The World of Tai Tai

Over the course of the first twenty days of the new school year, I realized that my teach ing had been spiraling out of control.  Although the amount of assignments had increased, it failed to keep pace with the slow learning students as evident by pages of unanswered questions in their exercise books, especially those in Dua Niah, a class of fourteen-year-olds who seemed slow in learning and, at times, rather naughty.   To remedy the situation, a thought struck me:  teach the students how to write through drilling.  Give them a foundation.  For several days, after some trial and error, I came up with a worksheet that I thought would motivate the students.  With the eagerness of a child, I took the worksheets to Dua Niah.  As I was about to introduce the activity, the sight of some dazed-looking students and others caught up in their busy chatter, dampened my spirits.  Taking a deep breath, I raised my voice and said, “Class, today I’ve some...

                      Mr. Hong - 6th from left, the headmaster                               who inspired me to learn English Prior to Primary Six, learning English had never been easy for me.  English was the only subject taught in a foreign tongue, so it was a living nightmare for nearly every pupil since for many of us it was our third language, rarely, if ever, spoken at home or among friends. Unfortunately, whoever taught us had the habit of following what had been prescribed in the textbooks, to the letter—so utterly predictable and boring that even when singing the language, we were glued to our seats, mechan ical ly clapping our hands or waving our arms.  The confident ones could say the words out loud, while the rest of us mumbled or mouthed them voicelessly.   Our lessons were mostly characterized by reading aloud and filli...