As an econs graduate, I am certainly very amused after reading Chen Z J's "Economists say goodbye to economics", and can I say again how GLAD I am that I did my honours in English instead of econs eventually.
I certainly adored Econs as a subject when I was an A level student, mainly due to the simple fact that I excel in it, and I had an excellent Econs tutor. (Miss Wong Mei Lin who is now VP of MJC the last I heard) I was so keen on doing econs in uni that I told my scholarship interviewer that I would not take up the scholarship if I wasn't allowed to do Econs. (Back then they claimed that they had no shortage of econs teachers, and were trying to implore (or was it accost) me into doing History or Literature.
But econs in NUS was nothing like econs in JC. In the first place the professors suck, really they should be banned from teaching students. And with the increasing abstraction and formalization(Read: mathematicalization) that has plagued so many social sciences, I find no meaning in what I am studying. In fact it is only two years after my graduation now and I barely remember anything from NUS Econs.
Yes, it is true that the more you study a subject, the more you realize you have no idea what the subject is about. A level econs was really like a study of the history of econs or how the discipline has evolved through the years. As an isolated and theoretical subject it might have been interesting, but when you look back at what you did (like what I'm doing now after I finished the book) you realize how absurd and impractical so many of these theories are, and you start wondering whether what you studied for so long is really just a waste of time. Who was I kidding, I probably never really understood Economics in the first place, and I wonder how many Econs graduates can truthfully say they did.
While I would love to hunt down my scholarship interviewer and laugh in his face (With the H1 and H2 JC curriculum practically every JC student is taking Econs...resulting in a sudden shortage of econs teachers), I am still thankful that he had requested that I do English together with Econs.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Presenting......06S23
06S23..my first GP class in SAJC! I can remember the first time I met them.......hot stuffy Tuesday afternoon......last three periods of the day, at that D-block ground floor classroom which is so distracting because students on their way home via the side gate will inevitably walk past that room, so it is kind of sucky watching them walk by knowing that you still have lessons until 5.15pm. (for my students. Needless to say I am fully attentive even at the end of the day . =p)
These people tried to introduce themselves using someone else's names (a harbinger of things to come?) ..I still remember Kok Yong introduced himself as Bing Lin. The next lesson I got their mug shots from the office and memorized like ten of their names and started calling people so that I don't have to depend on their unreliable information. (I remember Colin saying "How come he remembers our names so fast?" ........ =p it's just a handful of names, my dear Colin....)
I thought I'll never get down to this, but here it goes............ from the first row, L to R:
BRANDON! My marist SC junior. =p. This boy is like the archtypical good boy. I remember all the praises that teachers sing about him, even when he is not, ahem, too up-to-date with his academic work. The charisma that some people have! Btw this boy stripped to his undies in front of me on the very first week that I knew him. Before anyone starts tsk tsk-ing, it was totally innocuous. He was changing out of his PE attire after GP, and somehow he's too lazy to find a toilet. Tsk tsk..sense of propriety, Brandon!
COLIN......The Green Club boy..yeah right. Even though I was a new teacher and chose to believe that students have hearts of gold and will never lie to their teachers, I never believed him right from the word "go". Utterly useless at solving word puzzles. Well, at least he'll have something to remember me by, when (or if) he eventually solved it. Quite a conscientious student, impressing me with his very first essay..but that was the only one time... =p His hair morphs as the term progresses, and the intermediate stages of change can be pretty spectacular.
now we have the 5 girls, ANNABEL, CHIEW YONG, SHERLENE, LENA and BELINDA, who live in the shadow of 19 other unruly boys.....or so I was led to believe. Recently I realized that they are totally capable of holding their own! (maybe except Belinda, who is really soft-spoken. Assert yourself!) My other 2 classes have only 2 boys each, so S23 is kind of a reversal of trend for me. Anyway despite having only 5 girls, the class managed to have more than its proportionate share of blossoming romance and scandalous gossips...argh..always a source of amusement, but I shan't cause undue public embarrassment to anyone. =)
Chiew Yong is, of course, ridiculously smart. How many can boast that he or she consistently gets A for A level PHYSICS? which is like the most boring subject on earth EVER. This is one scary girl.
