Men shut their doors against a setting sun. - William Shakespeare
Someone said something today that made absolute perfect sense. And obviously, since she's a GP tutor. Haha. The idea of forced national identity. Why do we need to sub-group ourselves. Divided-ness. Why meritocracy. Societal pressure and influence. Languages. Ambiguity. Ulterior motives. She triggered such thought-provoking thoughts. Just that half an hour or so with her, digressing from our work, we were enriched by such lengths. I had fun and I knew they did too. Everything exchanged was worth that thought.
I realised that to have such deep and insightful opinions about everything under the sun, you need to have the most general and widest knowledge about the world. Only then are you able to have such opinions and observe that much about the world. Wanting to be such isn't as easy as it looks. For one, you have to have a critical and analytical mind. Alongside with the ability to draw links easily and quickly. Being opinionated is difficult in such a society that we live in. Since before we can even remember, society has been forcing us to think one way. It's kind of like brainwashing. You can't say that society doesn't, but you can't really say for sure that it does either.
Well, thoughts and opinions and fragments of the evening's discussion is all in a huge jumbo mambo in my head now, so attempting to type everything down will be a huge disaster. Haha. Perhaps another time when they're more organised. As she had said, organisation is key (:
One more thing I'd like to add. She brought our attention to the English language when NG asked about a GP question he heard that said something along the lines of "Mathematics is a beautiful language." She highlighted on the importance of "is" and the ambiguity of "beautiful". She expressed herself with such ease, I wondered how the inside of her mind functioned. The gears must be so well-oiled and the filing department must be of tip-top shape. She also mentioned about the Renaissance period, where everything was new, where creativity and openness was widespread. When people were curious and inquisitive about everything. She said it was the time to live if you're a creative person. If everyone was so curious about everything then and so willing to learn, what happened? Why did our creativity become stifled? Why are we so unwilling to learn? Learning is meant to be fun and meaningful. Then she said, only Asian countries place that much importance on education. Why? 'cause we all ultimately want a high-paying job and the only way society perceives it possible is to obtain a degree. And that's probably why we all strive to get into a JC and then a university. Ask anyone of us why and chances are, we won't have an answer. That's because that's what's expected of us. And we just take it. She also asked a rhetorical question, wouldn't learning be more fun if you actually did what you like?
Even knowing that I have no good reason for wanting a place in university, I still can't help but think that I still do want to go to university. Perhaps because it's been in me for so long, it's difficult to change my mindset overnight. And even if our parents do say that they'll support us in whatever we choose to do, they're just trying to make you feel as though you have a choice. But really, you don't. 'cause once you tell them your choice, they'll try to convince you otherwise. Perhaps they don't realise it themselves because they so drawn into the warp of this education-monster thing. Haha.
Long post. Nothing like before. I like. Thought-provoking. Feel your brain work. Haha (:
It's the ambiguity and puns that make me love it.
