My Thoughts on Education And Technology

How technology can help to improve learning?

Emerging technologies are quickly gaining momentum in the education sector. There are several ways which the adoption of technology can help to improve learning.

First of all, the Internet made E-learning possible for students by allowing them access to course materials anytime, anywhere. With the majority of households and public places having high bandwidth Internet access, an institution may adopt E-learning as a means of teaching by developing its own portal for staff and students to access. Lectures may post videos of their lectures on the portal for students to watch on demand. In this way, the students may attend lectures in advanced or after they have attended the same lectures on campus. Having these online lectures allows students to reinforce their understandings of the topic by learning at the own pace in the venue of their choice. Similar to online lectures, tutorials and lab exercises may be posted online for students to prepare them in advanced before attending the lesson on campus. The answers to these tutorials and lab exercises could also be made available online after the actual lesson for the convenience of the students.

Besides having learning contents made available online, discussion forums can be created to facilitate discussions on the learning topics among the teaching staff and students. The discussion forums also provides a platform for students to clear their doubts with their lecturers on certain areas of the learning topics or provide assistance to students who are weaker in the learning topics. Through the discussion forums, lecturers can easily spot students who are actively participating in the discussions and award them additional marks accordingly for active participation. The downside of having discussion forums is the need for the teaching staff to moderate inappropriate posts from students.

To enhance the learning process, the portal may also provide a means to make peer-graded assignments possible. Students submit their written assignment online for fellow students to review and grade them according to the rubrics set by the lecturer. In the event of a dispute arising due to the review or grading, the portal would need to provide a feature for the lecturer or tutor to intervene and settle the matter.

As students these days are getting more knowledgeable and outspoken, the portal may provide a blogging feature for them to post their research or thoughts on the learning topics. With the younger generation of students being more tech-savvy, writing blog is certainly not an uphill task for them. It gives them the opportunity to showcase their passion, knowledge and learning process. The lecturer may consider awarding bonus marks to students who write blog that provides insightful contents to the learning topics.

Last but not least, the portal can provide a repository of past years’ examinations or test papers and also mock exam papers from the lecturer. Having students attempting mock examinations or tests online helps the teaching staff to monitor their progress and arrest areas of weaknesses. The results and data for these mock examinations or tests collected in the backend can be analysed for the purpose of curriculum planning.

What are the challenges faced by education institutions in Singapore?

Educational institutions around the world including Singapore are facing tough challenges. These challenges are results of social, economic and technology trends.

More evidently in the case of Singapore, like any other first world countries, faces the problem of ageing population. Due to the need for Singapore to develop rapidly before and after independence, more educational institutions were created to meet the demands of the baby boomers generation. As society progressed and transformed Singapore into a first world nation, birth rate decreases and on the contrary, educational level of its people increases. This trend resulted in decrease in schools’ enrolment which in turn lead to oversupply of learning facilities and teaching staff over the years. The effect had been felt from the defunct or merging of primary, secondary schools and even junior colleges in recent years. While there is no way for these non-tertiary institutions to escape the fate of becoming defunct or merging due to falling enrolment, tertiary or post-secondary institutions can try to make up for the shortfall in enrolment by operating Continuing Education and Training (CET) classes for working adults. In fact, our government encourages tertiary institutions to transform themselves to support SkillsFuture, which is national movement to provide Singaporeans with opportunities to develop their fullest potential throughout life, regardless of their starting points (i.e. lifelong learning).

With the increasing educational levels of Singaporeans and demands from employers, more public and private tertiary institutions were setup in recent years. The increase in institutions naturally created more competition as students have a greater choice of local and overseas institutions to choose from. Emerging technologies also made E-learning possible. One such example is Coursera, which is an online learning platform founded by Stanford University professors that even offers degree programmes. Although these degree programmes offered by such online learning platform may not be as well accredited as those offered offline by a formal intuition, the short courses they provide are relatively popular among working adults for lifelong learning due to the low course fee and convenience to access anytime, anywhere.

