I have been studying in Singapore for about 2 years as an international student from China. I did not have a conducive English learning environment when I was in China so that fluent and native writing and oral skills are my major weaknesses. After the QET result came out, I had to take ES1102 in order to fulfill the prerequisite for my other English modules. During the course, we were assigned to finish three essays of different types and difficulty levels, which includes self-experience, reader response and problem evaluation.
Moreover, the tutor organized us to share our ideas in group or in front of the whole class. The essay writing process was quite meaningful and well-structured, during which we brainstormed ideas from discussions and reading materials, came up with drafts, experiences peer evaluation as well as conference consultation and finalized our essay after editing. To be honest, I am really grateful to those experiences since it did help a lot in my English skills ans provide a good chance to learn from others. I have learnt how to develop my essay and reference, being more sensitive and alert to my grammar mistakes. I am more comfortable and confident to pick up my pen and write out several hundreds words now. Regarding the tutor Brad, he is quite responsible and helpful in any questions and problems I have.
After this course , I have found out many areas I need to improve in, such as presenting a clear idea flow and thesis in my essays, trying to search for more references to support my opinions and watching out the accuracy of words and tenses used. I will try to prepare myself better for my next English learning stage through watching more TED talks and getting more essay-writing practices. More importantly, I should be honest to my mistakes and ask for suggestions actively. In this way, my progress would be more efficient and effective.
2014年4月17日星期四
2014年4月16日星期三
Should presenting be added as an official component in ES1102?
My answer to this question is definitely YES!It is because writing skills and presentation skills are definitely different but rather relevant to our university life as well as our future careers.
During the class, Brad provided a lot of chances for us to experience group discussions followed by class participation. I think it useful to encourage us to brainstorm for ideas and easing our nervousness when speaking in front of a group of people. Moreover, the session of presentation taught me a meaningful lesson on how to deliver a formal and interesting presentation rather than a boring and academic-oriented one. Both the language used and the body gestures matter a lot. Moreover, peer evaluation is a direct and effective way to get feedbacks especially in improvements.
ES1102 is a module aiming to prepare ourselves well in the later academic English application in different modules. Hence, the course structure should include the English skills in different areas and of different levels. Presentation is no doubt on the top of the list.
During the class, Brad provided a lot of chances for us to experience group discussions followed by class participation. I think it useful to encourage us to brainstorm for ideas and easing our nervousness when speaking in front of a group of people. Moreover, the session of presentation taught me a meaningful lesson on how to deliver a formal and interesting presentation rather than a boring and academic-oriented one. Both the language used and the body gestures matter a lot. Moreover, peer evaluation is a direct and effective way to get feedbacks especially in improvements.
ES1102 is a module aiming to prepare ourselves well in the later academic English application in different modules. Hence, the course structure should include the English skills in different areas and of different levels. Presentation is no doubt on the top of the list.
2014年3月26日星期三
Influences Brought by Foreign Manpower on Locals in Singapore (Final )
According to the TED talk by Goldin(2009), the globalization encourages more and more developed countries to seek foreign talents and manpowers of various ranges and in different areas to help them grow and drive innovation. In this global trend, Singapore is no doubt one of the most popular countries which welcome and attract inflows of foreign manpower. Each government wants to explore the advantages of foreign manpower to the fullest. In my opinion, the inflows can bring more benefits than adverse effects on Singaporeans in the long run under closed attention paid by government. The Singapore government should take the responsibility to implement feasible as well as flexible policies to supervise the inflow.
To analyse this issue, we should first have a clear idea about the reason why Singapore is an ideal destination for foreign workers, meanwhile, how much Singapore government needs from foreign manpowers.For the former ,Singapore is regarded as a free global market with one of the busiest port and world-class infrastructure. Many appreciate the meritocracy policy insisted by government a lot since such fair competition environment is beneficial for the development of individual talents. Moreover, the low rate of corruption makes Singapore outstanding among its competitors. As for Singapore itself, baby blues (people do not want to have babies) tend to be aggravated, adding the fact that Singapore has limited lands and resources.To alleviate these problems, Singapore is focusing on strengthening human capital, which includes embracing the foreign talents.
Regarding the influences brought by foreign manpower on locals, economic boost is one which can be easily observed, thanks to the increasing productivity with the help from the foreign manpower. However, this may also result in the vicious cycle that local citizens do not bother to take low end jobs due to low pay. In contrast, companies tend to be more pleased to hire foreign labourers because they can bring down the salaries as they like.Furthermore, more intensive and cruel competition for limited opportunities is likely to appear. Under such great pressure, more and more local talents are considering going abroad for job seeking, causing serious brain drain.
