Biodata!

I am Terry Ho Chao Jin. I am a Singaporean whose past education experience include six years at Chongful primary school, four years at Anderson Secondary school and two years at Victoria Junior college. Currently, I am a life-sciences (concentrating in Biomedical science) undergraduate the National University of Singapore (NUS). After completing my undergraduate degree next year, I plan to continue with postgraduate studies. I choose this major because I am an inquisitive person who enjoys the investigative nature of doing scientific research.

Character-wise, I am a person who is hardworking, amicable, caring and patient. In contrast, some of the negative qualities that I have include the lack of self-confidence and leadership. I hope to improve on these negative points by striking more conversation with other students and probably take more initiatives to lead during group project work. I have a wide range of interests which include oil-painting, photography, shopping and sport activities such as squash, running and swimming.

Last semester, I embarked on an exchange programme at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. The study environment in this university was quite different from that of NUS. All the modules that were offered were biomedical related. In addition, the number of students enrolled into each courses was comparatively smaller (at around 50). My overseas stint also made me realized that I actually take joy in travelling. The several travelling opportunities that I had in Europe were fulfilling and also enabled me to develop better time-management and interpersonal skills. This was because I was required to conduct intensive research of the places of interest and search for affordable accommodation. During each trip, I had ample opportunities to interact with the local as well as exchanging valuable travelling tips with other avid travelers. In future, I do hope that i can find a job that can provide many travelling opportunities.

Communication issue

A communication issue that I faced recently occurred during a meeting with a professor. As I intend to take up a Final Year Project (FYP) next semester, I have been busily emailing professors to arrange meeting with them in order to find out more about their field of research. I have emailed a total of nine professors and only managed to chat with three of them. The six other professors replied directly to me that they would not be taking in more honours students in the coming semesters as their laboratories were packed. I shall give an account of my encounter with the first professor, Professor A.

Firstly, I was asked by Professor A whether I had read any of her journals. In response, I told her that I read several and briefly touched on the main gist of one of the journals. Prior to the meeting with Professor A, I merely read up the journals published by Professor A as I was “told” in her email that she would gladly present her research interest to me during the meeting. Thus, I was anticipating the meeting to be a platform for me to discover the type of FYP that she could offer me. Secondly, Professor A asked me about my CAP score and whether I could better my current score. I honestly replied her that it would be rather difficult to raise my CAP score to 4.5. Towards the end of the meeting, Professor A took down my contact details. However, Professor A added that there was no confirmation of allocating a FYP to me and I am free to look for other professors. Professor A told me to read through her journals and propose something that I can work on.

One week later, I found out from my friend that Professor A had already given a FYP to a friend of his. Thus, I am in a dilemma now. I am not sure whether I still stand a chance if I send her FYP proposal now. In addition, Can you please give me suggestions on how to secure a FYP?

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

I remembered vividly a scenario which changed my perspective towards a welcoming ceremony. This intercultural situation occurred during my visit to a Maori cultural centre in Rotorua, a city in the north island of New Zealand. The Maori are indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. After meeting with our guide at the entrance of the cultural centre, we were led into an indoor theatre. All of us sat down hastily as we were eager to watch the welcome performance on the stage. Soon, twelve traditionally dressed Maori tribesmen marched into the stage. After arranging their positions on the stage, these half-naked men started shouting at the top of their voices furiously. In coordination to their ear-splitting roars, they performed precise hand actions, like slapping of their chest and thigh. Furthermore, these fierce-looking performers had scary face tattoos and were staring at us throughout the performance. All these elements of the welcome performance made me felt uneasy and nervous.

After the performance, one of the performers explained to us about the importance of the customary display. I learned that the performance that was put up was actually a Maori war dance called “Hakka”. This dance was originally performed by Maori warriors before a battle. Its purpose was to proclaim strength and prowess of the warriors so as to intimidate the opposition. Nowadays, the Haka constitutes an integral part of welcome ceremonies for distinguished visitors. This experience was totally different from any form of welcome ceremony that I had participated in or read about. Before attending this event, I always had an impression that performances put up during welcome ceremonies would be light-hearted and entertaining. Through this overseas experience, I realized that I should learn to be more receptive to different cultural traditions.