Sherlene..ah..this girl writes like a reporter. There is a certain journalistic style in the way she writes her essays. But she has the tendency to misuse phrases such as comparing ancient Chinese women to jailbirds. A Jap freak in the making! GANBARE!
Lena, Annabel and Belinda are the more quiet ones, but they do speak up when they want to (such as asking me to treat them lunch). Hardworking, conscientious students, but remember that having an opinion to voice out is crucial in a subject like GP!
ELSON....another Marist junior. He rattles off my IC number faster than I can, so next time if I find out someone is masquerading me using my IC number I know who to look for. You have been warned! Oh, he is a favourite among many teachers too. I guess we marists just bring out the best in ourselves. * wink *
YEW LIANG.....he reminds me of this HK actor whose name I can't remember, and anyway it's one of those serial dramas I watched as a kid so don't bother. He always flashes his megawatt grin whenever he poses for a picture and he will raise his signature thumb pose, as if he is a celebrity endorsing his favourite brand of bak-gwa. This is one bright spark, marred (just slightly) by his compulsive need to engage others in conversation. Oh yes another thing, he is always looking at the laps(at least that's what it seems like from my vantage point) of those who sit beside him(usually Gland or Jerome). Very disturbing.
JOEL: Argh..this boy "chers" me like the typical annoying secondary school student. To be honest Joel irritated me incessantly initially, with his lackadaisical attitude and his annoying way of speaking. But eventually....erm...while my first impressions weren't completely off the track =p , I certainly did change my opinion of him after a while. =) This guy is just trying to be funny and did not really mean to be disrespectful(I hope).
ERNEST: ah...i think it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I have never seen this student's eyes fully open in the course of 2 terms. He totally redefines what it means to be a laid back student, he's so laid back he's practically horizontal. Surprisingly he seemed fully awake and functional after the promotional exams. To give him full credit, I think this chap is pretty smart, he knows how to get the most number of marks by putting in minimal amount of effort!
NICHOLAS: erm...Energy rep? He helped me for a grand total of ....ONE time in the setting up of the projector, but to be honest it's not his fault because I didn't really enlist his help since I am able-bodied in every way. He reminds me of someone but until now I still don't know who. =p Rather witty and give laudable comments from time to time, but seemed to fade into the distance as the term goes on(maybe fatigue, or is it PW, finally got to him)
CHESTER: Hee hee Chester has this blur, boyish look that is rather intriguing. His facial expressions are really amusing, I remember this priceless look on his face when I was returning assignments and he was waiting for his turn and looking hopeful in anticipation of how many marks he had (or at least that's what it seemed like to me). For lack of a better description, and I mean no disrespect/malice when I make this comparision, it was like a cute little puppy knowing that dinner has arrived and wondering what fate has in store for him. Oops..I hope he doesn't take offence if he reads this. He's a rugger...don't play play!
NIGEL: This guy's smart too! I mean, how many people can boast that they get an A for Physics during Common Test? And he's not a mugger. Or at best a closet mugger. Although so far I do not have the opportunity to relish his guitar playing, this guy owns like three, and is not averse to spending big bucks on another new one. His fingers probabaly smell of metal strings all the time. Morose sense of humour.
Okay I just spent five minutes trying to decide who is more to the left, LEONARD or YIXIANG, their faces are practically in line with one another! To resolve this moral dilemma I resort to the tried-and-tested ALPHABETICAL ORDER
LEONARD: That's the one with the wide grin in the picture. This grin is his trademark, and he flashes his dazzling pearlies at you every once in a while. His Chinese name sounds pseudo-French (De Marc..I've always wanted to ask what his Chinese name actually is, but have never got down to it). Classmates call him "ELMO" and I guess it's pretty apparent why. For me, I'll always remember his as the guy who wrote " MR CHUA, Please turn over for the summary" at the bottom right hand corner of his comprehension script and when I turned over, VOILA...blank page.
