All good things must come to an end`

I came into class not expecting anything (except for nice classmates and lecturer) and went away with quite a few things ... ... ...

1. excellent and nice classmates, although I really have not got to know all the classmates but for this so many weeks, all have been nice and fun =). Also reading their blog entries was really a way to see how different people think as compared to me, some of the blog entries are so interesting with real-life examples and you tube videos; mine is so boRRRing~ with only chunk of words =/

2. Dr Deng has been real nice and patience in class too, with all of us bombarding him with questions and his teaching style =]

3. Culture, culture and more culture: going through different topics every week was really insightful on the different cultural components and systems in the world (if i may use this word). Some of my favourite topics are gender communication, CMC communication, speech events and etc and the hardest for me was perhaps the part on written discourse [I know, so contradicting right when my research is something like a written discourse, but I really sort of enjoyed the research because its different from the written discourse, more of disciplinary communication/culture than written discourse]. But because I like to read, I think that the topic on written discourse had really opened my eyes - next time I will take note on the authors when I read their books, see if they have the qi-cheng-zhuang-he or other totally some other style?
I think the class had most fun during CMC and gender communication because we get to debate from different perspectives (male and females) and the topics that different gender discussed =D.Its also hard to pick one one favourite topic because all the topics are really interesting!!

We watched a few videos in the beginning, but I thought the long video on the different cultures was really . um - intriguing because it really debunked some of my thoughts - like Japanese nods because they agree (but apparently its just a listener response) and my idea that sign language was universal (but not so~)  and also our so common experiences of treating people and refusing to accept others money when the other party request to go dutch. Or paying someone who had given you gifts/treats or vegetables (in my grandma case) haha ...

4. Small groups discussions during tutorial - got to mix and interact with many other classmates, was in the same group as Anna for a few times and got to ask her many questions on Swedish culture.

5. Doing the research (something of a content analysis I feel) and learning how to do a content analysis research. Instead of going through interviews and surveys like in sociology modules, analyzing articles was definitely something new I tried :). But it was really quite a hm, how to say, a good and tough experience & also working with grace =).  I got to admit my English is not the most "powerful" and had some trouble understanding some literature review and picking out specific words and phrases to identify the realization of the move - but I got there eventually (I hope I did~).I had fun reading the abstracts (haha~ I must be mad?) and now I can expect some framework for other sociology abstracts? =)

But everyone in class had a different topic - gossips, failed humor, conversations, sports reporting, pharmacist-customers interaction, compliments and praises, german requests, apologies, gift transferring and reciprocity, festive entrance and exit, interviews on CNA, business letters ... i apologize if i miss anything out, but there's a lot of topic, but every topic is interesting because I  definitely learnt more about different culture (like Sweden, German, Taiwan ...) and also other topics not covered in class by Dr Deng and some presentations really left an deep impression  =]=]=]

But from the first day which I did not know what to expect, I got quite a bit didn't I? So, thank you everyone, it did make my semester (and possibly my last here) interesting. and I'm glad i took this module Actually, tell the truth I was hoping for a relaxed semester but this semester had been anything other than relax but hey, I learnt a hell lots of things ... although in sociology we do talk a lot on culture but talking about culture in GEK1036 is totally something different. So thank you everyone (fellow classmates & Dr Deng); if my CAP allows it ... see you in NUS, if not ... we will probably bump into one another on the streets?  8]

As they say (pardon my bad translation) - there is no banquet that will never end, I guess our 13-week "banquet" had ended. So, good luck for the upcoming exams~ and may everything be a success! =D.

Adios~ \.(^.^)./ (",)