” If its not difficult,why do it?”
Ever heard of it? Its my english teacher’s trademark phrase. Creating difficulties to his students is his forte. He made me diminish by every passing day when i ‘m still in the middle of a struggle to swallow the fact that english here is freakingly tough.
Fast facts about Mr Tan:
He likes trekking, climbing, and mountaineering = difficult
He reads history = mind-wrecking
He can talk about the same thing for 90 minutes = redundant up to annoying
He has high expectations. He wants essays to be of those in the ubiquitous readers digest.= mad
He wears ties of walt disney cartoon characters everyday = eyebrow-raised look
He stands on tables, on chairs,on legs of the blackboard, whack students heads with rolled cardboard( me a victim of several times)= bloody mad.
Mix all the ingredients well, and you have the the perfect recipe of a disastrous daily dose of english classes.
" I will throw you out into the sea and make you swim to the shore.I will make sure myself you are half-drowning."
One perfect analogy to commensurate his aforementioned remarks was to issue out William Butler Yeats poems and make us figure out the meaning ourselves. And then he would say,
" Hand in the analysis essay of this poem on August 3rd"
Thats it. No clues, no guidelines,not even a single hint. And he would add,
" If you have any questions, come climbing with me at 4.30" — just for good measure.
I must admit i allow a little element of vengeance in this post as i got a Level 1 ( level 4 is the highest) from my last essay. As i came in to class, he whined,
" Hananiiii~~~( sing song like), your essay is so bad, i marked urs alone for one hour and then i give up marking. Go back and do it again.
Do it again. You have no idea how many times i rewrite an essay. He insist on self-editing,hence we form among ourselves editing teams, where we check and recheck peers work, made us rewrite for many times before handing in the perfect masterpiece.He warned,
" Its okay if ur friend catch your mistake, but if i catch it, it will affect your marks . So dont be afraid to colour your friends paper"
How very clever Mr Tan.
Dont get me wrong, I really like this method of teaching. It prevents complacency and opened your eyes at how very small you measured up to the standards.Spoonfeeding is never encouraged, as before discussing an article or a story , our views is what he’s going first. Research had to be carried out on your own and you have to be aware of that( that research is required).Basically my whole programme is all about reserach and critical thinking. Lectures will give out questions about a topic we never studied before and say " Figure this out, talk to your friends. Its good for you". Meaning– no1- study before you come to class. n0 2- dont be such asnobbish person.share your knowlefge.help each other out.
Discusssion play a starring role in my course. Presumably , these canadian teachers brought their traits benefited from american education system and decided to practice it here.Not-so-bright people here are very lucky, as they will always be helped out through discussions or aiding peers.
One thing i notice about the lectures is that they dont bother to look pretty in front of students. I’m implying the fact that there’s no brooding ego involved or air of snobbishness which sometimes in previous encounters of such irritating existence, you seem to be afraid of making them look bad,to bruise their alter ego in pointing out that " hey, you’re wrong right there,admit it, dont undermine me." .
But not here. They even make a fool of themselves.
" My hearing is going, my eyesight is going, my hair is already gone. And let me add this negative sign before you get mad at me."
Haha.You go Mr Anton Gillich.
P/s- Got a couple of friends now.
August 4th, 2006 at 12:53 am
hmm.. english in mufy plus ilets is already brainwrecking for me.
so let me tell you this, if i’m in cimp, ill be dead man. for english alone.
i wish it is true, for that method improve students in a lot of ways they can ever imagine.
good for you hanani..
p/s.. i bet if it was my essay, he will be reading it for extra one hour and plus dumping it into the wastebasket to tell me how a crap it is..sigh
August 4th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
em,ur blog makes me kinda cuak la..i’ll be taking my mufy..dunno what to expect..aiyok
August 5th, 2006 at 9:05 am
ko amik ielts kot. aku progam lain le.
August 5th, 2006 at 11:23 am
haha. betul! ESLS in intec is somehow so…..particular about wordiness in thesis statement la, topic sentence tak narrowed la n dah la its d only subject yg everyday ada. aiyo… when it comes to esls, i will be so…bored…. but knowing the truth that i’m not very good in it, i just have to work harder n harder n hardest. ahaks!
p/s : kalo anna nye essay masuk dlm wastebasket, aku nye agak2 dia dah koyak, cincang lumat n then wat pekasam. :p
August 5th, 2006 at 8:41 pm
It seems my Mr. Cranwell is lot much “nicer” than ur Mr.Tan
August 6th, 2006 at 4:39 am
wakaka,omg,ur mr tan ni sounds kooky!but in a good way.
” Hananiiii~~~( sing song like), your essay is so bad, i marked urs alone for one hour and then i give up marking. Go back and do it again.”<—– i find this extremely amusing
ruthless,but amusing.
August 6th, 2006 at 5:51 am
please, i spent my whole weekend doing the evised essy.
August 9th, 2006 at 7:53 am
he seems interesting to me. still, im grateful for having laid-back dr.lee in my english class.
August 9th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
okay aku pun nak gtau name lecturer aku,mr mustafa.
hehe.nani,im sure ull ace thru anyways.
btw,masuk dikir barat tanak ajak aite?
see ya around
August 10th, 2006 at 12:08 am
ko yg taknak masok