YIXIANG: This guy is actually my distant cousin, although we're not related by blood. He's my ....* deep breath * father's sister's husband's sister's son. Not that we knew of each other's existence until I became his teacher. =p A rather quiet and unassuming guy in my class, although I'd bet my bottom dollar that he is not who he appears to be, since he hangs out with the likes of ELSON and JOEL. =)
BINGLIN: Another marist. And best of all, he was from MS Chinese Orchestra, even though it was a short stint from 2001 - 2002, but that means that almost certainly we have met before in Maris Stella, since I was pretty involved at MSCO during that period of time. Digging through my juniors' pictures I managed to unearth a picture of him during MSCO times, I'm going to scan it and post it here..so watch this space! Talented table-tennis player, I hear, and his assignments reflect some insightful thoughts sometimes, but then he does not hand in assignments all that often. =p I'll remember him as the guy who mistook Peter Pan for Robin Hood.
JEROME: Ah, for some reason or another I kept confusing his name with Leonard's. He was from St John's! Like me! But then I was the slack member who quit after two years while he is still actively involved in it now. ANd if my memory did not fail me, he has the honour of being my first student to add me on msn and friendster. A frequent victim of Yew Liang's crotch staring (refer to Yew Liang's entry) Hardworking and conscientious student!
GLEN: Ah..my GP Rep. When he first added me on msn, his display pic was this one where he was holding several pens in his hands and his face was horribly contorted as he pretends to be Wolverine. (at least that's what I think it was.) Then the next time he logged on, his display pic was changed to this one where he was several years younger and his hair was all spiked up like Wukong in Dragonball. My reaction was like........this student needs serious help......big time.....it was only much later that I realized he is fond of taking the weirdest pictures/videos. What I mistook as a sign of emotional trauma was actually his overflowing creativity. After which I began to enjoy his very wittingly captioned pictures and meticulously edited videos. Someone who is not afraid to speak what's on his mind, although a sense of propriety is sometimes missing. =p
KOK YONG: The sweetest boy I've met so far. although sometimes it gets overboard. How many boys can say FAMILY is short for FATHER AND MOTHER I LOVE YOU without blushing? or declare his eternal love for his gf on a PINK card in PINK ink and submit it to his GP tutor? The most unforgettable moment with him must be when I called him to answer a question in class and instructed him "Impress me". After which he proceeded to take off his shirt and muttered "Huh...to impress you I need to take off my shirt".......!!!!!!!!!!!!!! scary. DISCLAIMER: Of course he never did take his whole shirt off. So don't start writing any letters of complaints to MOE.
WEIYING: Hee..this boy is very cool, he has this yoz I'm a street boy kind of look on him. Constantly being chided for his unkempt hairstyle. Stammered for several seconds when I asked him which are the Chinese characters for his name. Ah, and he, like Kok Yong, once unfortunately sat beside me during lecture and got called to answer questions as " the boy next to Mr Chua". =p His msn nick mostly consists of soccer scores and a one line commentary about the match. hee.
And the 3 boys who weren't around to grace us with their physical presence:
BOB: Walks like a snail. Met him on the way to college a couple of times and he was taking minute little steps, barely putting his foot before the other as the world scurries past him in a flash. His face is capable of a multitude of expressions, as captured in Glen's photos, although the one he uses most often in my class is that of boredom. The most unforgettable expression from him was during Yew Liang's group's GP presentation, when they showed the pic where they offered each other assistance at the urinal while they were mugging, Bob turned around to look at me and whined "This is SO GAY!". That was a priceless expression.
