A few Disastrous moments during extracurricular classes

My girls are usually obedient, but like all kids, they have moments where they go with the  “no holds barred” rule especiall when they are with their closest cousins. Then, they can become very  , a little rowdy.

I pity the Chinese teacher (a young man) who had a disastrous class with them (the famous 5) yesterday. Before class began, Ld started toying around with the radio there, changing stations, causing unnecessary static and white noises, alternating with Tamil, Malay and Chinese music/news.

The teacher got very annoyed and began barraging Ld with a long lecture on how to behave. To the amazement  horror of the teacher, my Little Jo (a 5 year old fast becoming a 25 year old lawyer), stood up and said,  “Teacher! You Are wasting my time!”

The teacher glared at her, full of anger and said “How DARE you speak to your teacher like that! I’m not wasting time, I HAVE to scold Ld! If you think I am wasting YoUR time, you may WALK out now!!”

This led to laughter from several others, which sparked further anger in the teacher. Disaster. *shakes head*

(Later I asked Jo why did she speak in such a manner and explained to her that it was rude to speak like that. She explained “I meant that the teacher was wasting his own time because when the time is up, he will not be able to finish teaching and will have to add time. He was wasting his own time." Then she added " Please don't scold me mum for talking to teacher that way...pleaseeee...pleaseeee" she said with an innocent voice. I burst out laughing, we all laughed. (then i reminded them that this was no laughing matter!) hahahaha...

­Pottery class.

We again went with the gang of 5, Fabulous Five, Fearsome Five or whatever you call em 5 cousins, for pottery lessons. At the pottery class, there was a dear Japanese lady in her 50’s making a very beautiful vase. She’s a regular student there. She smiled widely when she saw our children and said “oh, such adorable children. So clever, you come and learn? Good! So cute, so adorable.”

Unbeknownst to her, little L's had quietly placed scraps of clay in her beautiful vase, still in the process of drying. *gasp* When she turned around to look at her vase and to add finishing touches, she let out a scream of anger! That poor lady threw her arms up in anger, and started muttering expletives (I’m sure it was) in Japanese language. "@@!!##&&&##***" she went on and on and on in a fit of anger.

Our kind pottery teacher, Mr. Cheah, merely stood in front of her, listened and smiled and laughed (laughed sympathetically). That was a disastrous moment. I hid my face and thanked God I don’t understand Japanese.

Let me end by quoting something my daughter Nel said while she was still in Chinese Primary school. “Mum, I have 2 angry teachers. One’s a Malay who teaches English, and the other is a Chinese who teaches Malay. Both like to say the “S” word. One likes to say  SHUT UP, and the other likes to yell “STUPID.” 

 These teachers must have had difficult/disastrous days in school to use those words. Five children can cause so much havoc, imagine handling 50 in one class!
(most local schools have between 40-50 students per class.)