An English Tuition Teacher

So it's been almost 2 months since I started teaching English. What has this taught me? You can't reach out to everyone. There will be weaker students whom you really want to help and guide but unfortunately concentrating on them would make it a little unfair to those who can progress a little faster. So what can I do? I guess that's where creativity and interests come in. I try to lace my classes with nuggets of general knowledge to draw their attention. Try to slip in a joke or two (but they're way funnier than me actually) and sometimes even draw some things on the board (I'm horrible at art so that tickles them).

It's been a fun two months actually. Have always looked forward to the classes. It dawned to me that they really are still innocent (at least most of them) and that actually makes me realize that being a kid must be one of the best things in the world.

I am fortunate to have a majority of my students being Malay as I speak pretty ok BM. In a way I hope that somehow my character and attitude in teaching them breaks down some barriers on their perception of the Chinese race. It is really sad to see that Malaysia is still a pretty much racists country. We put on a front when dealing with other races but lambast them whenever we talk amongst ourselves.

I do hope to impress upon them the beauty of the English language and change their mindset that it is just something that they should learn and study. I hope I can instill in them a sense of appreciation on the art that one can create with words. I think that these are the actual first steps that I am taking towards really teaching and guiding students. 

That's the novel that the Form 3 students have to learn this year. It makes for a very interesting read. Reading it makes me admire the style of writing of the authors then. I doubt that I'll ever be able to write like that. Sentences like  

"...and it was as an ordinary secret sinner that I at last fell before the assaults of temptation."

"Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures; and that when I reached years of reflection, and began to look round me, and take stock of my progress and position in the world, I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life."

It's just beautifully written. I like the philosophical idea behind the whole book too. An inherent evil in men that when entertained and fed would emerge as dominant. Not that I agree with it of course.

Valentines

So I decided to surprise my fiancee? wife? still confused lol.
I think whoever has done this before can attest to what I'm about to blog about.
All the sneaking around and finding time to get the best things isn't easy but it was actually kinda fun.
So, went to Mid Valley to get her gift (a musical box) then walked around for about 2 hours thinking what would be suitable (yeah I'm a little on the fussy side when it comes to buying stuff).
Got some candles (the nice wavy ones), a candlestick that fits 2 candles, a tri-candle holder thingy and a bottle of red wine.

Had to act as though I never prepared anything (previous years we always celebrated before or after Valentines to avoid the astronomical price hike on all items and also the crowd).
Accidentally piqued her curiosity and made her a little pissed when I said that I had someone else secret to keep that I can't tell her till Thursday (Valentines was on a Tuesday).

Sneaked of that morning to buy nice dinner plates and a corkscrew.
Ordered some food from a restaurant nearby (to be picked up at night), the usual, salads and spaghetti. Went to Secret Recipe to order her favourite cake (American brownies) and mine (chocolate indulgence).
I wanted to cook but due to my previously disastrous spaghetti attempt I thought it would be more romantic if I didn't give her post Valentines diarrhea...
Took about 2 hours to pick the dinner plates..told you I was fussy...
Hid the plates in the post box when i came back...yeah...I had no idea where else to hide it.

After she left for work I started cleaning the house. OMG, I really hate sweeping and mopping the floor. I takes me like an hour and a half to finish it. Cleared up the 'long overdue for storing' Christmas tree and other little things. I have to admit, I got the cleaning up thing from the net. Apparently girls appreciate that... :D Placed some candles at strategic places...learned how to fold a heart shaped napkin...
Chin Ming Jian was really kind enough to drive me around to collect the food and get a pair of wine glasses and desert plates.
The waiter conveniently forgot my order and said we had to wait for half an hour. Half an hour went by and he said that the kitchen was closed.
That was one of the extremely rare moments when I released my anger in public.
He definitely got some. Thinking back...maybe I was a little harsh. The place was packed to the brim with people waiting for empty tables and he was running around like crazy...

Anyways, made a mad dash to Secret Recipe and thank God their kitchen was still open. Why the mad dash? It's because at any moment she would go home and see the table spread out.

