i thought it is pretty darn anonymous...

I mean if you put your profile pic or your user name is Annalimrocks then I think you are pretty much gonna expose yourself lah ... but other than that I pretty much have no idea who you are... you could be Matt Damon for all i know...

and in case you are ... I love your movies sir. They make my heart flutter. You are a sole reason that I would consider being a homosexual. Please do not freak out ... I promise to bear only one child for you.

not fair lah.. I been doing GP for almost 16 years now leh. that is almost as old as you are. I promise you that I wasn't so clear in my first year of teaching. I did not even know what to prepare.

did you know that my first GP lesson I did about 4 weeks of vocab. I taught people what were latin root words and how

theocracy
atheist
monotheistic
theology
polytheistic

were all related and how words root from each other...
fascinating class. but little impact on GP.

just hoping to find a successor..... really need to get one man...
*crosses fingers and WILLS a retirement at 45.

sure... then I can see who you are.
better wear a mask to stay anon...
wear a mask.. i promise it will make you invisible in a crowd...

getting more and more busy cos of consultations and classes. so will handle all the quick FS questions first and the long extended ones later.

SO SAD!!! my battery life is already down to 3 hours liao cos i charge it 24 hours... lol.. just kill me already Mother Earth... I have sinned.

getting more and more busy cos of consultations and classes. so will handle all the quick FS questions first and the long extended ones later.

I won't leh... I guess I will ask everybody during mock sessions whether there is a demand for centering class. and maybe shift it to a more popular time. but ya, it is a very valuable skill to learn.

getting more and more busy cos of consultations and classes. so will handle all the quick FS questions first and the long extended ones later.

EASY.... MAKE injuries and illness.

step 1: open a door and stand behind it with the open hinge exposed to you.
step 2: remove your pants and place your penis and at least one testicle in between the hinge.
step 3: shout very loud "can someone help me close the door please!!!"
step 4: then wait. when you finally feel a very sharp pain then take out a bandage and press hard on your genitals to stop the bleeding.
step 5: sing a song... if you are now a soprano then you confirm PES E liao.

good luck. It will be worth it. I promise.

getting more and more busy cos of consultations and classes. so will handle all the quick FS questions first and the long extended ones later.


i dun get it.. lol.. but sure... whatever floats your boat...
*thinks to self... tmd... I would rather be sitting in a hotspring than sitting here answering FS... why do people who read it get to enjoy hotspring and all i get is sore back and fingers. lol

getting more and more busy cos of consultations and classes. so will handle all the quick FS questions first and the long extended ones later.

usually 8 hours.
now.. 4-5 hours... :(

after november 9th .... as many friggin hours as i like BABY!!!!

getting more and more busy cos of consultations and classes. so will handle all the quick FS questions first and the long extended ones later.

skill sets are what you are good at. what is your market value.

it can be as diverse as

1. I am good at making people laugh
2. I am a great FB stalker
3. I know all the cool things are where to get them cheap
4. I like to write and research about anything

like that ... anything that you perceive you have skill in doing.

getting more and more busy cos of consultations and classes. so will handle all the quick FS questions first and the long extended ones later.

not so sure... have not had time to check in on how I am feeling but ya, getting more and more tired. personally i do not really like the A level period at all cos i am a bit less patient with people who do not think.

like today, i got a student who asked a whole bunch of questions and kept asking even though he knew that I had to rush off to prep for today's content session. So i tried to give a quick answer but read the body language and knew he did not understand. so i stopped and calmed myself and gave him a proper answer... then after everything he says that he was a year one student and just wanted to understand and i really wanted to strangle him cos i was thinking ... "do i honestly care about year one students right now?"

anyhow, cos of that kid I could not get dinner and was slightly late for the content session. so irritating.

so ya, this period is frustrating.

really should not have done the crash course. open can of worms niah...

getting more and more busy cos of consultations and classes. so will handle all the quick FS questions first and the long extended ones later.

probably cheese and mushroom omelette.
although I will indeed retire at 45 and pursue a second career in either theatre or being a chef. will see.

:( DUH it would matter , YOUR"E MR TONG LEH.

1) I am passionate about music. Sometimes I believe that it is THE universal language of the world. I love that music is so fluid and beautiful. Now I am currently intrigued by and amazed at the mathematics behind musical notes. I love that music is food for the soul and that it can transcend all boundaries. Music is personal and social at the same time. The best part is that music is timeless, there is no circumstance that music will lose its function in the world.