Culturally speaking, a working environment involved with colleagues from different backgrounds tends to equip the company with strong and integrated soft powers when developing into a multinational corporation. Nevertheless, racial discrimination as well as inequality are likely to form due to misunderstanding and political issues. This will definitely harm the the relationship among colleagues even the performance of the whole company. According to Goldin(2009), the steady increase in imported manpower is also very likely to cause immigration problem as well as social ones regarding pension and retirement.
In order to maintain the social and economic order and stability, Singapore Ministry of Manpower has introduced Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. It has received fairly good feedbacks from the society for it has effectively protected the common good. Many policies are included such as setting a quota of incoming foreign manpower and imposing high-salary levies. One recent amendment to the act is "Establishing administrative penalty regime" in order to discourage criminal prosecutions such as illegal import of foreign labourers, misdeclaration of cost on hiring foreign workers and exploiting the work pass framework for financial gain.The aim of this act is to help local employees gain back their employment chances and protect their rights by law.
I think it a wise choice to settle the problems under the law.No one is above the law. By prescribing the responsibilities and obligations pertaining to the employment of foreign workers, both the companies and the employees will have a guideline to follow, making the process more well-ordered. Besides, in order to come up with a long term and efficient regulation, the government should take steps to make amendments according to the status quo and social needs.Meanwhile, public consultation is a necessity to update the public and the government itself from the public.
Apart from the act being implemented, Singapore government is also dedicated to integrating the local employees better by organizing the class for teaching them necessary skills like operating computer software so as to increase their competitiveness and productivity for meeting demands of present job markets. From my perspective, this is a reflection of sense of responsibility of the government to be thoughtful and facilitate its citizens in different area in the aim of ensuring that everyone is involved in a fair play.This also effectively brings the hearts of the populace closer to the government and avoid more complains,which is convenient for implementing government actions in other areas.
Last but not least, I suggest Singapore government should let the employers in the private sector speak up for the freedom of their foreign workers.The legal rights of foreigners working in Singapore should be guaranteed.Thus, Singapore can remain attractive, resulting in the improvement in the quality of foreign talents.
To conclude ,this phenomenon tends to be a double-edge sword. I want to once again state my point of view that importing foreign manpower can bring benefits to Singapore's long-term interests overall. In order to make it benefit as many people as possible, government intervention is rather important.
Reference:
Goldin, I. (2009). Navigating our global future.Retrieved March 2, 2014 from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html
To analyse this issue, we should first have a clear idea about the reason why Singapore is an ideal destination for foreign workers, meanwhile, how much Singapore government needs from foreign manpowers.For the former ,Singapore is regarded as a free global market with one of the busiest port and world-class infrastructure. Many appreciate the meritocracy policy insisted by government a lot since such fair competition environment is beneficial for the development of individual talents. Moreover, the low rate of corruption makes Singapore outstanding among its competitors. As for Singapore itself, baby blues (people do not want to have babies) tend to be aggravated, adding the fact that Singapore has limited lands and resources.To alleviate these problems, Singapore is focusing on strengthening human capital, which includes embracing the foreign talents.
Regarding the influences brought by foreign manpower on locals, economic boost is one which can be easily observed, thanks to the increasing productivity with the help from the foreign manpower. However, this may also result in the vicious cycle that local citizens do not bother to take low end jobs due to low pay. In contrast, companies tend to be more pleased to hire foreign labourers because they can bring down the salaries as they like.Furthermore, more intensive and cruel competition for limited opportunities is likely to appear. Under such great pressure, more and more local talents are considering going abroad for job seeking, causing serious brain drain.
Culturally speaking, a working environment involved with colleagues from different backgrounds tends to equip the company with strong and integrated soft powers when developing into a multinational corporation. Nevertheless, racial discrimination as well as inequality are likely to form due to misunderstanding and political issues. This will definitely harm the the relationship among colleagues even the performance of the whole company. According to Goldin(2009), the steady increase in imported manpower is also very likely to cause immigration problem as well as social ones regarding pension and retirement.
In order to maintain the social and economic order and stability, Singapore Ministry of Manpower has introduced Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. It has received fairly good feedbacks from the society for it has effectively protected the common good. Many policies are included such as setting a quota of incoming foreign manpower and imposing high-salary levies. One recent amendment to the act is "Establishing administrative penalty regime" in order to discourage criminal prosecutions such as illegal import of foreign labourers, misdeclaration of cost on hiring foreign workers and exploiting the work pass framework for financial gain.The aim of this act is to help local employees gain back their employment chances and protect their rights by law.
