I’m here to blog about yesterday’s incident and also reflect upon it. I hereby apologise to all the MDE students, ECE students, also all the WUST staffs and drivers and even Ms Neo.
I’m sorry everyone for delaying the group activities yesterday.
Overview of what happened:Yesterday, everyone went to climb the Wudang Mountain together in the morning at around 8am. However, because everyone’s stamina and health were all different, some were in front, while some were lagging at the back. Everyone was at a different pace, trying hard to climb the thousands of steps up to the summit of the mountain to view the copper house. Upon reaching the copper house, I saw almost everyone from our MDE group up there but there were a few of the ECE students already climbing down. I knew that maybe we were lagged at the back, but since we were already there, I decided to give it a try and went all the way up. While coming down, I was not really feeling well because of stomach cramp and Wei Qin having a stomachache all of a sudden. Together with Soon Ling and Daryl, we slowly and tried our very best to move as fast as possible as by the time, it was already 12pm when we were halfway down. We had delayed the whole group by about 2 hours, and because of that, everything single schedule had been changed, such that the tour guide had to call and changed the timing of the lunch, the bus driver had to wait, extra fees was charged by hour and the rest were waiting in the bus patiently.
Reflection:• The tour guide announced to us that the meeting time was 1pm at first, and with the confirmation of everyone in the group, I knew and was sure of the timing at the hotel lobby. However, I only heard that the timing was changed to 1.30pm instead when we were halfway down the mountain despite we had already exceeded the time. We were late but I felt that the altering of information was not well-spread.
• I felt sorry and guilty for letting everyone wait tolerantly and interrupting the pre-scheduled activities held for us. I understand the consequences and the aftermath of driving late in the evening on the expressway and reaching the hostel late in the night, which is after the estimated time of 7pm. After hearing the sharing of the views of Ms Neo just now, I believed that the driver had his own reasons of being frustrated about us such that after sending us back to the hostel, he might have to travel a long way back home and then get ready early in the morning again for his next customer. Our class timetable can be flexible and be rescheduled but not the agreement between the driver and his customer.
• The feeling and perspective of a person being late may changed and be counted as a bad impression not only about oneself, but to everyone in Ngee Ann or in fact the students from Singapore. It is also a disappointment to myself. The WUST staffs and tour guide might because of this incident define in whole that Singaporeans are always doing their things on their own pace slowly, do not have any time-dependent perception, are not responsible enough to keep track of the timing to what we are doing and also make a comparison between their own Chinese students and us, which hence, affect our reputation of being a Ngee Ann and Singapore student.
• The consequences of being late is an extreme matter especially if we are doing things with a huge group of people as all activities and people are being interlinked together with the time and money. When Ms Neo and the rest of the people waiting are not being informed of what was happening, the thoughts of fear and worried may run wild in their mind, afraid that we might met with accidents. I realised that the importance of making a call to inform what was going on is important so as to ease the person’s mind and that arrangements can be made in order to have everything done smoothly.
• I could not deny that being late will affect the rest of the people in the group. The precious time of the rest waiting patiently on the bus were squandered away unfairly and they could have reached the hostel earlier to rest after a long and tiring day and all the activities can be reverted into the actual scheduled period. Going for an appointment late, arriving late at the designed destination on the given timing or any actions that were defined as being late proved to the others that one is not reliable and that a conclusion that limited task should be given to that person as he or she is not reliable. If lateness is seen in our lives in the future, in the working life, in the society, I feel that it will be of a disadvantage to us and that we ought to improve our personality and time track to succeed in our lives to what we are doing on.
• I was late and if everyone had left, I will try my best to catch up with everyone by taking the bus down the mountain as soon as possible and stay in contact with my friends that were already at the foot of the mountain so as to ease their worry. Besides, I think that an apology is needed for the rest of the people as an account to why they are waiting when I had assembled with the others.
• If I was given a second chance, I would do something differently to avoid this similar situation from happening again such that more efficiency, coordinating of time and ability, having the sense of initiative and urgency of being on time but at the same time, take good care of myself will be my priority of the journey to minimize the waiting time and the chances of having to reschedule the activities so as to change the impact of the views of others.
Conclusion:I felt that punctuality means time value and is also the ability to complete a required task or fulfill an obligation before or at the designated time. Being punctual is a form of respect and that we ought to not let people wait for nothing. We should not be the odd one out that makes people of other country to judge us by one person point of view. Singapore is our homeland; this is where we belong. As an ambassador of Ngee Ann or even Singapore, I think that we should uphold the real good side of personality of ourselves and not let everyone be disappointed and hold onto the burden of being blame just because of an incident.
Here are some quotes that I think it makes sense to what late and punctuality means:
- You may delay, but time will not. – Benjamin Franklin
- The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.- Anoine de Saint
- Punctuality is the politeness of kings.- Louis XVIII
In conclusion, I am really sorry that I was late yesterday. However, from this incident, I felt that there might be some misinterpretation of life and culture between the students of Singapore and China that the local teachers have, thus, being unable to accept much on how we do things in life such as the pace which we Singaporeans may think that it was alright. We just have to coordinate and try our very best to change the view of what they thought and said about us and at the same time, prove to them that we can make it.
The 11 of us. Taken at DuoLuoJie.
The machine that collects 2rmb for every ride and also have the ability for card tapping system.
Knitting on the bus.
过桥. We always have to cross a bridge to reach there.
Stalls along the food street.
酸辣豆花
Mutton sticks.
Some of us drank COCO again.
