I was flipping through 8 Days the other day when my platoon mates are running round and round the bloody stadium to train their endurance. Well, something caught my attention.
On issue 776 of 8 Days (August 18, 2005), 8 Days ran an article on the 12 finalists in local television programme _Singapore’s Brainiest Kid_. They are really quite smart by the way. Well, anyway, there is this interview question that ask them what they think of girls or whether they have a girlfriend.
Here are some of the replies:
Tan Qi Yuan, 11, says, “Sometimes they can be annoying and bossy.”
Daryl Yang, 11, says, “They’re troublesome.”
Alastair Tay, 12, says, “I come from a boys’ school so I don’t have much interaction with girls, but I find them to be the most boring people in the world. They don’t do anything constructive at all.”
Russel Lee Jun Yan, 12, says, “No! _(Makes a retching sound)_ They’re icky.”
Gerald Sim, 12, says, “They’re also human. They have everthing a boy has, except for a few things.”
Michael Tan, 12, says, ” They are generally tolerable.”
Matthew Ch’ng, 11, says, “Ewww!”
Apperantly, the young boys don’t quite like women. What about the girls? The girls are ask what they think of boys and if they have a boyfriend.
Lim Yi Min, 12, says, “Some are very annoying and they try to be funny.”
Yew Wan yi, 1, says, “No, I think boys are irritating. They like to use vulgar words.” [Mr. Dew: Well, guess what? Their vulgar vocabulary won't flourish until they reach army life.]
Goh Si Jia, 11, says, “No, I think boys are idiots.”
The last female contestant, Petrina Gomez, 12, refuses to answer 8 Days question. Perhaps it’s a smart choice.
It seems that the boys don’t quite like the girls and vice versa. It’s kinda strange to see these answers actually. They are quite similar to quite I say in the past. I don’t use words like _’troublesome’_ and _’irritating’_. I just says I don’t like girls. And my reason for not liking them – when I was really young – is they talk too much generally and loves to whisper. I really don’t like people whispering in front of me and I always have the feeling they are talking about me.
Also, I tend to say I don’t like girls in the past just to go with the crowd. It’s like all the boys don’t like the girls and it’s a common topic to agree on. It’s something like peer pressure. Furthermore, had you said you like girls, you will be teased on. Many boys are shy that time and just say they don’t like girls. It’s an ego thing to a certain extend.
Well, best of luck to the _Singapore’s Brainiest Kid_ contestants. I am sure their mindsets would change when they reach secondary school.
Possibly related:
hmm, it was so long ago..
I can’t remember exactly at what age girls started being less annoying and more sexy to me, it’s a puberty thing for sure. And i’m guessing it was maybe more than 12 too perhaps
I totally forgot about the peer pressure reason but that’s a really good one to mention, the survey would’ve been smarter if they interviewed each kid totally isolated from his group i think.
I’d be more interested in hearing how a SG Brainy kid changes his views in 3 yrs
by pketh (Aug 27, 2005 at 2 PM)oh, you moderate comments now?
by pketh (Aug 27, 2005 at 2 PM)pketh: I think you used a keyword that triggers moderation. It’s probably the word “sexy”, I’m not sure actually. Usually, you will past the moderation.
The kids are interview isolated from his group I believe, probably through a phone interview. The thing is lots of Singaporeans would probably be picking up the magazine – 8 Days – to read. Their uncles, aunts, classmates, mother, teachers can find out what they tell the interviewer rather easily.
I would love to hear a change in views too. It would be interesting, I’m afraid there may not be a chance to see them in magazines after 3 years unfortunately.
by Mr. Dew (Aug 28, 2005 at 12 AM)agreed, that’s what usually happens with people having their “15 minutes of fame” in the spotlight. Here today, forgotten tomarrow.
But I’m sure out there somewhre, some sociologist type guy is doing similar research
by pketh (Aug 28, 2005 at 3 AM)This reminds me of when I was in middle school and I said that I hated boys and would rather be single for the rest of my life,lol.
by aurora_starfire (Aug 29, 2005 at 10 PM)I don’t know. Boys are fun. I like to mess with their heads a lot.Most of my friends from high school were boys,and they were more like my brothers.
Just wait until these kids move up to high school and college. They might change their minds.
Yup, I wouldn’t be surprised if they change their minds. It’s interesting to watch kids’s mindsets change as they grow older.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 8, 2005 at 11 PM)It’s all about hormones
by Nafcom (Sep 9, 2005 at 1 AM)Nafcom: You’re right, it’s the hormones, they’re amazing to trigger so much changes to a person.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 9, 2005 at 2 PM)Yah! I did it again!
I have some funny email. it’s in connection to my email to you from Fri, 26 Aug 2005. I will be rude now and do not wait for your reply and send that additional email! It’s funny, you will see. If not funny, then at least weird or heavy! Haha!
I am proud to be male now, haha. You Asians are so funny sometimes. Heh
by Nafcom (Sep 10, 2005 at 8 AM)Nafcom: You are referring to the MSI support pen pal, aren’t you? It’s against company policy I believe. What a strange support officer. I would have reply if I were you too. Some Asians want to know western people and find them interesting. Some want to go to European countries to study.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 10, 2005 at 12 PM)Mr Dew: Yep! Well, I don’t mind, I find it funny.