[Aside:Psst! I even dreamt of being able to produce my own album long long ago. :)]

I believe I fell in love with music because of my grandmother. She loved music too. She grew up listening to Hokkien songs and she would often sing them to me. She would also sing chinese-languaged children's songs to me. We would go to the park near our void deck and we would sing as we go. She would sing while I watched go about her chores in her house and in the midst of her work, she'd pop by to give me a sweet. That's why I always associate music with the taste of sweetness because that was the flavour I grew up for the first 10 years.

2) I am passionate about teaching. I truly believe in the role of a teacher and I believe that it is not simply a job but a vocation, one that calls for servitude. The principles and values behind teaching are very similar to mine and from this vocation I found that in essence, all it calls teachers to do is to give so that others can receive. It is a call that doesn't seek returns but only requests for people to pay forward to others so that the gift continues to serve.

I only fell in love with teaching this year. It took me a while to understanding the beauty and heart behind this vocation. This year I was given responsibilities I didn't know if I had what it takes to hold. But I did my best and I realised that when I just do my best, it was enough; that people didn't need more and they received. These people made me feel that what I did was worthwhile and that I had some sort of worth which i didn't (and maybe still don't) see. These very people are my students. I have to thank them. :) I'm glad I found this passion of me. It's my Element and I believe God will open doors for me. :)

3) Last but not least, I am passionate about pets. I am thinking of how I can open a business to cater to the pets industry one day. I wonder how I can rope in SPCA, ASD and Therapy for Dogs to give back to Singapore. But I will find a way.

I believe that a pet brings joy and is the perfect being who will give unconditional love to people. That is something I believe every human need to learn.

I fell in love with pets because of my grandmother who had two dogs that she doted. I saw how she loved them wholeheartedly and they loved her in return and both human and animals were blessed because they had one another. :)

Okie. I talked too much. What about you?

the heart like the mind is nurtured. feed your heart with insecurity or bitterness over time and it will be a horrible compass for your life. the same goes for your brain when you feed it with cynicism or pointless arguments.

so i would say that before you decide which to follow, you wanna ask yourself what are you feeding them... cos if you are not consciously feeding your heart and head with good things then don't expect them to serve you well.

your heart and brain are both muscles. give them good exercise and nourishment and then work on bringing them together... from what i understand, once you consciously start to feed both good things, you will not have an issue of contradiction.

personally, i trust neither my head nor my heart. I trust that which nourishes, God.

of course lah.

any trainer worth his salt would tell you that profiling and any form of interpretive reading skill of people is simply a platform for questioning and not an indication of the truth. Usually trainers do not see any one indicator but a combination of them that point to a direction for dialogue.

so if see a person appear with a loud attention grabbing t-shirt... it means nothing. but combined with behaviour, body language, speech patterns, relationships, personal history and possessions ... it can speak a lot. especially when the ensuing messages are coherent.

this is the scientific premise from which criminal profiling is based. and is the similar skill i have learnt but apply differently.

experience will definitely tell you what are some broad threads that people may generally experience but no way can they be accurate in telling the unique way that people respond to or form beliefs, attitudes etc.

so i do not judge people using the skills i have. but i would like to qualify that I am not always on coaching mode. The neutrality that coaches hold is often deliberately done in a training context. If you catch me from day to day, I am human and open to my own preferences just like anybody else.

so yes, there are sometimes people i do not like, people i am prejudiced towards, people that i naturally resist and treat rudely even though they do not deserve it. It is rare, but yes, it happens every year. I think this year there were 3 students whom I have treated poorly this way. 2 of them i have warmed up to... one last one for me to work on and drop my guard against.

good grief...

when will each of you learn to start powering community and stop playing an isolationist game.

notice, i said community.. not groups. you can be in a group and still be isolationist. still be fear driven and selfish and politicking...

