Anyway, since my son saw the video, he has been so besotted with the dance.. hahahaha:)
Since we are talking about Oppa Gangnam Style, something interesting also happened the other day. My son came home from school and asked me if i could help him prepare a speech because he wants to run for student council.
Initially, I was rather impressed with his desire.. hahahaha:) And I was rather happy too.. I mean, seems like he has got ambition..and since he always says he wants to be Prime Minister, good start to learn how to rally speech right?:) Besides, I informed Ace that his laomu me was prefect and also class rep in school, his dad was also class monitor, and house captain too:)
But after observing him over the weekend (he keeps putting off the writing of his script and choosing to play and watch tv FIRST), I realized that he is not really that keen about it after all...
But on and off, we will try to engage him in a discussion about it.. and then he told me that he thinks he probably will win because "I think they will all vote for me. No one in my class knows Gang Nam Style.. so when I sang for them, they all laughed and kept asking me to do it again during play time.. some of them even came and ask me for my autograph!"
(The irony was that the day before, he also did the dance but came home and complained that everyone laughed at him and said he looks stupid.. hai, children)
It was then I realized that he wanted to run for student council to be POPULAR:) I think he was after the autograph part more than the contribution part..
Wahahahaha...
Anyway, I shared with him that in order to write a good script, he needs to know:
- what is a student council and what do they do?
He says their job is to make school a better place and help the teachers.
- what are he strengths?
He says he has no idea.. but after thinking, he said something like "I found someone's milk and returned it to them.. I explained that honesty is important and helpfulness is too but he has to talk about strengths that will ensure that will help him contribute. Then he gave another example of how he was quiet during assembly even though everyone else was talking. I explained that that is good but still it does not tell people how he can become a good student council. "Perhaps," I suggested, "You could say I am creative and fun loving and I will come up with good, fun ideas for the student body."
- how he can contribute to the student council
- why people should vote for him, what are they looking for in a school council
I gave him some time to think about it and the next day when i talked to him, he said he already came up with a great speech idea. He would tell his class that if they vote for him, he will start a "sweet party" and give them sweets..
Me and Max luffed till we pengz.. I told him that this is considered bribery and is not the right way to get votes. It is considered buying votes, not really getting votes based on his own ability.
And then he kept talking about gang nam style and saying that he is popular.. wahahahaha:) I think he just doesnt really get it.
Anyway, the very last minute just before bedtime on the night before his school day, our good friend finally sat down to pen out his script and here is what he wrote:
Hi, I am Ace. As you know, I am very creative so I can come up with creative ideas. Even thoguh I started in Horizon in year 2, I can make Horizon a better place. If I am selected, I would help the whole school! I would make the school no.1!
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In the end though, one of the girls won the vote and got to be student council in his class (one rep per class only). Ace complained that it was because there were more girls in his class (11 girls and only 9 boys) and so he said that all the girls voted for Sophia. "So she got to be school council.. this year all the school council of all classes are girls!"
And then in a much quieter voice, Ace admitted to me, "You know mummy, I voted for myself." I told him that that's okay as well. "If you feel you are the best person to be the student council, it is alright to vote for yourself. There is nothing wrong with that." I told him.
"Anyway, too bad for her cos now she has got playtime cos school council need to use part of their playtime for meetings and helping teachers do things.." added Ace.
I dun think it was just sour grapes though.. I think he was also sort of relieved to know he gets to play the FULL playtime:) wahahahaha... I reminded him not to be a sore loser. Since she is already chosen to represent his class, they should work with her and co-operate with her and be happy for her because most people in class already voted for her.
After all, i think it is a good try lah.. but I think it is not something he is really interested in. You know last time one of my mentors always like to say "想要还是一定要". People who really want something will think constantly about how to achieve it and put it as first priority. For Ace, still, PLAY is first priority, Eat second and TV third:) So I guess for now, Ace is just in the 想要 category. Perhaps next year when he is a little more mature, he might try harder or work harder on it?:P
PS: Our neighbour's daughter got voted as School Council and so tat day, after ace worked very hard to finish his work, he found out tat he wouldnt get to play cos their family is celebrating in The Cheesecake Factory. "Being school council sucks!" sulked my son..."Because you cannot play with your friend.." He is often upset when he cannot play with his friend for one reason or another. I am so amused given that I think it is natural J is much happier being voted school council and celebrating instead of playing with him. So I asked him, "Ace, do you think J wants to be student council? Is she your friend? If she is your friend and you know she got what she wanted and is happy, will you be happy for her?"
"Ok lah ok lah, you can stop now lah.." my son said. "I know what you are going to say lah.. yes lah yes lah, you put it this way of course I am happy for her as a friend.. But i want to play with her.. humph!" Nowadays, my son very good at stopping me halfway in my prep talk with the "I know wat you want to say" phrase and usually, if i ask him to continue for me in that case, he really can continue and understands what I am trying to say... Like the other day I was trying to explain the difference between "想要还是一定要" to him and halfway he also did the "I know what you want to say.." When I asked him to explain, he actually managed to summarize all I wanted to say in a few words, "想要means it is a want lah.. 一定要means need lah.." he said. This boy never fails to amaze me.
Because J did her speech one day before Ace and got voted in, I told Ace maybe he can ask her for help about what she said during her speech to get some ideas and when Ace came back from her place, he insisted that he couldnt ask her because she kept saying she wanted to play soccer. "Did you mean she wouldn't help you even though you asked and said you needed her help?" I asked him. "Yeah, she kept saying soccer soccer..." I told Ace he can be firm and ask again till she agrees and also tell her that he really needs help. "One of the skills a leader like a school council must have is the skill of persuasion and this is a good chance to practice..." I told him. Another important point is the courage to say not to people and also the courage to ask for help when needed.
In the end leh, I found out that Ace hasn't really been totally truthful lor. Ask him for more details a few more times (cos I sensed something fishy) and in the end he confessed that it was not that she did not want to help or only wanted to play. Ace himself had forgotten to ask her until too late and she had to leave for her cheesecake factory celebration.... and so, he was left to his own devices...
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