours. On the other hands, LTA can also collaborate with MOM and MOE to reduce the crowd of peak hours to attract more people to take public transport. For example, MOE can release the students from school at 5PM so that can reduce the overcrowded situation during peak hours.

Conclusion:

Problem: the global warming issue is getting more serious and many governments from different countries are started working hard to reduce carbon emission from their own country and this included Singapore government.

Solution: Throughout the years, Singapore government had work out many solutions to reduce the carbon emission from the transportation and building sectors.

Call to action: Thus, this is the time for every people to working with the government to protect our environment by response the call from Singapore government.

Reference:

National Geographic Society (1996-2014). Causes of Global Warming. Retrieved March 1, 2014, http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-causes?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=20131016_rw_membership_n1p_intl_se_w#

National Geographic Society (1996-2014). Global Warming Solutions, Retrieved March 1, 2014,  http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-solutions

National Climate Change Secretariat (2012), Projecting Singapore’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Retrieved March 1, 2014, http://app.nccs.gov.sg/nccs-2012/projecting-singapores-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html