Tuition... Tuition... Tuition

A little insight on the world of tuition.... I'm currently under the mercy of 3 kids right now.. one in primary 2 and the other two in secondary.

I just dropped my other GCE 'O' level girl from vietname, basically because she kept delaying payment and everytime I asked her for her fees she would tell me "didn't I pay?".. She's vietnamese by the way, that is not to say that all vietnamese have such convenient memory loss. It got too troublesome to keep reminding her again and again and honestly I was trying to hold my tongue, I couldn't bear to tell her she won't be able to pass her O level English, because she could barely pass primay one grammer. but that is as such the mentality of overseas students (some of them)

Someone made a comment to me the other day about giving tuition being easy money for us graduates and undergraduates, and basically anyone else who feels like scrimping on the CPF funds.I must admit that many of us take upon the task of teaching for the good hourly rates ( read: 16-30 an hour) depending on how large your ego is and how huge their budgets are.

After teaching for 4 years, I find this pseduo truth of easy money, a misconception. Try explaining to a primary school kid why it is important to ignore the rules of language sometimes, in order to be more creative in your writing and to try new writing styles or try telling a secondary school boy that reading properly and pronouncing words clearly is very important.. "Mother" does not equate to "mudder" and you basically do not prnounce the letter "R" as "r-er" and heaven forbids if your tuition kid thinks Singlish is alright.. singlish is NOT alright, save for the occassionaly "lahs".

And honestly I find it insulting when an"Ang Moh" tries his very best to conscientiously contruct a sentence and end it with a forceful "lah" , and somehow or rather expects us to applaud his effortful attempt at speaking Singlish. and worse still is the Singaporean who laughs at this, sometimes making comments of "wow not bad" as though everyone speaks as such. Is it really that amusing to think that the majority of the world (yes the world beyond Singapore) find it surprising that there are a bunch of Singaporeans that can speak proper English with accurate pronounciation and when they hear them they immediately ask "did you study abroad" or compliment " you speak wonderful english" as though English isn't out first language, and seeing a singaporean speak proper english is someout out of the norm. which it is by the way. In fact when I hear that I feel insulted but on the other hand you can't really blame them can we..

Trying to articulate simple explainations to differentiate everyday objects, such as the difference betwee a "gate" and a "fence" can sometimes be quite a challenge, especially if he or she is armed with a bagful of "whys" and "how comes" ... but alas the battle continues

ok enough of my ranting, Think my brain has officially ceased functioning for the moment. More raves and rants to come =)