My students have no idea what on earth "Baywatch" is and they went like "who?" when I mentioned Pamela Anderson. It was only after I described her, uhm, surgical alterations only did they go like "Ohhhhhhh" and the boys start laughing.
Generation gap.
Come on, I am only x (insert single digit) years older than this bunch of kids. And it’s only my first year of teaching!
So sometimes I get messages on Friendster that goes like "ah I like steak and wine and long walks by the beach, why don’t we meet up some time?" and "Hi I am a 35-year-old accountant who is working as a financial planner, my mom is portugese while my dad’s chinese. I am 5ft7 and I work in KL. Would like to get to know you."
And early this morning, I get this: "can we exchange phne number to make fren pls?"
And he says that he is from Sri Garden, KTJ and University of Bristol.
Ah well.
*goes back to marking, highly amused*
I attended Eason Chan’s concert this January at Singapore Expo.
14th September, I’ll be amidst 30000 people at Bukit Jalil for Jacky Cheung’s concert.
simply.cannot.wait.
Work’s been good, thank you for asking. Decided to kacau my students today cos uh, I had told them earlier that I wouldn’t be able to make it for this particular class cos of some other official duties so got the rep to get them to do their own work.
Whatever I needed to do ended 15 minutes before the class was done, so I popped by the classroom to make sure that they were in there.
The moment I stepped in, some of them burst out in laughter. I suspect that they had plotted to leave earlier. But they refused to tell me anything.
Hillarious la the kids.
And of course, some of you would have watched the "Negarakuku" video on Youtube, heard about all the hoohaa about it.
I watched the video and was only mildly amused.
I mean, yea, ok, you would sort of call it a reflection of the "typical" Malaysian Chinese sentiments and I would commend the blogger’s courage to create and publish such a video in the Malaysian context. I mean, seriously, the quality wasn’t too bad.
What infuriated me were the uninformed and shallow comments left by the other Malaysian netizens. We all know that yes, there is something seriously wrong with whatever is happening in Malaysia now. But if we were to go by whatever they were stating/implying/insinuating, Malaysia could only become a better place if:
- Chinese became the leaders in everything
- Malays cow under the wise and virtuous Chinese leaders
- Indians (and other races) were conveniently forgotten (simply because it was such a Chinese-Malay war going on in there)
And being the English snob I am, I find it extremely annoying when people use atrocious English and profanities to try to prove their points, to make loud loud (written) statements (which often amount to nothing at all). You don’t need to have what people deem to be ‘perfect’ English - just be moderate. Satire and sarcasm could be tolerated, but not vulgarities and just general crassness.
Or maybe I am just sensitive to the tones of words in general.
But honestly, this whole thing has made me worried. I worry about the racial slurs that is being hurled here and there. I worry because whatever that is being said, albeit blown out of proportion at times, are very often true. I worry because more and more ill-mannered, socially uninformed and also politically apathetic people are making their voices felt under anonymity in the vulnerable virtual space. I worry because there are people who make opposing noises for the sake of making opposing noises, who see everything in complete binaries, who don’t acknowledge that they too are getting benefits out of the corrupted system.
Yes, we can voice our opinions. But unless they are informed and well thought out, it may just end up as clutter. That’s all.
And you ask what I am doing amidst all that?
I blog about them (why bother replying?), make sure that my loved ones are safe despite the (admittedly) lousy system and basically continue living my self-centred-selfish-you-can-fight-your-own-wars kinda life.
People often tell my parents that they are very "lucky" to have a daughter working in Singapore cos apparently my salary is spent in terms of RM. They sound as if I am another one of those who "jumped aeroplane" (Cantonese slang for illegal workers) to UK or US to earn foreign currency to send back every month.
And sometimes I think, why is it that I have to worry about being able to pay the bills, pay off my loans, to support the people I love, to feel guilty about pampering myself? When most of the people I know do not have to?
There are times when I feel like that. And I kick myself harder when I think like that. Because honestly, I think that is the most immature thought that I could ever have, as a full fledged 25.25 year old.
Was pretty hung up over this whole $$ issue these past few days. But no worries, am out of it.
Just because people around me don’t have to doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t have to. Part of my life loh. If that’s constitutes being an adult, taking up adult responsibilities, I am ready to take it on. I should be concentrating on what I HAVE, and not what I do not have.
I may not have the money to buy myself prettiful items, nor do I have the ability to say that "I bought that on impulse" but I have…
parents who are completely understanding in EVERY single way
a sister whom I’ve never had to worry about and is one of the closest confidantes I could ever have
a brother who is growing up so quickly and yet is such a matured little chap
girlfriends who are here, there and everywhere when I need to bitch and whine, and to love and laugh with
a significant other who is just so significant
a job in a place which is sometimes-envied, with strong support and friendliness all around
the ability to love
the passion for teaching and to be taught
a roof over my head
a healthy body without any major ailments
a sound mind that can whip me back into optimism most of the time
and more importantly, a God that loves me and reminds me constantly of (what I perceive to be) my larger goals in life.
When I was 17, I wrote an essay entitled "The Best Thing My Mom has Ever Taught Me" which subsequently landed me as one of the top winners of an essay competition organised by The Star.
And I wrote about contentment.
8 years later, I would still write about contentment.
As Sam Hui’s song goes, 命里有时 终须有， 命里无时 莫强求。 You don’t have to believe in "fate" to be contented with what you have, and to spend the rest of your energy developing your potential to what would be the best for you, without losing sight of the larger picture.
First weekend after first week of work and first week
Was spent on a nice quiet (to us, at least) dinner with Justin (who had just returned from Sakura-land), board games and laughter with Boon and Andrea and new friend Diana, and basically lots of mucking around in our little flat, as I caught up (guiltily) with my HK TV series and attempted to mark more GP essays.
Which, by the way, is rather painful. That would be an understatement. And I thought marking Sec 3 essays was bad. That was until I received my scripts and found scribbly scrawlies in the form of an average of 5 pages x *undisclosed number*
Remember how your English teacher used to tell you that you’d need to have tidy handwriting cos untidy handwriting generally pisses the examiner off and you’d get lower ‘impression marks’? I will tell you now that THAT is not far from the truth. I am a nice BT (beginning teacher) and what I do is that I take a deep breath, sip a little more tea, sit up a little more, and re-read what you have attempted to present to me, whether you are trying to convince me that Hilter[sic] and Gadhi [sic] were great leaders or that Singaporeans lived in kampongs ‘long before the 18th century’.
Can be done, sze. You have at least another 4 years to go.
But no lah, it’s not that bad. Really.
One week that was spent on invigilation (and trying not to fall asleep - I think my body system shuts down if I am inactive for a certain amount of time) - marking - getting to know my new colleagues - attending more induction courses - canteen breaks - filling up my workstation with papers - attending meetings - being awed at the number of emails and e-bulletin messages a lowly JC tutor receives in a morning.
And I have not even begun teaching.
I begin teaching proper on Tuesday.
How do I introduce myself to 26 seventeen-year-olds without sounding/looking/BEING dorky and uncool?
In other exciting news - I have been assigned to be a CCA teacher of Music and Dance 
I am also looking forward to Wednesday and Thursday, which has been set aside for the college’s sabbaticals - which basically translates to the two days where the kids will attend various courses of their fancy-of-the-moment, be it Spanish or hip hop or horseriding or kayaking.
And I am chaperoning 59 teenagers to a paintball session.
This is going to get messy - but I am looking forward to it!
