Thursday, May 03, 2007
After those two interviews today I'm even more convinced that I'm a fickle minded person.
The manual dexterity test was hell challenging la.
They made us cut a cube of sides 2.3cm on the top of the plaster cylinder, make a 3-d tooth out of a block of plasticine and twist wires using tools into different shapes.
I already knew that these were going to be the tests like Nat had told me but the knowledge didn't help at all.
My plaster cylinder could not be sliced into a cube on side 2.3 cm because the diameter was only 2.2cm at most.
The army boy sitting across me had such an easy time cutting it into perfect smooth geometric shapes that I thought it was deliberately made this way to see if we're flexible enough.
I found out that it wasn't so at all while waiting for the dentistry interview.
This RJ girl told me that her plastic cylinder was perfectly fine.
And I'm perfectly screwed.
It all depends on the interview now.
I hate it when they ask questions that will make me sound like I'm contradicting myself when I know what I'm saying.
For example,
Interviewer: You said you like children right? Why don't you be a teacher? Isn't the satisfaction greater?
Me: Yeah. I'm working in a school now and even though I acknowledge that nothing can be more satisfying than seeing children grow and learn under your care, I don't believe that teachers should be abused by unreasonable parents this way.
Interviewer: If you become a dentist you will also face unreasonable and ungrateful patients who complain and write to the ministry even when dentists have done a beautiful job.
Okayyy..
I tried to explain that I think that a teacher's primary job is to educate the children and not be answerable to parents' inane accusations.
The customers, if it is, in this case are the children and the superior the Principal.
But sadly this is not the case.
Many teachers resign because of unruly students and smart-arsed parents.
I haven't even mentioned about that time this siao ding dong parent [he is literally fucked up crazy] sent a mail to the school Principal where I work now.
On the envelope which he handmade were the words,
'To: Principal
Why?? Why keep calling his name in class?
Why Nelson?
Nelson do this Nelson do that.
Why the obsession with him? Why??
From: Curious'
You tell me is he siao or what?
And this message I typed is not even complete.
He wrote some more incoherent sentences and 'Why????'s to express his confusion which I can't remember because I thought it hysterical.
Hysterical because it was so childish.
Imagine a grown man bending over his keyboard typing such things and when his son walks past behind him and sees the screen, he will shake his head ruefully.
Inside the envelope was a postcard advertising morgues.
Despite my muffled laughter when I saw it I was really upset.
[Please, I'm not so morbid to be happy that my P got personally attacked.]
If I didn't laugh I thought I might tear.
If you have been to the school I'm working at you'd love the decorations.
[Then again, maybe you wouldn't, Weiwei wasn't impressed.]
On the walls outside the classrooms they painted it in bright psychedelic colours of animals, jungles, space etc.
Some classrooms even had 3-D decorations of plants.
I was fascinated at the effort to make the studying environment very welcoming and exciting.
One of my favourite walls is the one with the time zones of many continents around the world beautifully decorated by kids' personal experiences at various countries.
I believe that all these are baby projects by the P because I always overhear him talking to parent volunteers about adding pictures or educational information on the walls around school.
There was one day a teacher alerted the office about a newly vandalised wall just outside the P's office [my fav wall] that has the scribbles 'Mr X Sucks'.
[X is the P's name of course I can't type it out here.]
I was so upset that the P was upset.
You could tell from his tone of voice, his distracted expression and slower gait that he was affected.
The good thing was he recovered fast and was lively again the very next day as though nothing happened.
Why should people treat fellow beings this way?
I hate ingrates.
Back to what I was saying.
While a dentist is primarily serving the public first hand and therefore should expect to receive complaints.
I say expect as some people are very fussy, likes to find faults and likes to complain, just because.
My point is teachers are not really in the service line and I cannot accept that they are subjected to the tempers of parents.
My answer kind of went round and round until the interviewers gave up and started asking about something else.
I realised that the interviewers like to ask indirectly if interviewees are introverts. They ask things like, 'Do you have friends outside your school?'
You mean, like a undersociety gang? No.
All my friends are from school!
I made up a little and talked about Chingay2007 and my volunteering programme with NLB.
Then, no more! No other friends.!
That's about it.
I was so silly to forget the name of the disease caused by mosquito bites.
It's dengue, you silly.
I hope the interviewers gave me extra marks for appearance.
They probably won't, I was wearing jeans and sports shoes.
How about extra marks for my face then?
Haha just kidding.
Labels: University
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