I think it a wise choice to settle the problems under the law.No one is above the law. By prescribing the responsibilities and obligations pertaining to the employment of foreign workers, both the companies and the employees will have a guideline to follow, making the process more well-ordered. Besides, in order to come up with a long term and efficient regulation, the government should take steps to make amendments according to the status quo and social needs.Meanwhile, public consultation is a necessity to update the public and the government itself from the public.
Apart from the act being implemented, Singapore government is also dedicated to integrating the local employees better by organizing the class for teaching them necessary skills like operating computer software so as to increase their competitiveness and productivity for meeting demands of present job markets. From my perspective, this is a reflection of sense of responsibility of the government to be thoughtful and facilitate its citizens in different area in the aim of ensuring that everyone is involved in a fair play.This also effectively brings the hearts of the populace closer to the government and avoid more complains,which is convenient for implementing government actions in other areas.
Last but not least, I suggest Singapore government should let the employers in the private sector speak up for the freedom of their foreign workers.The legal rights of foreigners working in Singapore should be guaranteed.Thus, Singapore can remain attractive, resulting in the improvement in the quality of foreign talents.
To conclude ,this phenomenon tends to be a double-edge sword. I want to once again state my point of view that importing foreign manpower can bring benefits to Singapore's long-term interests overall. In order to make it benefit as many people as possible, government intervention is rather important.
Reference:
Goldin, I. (2009). Navigating our global future.Retrieved March 2, 2014 from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html
2014年3月10日星期一
Influences brought by foreign manpowers on locals in Singapore (Draft 2 )
According to the TED talk by Goldin(2009), the globalization encourages more and more developed countries to seek foreign talents and manpowers of various ranges and in different areas to help them grow and drive innovation. In this global trend, Singapore is no doubt one of the most popular countries which welcome and attract inflows of foreign manpowers. Each government wants to exploit the advantages of foreign manpowers to the full. My stand is that the inflows can bring more benefits than adverse effects on Singaporeans in the long run under closed attention paid by government. Singapore government should take the responsibility to implement feasible as well as flexible policies to supervise the inflows.
To analyse this issue, we should first have a clear idea about the reason why Singapore is an ideal destination for foreign labours, on the other hand, how much Singapore government needs from foreign manpowers.For the former ,Singapore is regarded as a free global market with one of the busiest port and world-class infrastructure. A majority of foreigners appreciate the meritocracy policy insisted by government a lot since such a faire competition environment is beneficial for the development of individual talents. Moreover, the low rate of corruption makes Singapore outstanding among its competitors. As for Singapore itself, the baby blues tend to aggravate, adding the facts that Singapore has limited lands and resources.To alleviate these problems, Singapore is focusing on strengthening human capital, which including embracing the foreign talents.
Speaking of the influences brought by foreign manpowers on locals, economy boost is one which can be easily observed, thanks to the increasing productivity with the help from the foreign workers. However, this may also result in the vicious cycle that local citizens do not bother to take low end jobs due to low pay. In contrast, companies tend to be more pleased to hire foreign labours because they can bring down the salaries as they like.Furthermore, more intensive and cruel competitions for limited opportunities are likely to appear. Under such great pressure, more and more local talents are considering going abroad for job seeking, causing serious brain drain.
Culturally speaking, a working environment involved with colleagues from different backgrounds tends to have a more international culture, which can equip the company with strong and integrated soft powers when developing into a multinational corporation. Nevertheless, racial discrimination as well as inequality are likely to form due to misunderstanding and political issues. This will definitely harm the the relationship among colleagues even the performance of the whole company. Wong,D.(1999) once mentioned that the questions raised by Filipina migrations into domestic waged labours in Singapore especially originate from the feeling of being oppressed and discriminated by the labours. According to Goldin(2009), the steady increase in imported manpowers is also very likely to cause immigration problem as well as social ones regarding pension and retirement.
In order to maintain the social and economic order and stability, Singapore Ministry of Manpower, has introduced Employment of Foreign Manpowers Act. It has received fairly good feedbacks from the society. Many policies are included such as setting a quota of incoming foreign manpowers and imposing high-salary levies. One recent amendment towards the act is "Establish administrative penalty regime" in order to discourage criminal prosecutions such as illegal import of foreign labours, misdeclaration of cost on hiring foreign manpowers and exploiting the work pass framework for financial gaining.The aim of this act is to help local employees gain back their employment chances and protect their rights by law. I think it a wise choice to settle the problems under the law.No one is above the law. By prescribing the responsibilities and obligations pertaining to the employment of foreign workers, both the companies and the employers will have a guideline to follow, making the process more well-ordered. To come up with a long term and efficient regulation, the government should take steps to make amendments according to the status quo and social needs.Meanwhile, public consultation is a necessity to update the public and the government itself from the public.