______________________________________

pain breeds self-absorption. fortunately or unfortunately, self-absorption is also a choice.

my offer to you is this ... if you do not figure this out for yourself now but still manage to go university then meet up with me before you hit uni... i will show you the power of community. if you do not make it to uni and choose to retake, then meet up with me and I will show you the power of community. focus out my friend. it is one of the most reliable ways in stopping you from focusing in.

yay!!! do something amazing with your life ok...
and remember to always pay it forward :)

cos women are ignorant.
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha


*holds hands up in front of face waiting for impending armageddon to descend upon him*


.....

eh. your question is as sexist as my response OKAY!!!!
I hope the mobs track you down and burn you after they burn me...

this is something that I will hold true for my daughters and not just you ...

there are indeed limited numbers of places for NUS, SMU and NTU. even in SIM. limited number of places in all the overseas opportunities too. I guess the challenge that all of you face is that you were all told that the purpose of going to junior college is that it is the surest way to these universities. And from a statistical point of view it is absolutely true.

the funny thing is that they do not say that going to junior college is a sure way to success. they just say that it is a sure way to these universities.

If indeed you are fighting now, stepping on each other to fight your way into university (from stats 70% make it) (approx 20% more move on to other means of qualifications) then i can appreciate that. in truth only about 40% of that 70% of people actually end up doing what they wanna do. the rest just live with what they are given. So ya, you are not just fighting for a place, you are also fighting for what you wanna do in life...

or are you? the funny thing is that, and perhaps this is no coincidence, most people at your age do not know what they want to do in life. they might have some general direction like "i wanna do well" or someone told them when they were 12 that "engineering is good" or they read some article that said "genomics is the way to go now" or parents say "be a doctor" ... and honestly that is what i know most people go on... they fight for a general notion of what they perceive life will be like.

how on earth do you know what life will be like or what your destiny will be? there are some things you do know though ... you know that you wanna serve others (if you didnt, you would not be asking this question), you know that family is important, you know that it is important to find meaning in life, you know you want to be wise... but for the sake of clamouring for a general notion of success, people are willing to give up what they know is permanent.

I have ex students and peers who knew they want to serve the world. they buy in to the altruism. but i also watched the way they got there. In order to get to a place where they serve the world, they stepped on others and competed to get there. unfortunately, people end up being what they practiced. quite a few of my peers who became doctors that way are now aestheticians. others pay them to jab botox in their face so they can preserve their youth and stay on top ... you will always be what you practice.

I have a friend who was in the student council cos he wanted to serve others. he went on to do very well in his grades and joined the financial sector to help protect people's assets and grow their wealth. He got hit hard during the financial crisis and despite going to one of the top 10 universities in the world, he is still struggling now. but you see ... his heart for people never changed. he did not step on people to get his good grades in JC. he formed study groups to win together. and now when he is down, he forms study groups with people to see how each one can learn from each others mistakes. his heart has not changed. and in this time of trial, he is not alone.

you only become evil when you choose to be evil. do me a favour and do not bullshit yourself into believing that the system MAKES you evil. you are just using it as a poor excuse for choosing selfishness cos you are scared. I do not believe at this juncture that you are truly evil. but ya, i think you are scared and you are choosing the fastest route out of fear ... which is ... fend for yourself.

I personally will raise my children to focus energy on building what is permanent. to have clear purpose in how they want to lead their lives. the journey they take in getting there matters less. If they get into havard cos of the choices they make then great... if they end up in MDIS to get their degree then I would only ask whether they are on track ... and if they say yes, then they are gonna get my 100% support in getting where they wanna go. I have taught too many students to this day to hold the notion that SIM, MDIS or whatever other private school student is not gonna succeed.

I have a wonderful ex student who worked so friggin hard during her A levels. results did not qualify her for the local universities. She joined SIM. got her degree. joined SIA as a stewardess. and saved. and avoided parties and politics. she was just there to serve. when people gave up on their lives and squandered their allowances, she saved every penny cos she was intent on building up something permanent on not have it go to waste. she came out of a 3 year contract with SIA with $120,000 in her bank account. and now she is going into entrepreneurship. she is better groomed than most, more well-spoken, seasoned. and she has grit.

those are not things you can build by stepping on other people.

read below. if it doesn't answer your question then ask another clarifying question.

but a quick reference to your question specifically...

you can probably get away with studying like this for now... cos many of you are still living off the habits of the O level or whatever exams you guys took before...

it is interesting but i just met an ex student who has now become a very good friend. and she was relating that for once in her life she is realising in SMU that hard hard work and mugging alone just does not cut it anymore. If you do not learn to build teams, mutually learn from each others perspectives and experiences, do not learn to offer, request or declare ...

then ya.. get ready for mediocrity.

not just in university but in life. SMU just accelerates the experience of life a lot faster.