The evolution of technology introduces new jobs and eliminate existing ones at the same time. Educational institutions need to run a race against the technology evolution by constantly creating new courses and changing existing course syllabuses to meet industries demand, especially the rate of evolution increases rapidly due to the smart nation initiative. A good example to illustrate this point is the use of Internet-facing applications and chatbots to cover the first level of interaction with customers. The role of the customer service officers would switch to handle more complex requests or interactions and at the same time help to train up the chatbots to make them smarter in their interactions with customers. Institutions providing the customer service related courses would need to incorporate this new task into their course syllabus.

Another effect of the technology evolution is the change in the way lessons are conducted and more value-added services provided. Students who are more tech-savvy these days expect E-learning to be conducted to certain extend. Besides using technology to improve learning experience, educational institutions are also expected to provide more value-added services through the use of technology. A good example is to harness on the reliability of biometric devices for attendance taking and another example is to release examination results via mobile applications to anxious students. As educational institutions need to adopt technologies aggressively to meet these expectations, there are additional operating costs incurred due to the engagements of expertise to develop and maintain the infrastructures.

Revisiting Venice

Four years ago, I started my cruise vacation in one of the world most renowned European city. It is not a populous city with excellent connectivity, good infrastructure or magnificent architecture. Instead, the charm of this small city lies in its uniqueness, its simple and isolated way of life which is the complete opposite of the big buzzing city which we grew up in. This city is non other than Venice in Italy, the Queen of the Adriatic. According to history, Venice came into existence in 421 AD when large number of people fled to this lagoon from mainland Italy to avoid invasions of barbarians from the north due to the decline of the Roman Empire. For over a thousand years, the shallow waters between Venice and mainland Italy had not only effectively protected these inhabitants from the barbarian invaders who were lacking in ships and sea knowledge but also from the Italian political life. Venice is also the birth place of Marco Polo, the famous Italian merchant, explorer and writer who was the first European to reach China. In fact, it was believed that Marco Polo came to know about noodles when he visited China and subsequently introduced it in Italy which led to the invention of spaghetti. He was buried in the San Lorenzo church in Venice after his death.

As there was no direct flight from Singapore to Venice, I flew directly to Milan instead. After an interesting three days tour of this fashion capital of the world far up north in Italy, I traveled southwest to the Port of Venice via a private hire mini bus. Before reaching Venice, the weather forecast on my iPhone indicated sunny weather with a high temperature of 30 degree celsius in this city which was perfect for sightseeing especially in Europe. Upon reaching the Port of Venice, the weather was indeed sunny. The moment I stepped out of the mini bus, I could feel the chilly gust of sea breeze blowing at me. I felt a hundred times colder than being in an air-conditioned room despite a supposedly warm sunny afternoon of 30 degree celsius . After checking in to my cruise ship and settling down in my room, I proceeded to sign up for a three hours tour of Venice. As I was queuing to step out of the cruise ship at 6 pm in the evening, the weather became colder and I sneezed several times and started to have running nose. An American lady beside me asked whether I was not adjusting well to the weather. My dad who was accompanying me replied her saying that we are from a tropical country and not used to such chilly weather. To my surprise, she said that such weather was not considered cold to her. Both my dad and I were dressed in thick jackets while she wore only t-shirt and jeans.

After stepping out of the cruise ship, we were ushered into a small boat which took us from the Port of Venice to the city centre where all the excitements began. As the boat traveled along the way during sunset, our tour guide, a young Italian gentleman introduced to us the various landmarks visible from our boat and spoke briefly about their history. When darkness fell by the time our boat reached the city centre, the heart of Venice city was brightly lit with temperature dropping even further and accompanying persistent chilly winds. Before we were dispersed to tour the city centre on our own, the tour guide reminded us to be back at the same location on time for our transfer back to the Port of Venice. Failure to do so would require us to take private water taxi which would likely cost as much as 70 Euro dollars for a mere 20 minutes journey.

