CDE lesson 1

First Lesson of CDE

I feel pretty excited about the lessons of CDE that are ahead. The syllabus is attractive, the teacher is interesting, and the mode of assessment is the same fun thing again! As a student who hopes to further his studies in the US in the future, I find it very helpful to understand more about the country in my secondary school years first, instead of having a great culture shock when I get there (if I get there). However, I am slightly intimidated by the syllabus too, as there are many topics that I am unfamiliar with and I have no confidence in doing them well. I am particularly interested in the education aspect of the east and west.

We kick started the with the viewing of a few commercials that highlighted cultural differences between the east and the west. Even though we watched it before last year, it still helped to remind us about how important cultural awareness is. From this, I believe that CDE brings the essence of BSP to us in a single subject, rather than having either only Chinese related or English related information during normal BSP lessons and the past term's American literature. It is good for us to finally be able to look at both cultures side by side explicitly, and being able to discuss about issues pertaining to both cultures at once rather than seperately, which could lead to some interesting dialogue (which I have imagined going on in my head but never really happened during any BSP lessons).

The materials from the first lesson gave me an interesting view on the american and chinese youth, albeit much of it being covered in our BSP lessons already. What we knew was from the viewpoint of the chinese society, and it has been a great experience to learn about how the westerners perceived the (selfish) actions of the youth.