Apart from the act implemented, Singapore government is also dedicated to integrating the local employees better by organizing the class for teaching them necessary skills like operating computer softwares so as to increase their competitiveness and productivity for meeting demands of present job markets. From my perspective, this is a reflection of sense of responsibility of the government to be thoughtful and facilitate its citizens in different area in the aim of ensuring that everyone is involved in a fair play.This also effectively bring the hearts of the populace closed to the government and avoid more complains,which is convenient for implementing government actions in other areas.
Last but not least, I suggest Singapore government should let the employers of private sectors speak up for the freedom of their foreign workers.The legal rights of foreigners working in Singapore should be guaranteed.Thus, Singapore can keep attractive, resulting in the improvement in the quality of foreign talents.
To conclude ,This phenomenon tends to be a double-edge sword. I want to once again state my point of view that importing foreign manpowers can bring benefits to Singapore's long-term interests overall.Meanwhile, government intervention is rather important.
References:
1.Wong,D.(1999).Asian and Pacific Migration Journal.
2. Goldin, I. (2009,July). Navigating our global future.Retrieved
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html
To analyse this issue, we should first have a clear idea about the reason why Singapore is an ideal destination for foreign labours, on the other hand, how much Singapore government needs from foreign manpowers.For the former ,Singapore is regarded as a free global market with one of the busiest port and world-class infrastructure. A majority of foreigners appreciate the meritocracy policy insisted by government a lot since such a faire competition environment is beneficial for the development of individual talents. Moreover, the low rate of corruption makes Singapore outstanding among its competitors. As for Singapore itself, the baby blues tend to aggravate, adding the facts that Singapore has limited lands and resources.To alleviate these problems, Singapore is focusing on strengthening human capital, which including embracing the foreign talents.
Speaking of the influences brought by foreign manpowers on locals, economy boost is one which can be easily observed, thanks to the increasing productivity with the help from the foreign workers. However, this may also result in the vicious cycle that local citizens do not bother to take low end jobs due to low pay. In contrast, companies tend to be more pleased to hire foreign labours because they can bring down the salaries as they like.Furthermore, more intensive and cruel competitions for limited opportunities are likely to appear. Under such great pressure, more and more local talents are considering going abroad for job seeking, causing serious brain drain.
Culturally speaking, a working environment involved with colleagues from different backgrounds tends to have a more international culture, which can equip the company with strong and integrated soft powers when developing into a multinational corporation. Nevertheless, racial discrimination as well as inequality are likely to form due to misunderstanding and political issues. This will definitely harm the the relationship among colleagues even the performance of the whole company. Wong,D.(1999) once mentioned that the questions raised by Filipina migrations into domestic waged labours in Singapore especially originate from the feeling of being oppressed and discriminated by the labours. According to Goldin(2009), the steady increase in imported manpowers is also very likely to cause immigration problem as well as social ones regarding pension and retirement.
In order to maintain the social and economic order and stability, Singapore Ministry of Manpower, has introduced Employment of Foreign Manpowers Act. It has received fairly good feedbacks from the society. Many policies are included such as setting a quota of incoming foreign manpowers and imposing high-salary levies. One recent amendment towards the act is "Establish administrative penalty regime" in order to discourage criminal prosecutions such as illegal import of foreign labours, misdeclaration of cost on hiring foreign manpowers and exploiting the work pass framework for financial gaining.The aim of this act is to help local employees gain back their employment chances and protect their rights by law. I think it a wise choice to settle the problems under the law.No one is above the law. By prescribing the responsibilities and obligations pertaining to the employment of foreign workers, both the companies and the employers will have a guideline to follow, making the process more well-ordered. To come up with a long term and efficient regulation, the government should take steps to make amendments according to the status quo and social needs.Meanwhile, public consultation is a necessity to update the public and the government itself from the public.
Apart from the act implemented, Singapore government is also dedicated to integrating the local employees better by organizing the class for teaching them necessary skills like operating computer softwares so as to increase their competitiveness and productivity for meeting demands of present job markets. From my perspective, this is a reflection of sense of responsibility of the government to be thoughtful and facilitate its citizens in different area in the aim of ensuring that everyone is involved in a fair play.This also effectively bring the hearts of the populace closed to the government and avoid more complains,which is convenient for implementing government actions in other areas.