The city of Venice has no roads for vehicles to travel. Even bicycles do not seem to be allowed either. Due to the narrow streets and vast network of canals, the only and most practical form of transportation is boat which makes this city so unique. Retail shops, cafeterias, bars, restaurants, service apartments and luxurious hotels line the streets of Venice. From my observations, souvenir shops are everywhere throughout this city and visitors could expect to find a wide variety of souvenirs not found elsewhere in Europe. I only realized that Bata is a European brand until I saw a Bata shoes shop in Venice. I had always thought it was a Singaporean or Malaysian brand. As I walked along the streets in Venice looking at the various shops and taking photos of the various landmarks, I was shivering and trying to withstand the bitter cold which was getting more unbearable even with my thick jacket. When the weather became too cold, my dad and I with two other tour group members decided to find a cafe to sit down and have a drink. We ordered two glasses of beer and two cups of Cappuccino which cost about 50 Euro dollars. The other reason why we decided to visit a cafe was because we wanted to make use of the washroom. Similar to other European cities, finding washroom is always a big issue. Even though there are signboards showing the direction to the nearest public washroom, they are often very misleading and not worth the hassle to figure it out. After consuming our drink, we proceeded back to the pickup area for our transfer back to the Port of Venice. The atmosphere in Venice at night was so vibrant and romantic that I had decided to come out again if I have the chance. While walking to the pickup area, I walked pass by this hotel which I found to be extremely cozy and luxurious. In fact, I stopped by and took a second look at the interior which looked pretty much English style. Perhaps that was the reason it was named "Londra Palace".

After the small boat took us back to the Port of Venice, I actually ran a short distance of about 100 metres back into the cruise terminal building to take shelter from the bitter cold. When my cruise ship departed Venice at midnight, I took a final look out of the porthole in my room as it passed the city centre. Along the way, I saw some high end apartments located facing the sea which is similar to those in Sentosa. Although it was a torturing experience because of the cold weather, Venice remains an extraordinary place for me and I have always wanted to revisit this place.

School Days Badges

Time flies and it’s already the last day of the year 2017. Everyone is probably busy clearing unwanted stuffs in the house to usher in the new year. After all, since everyone wants to have a fresh start for the brand new year ahead, it is a good practice or custom to dispose unwanted items that are taking up space to create more rooms for new items on our wish list to be acquired. While I was clearing my room yesterday, I found some badges worn or attained during my primary and secondary school days which made me feel pretty nostalgic.

Most of these badges I found were worn as part of my National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC) uniform during my secondary school days. Nothing could be more exciting, adventurous and memorable than joining a uniformed group as Co-Curricular Activity (CCA), something which was made compulsory by the Education Ministry to ensure every secondary school student lead a balanced and fulfilling school life. As I was pretty timid and reserved during my primary school days, joining a uniformed group had never crossed my mind initially. I was hoping to join a CCA that was more laid back just to earn enough points to meet the academic requirements to graduate from secondary school. However, my parents wanted me to join a uniformed group instead to toughen myself up for national service. There was a few uniformed group available in my secondary school namely National Police Cadet Crops (NPCC), National Cadet Corps (NCC) - Sea, Boys’ & Girls’ Brigade (BB & GB), St John Ambulance Brigade (SJAB) and Concert Band. Since I had ever been a member of the instrumental ensemble group before in primary school, joining the Concert Band seemed to be a good idea but they did not have any physical activities to toughen me up. I was not interested in becoming a first aider either and therefore SJAB was not in any of my choice. Although BB seemed to be a good choice, it is affiliated to the Christian faith requires its boys to participate in religious activities such as bible sessions which a non Christian family like mine was not comfortable with. NCC - Sea had many gruelling physical activities which my dad felt that it was not suitable for me after knowing from a senior member during my school CCA Open House event that because their activities were so physically demanding, all new members were required to undergo a health examination before joining. Hence NPCC became my only choice.

