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Showing posts from September, 2016

don't judge//

Hey there, welcome to my 3 rd blog post in Lang and Lit. For this blog post, I will be stating my personal opinion about certain topics which Amy Tan has mentioned in her text, “Mother Tongue”. Throughout the text, Amy has mentioned how her mom struggles speaking in English which is why people often don’t take her seriously or be rude to her. People often judge those whose level of fluency in English low. Some people may base one’s intelligence with how they speak English which I think is amiss. It is often that people make mistakes when they speak English and sometimes, it’s not really a big of a deal to others. But when it comes to foreign English speakers, even a bit of grammatical mistake, some Native English speakers would make iniquitous judgements out of it. I am not saying that all Native English speakers are like that but I have had lots of experiences with how some treat those foreign English speakers rudely. I find it unnecessary for people to poke fun at those who

my name//

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Hello there earthling. My name is Nicole and I’m guessing you already know that because my name’s like everywhere in my blog. Ironically, I’m not used to people calling me by that name because back in the Philippines I had a lot of nicknames. The people from my previous school calls me Ikah, Iks, Chinita or Niknik. While my parents and relatives call me Nika which is like my OG nickname. My first and second name is Nicole Anne. I never really thought that there would be a meaning behind my name because I thought that my name’s very simple which is why I actually used to hate my name. So apparently, according to my mom, Nicole is a Greek baby name which means “People’s victory” while Anne is an English name which means “God’s grace”. My parents chose those names because according to them, since I was their first child it felt like they won in life when they had me and that they consider me as a gift from God. 

certainty//

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According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, certainty is the quality or state of being certain especially on the basis of evidence. It is a fact about which there is no doubt. But the thing is, is it ever possible to be absolutely certain about something? If we think about it, even the things we were taught from the beginning has it's own uncertainty. Also, the things we use to measure has uncertainties. Science itself even has uncertainties. So can we really be a hundred percent sure about something? I have heard lots of people saying that nothing has an absolute certainty because nothing is permanent in this world. That everything in nature is just temporary and has it's end. And I do agree with that but not the part where nothing has an absolute certainty because based on that reasoning,  I realized that the two things we all can be certain of is change and death. We all can argue about how sure we are about a certain topic but we can never deny the fact that change is alwa

cultural misconception//

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Since last week, I've been thinking of a common stereotype of Filipinos. I've actually asked a few people about it and they all gave me a bunch of different answers which I find hard to explain because I don't relate to what they said. But last Wednesday while I was with my new found friend from our village, she told me something that actually gave me an idea of what to write about. And our conversation went like this: Friend: Where are you from? Me: Philippines. Friend: Nice. So how many years have you been here in Abu Dhabi? Me: I've only been here for a month. Friend: No way. Me: Yup. I've lived in the Philippines since I was born. Friend: Well, for a person who has lived in the Philippines her whole life, you're good at speaking in English and you don't have the common Filipino accent. Okay to start off, there's no such thing as a "Filipino accent". It just happened that some Filipinos were not used to speaking in Englis

maps//

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In our previous TOK class , Mr. Aaron discussed about the Cosmic Year and maps. Okay so, the Cosmic Year thing blew mind. How did someone come up with that? I realized that people rely so much in Science that they even made a calendar about how everything was created. Like how sure are the people who made that about the arrangements of the events? While for the map of the world, I don't get why the person or people who made that didn't make the sizes of the continents/countries a bit accurate. But I do get that it's impossible to make a perfect map because things change as time passes by and for the world map, continents move (Continental Drift Theory) so it's really impossible to have a 100% accurate map. But like, at least get the sizes compared to the the countries right. I think maps were created to guide us and make things easier. We should only use a map as a reference but not as something we'll fully rely on. We just have to rely on our guts, intuition an

about the enigma//

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Ola! My name is Nicole but you can call me..... anytime. *wink* Nahh just kidding, you can call me Ikah. I've been existing in this world for 17 years now (but i literally look like a 10 year old) and I was born in Las Islas Filipinas also known as the Philippines. I loooove eating and yes, I know it's not that obvious but I really do. I play the ukulele, guitar and a tiny bit of drums (I just started). Sportswise, I play badminton, volleyball, golf and now I'm trying to learn how to play basketball although I'm pretty sure it'll be hard for me cause DUH i'm like 5'3. I also do boxing and muay thai so I'm preeeeetty vicious and deadly lol jk. So basically I've lived in the Philippines since I was born and I just moved here in Abu Dhabi last August 1st to study and be with my parents. I'll probably stay here in Abu Dhabi for 2 years (If I do well in school) just to finish Grades 11 and 12 then move to the United States to go to a university and