CNY--20th Feb 2007

Yesterday was just so cool! It truly felt like the Chinese New Year! Lots and lots of visitors (my students) were streaming into my place non-stop so that both the living room and corridor alike were packed with kids. The entire place was engulfed by the all-too-familiar sounds of laughter, cheers and exchange of lively banters; food and drinks were quickly being ���snapped up���; cameras were clicking away non-stop; the various pockets of students were playing different sorts of games. When I looked at the pictures this morning, I also noticed for the first time, how pretty my living room became as my students came clad in red, green, orange, brown, yellow, white and all the other colours you could possibly think of. Colors add so much vibrancy to life, don���t you think?

But I digress. Anyway, I was simply supremely happy yesterday. I love seeing you all! Markus actually shook hands with me and said: ��� Happy New Year! I wish you can come back to Coral soon.��� Stephanie and Janice left early to catch a movie only to come back two hours later to ���spend more time with you [me].��� Of course, there���s also our super efficient Faris to thank for helping me with liaise with the rest of the class. And to think that just yesterday morning, I woke up thinking that I had made a big mistake in allowing kids to come over. I thought about how everything will eventually pass away and how I should just let it pass now. Hehe���but in the end, I���m really glad that everything turned out well, without a hitch.

Thanks for coming over! I hope you enjoyed the food and had fun! You all are God���s
blessing to me���






Time for X-box























A crazy game of Cranium

Grammar is a Dog

What a 'politically-incorrect' title! At the risk of landing myself in hot soup, allow me to explain myself.

Had quite a bit of fun during today's class when our professor instructed us to think about a metaphor that we would like to use to describe what grammar is all about to our students. Though we initially wanted to talk about grammar as being somewhat similar to a music score, we eventually settled for this: Grammar is a Dog. As my group drew the little doggie, my professor took a peek at it, cringed and said:" Oh dear!" We burst into laughter.

We were the third group to present. The two other teams before us talked about grammar as a tree and a castle respectively. As the spokesperson for my group, I stepped forward, pasted the vanguard sheet on the board (with the picture of the dog) and proceeded to explain:

1. Meeting a dog can be a very frightening experience. It may bark at you. It may even bite. Similarly, grammar may seem very intimidating to many.

2. When you manage to tame a dog, it's no longer scary. In fact, it can become your best friend. In the same way, when you've gained mastery over grammar, it's no longer controlling you. You can use it at your service.

3. How a dog is trained depends on the learning abilities of the dog as well as how its owner trains it. Likewise, how grammar is learnt is dependent on the student as well as the teacher.

" True! Very good!" This was followed by a thuderous applause. My professor was obviously pleasantly surprised. So was the rest of the class.