Mr Allan

This post was originally created on December 24, 2008. As I had transferred my blog here, I decided to copy this post as well. Somebody suggested to me that this post "will have contributed to some degree to outlook on life".

Last Chemistry Class

Today, our last Chemistry cls with Mr Allan. After almost 1 year studying with him, undeniably Chemistry had nvr been more interesting (Mr Allan, I'm not trying to get more marks for my trial. But I really dun mind if u wanna show ur generosity ;p). I was transferred to his class, the so-called “fast-track cls” somewhere in Jan this year. I heard abt him from other classes b4 that. And i was like, “Cool, they hv an English man teaching them”. But when i started in his cls, i was damn blurr. Chemistry had nvr been worse. I hadnt had the chance to hv a chem cls b4 that with my previous lecturer. And he taught his cls a few topics ahead “Hess’s Cycle” to be exact.

Disastrous First Semester & Scary Lab Sessions

My 1st class with him was disastrous. He came into the class, started scribbling on the whiteboard, talked English non-stop, with his accent, and I sat at the back of the cls trying to adapt to what’s going on. Abt 10mins after, I was handed a name list, where I was supposed to sign, it was an attendance sheet. My name was nowhere in the list, so is Hui Fong’s. We didn't know what to do. We asked the student in front of us (i can remember who, i didnt know them back then) and they simply shook their head. They were just in total shock as i am.

Second, third and fourth classes didnt get any better. He scribbled his notes on the board, us trying to copy exactly what he wrote though we didnt understand, and he started talking abt weird and looked-complicated equations and I started scratching my head and I was almost certain I prefer Ms Shanti a lot more.

Practical sessions in the lab were sessions I dreaded the most every week.

I didnt even dare to look into his eyes. I was even trembling when he came anywhere near my table to see what am I doing with my samples and substances.
I was even scared to take tissue papers on labels on his table in front of the lab. I was practically imitating whatever Hui Fong, Siew Huan, and August were doing. I wondered, “how come they look so confident in doing the experiment?”

Towards the end of 2nd sem, which was somewhere on May 08, Pn Rita was discussing with us abt our Bio lecturer 4 d next semester. And suddenly it struck me! Why don’t we discuss among ourselves and request 4 a change in Chem lecturer? We can request 4 Ms. Shanti. I thought she is better than Mr Allan. At least she doesn't teach out of the syllabus. We sort of discussed abt it among ourselves but no one actually went to Mdm Rita and voice it out.

And that was exactly how we got Mr. Allan again for our 3rd semester.

Wavelength Equalising

But, things started to turn the other way around. Were 3rd semester Chem topics are a lot easier, or I am beginning to understand Mr. Allan’s way of teaching?
Am I getting better in his cls because I had somehow been successful in tuning myself to be in the same frequency as his? Am I up to his level of teaching now? Am I used to him already?
Or had I been very motivated during the semester break that I can juz absorb anything he’s teaching? Whatever happened to me, happened to Hui Fong as well.

She found it easier to understand Mr Allan’s cls this sem. She was the one who came out with the “same frequency” theory.

As time passes, we started to study more on organics and being an organic chemist, Mr. A sure knows what he is talking abt. Although undeniably sometimes, he will get excited explaining abt a topic and started to use difficult and unknown terms and at the end of it, he’ll say “But of course, Edexcel doesn't require u to know all these” or “U r lucky this is not in A level” and I started to breathe again. Fuh!

There is one stage, where I came to realise a very important way not to get confused in his cls. Listen to him well, and when he started to give really really really weird equations or facts or mechanism etc, take it lightly. There is 85% probability that is not in A level syllabus. And so far, I had got it all correct.

So, that is the end of my experience being in a foreigner’s class. Foreigner? Still considered foreigner? Hurm, maybe not… Rephrase.. So, that is the end of my experience being in an English man’s class. I would really miss his cls… But, life goes on…