Day 14: APPG test 1 preparation and Traditional Chinese Philosophy and Etiquette lesson.

Today morning have APPG, going through past year test papers. In the afternoon, we have Chinese class and it’s about Traditional Chinese Philosophy and Etiquette.

I learn about a famous Chinese philosopher, Kong Zi (Confucius). His philosophy is called “ru jia si xiang”. He was also the first person in the world who teaches a group of children. Before that they only have 1 teacher teaching 1 student. I learn from him you must be “ren” (kind). From the Chinese word it shows a person and two. Which means must live happily with others. Also thought about “li” (manners), “ci xu” (order) and many more.

Then I learn about Zhuang Zi. His philosophy is called “dao jia si xiang”. I learn from him that live with freedom, “sheng ming zi you” (life freedom). He teaches other by using stories. He also said “don’t draw a gap when there is no gap”, “don’t draw alive from dead”, “don’t look yourself from others”, “you must have confidence towards yourself” and “no need to envy other people, everyone has their own life”.

I also learn about Chinese Traditional Manners. I learn 5 manners, which is what to do when you meet with each other, when you walk, when you sit, when you eat and during festival.

For what to do when we meet each other, we must our hand together with right hand clench your fist and left hand covering it.

For what to do when you walk, the elderly or the chief must be in front while the rest should be slightly behind him. Then when opening the door, the elderly or the chief shouldn’t do it.

For what to do when you sit, you shouldn’t shake your leg and sit sloppily. It’s like you are shaking off your wealth. It is also doesn’t look pleasant and you will get irritated. Foot must be flat on ground and body straight up.

For what to do when you eat, when some pour tea for you, you can just knock 3 times on the table with 3 fingers. Not to point with chopsticks. When using chopsticks, index finger shouldn’t be pointing out. Don’t be choosy when choosing your food in the dish, especially using your chopsticks. Lastly, do not stick your chopsticks into a bowl of rice or any food. As it symbolizes that you are giving offering to the spirits.

For what to do during festival, you must give best wishes especially to elderly.

At the end of the class, I ask Lee Min to help ask the teacher the slides a video about Chinese Calligraphy as I think it was really interesting and the teacher seems happy about it.

Then at night we have Roll Call, today also we get to know who our encourager was. So I found out that my encourager is Eugene. 

So this time we get to choose again for our next encourage. 

Who did I get? End of 2 weeks will be reveal.