| ON CAMPUS January 2020 Issue |
| Creative Campus Chinese New Year Holiday Closure
Our hours during the festive period are as follows: Friday 24 January (CNY Eve) - 10am to 3pm
Saturday 25 January (1st day CNY) - CLOSED
Sunday 26 January (2nd day CNY) - CLOSED
Monday 27 January (3rd day CNY)- CLOSED
Tuesday 28 January onwards - CLASSES RESUME
We remain contactable via Whatsapp @ 88502499 [Mon to Fri, 10am-5pm], or via email chalk@creativecampus.com.sg. Do give us some time to get back to you.
Here's wishing everyone a prosperous, healthy and happy lunar new year! |
| Campus News
New Courses for Secondary/IB students (NEW)
We are pleased to introduce 3 new courses for students in the IB and Language Arts programme. Using carefully curated materials, these courses will commence in January 2020. Click on the links below to find out more: Find out what we do: insights into Creative Campus (NEW)
The 2019 national exams are done and dusted. The respective post-mortem analysis can be found on our website. You can even access a sample of our worksheets online. Click on the links below to find out more: (100% of our students scored A* and A for PSLE 2019) |
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Homophones
Same pronunciation, different meaning: that’s the definition of a homophone. Homophones are often used as witty wordplay, but they can also be stumbling blocks to spelling your intended words correctly. An example of a homophone pair is “carrot/carat”. More rarely, there are homophone trios like the confusing “to/too/two”.
If you have a phrase that sound like another word or phrase when said together, then you have an oronym. Famous examples include “ice cream/I scream”, “real eyes/realise/real lies”, and “Isle of Dogs/I love dogs”.
Homographs
Homophones are different from homographs, which are words that share the same spelling but have different meanings. A pair of homographs need not have the same pronunciation! For example, the natural phenomenon, “wind”, and the verb that means to move in a twisting fashion, “wind”, are pronounced differently. The vowel in the noun is pronounced like the letter ‘e’, while the vowel in the verb is pronounced like the letter ‘i’.
Homonyms
Words which are both homophones and homographs at the same time are known as homonyms. A homonym pair thus is written and said the same way, with each word having a completely different meaning. An example is “bear”, which can refer to either the mighty animal or the verb meaning “support, endure”. Another example is “left”, which can either be the opposite of the direction ‘right’, or the verb ‘stayed’!
Homophones in our daily lives
Can you think of any instances where homophones are used in our everyday lives? Well, many Lunar (Chinese) New Year greetings and practices are based off of homophones! Think, for example, of nian gao (年糕), the glutinous cake exchanged as gifts during the festivities. It is a homophone of 年高, meaning “higher year” and thus representing wishes for a better year ahead.
Test Yourself
Name the homophones!
Q1. Cereal
Q2. Idle
Q3. Compliment
Q4. Heir
Q5. Dual
Q6. Ail
Q7. Counsel
Q8. Incite
Q9. Marshall
Q10. Rain
Answers A1. Serial
A2. Idol
A3. Complement
A4. Air
A5. Duel
A6. Ale
A7. Council
A8. Insight
A9. Martial
A10. Reign
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Happy Lunar New Year!
25 January 2020 marks the first day of Lunar New Year celebrated by ethnically Chinese people all around the world, including Chinese Singaporeans. Amidst last-minute spring cleaning, buying new clothes, and preparation of red packets, let’s find out more about the Lunar New Year and one uniquely Singaporean method of celebrating the festivities.
What is Lunar New Year?
In Singapore, the Lunar New Year is often called “Chinese New Year” (or its frequent abbreviation “CNY”). CNY begins on the first day of the traditional China calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar that takes into account the movements of both the moon (luna) and the sun (solar). In other (South)-East Asian countries, CNY goes by different names; the Vietnamese, for example, calls it Tết nguyên Đán, while the Koreans call it Seollal.
In South(-east) Asia, local lunisolar calendars were also traditionally used. However, due to influence from Indic tradition, the solar new year – which usually occurs in April – is celebrated instead. You may hence be familiar with Puthandu (Tamil New Year) or Songkran (Thai New Year).
Prosperity Toss
Did you know that the Prosperity Toss – more commonly known as “lo hei” or “yusheng” – is not only unique to Southeast Asia, but made its contemporary debut in our little red dot?
Yusheng historically originated in Guangdong, China. In the past, fishermen who lived in that area celebrated the 7th day of CNY with their fresh catches of fish (鱼; pronounced yu in Mandarin). Through immigrants, the practice of eating raw fish was brought to Malaya. It was only in the 1960s and 70s, however, that the current custom of tossing yusheng was created and popularised by restaurants. It was said that fish, pronounced as yu, would bring abundance (余; also pronounced yu).
Ingredients galore
Other than abundance-inducing salmon, the other ingredients common in yusheng include jellyfish, pepper, oil, carrots, and radish. Popular condiments are crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, flour crisps, and a sweet plum sauce. Many of these ingredients were chosen for looking or sounding similar to auspicious greetings and happenings. For example, peanuts generously dusted upon the dish symbolise a household filled with gold.
Something to consider…
(1) Do you know other unique customs that are practised in different countries on Lunar New Year? TIP: (a) Vietnam: Preparation of Mâm Ngũ Quả (Five-Fruit Tray), which represents each family’s hopes for the future; (b) Korea: Playing of games like yut-nori (a board game played with sticks and tokens); eating tteokguk (rice cake soup)
(2) In our modern world, how important is celebrating traditional festivals like CNY to you? Explain clearly.
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Have you checked out our ebooks?
Two of them are FREE! Useful for all students from Primary 3 and up, these ebooks are essential building blocks for your child to have a better grasp on the English Language.
Free Brain Booster eBook Download
Download our eBook Brain Booster for revision now.
Visit the Shop Page on our Website to get your free copy!
Click here to find out more on our website.
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| Until the next time, The Creative Campus Team |
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For more interesting articles you can use as discussion tools, do like our Facebook Page where we share them weekly.
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Address: 545 Orchard Road, #14-07/08 Far East Shopping Centre Singapore 238882
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* Saturdays: 9am to 4.30pm
* Closed on Sundays and Public HolidaysEmail: chalk@creativecampus.com.sg
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