NPCC was a demanding CCA that required its members to devote much time and commitment to all its activities. Because it represents the Singapore Police Force, much emphasis were placed on regimentation. Every cadet regardless of rank was required to turn up in tip top attire with neatly ironed uniform and polished boots for parade every Saturday morning. The weekly parade consisted of activities such as foot drill (with baton or rifle) most of the time, theory or practical lessons on basic skills like First Aid, Crime Prevention, Fire Safety etc, Camp Craft (pitching of tents, knots & lashings and lighting kerosine oil lamps) and Physical Trainings (push ups, jumping, running etc). These activities were conducted by teacher officers (i.e. teachers appointed by the school principal to take charge of the CCA) or Cadet/Honorary Inspectors (Ex NPCC members who volunteered their time to take part in NPCC activities while studying in junior college, ITE, polytechnic or university) and administered by senior members in secondary 3 or 4, known as Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs). Every year, there were various activities such as Camping in school or Pulau Ubin island, Revolver Shooting, Camp Craft Competition, NPCC & National Day Parade happening during term time and school holiday. One of the proudest aspects of joining NPCC was the opportunity to experience training with weapon. There were foot drills involving the use of old rifles which were used during World War 2 and eventually distributed to all secondary schools and came under the custody of the school principal and maintained by NPCC members. All NPCC cadets also had the opportunity to fire the .22 revolver (carried by police women on duty) live at the Police Academy. After attending all the various activities, cadets feel proud upon passing the required tests and obtain the related badges.

Here are the descriptions of the above badges I attained.

(1) Civil Defence Proficiency Badge

This badge was awarded upon attending a 3 days course conducted by the Singapore Civil Defence Force on basic First Aid & Fire Fighting and passing the theory and practical test. Somehow, I missed the session which the entire cohort of secondary 3 and 4 cadets went to the community centre near our school for this course and had to go to one of the Civil Defence camp together with few other cadets to attend this course.

(2) NPCC Safety First Proficiency Badge

This was the very first badge I obtained and was awarded upon passing the theory test consisting of few multiple choice questions on traffic signs and rules. One of the teacher officers conducted a short lesson on this topic followed by the theory test which was fairly simple.

(3) NPCC Crime Prevention Proficiency Badge

This badge was awarded upon passing the theory test consisting of few multiple choice questions on Crime Prevention. One of the teacher officers conducted a short lesson on this topic followed by the theory test which was fairly simple.

(4) NPCC Neighbourhood Watch Proficiency Badge

This badge was awarded upon passing the theory test consisting of few multiple choice questions on Neighbourhood Watch. One of the teacher officers conducted a short lesson on this topic followed by the theory test which was fairly simple.

(5) Singapore Anti Narcotics Association (SANA) Anti Drug Abuse Badge

This badge was awarded upon attending a 3 days course conducted by SANA on anti drug abuse, passing the theory test and completion of a small project. From what I recall, this course was conducted like once every year and I was one of the 4 cadets (2 males and 2 females) chosen by our main teacher officer during secondary 3 to attend. This torturing 3 days course consisted of long hours of lectures. The SANA volunteers talked about the various types of drug and how people abuse them while police officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) shared how they detect, arrest and prevent people from abusing or smuggling drugs. This course was conducted at SANA headquarter which was located at Orchard, near The Forum shopping mall at that time. Fortunately, we were dressed in our full NPCC uniform while attending the lessons because the air-conditioning in their lecture room was so cold. We were given $3 per day for lunch by NPCC headquarter which was obviously not sufficient given the fact that a proper meal cost more at Singapore prime shopping district. To save the hassle, the 4 of us including many other attendees settled our lunch at the fast food restaurant across the course venue. When we were dispersed for lunch in our full NPCC attire, there were many curious tourists (mostly And Mohs) wondering why there were so many policemen and policewomen out on the streets. LOL

(6) NPCC Drill Proficiency Badge (3rd Class)

This badge was awarded upon passing the test on giving commands to a squad to perform basic foot drill.

(7) NPCC Drill Proficiency Badge (2nd Class)

This badge was awarded upon passing the test on giving commands to a squad to perform foot drill with rifle.

(8) NPCC Name Tag

Every NPCC cadet wears a name tag above the left breast pocket.

(9) Singapore Police Force Crest

Every NPCC cadet wears this crest above the left eye on his/her beret.

