Chinese Singing Contest Report Mishap

As I continue to seek to improve Chinese education in the Philippines, I remember a mishap that happened 22 years ago. A Chinese singing contest was held in a Chinese school. Since the teachers were part-time from another school, somebody submitted a class journalism report on the Chinese singing contest last 2001. It might be a long time already. However, I do get amused just thinking about it even if I've already reconciled with the offender.

The person had a certain proficiency in Chinese. Pinyin wasn't taught at that time. The Chinese classes were where the teachers from the other schools would introduce themselves by their Chinese names without telling us their real names. The Chinese classes were so focused on memorization instead of understanding. Since Chinese classes were treated rather casually (and I've been guilty of that)--Chinese teachers were the victims of students name-calling them.

In the Philippines, Chinese teachers are referred to as siansi in Hokkien. In Mandarin, that would be the lǎoshī (老师). The Chinese way of referring to a person was name first over title. For example, if a teacher's surname was Chen in Mandarin (Tan in Amoy), she would be called Chén lǎoshī. Students just got too lazy to memorize even their surnames. The results can be rather stupid.

That certain someone decided to submit a journalism report on the Chinese singing contest. Rather than write down the real names of the Chinese teachers from the other school--he wrote down the nicknames. Since he didn't know the real names of most of them (and if he knew the English name, no surname was provided), he wrote down the assigned nicknames. I could imagine the report contained names like Teacher Fierce, Teacher Minus (because she frequently threatened with deductions), Teacher Fat, Teacher Duck, and Teacher Thin. It's because of their certain mannerisms or distinct appearances.

The journalism teacher naturally raised her eyebrows. She told the person, "Please see me at the principal's office." The person wasn't getting extra points for his "efforts". Obviously, the English principal wasn't a bit pleased with the report. Neither was the Chinese principal who was pretty much like the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago. I can't exactly remember what was requested of him. What was important was that he got some appropriate punishment and apologized for his actions.

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