Sorry about the lighter and the lack of wine glasses. This was before I managed to get em. Mr Chin was a great friend that night. He helped me prepare the food etc while I got prepared. He also convinced me to get a flower for her. Owe him a big one.
Lit the candles and waited...

Awesome...

Thank you!

Got an early Valentines gift from Choon Hui yesterday!

Thank you so much for the gift!
In case you guys wanna know, I'm a little crazy over flashlights and this baby puts out 820 lumens (a light measurement).
For comparison purposes, I hope to take some pics later but basically your standard old school yellow flashlight puts out about 10-30 lumens. This one puts out 820...

Chinese New Year

I went back to my hometown, Malacca, for 5 days. Arrived on the eve of the new year just in time for a little makan2 with my family. My dad is a Baba or a peranakan so in the past, whenever I use to bring my friends back for a little visit they always felt a little weird that a house full of Chinese speaks BM. And a pretty 'rojak' BM at that as we tend to use 'gua' and 'lu' to substitute aku and awak/engkau. Anyways, I've always been a little of a non-Baba in my family as I don't really like the traditional kuihs, I can't really take spicy food. I've only quite recently acquired a taste for them. When I was small I would avoid them as it would seem that I took a dry bath whenever I ate spicy food. I could always add a little extra flavour to my dishes with all that sweat streaming down my face. Ergh, that sounded a little disgusting...

Back to Chinese New Year this year. It was a subdued affair as my favourite Aunt, or at least the one that my family is closest to was ill. We always stay at her place whenever we go back to Malacca. She has a weak heart valve and she can't go for an op due to her advanced age (she's 75). She has been hanging on for the past year and it breaks my heart to see her looking so thin and frail. Sigh... But that's life I guess. Everyone's got to face old age and death sooner or later.

Kinda made me think about the measure of success in ones life. How do you measure it? For a Christian I guess it would be serving Him well and loving out neighbours.

What about the secular world? For some Chinese it would be to have attained a lot of wealth and having a good family. My personal opinion is this. I think I would measure my success in life by the number of people who actually loved me when I lived. Not just like, but LOVE. Mushy? A little. But nevertheless I think it to be true.

I keep wondering away from the topic...
Anyways, she was discharged on the eve of the new year so that she can be at home to celebrate with her family. At least that's nice. The damn doctor actually said this "I would like her to remain here for observation so that we can respond fast if she faces any complications. But I understand that it being Chinese New Year and all, she would like to be with her family. But if anything actually does happen to her, don't bring her back here as we are short of staff. All my colleagues took leaves and I'm one of the only doctors around. You can bring her back on Monday if anything happens". Seriously... what the hell?? Being a little old I think he's getting a little senile. Has he forgotten what the function of a hospital really is?

So my cousin lit up some firecrackers that night (to keep the tradition alive). It was pretty lively as quite a few houses along the street did the same. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Spent the next few days welcoming visitors (to my aunts house) and visiting some others. Strangely, my cousins didn't actually have lots of gambling sessions this year. I guess everyone is drifting apart as we get older.

Spent the midnight of the eighth day of Chinese New year with Choon Hui's family (my wife? fiancee? still a little confused... :D ). My gosh, Klang was at war. I was at the highway when it was midnight and I had a clear view of the Klang sky. At any one time for at least an hour there were at least 4 sets of fireworks being lit. Like I've mentioned to quite a number of people, every time one of them goes off i think RM10, RM10 RM10 RM50 RM50.... I think the ones that shoots up really high and explodes into many pretty little lights costs around RM600 per box. That's a bloody expensive minute of fun.

It begins...

I've always thought of blogging but I've always put it off for some reason. I guess this is as good a time to start as any. Some people blog for attention, some because they're bored. I'm not really into this stuff, heck I've hardly even read any blogs except for the political malaysiatoday. So why am I doing this then? I just want to...write... Yes, that's it. To write. I've been slogging through scientific writing for the past 8 years and I just want an avenue to release whatever 'freestyle' writing that's in me. I actually miss the essays that we had to do during school. Time to get my creative juices flowing.