ALBUM: Gratifying Moments in ELT
Private English Tutor
Dear Mr. Wee, thank you for teaching me English. Although it has already been a week since I have taken my GCE N Level result, acing the subject still feels unbelievable. For the entire year, I have been writing essays, memorizing vocabulary and doing comprehension practices non-stop. It now feels surreal that I no longer have to do all these. 10 years of studying and I have never scored an A2 in English, achieving A1 was too good to be true. Although I felt that I have already put in a tremendous amount of effort in this subject, I still could not score an A for my school examinations. Even for prelims, I only scored a B3. Getting an A1 for N levels was not just my effort, it was you who made it possible. I can still remember us having tuition late in the night just because I had some questions about my essay. You were more than willing to answer my questions, encourage me and of course, mark my work immediately after I hand them in. I dislike tuition but it was different with you. There was no standard timing for class. You tried your best to accommodate my busy schedule. We could have a 4-5 hours class just to discuss my work. You gave in your 100% effort in marking, going through, and teaching. Now that I graduated from secondary school, I am missing having tuition sessions with you. I used to hate writing essays but you gave me the motivation to do so. Remember the first essay I did? Every sentence has a mistake. The paper was filled with underlines. Nearer to the examination, my work was getting better. It was getting bloody because of the number of ticks and not circles or underlines. As I saw my improvement, I was much more driven to memorize vocabulary. Sometimes, I even feel that you are putting in more effort than I do. Every lesson, I will learn something new. People never know how much there is to learn for English. It may be a simple past perfect tense but it takes a lot of effort to understand it. There are so many rules. Some don’t even make sense to me at first. You find the beauty in English and will keep explaining to me until I understand. If I can’t digest the first explanation, you will come up with another. You often come up with real-life examples so that I could understand better. Your lessons were more than beneficial. Although the language may be boring, you try your very best to make it fun. Every time I receive my marked essay, the only thing I look forward to is seeing a “Good!” or “Awesome!”. It may not mean much to you but it meant a lot to me. My English teacher in school told the class to never try narrative and descriptive essays because he felt that we lack the vocabulary to do so. However, after attending tuition, I gave it a try. I did descriptive writing. He was in awe as he marked my essay. I was the first student he allowed to attempt narrative and descriptive questions. During N level, there was 1 descriptive, 2 narrative, and 1 discursive writing. When I saw the questions, I was more than thankful for you. You insisted on asking me to write narrative writing. I have completed 18 essays within 9 months. It was more than the number of essays I’ve done in primary and secondary school. Thank you for believing in me even when I doubted myself. Words can’t describe how grateful I am to have you as my tutor. This A1 is only possible with you. I am having mixed feelings. I am supposed to be overjoyed because my efforts and your efforts paid off but I am feeling reluctant to leave tuition. Whatever it is, I still owe you a thank you. Thank you for your efforts and everything you have done!
-kaixing