Well, sorry for the previous SUPER long post. Did you find it interesting? I did.

Anyway,  officially on holiday now with the exams finally over. I got a good feeling about this exam but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed. coughBaveragepleasecough. 4 examinable modules. Fingers crossed also about EL3253 the 100% CA one.

First one was EL3255. Dang that was scary cos Pakir’s such an illogical bitch lecturer sometimes. Most times. All the time, especially when it comes to asking questions. I don’t remember it too well (it was too long ago). Think I did ok. Oh, kept using the example of Singapore and the English Knowing Bilingualism thing. Think she’ll mark me down? Or maybe she’ll mark me up cos I used her theory so much. lol! Talked a bit about Laos being one of the countries in the post-communist stage. But I think it’s kind of wrong cos technically Laos is still communist. Hmm…I don’t know any SEA country that was communist but isn’t now.

Then was HY1101E. Was kinda happy with that but not quite. 2 questions. First one was about how three religious conflicts affected Asian history from 1500 onwards. Ok, for the record, I have no idea what happened before or after 1500. My knowledge of historical dates goes to 1600 Japan only. So, I crapped up that essay, talking about Muslim traders vs indigenous religions, then the conflict between Christians and Muslims and then the conflict within Christianity. And I used Japan as an example. Dang. I’m quite limited in my examples. Oh, I like my second essay. Well, I didn’t like it when I first looked at it. About comparing globalisation with imperialism. I said that globalisation is an evolved form of imperialism. Think I’m happy with it.

Yup, so, so far two satisfactory exams. THEN came the dreaded JS3214. Now, I feel additional pressure for this cos I don’t have a foundation in Jap studies and Dr Hislop is strict about essay writing. So anyway, first question I think I did ok but I not too sure if I managed to bring across a coherent thesis statement. I was more or less just responding to the readings he gave. The second essay I could bang my head on the wall. It was about whether or not Kokugaku led to Ultranationalism. Fuck! That’s my research essay topic!!!!!!!! BUT!!!!!!!!!!! I goofed it up!!!!!! I think I was panicking and blanked out and I have no idea what I wrote. I think it was a bad essay. Sigh. Give me a bit more time (like half hour) and I could’ve wrote a good one.

Anyway, last paper was NM2201. This one also I feel a bit more pressure. Why? Cos I more or less screwed up my midterm test and I don’t know how my project would help or not. AND I left this to the last before I studied AND I didn’t finish reading the readings in the end. Just depended on the lecture slides. 5 questions to write for this one. First question I almost died. They were talking about Hofstede’s five value dimensions and when I wrote my essay plan, I COULD ONLY REMEMBER FOUR!!!!!!!!!!!! So I was panicking and started to write the essay, thinking desperately about how I might avert the fact that I could only write four. And I was thinking, shit there goes my grade. BUT thank the lord the last value dimension popped into my head in time. (I forgot power distance.) Anyway, then, had another panic with this. I had calculated before hand that I had about 20 minutes for each question, to be on the safe side. I looked at my watch. FUCK!!!!!!! Almost half hour had gone by and I wasn’t finished with question 1 yet! So rushed through it with my writing getting worse and worse and left the conclusion undone. Second question I did was about the monochronic and polychronic time concept. Something near and dear to my heart. Anyway, I don’t think I got the entire 10marks, which is a shame cos it’s easy marks. Cos Ms Gene asked for 1.Definition, 2.Mental conception of time, 3.Effect on conducting activities, 4.Effect on interpersonal interaction. And she wanted it in table format so I couldn’t smoke my way through. And I couldn’t really compartmentalise it like that. I was writing what I thought was the definition but then I realised it’s not, it’s actually the second part. And I don’t know separate definitions for the two. Dang. Well, next few questions were ok I think. Started to relax a bit more cos I found that I still had time. Went back and finished the conclusion of my first question.

So, that was the exams and the end of the semester.