Last but not least, I suggest Singapore government should let the employers of private sectors speak up for the freedom of their foreign workers.The legal rights of foreigners working in Singapore should be guaranteed.Thus, Singapore can keep attractive, resulting in the improvement in the quality of foreign talents.
To conclude ,This phenomenon tends to be a double-edge sword. I want to once again state my point of view that importing foreign manpowers can bring benefits to Singapore's long-term interests overall.Meanwhile, government intervention is rather important.
References:
1.Wong,D.(1999).Asian and Pacific Migration Journal.
2. Goldin, I. (2009,July). Navigating our global future.Retrieved
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html
2014年3月2日星期日
Influences brought by foreign manpowers in Singapore (Draft 1)
According to the TED talk by Goldin(2009), the globalization encourages more and more developed countries to seek foreign talents and manpowers of various ranges and in different areas to help them grow and drive innovation. In this global trend, Singapore is no doubt one of the most popular countries which welcome and attract inflows of foreign manpowers. Each government wants to exploit the advantages of foreign manpowers to the full. My stand is that the inflows can bring more benefits than adverse effects on Singaporeans in the long run under closed attention paid by government. Singapore government should take the responsibility to implement feasible as well as flexible policies to supervise the inflows.
To analyse this issue, we should first have a clear idea about the reason why Singapore is an ideal destination for foreign labours, on the other hand, how much Singapore government needs from foreign manpowers.For the former ,Singapore is regarded as a free global market with one of the busiest port and world-class infrastructure. A majority of foreigners appreciate the meritocracy policy insisted by government a lot since such a faire competition environment is beneficial for the development of individual talents. Moreover, the low rate of corruption makes Singapore outstanding among its competitors. As for Singapore itself, the baby blues tend to aggravate, adding the facts that Singapore has limited lands and resources.To alleviate these problems, Singapore is focusing on strengthening human capital, which including embracing the foreign talents.
Speaking of the influences brought by foreign manpowers on locals, economy boost is one which can be easily observed, thanks to the increasing productivity with the help from the foreign workers. However, this may also result in the vicious cycle that local citizens do not bother to take low end jobs due to low pay. In contrast, companies tend to be more pleased to hire foreign labours because they can bring down the salaries as they like.Furthermore, more intensive and cruel competitions for limited opportunities are likely to appear. Under such great pressure, more and more local talents are considering going abroad for job seeking, causing serious brain drain.
Culturally speaking, a working environment involved with colleagues from different backgrounds tends to have a more international culture, which can equip the company with strong and integrated soft powers when developing into a multinational corporation. Nevertheless, racial discrimination as well as inequality are likely to form due to misunderstanding and political issues. This will definitely harm the the relationship among colleagues even the performance of the whole company. Wong,D.(1999) once mentioned that the questions raised by Filipina migrations into domestic waged labours in Singapore especially originate from the feeling of being oppressed and discriminated by the labours. According to Goldin(2009), the steady increase in imported manpowers is also very likely to cause immigration problem as well as social ones regarding pension and retirement.
In order to maintain the social and economic order and stability, Singapore Ministry of Manpower, has introduced Employment of Foreign Manpowers Act. It has received fairly good feedbacks from the society. Many policies are included such as setting a quota of incoming foreign manpowers and imposing high-salary levies. One recent amendment towards the act is "Establish administrative penalty regime" in order to discourage criminal prosecutions such as illegal import of foreign labours, misdeclaration of cost on hiring foreign manpowers and exploiting the work pass framework for financial gaining.The aim of this act is to help local employees gain back their employment chances and protect their rights by law. I think it a wise choice to settle the problems under the law.No one is above the law. By prescribing the responsibilities and obligations pertaining to the employment of foreign workers, both the companies and the employers will have a guideline to follow, making the process more well-ordered. To come up with a long term and efficient regulation, the government should take steps to make amendments according to the status quo and social needs.Meanwhile, public consultation is a necessity to update the public and the government itself from the public.
Apart from the act implemented, Singapore government is also dedicated to integrating the local employees better by organizing the class for teaching them necessary skills like operating computer softwares so as to increase their competitiveness and productivity for meeting demands of present job markets. From my perspective, this is a reflection of sense of responsibility of the government to be thoughtful and facilitate its citizens in different area in the aim of ensuring that everyone is involved in a fair play.This also effectively bring the hearts of the populace closed to the government and avoid more complains,which is convenient for implementing government actions in other areas.
Last but not least, I suggest Singapore government should let the employers of private sectors speak up for the freedom of their foreign workers.The legal rights of foreigners working in Singapore should be guaranteed.Thus, Singapore can keep attractive, resulting in the improvement in the quality of foreign talents.
