Ting the Mandarin Merlin

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Stop! Listen to the sweet chimes
cascading from room 216
like Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells:
1 MA   2 MA   3 MA   4 MA

and POR BOR MOR. Bored no more,
they sing as happy as a lark
WOMEN XUEXI ZHONGWEN
Like joyful jingle bells.

The left wall covered with visual aids,
flash cards diving like kingfishers,
smiles and sounds intoxicating the learners,
their faces light up like electric bulbs

each time Ting “oks” their answer,
with the charisma of an orchestra conductor,
full of joy and zest for life, a dynamo of energy,
she never ever sits down, no time to do so.

Drills abandoned in the 70s
revitalize realistic functional Chinese
with precision, fun and practicality,
cumulative revision remedying any confusion.

She casts a spell on the class
with her signature tune reverberating:
FEICHANG HAO! EXCELLENT!
a calming tonic for any stress.

Her mantra? Preparation. Preparation. Preparation.
Rapport. Rapport. Revision. Revision.
Enthusiastic delivery of digestible chunks of structure,
vocabulary, functions and writing, and more writing,

little and often making learning Mandarin an easy journey.

They will remember Ting’s class
at the going down of the sun
and in the morning, at City Lit’s centenary next year,
as the best of learning times.


Dato’ Yunus Raiss  JP, FRSA, FCIL, M.Ed, BA, B.Sc (Econ), Barrister,
Dip TEFL, Dip Ed Research
5.12.2018

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