JUSTIN: He has this smouldering, intense look which some people go for. Another one of those who slinked into an unobtrusive corner as the term progresses, and unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to know him better. BUt you can always count on him to do the one obscure question which nobody else did. =)
JONATHAN: Ah.,.the boy with the frail constitution and couldn't come to my class more often. * roll eyes * Despite his irregular attendance, his impressive command of the language is obvious to all, although he does have the annoying habit of using words which are too obscure when paraphasing and affecting the proper flow of his sentences in the process. Rattles off phrases like "rampant fornication" and "causality link" without batting an eyelid. Since he is a debator, his classmates always look expectantly at him during a Q and A sessions, while presenters will be praying that Jonathan is absent(which is quite frequent) or somehow inactive while they are presenting.
JOEL: Argh..this boy "chers" me like the typical annoying secondary school student. To be honest Joel irritated me incessantly initially, with his lackadaisical attitude and his annoying way of speaking. But eventually....erm...while my first impressions weren't completely off the track =p , I certainly did change my opinion of him after a while. =) This guy is just trying to be funny and did not really mean to be disrespectful(I hope).
ERNEST: ah...i think it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I have never seen this student's eyes fully open in the course of 2 terms. He totally redefines what it means to be a laid back student, he's so laid back he's practically horizontal. Surprisingly he seemed fully awake and functional after the promotional exams. To give him full credit, I think this chap is pretty smart, he knows how to get the most number of marks by putting in minimal amount of effort!
NICHOLAS: erm...Energy rep? He helped me for a grand total of ....ONE time in the setting up of the projector, but to be honest it's not his fault because I didn't really enlist his help since I am able-bodied in every way. He reminds me of someone but until now I still don't know who. =p Rather witty and give laudable comments from time to time, but seemed to fade into the distance as the term goes on(maybe fatigue, or is it PW, finally got to him)
CHESTER: Hee hee Chester has this blur, boyish look that is rather intriguing. His facial expressions are really amusing, I remember this priceless look on his face when I was returning assignments and he was waiting for his turn and looking hopeful in anticipation of how many marks he had (or at least that's what it seemed like to me). For lack of a better description, and I mean no disrespect/malice when I make this comparision, it was like a cute little puppy knowing that dinner has arrived and wondering what fate has in store for him. Oops..I hope he doesn't take offence if he reads this. He's a rugger...don't play play!
NIGEL: This guy's smart too! I mean, how many people can boast that they get an A for Physics during Common Test? And he's not a mugger. Or at best a closet mugger. Although so far I do not have the opportunity to relish his guitar playing, this guy owns like three, and is not averse to spending big bucks on another new one. His fingers probabaly smell of metal strings all the time. Morose sense of humour.
Okay I just spent five minutes trying to decide who is more to the left, LEONARD or YIXIANG, their faces are practically in line with one another! To resolve this moral dilemma I resort to the tried-and-tested ALPHABETICAL ORDER
LEONARD: That's the one with the wide grin in the picture. This grin is his trademark, and he flashes his dazzling pearlies at you every once in a while. His Chinese name sounds pseudo-French (De Marc..I've always wanted to ask what his Chinese name actually is, but have never got down to it). Classmates call him "ELMO" and I guess it's pretty apparent why. For me, I'll always remember his as the guy who wrote " MR CHUA, Please turn over for the summary" at the bottom right hand corner of his comprehension script and when I turned over, VOILA...blank page.
YIXIANG: This guy is actually my distant cousin, although we're not related by blood. He's my ....* deep breath * father's sister's husband's sister's son. Not that we knew of each other's existence until I became his teacher. =p A rather quiet and unassuming guy in my class, although I'd bet my bottom dollar that he is not who he appears to be, since he hangs out with the likes of ELSON and JOEL. =)
BINGLIN: Another marist. And best of all, he was from MS Chinese Orchestra, even though it was a short stint from 2001 - 2002, but that means that almost certainly we have met before in Maris Stella, since I was pretty involved at MSCO during that period of time. Digging through my juniors' pictures I managed to unearth a picture of him during MSCO times, I'm going to scan it and post it here..so watch this space! Talented table-tennis player, I hear, and his assignments reflect some insightful thoughts sometimes, but then he does not hand in assignments all that often. =p I'll remember him as the guy who mistook Peter Pan for Robin Hood.
