Schedule of a Singapore Teacher

The article below is written by a teacher's wife to The Straits Times, Singapore's leading newspapers, to talk about the hectic schedule of her hubby.

As much as everyone know about the importance of work-life balance, it is actually not that easy to achieve, given the super competitive nature of our society.

Among my friends, more and more are shunning the teaching profession (and that includes myself). Parents are demanding more and more, and kids these days know their rights (in a bad way).

With that said, I got to take my hats off to all the teachers here in Singapore. You guys are the unsung heroes that I could never be.

And it's one of the social price that a society pays to be on the top of international academic rankings.

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Work-life balance? Here's one day in the life of a teacher

I AM often told how the Ministry of Education is easing teachers' workload, but I see little evidence of it.

My husband has been teaching in a neighbourhood school for several years. Despite the mantra of work-life balance, I see little of it in the lives of teachers. Here is a typical weekday routine for my husband:

* 5am: Wake up and prepare for school.
* 6am: Leave for school.
* 7am: Arrive at school and perform morning duty (in a sense, 'guard duty').
* 7.30am to 1pm: Regular teaching duties (including extra games for students who need more exercise during recess, which is part of the Holistic Health Framework that replaced the Trim and Fit scheme).
* 1 pm to 1.30pm: Prepare for remedial lessons.
* 1.30pm to 3.30pm: Conduct remedial lessons (my husband's school believes that to improve students' results, remedial lessons must be conducted daily).
* 3.30pm to 5.30pm: Be present for the co-curricular activities he is in charge of.
* 5.30pm to 6.30pm: Administrative work like keying in remarks on students for the mid-term report book).
* 6.30pm to 6.45pm: Pack 36 books and piles of worksheets to take home and mark.
* 6.45pm to 7.45pm: Travel home.
* 7.45pm to 8.30pm: Eat dinner and rest.
* 8.30pm to 1am: Continue with administrative work, such as marking books and worksheets, reviewing examination papers, and preparing programmes for the June school camp and Youth Olympic Games activities.

Weekends are hardly restful. I often ask him if the endless work is because he is singled out. That is not so, he tells me. His colleagues face the same punishing workload.

As I am writing this letter at 10am, my husband has developed a fever. But he is unable to seek medical attention as there is an oral examination in the afternoon.

I understand there is a need to be accountable to students' parents. But in this case, who is answerable to a teacher's family if anything happens to the teacher?

Aishah Quek (Ms)

Toddlers are made from the same mould

Am I the only one in the world who feels that all toddlers look the same?

"Does the toddler look more like the dad or the mum?"
Err.... seriously I could never figure that out. And if I think hard enough to try and establish any comparisons, I might end up asking if they are sure they didn't took the wrong baby home.

Or "Can you figure if the baby is a boy or girl?"
Well, I can't see that from the face. But I know how to reliably check that out, not that I'm going to do it.

On a side note, some years back, I was trying to pick up small talk with a colleague from another department. I looked around his desk, and saw a photo of his 2 kids, and asked him if his kids are sons or daughters. He looked at me, paused, and told me both were daughters, as if it was obvious.

Then, I looked at the photo again. Oh ya, they were wearing skirts, I must have missed that out.

When embarrassed, just smile your way through. *blush*

Meeting the legendary Nino and Lily

Nino and Lily are 2 bloggers I got to know, from Slovenia and Taiwan respectively. One day, Nino flew from one end of the planet to Taiwan to another to meet Lily, the gal of his dreams.

Anyway, coming back, during my recent Taiwan trip, I had the honour of meeting up with the 2 of them.

And here, I will spill all the beans. Muahahaha.
*chokes on saliva*

5 things you need to know about Nino.

(1) Nino is a walking history textbook, he is VERY well-read.
And he told me about Chiang Kai Shek and Taiwan history. *blush*

(2) Nino looks shy. His default expression looks like he is blushing. =p But he's also every bit of a gentleman.

(3) Nino got a great sense of humour. You can see that in his blog, but you got to meet him to experience it first hand.

(4) Nino is humble, he doesn’t brag. I found it amazing how we actually connected, because I’m a natural egoistic braggart.