(11) NPCC Unit Formation Logo

Every NPCC cadet wears the formation (school) logo on both side to show which unit (school) he/she is from.

The non NPCC badges include ..

(10) Presbyterian High School (PHS) Badge

Every PHS student wears this school badge above the left pocket of the shirt/blouse. Before I was enrolled into the school, the school logo was different and the badge was sewn onto the shirt/blouse at the same position. When I enrolled into the school, the logo changed and after students complained about being uncool/childish wearing a cloth badge, the school decided to switch to this metal badge which is worn by existing students till today. Although it looks more fancy wearing a metal badge, there is a chance of getting poked by the safety pin if we are not careful. Moreover, some students may forget to wear this school badge when they are in a rush and risk being caught and booked by prefects.

(12 - 14) National Swimming Survival Award (Bronze, Silver, Gold)

These badges were awarded upon passing the National Swimming Survival test conducted by Singapore Sports Council. The test consisted of 3 parts. First, candidates were required to tread water for several minutes in their pyjamas (shirt and trousers) attire followed by removing the pyjamas, tying knots on both ends of the trousers and blow air into it to form a "float" and used it to swim for half a lap without having feet touching the floor or holding on to the edges of the swimming pool. Immediately thereafter, the candidate would be required to swim for several laps without feet touching the floor or holding on to the edges to complete test. Finally, candidates were expected to come out of the swimming pool without the use of the ladder to pass the test. This test was supposed to simulate the scenario of falling into the sea, swimming to shore and climb up via the rocks. The duration of treading water and number of lap increases as the candidate progressed from Bronze to Gold award.

Looking at these old badges certainly makes me feel having some sense of achievements during my school days and motivates me to obtain more certificates in future.

Interesting Facts About The Equator

Most people know that the Equator is just an imaginary line dividing the northern and southern hemisphere of the earth. The Geography lesson which we had in school taught us that the latitude is 0 degree at the Equator and places in this region have constant high temperature, high humidity, high amount of rainfall and consistent amount of daylight throughout the year. The Equator is therefore perceived nothing more than just an important reference point on the world map. However, there are interesting facts about the Equator which our Geography lessons did not cover for unknown reasons.

Here are some of the interesting facts about the Equator.

Ideal Location For Spaceports

The earth bulges slightly at the Equator, making its diameter approximately 43 km greater than that at the poles. This feature makes places near the Equator ideal location for spaceports (e.g. spacecraft launching stations). As the earth regions around the Equator rotate at higher speed, less fuel is required to launch spacecraft.

Lesser Gravitational Force

It is believed that there is lesser gravity at places near the Equator than those nearer to the poles for 2 reasons. The first reason is bulging of the earth nearer to the Equator (similar to the point mentioned above) makes it further away from the centre of the inner earth, thereby reducing the gravity. The second reason is the presence of more centrifugal force at the Equator to reduce the gravity.

Absence of Coriolis Force

The Coriolis Effect is an important phenomenon that explains why water and air flows in opposite direction on the 2 hemispheres of the earth. In the northern hemisphere, water and air flows in the counter clockwise direction whereas in the southern hemisphere, they flow in a reverse direction. As mentioned above that the earth bulges slightly at the Equator, regions of the earth near the Equator spins faster than those nearer to the poles. As a result, air that travels in the direction of the Equator to the north pole gradually diverts to the right as the earth spins from west to east. The situation is similar for water flowing out of the sink. If you are still unclear, watch this video that explains the Coriolis Effect. Since the Coriolis Force acts in a north south direction, the Equator being the line that divides the north and south has no Coriolis Force. You would probably be interested like me to conduct a simple experiment yourself at home after learning about this Coriolis Force theory. I had observed that the water flows in a single direction downwards in the sink, toilet bowl and bath tub in my home. In fact, you really cannot rely on the sink, toilet bowl and bath tub for this simple experiment as which direction water would flow depends on the design of the piping system. Obviously, you would need a setup that eliminates all other variables which is shown in this video.