JEROME: Ah, for some reason or another I kept confusing his name with Leonard's. He was from St John's! Like me! But then I was the slack member who quit after two years while he is still actively involved in it now. ANd if my memory did not fail me, he has the honour of being my first student to add me on msn and friendster. A frequent victim of Yew Liang's crotch staring (refer to Yew Liang's entry) Hardworking and conscientious student!
GLEN: Ah..my GP Rep. When he first added me on msn, his display pic was this one where he was holding several pens in his hands and his face was horribly contorted as he pretends to be Wolverine. (at least that's what I think it was.) Then the next time he logged on, his display pic was changed to this one where he was several years younger and his hair was all spiked up like Wukong in Dragonball. My reaction was like........this student needs serious help......big time.....it was only much later that I realized he is fond of taking the weirdest pictures/videos. What I mistook as a sign of emotional trauma was actually his overflowing creativity. After which I began to enjoy his very wittingly captioned pictures and meticulously edited videos. Someone who is not afraid to speak what's on his mind, although a sense of propriety is sometimes missing. =p
KOK YONG: The sweetest boy I've met so far. although sometimes it gets overboard. How many boys can say FAMILY is short for FATHER AND MOTHER I LOVE YOU without blushing? or declare his eternal love for his gf on a PINK card in PINK ink and submit it to his GP tutor? The most unforgettable moment with him must be when I called him to answer a question in class and instructed him "Impress me". After which he proceeded to take off his shirt and muttered "Huh...to impress you I need to take off my shirt".......!!!!!!!!!!!!!! scary. DISCLAIMER: Of course he never did take his whole shirt off. So don't start writing any letters of complaints to MOE.
WEIYING: Hee..this boy is very cool, he has this yoz I'm a street boy kind of look on him. Constantly being chided for his unkempt hairstyle. Stammered for several seconds when I asked him which are the Chinese characters for his name. Ah, and he, like Kok Yong, once unfortunately sat beside me during lecture and got called to answer questions as " the boy next to Mr Chua". =p His msn nick mostly consists of soccer scores and a one line commentary about the match. hee.
And the 3 boys who weren't around to grace us with their physical presence:
BOB: Walks like a snail. Met him on the way to college a couple of times and he was taking minute little steps, barely putting his foot before the other as the world scurries past him in a flash. His face is capable of a multitude of expressions, as captured in Glen's photos, although the one he uses most often in my class is that of boredom. The most unforgettable expression from him was during Yew Liang's group's GP presentation, when they showed the pic where they offered each other assistance at the urinal while they were mugging, Bob turned around to look at me and whined "This is SO GAY!". That was a priceless expression.
JUSTIN: He has this smouldering, intense look which some people go for. Another one of those who slinked into an unobtrusive corner as the term progresses, and unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to know him better. BUt you can always count on him to do the one obscure question which nobody else did. =)
JONATHAN: Ah.,.the boy with the frail constitution and couldn't come to my class more often. * roll eyes * Despite his irregular attendance, his impressive command of the language is obvious to all, although he does have the annoying habit of using words which are too obscure when paraphasing and affecting the proper flow of his sentences in the process. Rattles off phrases like "rampant fornication" and "causality link" without batting an eyelid. Since he is a debator, his classmates always look expectantly at him during a Q and A sessions, while presenters will be praying that Jonathan is absent(which is quite frequent) or somehow inactive while they are presenting.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Sliced Bread
The biggest thing since sliced bread. That has never convinced me......I don't even like sliced bread. Why sliced bread? Is there some cultural link that I am oblivious to?
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