Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Goodbye 4D

27th may, 2014

Dear F.4D

I am really happy you monkeys can get rid of me. You are smart, no doubt about it, but you are also very noisy and inattentive and I really don’t have the ability to teach you well. Now, I feel happy you are in the good hands of a better teacher who is stricter and more demanding than I am. I am happy for you. I don’t think you will miss me. I don’t think I will miss you too. Good riddance!

One thing I feel good about having taught your class is that you are quick in picking things up and your English is actually quite good. We have worked miracles together beating St Paul Lam Tin (2 teams, WOW!!!) and brought glory to the school. That is something I will never forget.

Under me, you have written a lot of compositions. I really hope all this writing has benefitted you guys. You know, the other classes have only written half as much as we did. And now, we are writing again.

Hey, I enjoyed giving you your oral exam, especially the first one. You people really can discuss and respond to each other. I enjoyed reading your compositions. You people can really write. Too bad someone has taught you wrong grammar, if not, your writing would have been perfect.

After I am gone, I want you to keep reading and writing on your own. I don’t believe in the power of a teacher. My English is learnt through reading and Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions is the book that taught me how to write in simple English. You can read the pdf of this book in summer. If you are interested in him, you can continue to read his Cat’s Cradle.

If you attempt to do social issues in the writing exam, I would advise you to learn a phrase a day from SCMP. The markers would be very impressed to see candidates using phrases there. Reading the SCMP would not only give you the English feel most Hong Kong students are lacking and the necessary vocabulary to write your articles, it would also increase your knowledge to understand the very difficult B2 articles in Paper One and all the articles in your listening tasks.  

A phrase a day? Yes, use it in your diary or newspaper cutting exercise or whatever. Keep writing to make yourself fluent and mistake free.
Your teacher,


Yours +

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