To conclude ,This phenomenon tends to be a double-edge sword. I want to once again state my point of view that importing foreign manpowers can bring benefits to Singapore's long-term interests overall.Meanwhile, government intervention is rather important.
References:
1.Wong,D.(1999).Asian and Pacific Migration Journal.
2. Goldin, I. (2009,July). Navigating our global future.Retrieved
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html
To analyse this issue, we should first have a clear idea about the reason why Singapore is an ideal destination for foreign labours, on the other hand, how much Singapore government needs from foreign manpowers.For the former ,Singapore is regarded as a free global market with one of the busiest port and world-class infrastructure. A majority of foreigners appreciate the meritocracy policy insisted by government a lot since such a faire competition environment is beneficial for the development of individual talents. Moreover, the low rate of corruption makes Singapore outstanding among its competitors. As for Singapore itself, the baby blues tend to aggravate, adding the facts that Singapore has limited lands and resources.To alleviate these problems, Singapore is focusing on strengthening human capital, which including embracing the foreign talents.
Speaking of the influences brought by foreign manpowers on locals, economy boost is one which can be easily observed, thanks to the increasing productivity with the help from the foreign workers. However, this may also result in the vicious cycle that local citizens do not bother to take low end jobs due to low pay. In contrast, companies tend to be more pleased to hire foreign labours because they can bring down the salaries as they like.Furthermore, more intensive and cruel competitions for limited opportunities are likely to appear. Under such great pressure, more and more local talents are considering going abroad for job seeking, causing serious brain drain.
Culturally speaking, a working environment involved with colleagues from different backgrounds tends to have a more international culture, which can equip the company with strong and integrated soft powers when developing into a multinational corporation. Nevertheless, racial discrimination as well as inequality are likely to form due to misunderstanding and political issues. This will definitely harm the the relationship among colleagues even the performance of the whole company. Wong,D.(1999) once mentioned that the questions raised by Filipina migrations into domestic waged labours in Singapore especially originate from the feeling of being oppressed and discriminated by the labours. According to Goldin(2009), the steady increase in imported manpowers is also very likely to cause immigration problem as well as social ones regarding pension and retirement.
In order to maintain the social and economic order and stability, Singapore Ministry of Manpower, has introduced Employment of Foreign Manpowers Act. It has received fairly good feedbacks from the society. Many policies are included such as setting a quota of incoming foreign manpowers and imposing high-salary levies. One recent amendment towards the act is "Establish administrative penalty regime" in order to discourage criminal prosecutions such as illegal import of foreign labours, misdeclaration of cost on hiring foreign manpowers and exploiting the work pass framework for financial gaining.The aim of this act is to help local employees gain back their employment chances and protect their rights by law. I think it a wise choice to settle the problems under the law.No one is above the law. By prescribing the responsibilities and obligations pertaining to the employment of foreign workers, both the companies and the employers will have a guideline to follow, making the process more well-ordered. To come up with a long term and efficient regulation, the government should take steps to make amendments according to the status quo and social needs.Meanwhile, public consultation is a necessity to update the public and the government itself from the public.
Apart from the act implemented, Singapore government is also dedicated to integrating the local employees better by organizing the class for teaching them necessary skills like operating computer softwares so as to increase their competitiveness and productivity for meeting demands of present job markets. From my perspective, this is a reflection of sense of responsibility of the government to be thoughtful and facilitate its citizens in different area in the aim of ensuring that everyone is involved in a fair play.This also effectively bring the hearts of the populace closed to the government and avoid more complains,which is convenient for implementing government actions in other areas.
Last but not least, I suggest Singapore government should let the employers of private sectors speak up for the freedom of their foreign workers.The legal rights of foreigners working in Singapore should be guaranteed.Thus, Singapore can keep attractive, resulting in the improvement in the quality of foreign talents.
To conclude ,This phenomenon tends to be a double-edge sword. I want to once again state my point of view that importing foreign manpowers can bring benefits to Singapore's long-term interests overall.Meanwhile, government intervention is rather important.
References:
1.Wong,D.(1999).Asian and Pacific Migration Journal.
2. Goldin, I. (2009,July). Navigating our global future.Retrieved
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html
2014年2月27日星期四
Influences brought by foreign manpowers on local manpowers in Singapore(Outline)
Introduction
- In this contemporary global village,Singapore is no doubt one of the most popular countries which welcome and attract inflow of foreign manpowers.Inflows of foreign powers is a double-edge sword. Each government wants to exploit the advantages of foreign manpowers to the full.