Have replied, hope for a reply back.
Could be quite much fun!
About the others:
If you have 5-10 Chinese in a row saying all the same in ICQ (that is: “Can we be friend?” & “Can u teach me english?”), then you get mad. Well, at least I got, haha.
Okay, cultural differences, sure, but since the world is influanced a lot by the same factors, I doubt I am so much special in contrast to Asians.
At least when I read what you write here, in your emails, on ICQ, you do not seem to be from the moon or something
by Nafcom (Sep 10, 2005 at 6 PM)Nafcom: I apologize on behalf of the Chinese. I believe they really want to brush up their English. Typing in English makes good practice and it is always good to know more people. Unfortunately, it does get kinda annoying if too many Chinese people try to find you at the same time I suppose, hahaa…
Asians get quite the same news as others. I tend to read news websites quite a lot. I am particularly interested in technology news so I know what’s happening roughly.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 11, 2005 at 11 PM)Mr Dew: No reason to apologize, it’s a fun world. Oh and the errors where like quoted.
Also nice are Malay people:
out of nothing: “Don’t send me the virus!!!!”
and great grammar Manglish grammar like:
“Are you have a girlfriend?”
and “Your address, can or cannot?”
And naturally they learn that at school!
it’s more “Guess what I mean” instead of a real conversation, and that hurts.
People from Egypt are also nice. First question is mostly: “What’s your religion?”
And since I am an honest person: “I do not believe in God. I am atheist and left the church a while ago”
to which they reply: “YOU ARE OBSESSED BY THE DEVIL!!!!!”
I mean, fine… you are what you are, and you can do it the Lemmings way (something that got so famous, you already find it in some dictionaries & cinema stuff), or you use your brain!
If the Koran says atheists are bad, fine. But who says that everything in there is correct?
About the news: Since I have got 4MBit/512kbit internet (just some days) I sometimes watch CNN streams with RealPlayer (with 2MBit it played faster than it could load!).
as for tech news, I love http://www.tomshardware.com.
The best hardware site if you ask me!
by Nafcom (Sep 12, 2005 at 5 AM)Nafcom: I haven’t got much of these other countries people chatting with me. There used to be but I don’t remember their replies, hahaa…
My internet connection is 512K downloading and 265K uploading I believe. It’s enough for me to do my work and stuff, but faster is always better, hehe… In Singapore, the fastest dedicated residential is 6500K and it cost about SG$120 per month which is kinda too expensive for me since it’s like a third of my miserable national service pay.
I read Tom’s Hardware too. It’s pretty good, but unfortunately their articles don’t come very often. I read Anandtech too.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 12, 2005 at 8 AM)Mr Dew: I am shocked you have got 256k up with 512k down! Over here the calculation is worse! I have started broadband with DSL 768 and 128k up! then 1MBit with 128k up, then 2 MBit with 256k up now 4Mbit with 512 kb up!
(are you sure that you have not included a typo?).
by Nafcom (Sep 12, 2005 at 4 PM)Nope, I have 512 K download and 256 K up indeed. No mistakes about that. I usually download at 5+ Kb/sec to 60 kb/sec and upload at 28 kb/sec, the speeds are okay for me.
I think Singapore has one that offers 6500 K download and 1000 K upload. There is a non-dedicated access that allowed 30,000 K download and 1000 K upload too.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 12, 2005 at 9 PM)Mr Dew, back to the topic.
The MSI support penfriend is the best thing that happened to me, looking at it from all angels. Seems to write nice, patience full and not like “Eh, email to answer, quick quick!”.
Plus the worker that replies to my ticket has bad English understanding, i.e. he doesn’t understand me at all! I talk about DOS drivers he talks about Windows! LOL.
Well, I have sent you all details by email earlier, so you can check if you do not believe me.
so 50% of the emails are ticket the other are 50% pen friend stuff.
However the technical MSI news of today were not too nice for me
You can go check at my forum: http://www.blogforum.us/forums/nfm-about39.html
:’(
by Nafcom (Sep 13, 2005 at 12 AM)Nafcom: DOS drivers as Windows? You actually want like MS-DOS drivers? I didn’t know they are still around, most of my hardware only give Windows 98, Windows XP and Mac installation disks.
His English is quite okay actually, it is understandable at least although it just doesn’t read quite right with all the ‘and’s.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 13, 2005 at 10 AM)Mr Dew: USB DOS drivers, sure they excist:
http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/
and I meant the English of the guy of http://support.msi.com.tw/?language=eng
the one you meant was from MSI USA, he’s cool, reads all, understands all. but MSI Taiwan do not understand all
by Nafcom (Sep 13, 2005 at 4 PM)I didn’t know USB would work in DOS. That’s new. I always thought USB requires some Windows services to function. I guess not.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 14, 2005 at 7 PM)Mr Dew: Sorry to put you wrong
by Nafcom (Sep 15, 2005 at 3 AM)