The World of Tai Tai

The following are the twelve most significant moments of my life in year 2010: 1. January-- I overcame depression. I had been depressed for the whole of 2009. Consistent prayers and family support helped me change my mindset. 2. February - I received the calling letter for my promotional interview. 3. March - I attended the promotional interview. 4. April -- The government of Brunei gave my Mum a house. She had applied for it for 15 years. 5. June -- The Ministry of Education notified me that I had passed my promotional interview. 6. July -- I taught a special group of students. 7. October -- I received the appointment letter of my promotion. 8. November - Mum fainted and was admitted to hospital. I was thunderstruck by the news. 9. December - 1) Mum had to resign from her caretaker post in Seria's Old Folks Home. Her head honcho who is my uncle thought she was superannuated. His decision infuriated me. 10. December-2) Mum's chest X-ray showed that there w...

Mum, You have just notified them about your resignation on the phone. It must have taken you a lot of courage to do it. I know you have put in much commitment and dedication to your caretaker post. It has been your pride and your life. Taking care of old folks is a heavy responsibility but you have executed it well. However, the people around you are blind and cruel. Your contributions have always been under-appreciated. In their prejudiced minds you are too old and strict for your post. Kinship and friendship are not prized things to them. Your honesty in handling donations has perpetually been met with hostility by the ill-intent lot. You have been able to deal with them in stride. Mum, none of them has shown their concern to you ever since you collapsed a few weeks ago. They hinted to many people that you should resign without telling you to your face. It must have been hard for you to cope with such pressure. They are crooks to boot. Deep in your heart you knew that you had no...

One day, I asked a colleague if I could read her students' essays. She shook her head and told me that their work was not with her. " It's okay," said I, "I can read their essays the next time they hand in their exercise books." "Are you sure you want to read their work?" asked the woman. "Yes, they are the best students in Secondary Two. I am sure their writing is of good quality." She paused for a while and said, " You're right, they are the cream of the crop. They have an edge over others in writing." "I am sure that is because of your proper guidance." "Of course, I have always shown them good writing techniques." She seemed to be very proud of herself and her students. " I could hardly construct simple sentences when I was fourteen years old." I said humbly. "They sure have read a lot of books." "I am an avid reader myself," declared the fifty-ish lad...

The sun is peeking over the horizon. Its hazy streams of light penetrate through the windows along the cloistered corridor. Tendrils of shadows stretch themselves up the walls until their heads touch the arched ceiling. They form an intriguing archway illusion which gradually diminishes towards a dark, hollow room in the farthest end of the age-worn walkway. From the other end of the corridor, Tsin is inching in the direction of the room. The remnant cold of last night’s heavy rain sends a shiver through her thin, frail body. She instinctively pulls her collar tighter around her sagged neck. The sun rays that pour in can hardly mitigate the chill. She would have made nothing of it had she been in her teens. How fast time has elapsed. No one can stay young and fit forever. She sighs and draws a deep breath. The damp, fetid smell of the peeling walls invades her nostrils, making her wonder when the building was abandoned. Could it be in mid 1940s or late 1950s? She shakes her head in u...

During recess one morning , a boy came up to my desk in the teachers' staffroom. "Sir," said he, "what should I do to widen my English vocabulary?" "You should read more books," I replied, smiling. I had been marking exercise books at my desk before the interruption. "Do you still read books, sir?" the boy went on. We were speaking in Chinese, by the way, and he seemed quite a humble and nice lad. "Yes, I do. I always read." "Do you still look up the meanings of words in dictionaries?" he asked again. Obviously very curious. "Of course, you should do the same too," said I, with a sagacious nod. The boy then went silent. He blinked and bit his lower lip. "What's wrong, Martin?" But he only shook his head and indicated towards the pile of books and dictionaries on my desk. "Sir, are these all yours?" "Yes." A mischievous spark shone in his eyes. "Sir...