- Definition of foreign manpowers--imported labours or talents working in another nation or region other than their motherland
- Why Singapore is attractive to foreign manpowers?(open door policies-global business centre -good infrastructure-Meritocracy-incentives for entrepreneurship-low rate of corruption)
- Why does Singapore government embrace foreign manpowers?(limited resources-small size-low birth rate)
- My stand :Inflow of foreign manpowers can bring more benefits in the long run under closed attention paid by government .Government should implement flexible policies to supervise the inflow.
Economically,
- (Positive)foreign manpowers help boost economic growth;more productivity
- (Negative)brain drain due to higher competition; local citizens do not bother to take low end jobs with deceasing payment due to import of cheap labours
Culturally ,
- (Positive)form a variety of different cultures; international working environment
- (Negative)discrimination ;inequality
- Singapore Government has implemented policies such as Act of Employment of Foreign Powers,including set the quota for imported manpowers ,improving productivity(eg: provide training lessons);high salary levy
- Evaluation: Singapore government is working on an optimistic direction. In this way, it can help improve the quality of local manpowers and control the complains from the local manpowers while preventing unnecessary inflow .Furthermore,the effectiveness of the rules depends on how wide and how long they are enforced .Singapore government should also let the private trade owners speak up for the freedom for their workers's legal rights and encourage entrepreneurship & private sectors to generate more profits,hence more jobs can be created .
- My opinion : Import manpowers is beneficial in a long run ; Government intervention is rather important to help stablize the whole society .
2014年2月18日星期二
Reader Response Draft 2
In the article Globalization of Culture Through the Media(2002) ,Kraidy mentions that a common view that cultural globalization is mainly contributed to the powerful influence of the mass media and that has also caused wide debates. Cultural imperialism rooted in political power underwent an earlier stage of prejudice against developing countries ,followed by a commercialization of cultures worldwide.The shift from Cultural imperialism to globalization conveys the limitations of the former.However ,Kraidy thinks that it is still useful in the long run.The relationship between globalization of culture and mass media is hard to answer.International communication through media and technology gets different cultures more involved and intensifies the hybridization,rather than leading to homogenization.Thus, globalization of culture through the media can be regarded as “the coexist of cohesion and fragmentation”.
In the latter part of the article,Kraidy mentions culture hybridization as another perception on globalization.Kraidy also brings in the idea from Hybrid Cultures,Garcia- Candini(1995) to support his agreement that the wide and rapid cultural infiltration is resulted in cultural hybridization.I think it a vital phenomenon caused by globalization under mass media and technology.We ,as the citizens living in the global village can benefit from the vivid and harmonious coexist of a variety of cultures.More importantly,the new generated cultures carry forward better without losing old and authentic tastes.
Various examples can be cited to prove the fast development of cultural hybridization such as one of the best-selling cartoon made by Dreamworks,Kongfu Panda.It is a quite successful example to show how Chinese Kongfu and panda affect the Western cultures in movie making industry .On the other hand , audience may also get a different angle of view on Chinese traditional cultures by following the inspiration of the Western film makers.Another stark instance is the latest sequel of “007” which is shot mostly under the backgrounds of Macao and Shanghai,reflecting a strong and fresh feeling of culture interface .
In this way, by watching them, audience will not get bored towards monotone special effects and story lines since we can have more excitement from combination of wisdom of different cultures,thanks to globalization.
Hence, I agree on Kraidy’s view on cultural hybridization to a large extent. Under hybridization , we can expect optimistically about the variety of culture development .Moreover, newly-generated cultures can be stimulated to develop by integrating differing ones.Thus, with the help of transnational media and technology,both the local and traditional cultures can be conserved better.
（Word count :408）
（Word count :408）
2014年2月15日星期六
Reader Response Draft 1
In the article Globalization of Culture Through the Media(2002),Kraidy mentions that a common view that cultural globalization is mainly contributed to the powerful influence of the mass media and that has also caused wide debates. Cultural imperialism rooted in political power underwent an earlier stage of prejudice against developing countries ,followed by a commercialization of cultures worldwide.The shift from Cultural imperialism to globalization conveys the limitations of the former.However ,Kraidy thinks it is still useful.The relationship between globalization of culture and mass media is hard to answer.International communication through media and technology gets different cultures more involved and intensifies the hybridization.Thus, globalization of culture through the media is assumed to be the coexist of cohesion and fragmentation.
