The World of Tai Tai

'Spiritual Awakening' is what defines W. Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil Kitty Garstin, the main character who squanders the prime time of her youth by flirting around with men, is urged by her domineering mother to marry Walter Fane, a serious, laconic bacteriologist lest she become an old maid. After getting married, she moves to Hong Kong with him, but quickly finds him a great bore. She has an affair with Charles Townsend, a handsome man who is the assistant colonial secretary in Hong Kong. One day, Walter tells Kitty that he knows everything about her infidelity and threatens to divorce her on the grounds of adultery, which she fears. Walter Will only let her go if she can get Charles to divorce his wife and marry her instantly. If she fails, she has to join him on a trip to cure the sick in a cholera-ravaged area in China. Kitty goes to Charles' office and asks him to marry her. To her dismay, Charles refuses to divorce his wife, insisting that it will...

The novel is written by Ping Ping Wong, the youngest sibling of my Bruneian cousin's Singaporean husband. In this book she shares the ups and downs she faces as a British born Chinese through a fictitious character. Before becoming a full time writer, she worked several years as a theater actress in London. Once during her childhood, she was offered a role as a Vietnamese girl in a James Bond movie. She pitched her novel to many publishers and finally a publisher in England decided to publish it.                                     Beautiful and statuesque, speaking letter perfect English, Ping Ping is  happily married to an English man. She is also the founder cum editor of Bananawriters, a writers' society which aims to uncover writing talents in Asia. I have the Kindle version of the book. ...

The wind picked up momentum, swirling up sand that made their eyes blink.  The change in the weather came so sudden that it threw Ting Kok and Mok Lan off guard. A storm was imminent but they were many blocks away from their apartment. Ting Kok gazed up furtively and saw that scudding black clouds had obscured the moon. He inadvertently tightened his arms around Tai Tai's pudgy body and the child let out a surprised whimper. Mok Lan, carrying Weng Weng, their youngest child in one arm, fished out a towel from her bag and struggled to cover the baby's delicate body against the the wind that whipped her hair around her face.  Ah Hui, the eldest child, was walking closely to Ting Kok's side bucking the wind, her hand lifting the dangling hem of his coat over her head. Tucked under Ting Kok's lapel in the crook of his muscular arms, Tai Tai was insulated from the falling plumes of drizzle. He buried his face into the man's chest and his nervousness was still...

1. F. Scot Fitzgerald's This Side Of Paradise 2. J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey 3. Sandra Cisneros's Woman Hollering Creek & The House on Mango Street 5. William Faulkner's Light In August 6. Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle 7. Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine

For many years I have been the main subject of contempt.  The first day I reported for duty at my present school, I was scoffed by my ex principal and many colleagues for my inferior achievement in English. I only obtained a C4 in SPM, a relative low grade compared to those of the other English teachers. Unbeknownst to the contemptuous lot, I had been an avid reader of novels after SPM and my proficiency was far beyond the grade that had pigeonholed me. Apart from my own effort, there was a person who played an important role in improving my English. He was the late Brother Albinus, a La Salle brother who always corrected the way I spoke and wrote during my two years' stint at St. Patrick, Kuching. Throughout my 17 years at SMK St. Joseph, many different Panatias have observed me and I am in their bad books. For one thing, I have always made a botch of things in my lessons. My class control is weak. For the other, their so-called sufficient knowledge of grammar deludes...

                                  Today, from 2.00 to 4.40 p.m., I attended an in-house training on cooperative learning at my school.  I found it interesting and inspiring. Many thanks to my principal, Mr. Ng Meng Heong for inviting Mr. Marcus Raja, a renowned academic to give such a great talk. With panache and flair, he made us grasp the whole enchilada of the innovative approach through fun-filled group activities. After the training, I could see that every teacher was raring to implement what they had learnt in their respective classes. It would surely give a new breath of life to my prosaic lessons.  Of all the teaching-learning activities, I liked 'Running Dictation' the most. It requires students to work in a group of four with two persons as runners and the other two as note-takers. The teacher puts...

During the first English Department meeting, my Ketua Bidang told us to carry out 'A Word A Day' and 'A Proverb A Day' in our respective classes. Feeling that idioms were important too, I asked if she wanted to consider adding 'An Idiom A day' to the programme but it brought a look of incredulity and annoyance to  her face. Looking at me over the rim of her glasses, she said, 'Are you out of your mind? Proverbs and idioms are the same!' "No, they are not the same,' I gasped. 'Proverbs are wise sayings while idioms are sentences with metaphorical meaning.' Silence ruled around the table, not a teacher dared to agree with me. 'Everyone,' said the Ketua Bidang, rolling her eyes. 'Let's move on to the next agenda.' 'Madam,' I persisted. 'I'm trying to reason with you. Idioms should not be confused with proverbs.' The Ketua Bidang went on talking in total disregard for me, her fac...