Due to the 3 interesting facts mentioned above, there are 2 interesting phenomenons observed at the Equator. As there is lesser gravity at the Equator, a person naturally weighs slightly lesser and would encounter difficulty walking in a straight line along the Equator because of conflicting gravitational pull from the north and south. There was also a simple experiment which a few poker cards (stacked together) placed along the Equator line were glued onto the palm of a man (without using any adhesive) when he touched them and slowly moved his palm upwards. It is also supposed to be seemingly easier to make an egg stand on the tip of a nail at the Equator. No where else on earth other than the Equator would produce such effects. The second phenomenon related to the Coriolis Force is that water neither swirl in a clockwise or counter clockwise direction. Instead, it flows downwards from a sink onto a pail when the experiment was conducted.

There are 11 countries in the world which are traversed by the Equator. These countries include São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. Some of these countries have erected monument at their Equator line. Ecuador, being particularly proud of its equatorial location has a monument known as Mitad del Mundo located 26 km north of its capital city, Quito. Mitad del Mundo was built to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the French Geodesic Mission, an 18th-century scientific expedition intended to help determine whether the earth’s circumference was greater at the Equator or around the poles. Every year, thousands of visitors flock to this attraction not because of its fanciful souvenir shops, posh cafeterias or interesting museum. Rather, these visitors are hoping to have photos of them with each foot on one side of the Equator taken and to witness interesting phenomenons along the Equatorial line. Unfortunately, this monument was built at the wrong place. The actual location is in fact 240 metres further north of this monument. This mistake was unknown until the invention of Global Positioning System (GPS) in recent years which helped to determine a more accurate position. Although many people argue that GPS may produce different readings depending on how it is calibrated and is subjected to interference, it is definitely more accurate than measuring techniques used during the 18th-century. Despite this big mistake, Mitad del Mundo remains as a tourist attraction because the mistake is too expensive to be rectified. Fortunately, for visitors who insist on getting to the real Equatorial line, there are two other sites available. The first site is the privately-owned Intinan Museum which the owner claimed that the real Equatorial line traversed through based on GPS reading. The second site is the Quitsato Sundial, a cultural-tourist place located 47 km at North of Quito. The location of Quitsato Sundial was also proven by GPS to be 00 00 00 0 degree north (i.e. true Equator). Google Map shows Mitad del Mundo and Intinan Museum are near each other whereas Quitsato Sundial is some distance away.

If you are living in Asia, you may choose to visit the nearest Equatorial line in Indonesia instead of traveling a long voyage to Africa or South America. There are several places in Indonesia which the Equator passes as mentioned in this article. The nearest site from Singapore is Pontianak city which is about 631 km away. The best time to visit any Equatorial monuments is during the March and September equinoxes when the direct overhead sun produces no shadow.Similar to Ecuador, there are also controversies that some of these monuments no longer lie on the exact Equatorial line possibly due to the shifting location of the Equator (I really do not understand how this is possible). Perhaps if you have the chance to visit any of these monuments, you can verify the location yourself using the GPS function in your smartphone. All you need to do is to stand on the Equatorial line facing the east or west direction with a smartphone on your hands pointing to the direction you are facing. When the readings show you 0 00 00 degree north, congratulations for earning the experience to stand on the real Equatorial line! If not, please move northwards or southwards accordingly based on the readings. The real Equatorial line should not be so far away.



Despite all the controversies of the location of the Equatorial line, it is interesting to witness the phenomenons in all the sites which claim to be the exact location of the Equatorial line. This leads to questions of whether the location of the Equatorial line is constantly changing, whether readings from GPS is indeed accurate and whether the experiments conducted at those sites are conclusive. There is also a theory mentioning that the Equator itself is not a mere line of several millimeters thick but rather a line having a width of 5 km which explains why those phenomenons happen within the 5 km width. Whatever the case is, Equator monuments around the world continues to draw tons of visitors due to the fact that the Equator is an important reference point on the world map.  

