Miss Rose Chin - Extraordinary English Teacher

Miss Rose Chin with her brother David Chin and other family members in New Zealand. Photo courtesy of David.
1968 was the last year of my school at Tanjong Lobang School. I had been in the school for NINE years. It has been a loving home, a training ground and Mr. McCormick was right. It was like heaven.

Now that I am 61 I have the privileges of sharing my memories with friends while my mind is still good. It is not fair just to remember Mr. Robert Nicholl only. Like the Beatles song, "In My Life", I remember them all.

And today, one of the teachers I would like to remember is Miss Chin.When the newly graduated

Miss Rose Chin walked into our English class that particular moment, we being only just a few years younger than her, knew that she was nervous. She kicked the rattan waste paper basket and we waited patiently,respectfully and knowingly for her to start her lesson.

Only Reggie Tersan laughed softly and said,"She's nervous!" She did not flinch at all but continued with her business of teaching.

Reggie went on to become her favourite and best English student.

But for me,in just that moment I knew that she was all business and that she would get on with her teaching to the best of her ability and we would benefit a lot from her refreshing approach.

Physically, she was a strong woman, one that was used to changkul-ing soils and hard farm work. She had the sun burnt skin of a farmer's daughter. So we as the native students of the class, immediately felt that we could relate to this new teacher who had just come back from Australia.

Mentally, she was really intelligent and she had an admirable command of the English languange. I am proud to say that I was in her class long enough to learn all the important tenets of the English language that year. All my fellow classmates benefitted from her teaching as well. None of us dare to upset her, while most understood her intent and purpose completely. She was clever and she could impart knowledge to us. So for that we were willing and respectful students. Her mental strength challenged us to be disciplined language learners.

One thing which really impressed me as the weeks became months and the months became a year. She was able to talk non stop on a topic she was teaching. Sometimes I thought that she was not breathing at all, even at the commas and the fullstops. Was she really able to speak like a train? In later years when I met her, she was still the same. I really believe that it was listening to her fast talking that I developed a very good listening skill and long concentration span.

In terms of opinions , I had the feeling then that Miss Chin always had her mind strongly made up. Even though I did not make a really good impression on her (as I was always saying "but ....." and disagreeing with her) and I was not that goody goody kind of student, I felt that she was able to be objective towards me. She gave me a good evaluation without showing she was biased, like so many other teachers would do. She kept a very good poker face when it came to students who were not paying attention or pulling their weight.

I would say that during her time in our school she was one of the most dedicated teachers. She worked hard and we could all see that very very clearly. She meant business and would not tolerate any nonsense in class. And she came across to us then in every thing she did, she was just so proper and such a perfect Chinese woman with all the classical ethics and moral values. In later years when I became a Principal, I had wished that all English teachers should be like her and as many students as possible would have excellent results in English.

We should have more English teachers like Miss Rose Chin.