Tomorrow is Sunday, the following are what I'm planning to do: 1. Have brekkie at 2020 Cafe. Will order Laksa 2. Attend mass 3. Reading books in the library 4. Buy a book or two at Popular Bookstore 5. Have lunch at Curry House, love its curry rice. 6. Nap for two hours, then mark my students' essays. 7. Have dinner at Papa's house. Mama does proper boss scran.

Ever since school reopened, I've found it difficult to continue indulging in my hobby - reading. My attention strays in all directions and reading each page is painfully laborious because my heart is half-drowsy with job-related stress. Despite the strong keenness to deliver my best in teaching, hardly any one seems to be appreciative of my hard work. The sight of reluctant learners, nit-picking power mongers and limited resources saps my spirit. Somehow I know I ought not to be disheartened by all this. For the sake of my students and myself, I should work up my nerve to overcome all the adversity.

'Come, Mr Lo,' said my new Panatia, motioning for me to come over to his desk. 'Look at the first two sentences of this essay.' I came up to his desk and he handed me a piece of paper. The first two sentences of the student's essay read, '2015 did not rise like a phoenix from the ashes of 2014. It was ushered in amidst crises but I am determined as ever in making my annual resolutions.'  I glanced at the title and it was my new year's resolutions, almost similar to the assignment I gave my students.  'What's wrong with the sentences?' I asked, baffled.  'Can't you see that the sentences are over the top?' He exclaimed. 'It's like a walk through the street in a tuxedo!'  'I think they are alright,' I said.'The student was trying to be creative, and she did a good job.'  'But the simile of the first sentence is atrocious!' retorted the young man.  'As far as I know,' I sai...

I only had two periods of English on the first day of school. I was assigned to teach four classes and my total teaching hours are 20. For the first time in 17 years, I was given a class of Form Four. The first group of students that I dealt with was a Form One class.  The students were so quiet that I could literally hear my own breathing when I introduced myself and briefed them on the do's and don'ts in my lessons. Shy and passive as they were, their faces were full of expectation and I told myself I should give it my all in teaching them. Over the years, I had had more than my fair share of first day blunders and I was determined to change that. 'Stop playing everything by ear,' I thought to myself, 'And plan systematically from now on.' During the teaching-learning session, I had the students introduce themselves. I elicited Wh-questions and responses from the students and write out a cloze dialogue as a model to teach them speaking. The studen...

The first light found me yawning on my way to church in Papa's car. I had slept early the night before but a sudden suffocating feeling jerked me awake around 2 a.m. Despite my heavy eyes, I could not resume sleeping. I killed time reading some short stories and surfing the Internet.  When Papa's Myvi arrived at my gate, I was really overcome by sleepiness. On the way, we dropped Ah Hui, my catechist older sister at the bus terminal in Padang Kerbau, where she took a bus to Batu Niah. The town's church congregation depends on her to run their Sunday school. Half an hour before the Sunday Mass started, a man led the congregation in reciting the rosary. I closed my eyes through the session, too sleepy to thumb through the beads. From time to time, Papa launched into his usual coughing fits, but he kept declining my proffered bottle of mineral water. He did not see it fit to drink in church. 'There's nothing wrong with it,' I gasped. 'You're unwe...

'Mr Lo, stop it!' barked the facilitator, a big Tamil woman, who had been observing me at the back of the conference room. 'You are misleading the others!' 'What's wrong?' I said in confusion. I was attending a course on the teaching of grammar, and in the midst of my group presentation, the facilitator interrupted me. 'Everyone, don't be fooled by what you see,' said the facilitator, pointing at my Powerpoint presentation. 'The instruction says fill in the blanks with the right 'Verbs to do'. But there is no such grammatical term in English. They are actually called action verbs!' Noisy murmurs rippled through the participants, who were all teachers like me. 'With due respect, madam, it is too early to make such an assumption, ' I said in my defence. 'There are verbs to have, verbs to be, and surely there are VERBS TO DO, an alternative term for action verbs!' 'Nonsense!' shouted the ...

'As a PT3 grader,' reminded my Ketua Panatia a week before the PT3 examination, "you should grade exam scripts with integrity.' PT3 was implemented to replace PMR in October 2014 and everything started from scratch. Let us study the continuum of the school-based examination, which ranges from the downloading of a randomly picked exam paper from the MOE website, the printing of the exam paper, the appointment of invigilators, the grading of student scripts by subject teachers, the moderation of scores by the head of the department to the validation of scores by the regional assessor. It is meticulous, time-consuming and tedious. To my chagrin, my grading was considered under par by the regional assessor, who censured me for being too lenient with some students. All this while, before PT3, I had been rather strict in grading. However, during the moderation of scores, my Panatia frowned at some low scores of my students and advised me not to be too strict....