Another interesting thing worth mentioning about the Equator is that there is a ritual known as the Line Crossing ceremony that commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the Equator. In this ceremony, sailors who have already crossed the Equator are nicknamed Shellbacks while those who have not crossed are nicknamed Pollywogs. Pollywogs are supposed to pay respect to King Neptune and endure a series of "hardships" administered by Shellback when the ship crosses the Equator. This tradition observed by ocean liners, merchant vessels and naval ships ensures that Pollywogs are capable of handling long rough times at sea in order to be promoted to a Shellback. Some cruise ships hold this ceremony for entertainment purpose as well.

Andre Rieu Orchestra

Recently, I am obsessed with watching YouTube videos on concerts performed by André Rieu, a well-known Dutch violinist and conductor. He is extremely successful in turning classical and waltz music into a worldwide concert touring act. I was glad to chance upon his magnificent concerts while searching for videos online.

Here are some of my favourite videos of his concerts and what I like about them.

Walking In The Air
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1-41Memra0

This is actually a song written for the 1982 animated film "The Snowman". This flim relates the fleeting adventures of a young boy and a snowman who flew to the North Pole in which this song is the theme for the journey. In this video, the concert itself was held during Christmas Eve at the castle which Andre lives in. Andre believes that nothing is more important than spending Christmas at home with his family, neighbors and loved ones which is the reason why this concert was held at his place of residence. This song was sung by 3 gorgeous soprano singers accompanied by a young magnificent ballerina who flew across the beautiful snow-filled castle during the concert.



Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWH3Hmsr5fM

This is a rather long and hard to pronounce word which is the title of a song from the 1964 Disney musical film "Mary Poppins". Although it may sound childish, it actually has the meaning of  "something to say when you have nothing to say". In this video, the singer "Mary Poppins" appeared by hanging in mid air and slowly made her descent to the stage. The song is humorous and very entertaining even to adults.


I Will Follow Him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqN9aS2S3L0

This song has always been an all-time favourite after it gained popularity worldwide through being featured at the end of the 1992 flim "Sister Act". Similar to how it appeared in the flim "Sister Act", a group of ladies started by singing the chorus before the lead singer took over. As seen in the video, many female audiences enjoyed the song so much that they began to dance and sing along. 


Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZb-SVm7eLE

There are several versions of this song and I believe this one is the most popular. Although Hallelujah is a Hebrew word which means 'Glory to the Lord', you would unexpectedly learn that this version of the song can be interpreted as having a sexual connotation from parts of the lyrics as follows:

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to the kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips, she drew the Hallelujah


Can't Help Falling In Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuH_90giGTQ

A pop ballad originally recorded by the legendary American singer Elvis Presley which took the world by storm was once again enjoyed by thousands in Maastricht, the hometown of Andre. I adore the way Andre played the tune on his violin while thousand of audiences sang this song while dancing with their partners. The dance performance which the male dancer carried the female wheelchair-bound dancer up in the air and swing was simply stunning. In fact, I can feel the solemness of the audiences and the performances reaffirming their love to their partners through this video. Hence, it is no doubt this is my favourite video of all!


My Heart Will Go On
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3SfufW6D74

Many people are familiar with this theme song for the 1997 American romance-disaster film "Titanic". In this video, the song blends well with the stunning ice-skating performance together with the beautiful square in Vienna.


Once Upon A Time In The West
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf_KXyMaoB8

This was the soundtrack for the 1968 epic Spaghetti Western film portraying two conflicts that take place around Flagstone, a fictional town in America: a land battle related to construction of a railroad, and a mission of vengeance against a cold-blooded killer. It was composed by the renowned Italian composer, Ennio Morricone who is one of my favourite.


The Godfather Main Title Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSxxQcVd2MU

This was the soundtrack for the 1972 American crime film "The Godfather". Although I have not watched this film and the one mentioned just above, both soundtrack are melodious to me. I believe they relate to the aspects the the film very well.


Personally, I like the way which Andre held most of his concerts in an open area which ensures natural ventilation and gives his audiences some space to dance along with the music. All his performers are very well-dressed like him in regards to the concerts. Perhaps the most important factor for his success is the professionalism of him and his orchestra. Besides making the audiences dance and sing along with the music, some of his performances also make them cry. I certainly hope to attend his concert someday.