In the latter part of the article,Kraidy mentions culture hybridization as another perception on globalization.Kraidy also brings in the idea from Garcia- Candini to support his agreement that the wide and rapid cultural infiltration is resulted in cultural hybridization.I think it a vital phenomenon caused by globalization under mass media and technology.We ,as the citizens living in the global village can benefit from the vivid and harmonious coexist of a variety of cultures.More importantly,the new generated cultures carry forward better without losing old and authentic tastes.
Various examples can be cited such as one of the best-sellers cartoon made by Dreamworks,Kongfu Panda.It is a quite successful example to show how Chinese Kongfu and panda affect the Western cultures in movie making industry .On the other hand , audience may also get a different stand of view on Chinese traditional cultures by following the inspiration of the film makers.Another stark instance is the latest sequel of “007” which is shot mostly under the backgrounds of Macao and Shanghai,reflecting a strong and fresh feeling of culture interface .
In this way, by watching them, audience will not get bored towards monotone special effects and story lines since we can have more excitement from combination of wisdom of different cultures,thanks to globalization.
Hence, cultural hybridization can stimulate the newly-generated cultures to develop by integrate differing ones.Meanwhile, with the help of transnational median,the local and traditional cultures can be conserved better.
2014年2月12日星期三
Summary on Globalization of Cultureand Through the Media
In the article Globalization of Culture Through the Media(2002),Kraidy mentions that a common view that cultural globalization is mainly contributed to the powerful influence of the mass media has also caused wide debates. (Cultural imperialism rooted in political power underwent an earlier stage of prejudice against developing countries ,followed by a commercialization of cultures worldwide.)The shift from Cultural imperialism to globalization conveys the limitations of the former.However ,Kraidy thinks it is still useful.The relationship between globalization of culture and mass media is hard to answer.International communication through media and technology gets different cultures more involved and intensifies the hybridization.Thus, globalization of culture through the media is assumed to be the coexist of cohesion and fragmentation.
2014年2月4日星期二
Practice Makes Perfect
Every time people ask me about one of the most unforgettable events happened in my life, I will always recall that experience during which I learnt a life-changing lesson.
I was once very nervous and timid to deliver any talks.For a daily presentation , even just reading the script in my hands was challenging for me .Thus, I could only admire those glib talkers on the stage , shining with their pearlescent radiance.
When I was doing my Junior high,I was surprisingly sent on a task to be the representative of all the volunteers of our school to speak out in front of all the teachers and students in the school at one morning assembly.I tried my best to persuade and push myself to take this challenge even though how eagerly I did not want to make fun of myself in front of the whole school.Following the school instructions ,I drafted a speech script and revised numerous times with the aids of my parents and teachers.More crucially ,I did rehearsals repeatedly in front of different groups of people.Each time ,I asked for their advice for improvements.Besides,I was also grateful for their encouragement. During the whole precess,it was quite surprising to me that I could control myself to stay calm other than feeling nervous ,meanwhile,getting myself into the contents as well as the emotions I wanted to express.
Finally,the result came out to be a pleasant one on that day.I received a lot of positive feedback regarding my performance as well as the appreciation towards the efforts paid by us volunteers.
This experience teaches me whenever we encounter with any challenges,the biggest obstacle we should overcome is surmounting ourselves.Otherwise,with this most threatening enemy ,we would never be able to move forward.
Not surprisingly,I became more confident after this experience.As a result,I am now more willing to challenge myself!(308 words)
When I was doing my Junior high,I was surprisingly sent on a task to be the representative of all the volunteers of our school to speak out in front of all the teachers and students in the school at one morning assembly.I tried my best to persuade and push myself to take this challenge even though how eagerly I did not want to make fun of myself in front of the whole school.Following the school instructions ,I drafted a speech script and revised numerous times with the aids of my parents and teachers.More crucially ,I did rehearsals repeatedly in front of different groups of people.Each time ,I asked for their advice for improvements.Besides,I was also grateful for their encouragement. During the whole precess,it was quite surprising to me that I could control myself to stay calm other than feeling nervous ,meanwhile,getting myself into the contents as well as the emotions I wanted to express.
Finally,the result came out to be a pleasant one on that day.I received a lot of positive feedback regarding my performance as well as the appreciation towards the efforts paid by us volunteers.
This experience teaches me whenever we encounter with any challenges,the biggest obstacle we should overcome is surmounting ourselves.Otherwise,with this most threatening enemy ,we would never be able to move forward.
Not surprisingly,I became more confident after this experience.As a result,I am now more willing to challenge myself!(308 words)
2014年1月22日星期三
My English Language Learning Journey
I embarked on my discovery journey into the fancy world of English when I was in the final year during my kindergarten. I can still remember the feeling of being attracted to the magical combinations of 26 letters.
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