I always feel that I don’t love my father enough. As a child, I was ashamed of him. He was unable to give a decent life to our family after suffering bankruptcy in his soy-sauce selling business. Being a good cook, he eked out a living for the family by selling steamed buns in an open-air market at nights. We lived a very frugal life. I always became the subject of mockery in school because everyone knew that I had no television , pocket money, toys and comic books. They found Papa's car particularly amusing. Whenever I arrived at school in it, they would laugh out loud and say "Here comes the lousiest car in town!" The derision deeply mortified me and I hated Pa for causing it. I can still remember how the car looked and sounded. It was a rusty, second-hand car which made a lot of chugging noise when moving along the road. As a teenager, I was always at odds with Papa over many things. He wanted me to take woodwork as my elective subject but I took commerce instead....

Friendship creates miracles It brings different people together And makes them open up to each other In the spirit of love, sincerity, tolerance and trust. Friendship brightens up darkness It soothes our pain, anxiety and fear No road is long with good company Friendship is the greatest gift of our life.

As a child and teenager, I had trouble learning English. I was very slow on the uptake. It took me a great deal of courage to speak a few words of English to my English teachers, my mother's non-Chinese friends and my English-speaking cousins. My writing was even worse. It was replete with silly spelling and grammatical errors. I always scraped through my English monthly tests and semester examinations. Little did I know I would become an English teacher one day. Nineteen years ago, I surprised everyone in my family with my decision to be an English teacher. However, I failed the entrance test to the Teacher Training college three times . Refusing to give up, I put in more effort to polish my speaking and writing skills through consistent reading and watching of English television programmes. I was finally granted admission to the college in my fourth attempt. I was able to become a trained English teacher after three years of hard work. I was posted to SMK. XXX in 1997 and ha...

I made myself a laughing stock in Primary Four thirty years ago. One morning after recess, a team of health personnel came to my school to give all pupils free Dengue vaccinations. The sight of the white-clad men and women toting their tools and equipment into the the school's resource room gave almost everyone in my class the heebie-jeebies. Despite our form teacher's repeated reassurance that the pain caused by a single inoculation would be as slight as an ant bite, many tough boys and tough girls that I had known of grimaced and squealed in apprehension. Having a low pain threshold, I could not help shaking from head to toes. An overpowering sense of dread and foreboding washed over me. I had ever been bitten by fire ants before and the vicious pain was no joke. While waiting for our turn to have the injections, I kept thumbing through my Chinese textbook over and over again in a futile effort to calm myself down. Many minutes slipped by. A school prefect walked into our ...

I had difficulty waking up this morning. My head was heavy and my body aching all over. However, I still dragged myself to work. I believed I could put up with the minor discomfort well. After all, today was the last day of my school's examination week and I had only four classes to invigilate. The job would not be too strenuous. Contrary to what I had thought, my condition worsened when I was at school. I felt very tired and sleepy during the first two supervisions. I had to rub heat lotion on my forehead to keep myself awake. In the third session, I started feeling giddy. I crossed my arms on the teacher's desk and rested my groggy head on them. I realized I was running a temperature. Curious murmurs began to fill the classroom. To restore quietness in the classroom, I told the students about my fever. They were sympathetic towards me and fell silent obediently. What a considerate bunch they were! I had two free periods after the third invigilation. I fumbled inside my kn...

From the first blush of dawn until the closing of twilight, I only think about sleep. Because my school starts at 7 a.m., I have to wake up extremely early every morning. However, it is not easy for me to get up. I have to depend on my father to give me a wake-up call at 5a.m. What a spoiled, overage child I am! After dragging myself out of bed, I spend twenty to thirty minutes doing my ablutions. By 6.15a.m., Papa reaches my house and takes me to school in his little red Toyota Starlet. On the way, he drops me at the open-air market in town to buy a take-away breakfast. At school, I snatch a quick shuteye in each of my free periods. It replenishes my energy and helps me to stay focused on my teaching. If not, I will be groggy and my lessons will end up in a mess. I have a consistent napping routine every afternoon after school. I sleep for thirty minutes to one hour. I turn in at 9.30p.m. every night. Is that considered early? I go to sleep even earlier on weekends and during...

Age: 40 Hobbies: reading, writing and day-dreaming Job: Teacher