Blogging has never been easy for me. My mind is inundated with a lot of ideas and I have difficulty putting them into words, poor word choice and grammar often getting in my way. I have a habit to re-read my posts and do countless editing, but still, more and more errors will rear their ugly heads. I've never grown tired of this process, and I enjoy the thrill of learning from my errors. Sometimes, I email some of my posts to my reporter cousin in London and have her edit them. I treasure every piece of her feedback and resolve to improve myself from time to time. When I am not blogging, I visit some popular blogs and examine their ideas and writing styles. I also try to see things from their point of view in order to broaden my horizon.   Ironically, I find it easier to write when my life is unmoored by sorrow. I will attempt to write short stories and infuse them with my sentiments. However, I tend to wax poetic and the stories will become painfully lengthy, too wordy fo...

I seldom write about food, and let me try my hands on it again. I was in Ipoh from 14th to 16th December. Throughout my two-day sojourn, I had tried a lot of famous eats, the likes of Buntong Beef noodles, Funny Hill Soya milk, Popiah, Taugeh Chicken Horfun and Dim Sum. I was most impressed with the Taugeh Chicken Horfun at Ong Kee Cafe. Strictly speaking, Ong Kee was not the most famous eatery for Taugeh Chicken Horfun. The most famous being Lau Wong Cafe, a pioneer restaurant that stood opposite the former, divided by a narrow street. However, it was closed during my stay in Ipoh, thus denying me the opportunity to sample its signature horfun. Situated kitty corner from Lou Wong was Lou Leong Cafe, a spin-off in the same league as Ong Kee. I had tried its Horfun but its MSG-loaded soup made me swig water frequently through the night. Let's go into the whole Ong Kee's Taugeh Chicken Horfun shebang - the  Horfun noodles, the chicken and the Taugeh.  The smooth...

Last night, a few moments after I drifted into a slumber, a dark figure loomed by my side, pulled my blanket over my face and smothered me. Gasping for air, I struggled frantically in an attempt to push him away but my strength was too little against his. Just as I began to lose my consciousness, I whispered St. Micheal and all of a sudden, a loud 'pop' shook the room and the suffocating pressure on my face was gone. I realized that I had been dreaming. How realistic it was!

The first batch of students sat for PT3 in October 2014, and the high casualty of failures for the English paper drew heavy flak from both teachers and parents. The nation is rife with teachers' lamentations that they had too little time to prepare their students for the exam. "We gave a lot of remedial lessons and mock exams," complained a colleague. "But they did not commensurate with the students' low receptivity of new knowledge." That said, over the years, little effort had been put in to equip the students with the required skills to effectively utilize the language. Unlike PMR, PT3 English stresses the mastery of various grammatical items, the mapping out of ideas, and the application of creative and critical thinking skills, which were lacking in the former. According to my observation, English had mostly been taught in a dull, insipid manner that dictated the students to memorize answers without making sense of what they had learned. PT3 unr...

I was drifting down an expanse of dark waters, paddling my arms alternately in circular motions to keep myself afloat. Icy-coldness enveloped me and each movement was an exertion. My skin turned raw from over-exposure to water and my manhood was at its most shriveled self. Waves buffeted me from every direction. There were some unidentified objects around me, but when I clung to them for support, they disintegrated and became smaller lumps which were too unlikely to sustain my weight. I sank and took a few gulps of briny water, which rushed down my throat and into my lungs, and the pain was so sharp that I felt like my own insides were deflating, caving in on each other .  With a burst of panic, I pushed my head through the choppy surface and coughed out the water. Gasping fitfully with relief, I gazed at the sky through my blurred vision and experienced an overweening sense of smallness and helplessness within me. How vulnerable I was in the wide arms of the sea. The...

Can you hone your speaking skills without reading or writing? I rely on extensive reading to give me the required skills to speak in English, but the Ministry of Education said that it was not the right way to learn how to speak. To them, speaking should come naturally from the students. In other words, the teachers should provide their students a good environment to generate the language. "Prompt the students to speak without having them read or write anything in the first five months of the year," said a master teacher. "When the period is over , expose them to speaking and writing in English." However, can every Malaysian teacher give their students a good stimulus for speaking? The ministry does not provide any listening tapes to schools and they might not even be in the pipeline. Plus, not all the teachers speak letter perfect English. A lot of them even failed in the recently held proficiency test. Why is the Ministry so confident that it will be a ...

This year, if some colleagues and parents do not want me to teach their children, I am willing to let them go to any class as they please. I am not qualified to teach their so-called language prodigies. Last year, a father kept complaining and I let go of his daughter, all because I gave her a low 62%. In her new class, her score rose sky high to 88%. Believe me or not, some of them claim that their children can write quality, if not award winning stories, articles and novels. I may not be as strict as the other teachers( I was once strict but went overboard), but strict teachers do not necessarily teach better English.