Chinese teacher = teacher from China?
I don’t know about you, but I find it quite disturbing that this seems to be the case right now for Singapore’s education system. Is our standard of Chinese that lousy that we have to resort to using an imported Chinese language for our own, true-blue, local, Singaporean kids? I don’t think the culture matches, I don’t think the style of language usage matches, and I don’t think the whole personality compatibility matches. Come on, Singapore – I’m sure we can do better than rely on imports all the time. If this goes on, I think people might, for another time, think that we’re part of China again.

Not at home.
A young fine lady, she was, decked in shorts and grey sleeves - ever so matching with the fine young man; Except that her gaze was on him, but her heart never was.

A story about three women.
She said, Because, life is never the same, as it ever was, she said, that now we head in directions that are no longer congruent, or - at least we might. And then she said, we are different. You and I, the paths we tread and the goals we used to have; yet - I wait. But she said, I am happy, because our lives will soon be one, united, un- disjoint, and we shall start a family; have kids; and a happy house filled - with memories.

On “young, smart-assed NUS lit undergrads”.
This is my response (hopefully approved in the comments) to Mr Wang’s post on “Poetry and Politics and PhDs“, and the ensuing discussion that went on and on about this particular review by Nicholas Liu, an NUS lit undergrad, on the book “Two Baby Hands” by Gilbert Koh (Mr Wang). Parts of Koh’s rebuttal is found in the “Poetry & Politics” post, some other parts are found here (

Dishing the dirt.
Let’s face it, teachers are human, and normal human beings make mistakes, or have certain peeves that may be viewed as socially or morally irresponsible. Some of these things have gone on long enough for me to not only take attention, but to actually conclude that I should write a post about it after much contemplation. The thing is, these things are true and very real, and may be a direct representation of some of my acquaintances and some others who are prominent enough in some way or another. Teachers are human, yes, and the range of human activities that may be viewed as dissonance to the teaching profession are a dime too many. I refer to them as disso