(5) Nino looks REALLY cool in his sunglasses. Without those glasses, I swear I saw gals getting electrocuted just by looking straight into his eyes.

And here’s 1 thing you need to know about Lily.

(1) Lily is made of sugar (she's so sweet) and so so polite. Because of her, I have officially stereotype all Taiwan gals as girls who guys will love to bring home to meet their parents.

And that's why together, Nino and Lily make an awesome couple. I didn't say it, my mum-in-law did. And from the 4 of us, we wish that the 2 of ya will go really far in this relationship. ^_^

I also got the pleasure to take photos with the 2 of them. Nino & Lily, if you are reading this, I will send you the pictures once I can.

And to the readers here, do you guys know that Yugolavia was broken into Croatia and Slovenia? And these 2 countries (Croatia and Slovenia) are pretty much like Malaysia and Singapore, the former is bigger in land mass but the latter is small but more developed. And then there's that little rivalry, especially when it comes to sports.

The word "Slovenia" used to mean little to me. But now that I have a friend who hails from there, you can bet that I will pay more attention and interest to this country on the news.


Julian Alps, Slovenia
Picture stolen from Russel Tours

Hopefully, I might get the chance to visit Slovenia someday. And see nature there amid the snow in winter time!

Back from Taiwan

I'm back.

Ok, I'm back for more than a week actually. But have been held up by work (as always), and thus the lag in updates.

I brought Wifey and my in-laws to Taiwan some time for a 10-day trip to Taiwan. Taiwan is a place that has everything a visitor wants
(1) Good food
(2) Good scenery
(3) Good shopping

I do not have any ready photos with me to accompany this post. For those of you who have not seen pictures of Taiwan, head on to Nino's blog. I'm leaving the expert to show you the pics. =p

I went to both Taichung and Taipei, with an emphasis on showing my in-laws the more talked about tourist places in Taiwan.

I won't go into details, because I know a long post without pictures can get really boring.

So I will do a quick rundown of my favourite places in Taiwan.

(1) Night Markets
Taiwan has tons of good street food. Unlike the pasar malam in Singapore and Malaysia that sells the same old stuffs, Taiwan night markets sell HUGE variety of food.

The night markets that left a stronger impression on me was the
(a) Fengjia night market at Taichung (it's huge!)
(b) the Shilin market (lots of variety, must try the extra large fried chicken chop)
(c) Keelung night market (a huge one famous for seafood).

We went to many smaller night markets in Taipei, including the one at Huaxi Street (snake meat, yucks!)

(2) Sun Moon Lake
Sun Moon Lake is a famous lake that particularly left me a strong impression. I was originally told it's a boring place, but it turned out to be so much more fun. The lake was beautiful, there was nice street food (tofu with pickled vegetables, yummy!). And even a cable car up to a resort that showcase the various aboriginal tribes, plus a really fun amusement park.

(3) Alishan
So the famous sightseeing trains was out of service due to the earthquake. The only thing left to do is to trek. The mountains were at 10 degree celsius, and we were freezing unprepared. But the place is a great work of nature. Forest tracking, anyone?

(4) Jiufen
A very good shopping street on top of the mountain. Smelly tofu lingers the air, but it has some great dessert and food not found elsewhere in Taipei. It's a must go.

(5) Yehliu
A small fishing town. It is famous for the natural rock formation by the sea that resembles various shapes. One of the most scenic places I have ever been in Taiwan, though it's a pity I didn't get a snapshot of the sunset, as suggested by Nino.

(6) Danshui
Taiwan has alot of old streets. And this is one great old street to walk. Street food here is great, it's particularly known for that tall ice-cream.

(7) Wulai
Famous for the hotsprings and the waterfall. I went on a weekday, and it was pretty deserted. They also have a old style train that is so so fun to sit. There's a cable car and resort in Wulai also, but it looks abandoned, so you can probably give it a pass.

(8) Ximending
The shopping place for hip young people (and uncle like me). Tons of movie theatres and karaoke. And also the unforgettable Modern Toilet restaurant. Haha, we ate "toilet food".

On a side note, I also got the chance to meet up with Nino and Lily. They were our tour guides on one of the days. More about this in the next entry. And I will try to find time to get some photos up too.

Thanks for reading.