westernization != modernization
Tuesday, August 23, 2005 (7:40 PM)
i heard this girl on bus saying 'sah-mer-rais' repeatedly. i was wondering if she was talking about samurais, so being a nosey parker, i listened intently (not that i needed to since she was sitting beside me). it turns out, she isn't talking about samurais, rather 'summarize'. ambiguity in phonetics.
then there's this interesting stuff i read on my tutorial sheet: 'needless to say, plagiarism will result in immediate failure'. isn't it cool? they say it even when they term it 'needless to say'. i suppose it's just an expression. ah... that reminds me of ross when arguing with rachel, who came on to who that caused rachel's pregnancy. check this out:
ross: you were the one who came on to me. you were sending me begging signals all over the place.
rachel: what? show me how i did that? am i sending you signals right now?
ross: i can show you! i have a tape!
everyone: what!?
ross: it's an expression...
of course, at the end of the day, we realise ross indeed taped them having sex (of course we didn't see it. f.r.i.e.n.d.s is situational comedy, not pornography). and ross gets into trouble because rachel is angry that he taped them doing it. and the funnier part is, when ross brings the tape to rachel to destroy it herself, rachel decides to see it because according to her, '...(ross) so much don't want others to see it, that makes me want to see it, do you see it?' and the conversation goes:
ross: rachel, no.
rachel: why? you don't want them to see you begging me?
ross: rachel, please...
rachel: oh, how about a little preview?
you probably don't get the situation till you watch it yourself. it's hilarious. damn, miss friends again.
moving on, today i read about modernization and westernization and apparently, these 2 do not equate, for those of you who think they do. mindless imitation and assimilation of western culture does not mean one is modernized. neither does being in trend equate to being modern. you are just in vogue. that's all. modernization is by definition 'the systematic and purposeful application of modern scientific culture to improve life'. that's it! it has nothing to do with being in trend or being westernized. i used to have a friend who said he wants to turn christian. i asked him, 'why? do you have faith in Jesus?'. he said, 'no, because it's more westernized'. -_-"
but of course, he didn't convert. we were in secondary school then so i guess he didn't think that much and kids say the darndest things! so kids, don't blindly imitate the westerners. we ought to learn the good from them, but not adopt, just adapt.
so watcha doon next?