The perils of a room-mate

It is traditional, in some parts of the world, for students to have a room-mate. From what I can gather, this room-mate is often not by choice, and may be a stranger, at first. Herein lies the peril.

Recently, a Mongolian student complained to me about her room-mate. She is sharing a room with an Indian national in a student hostel, here, in Singapore.

"She is dirty." she began, in a way that told me there was much more to come. "She is smelly.", she continued, her nose crinkling in unwelcome recall. "Very smelly."

"Perhaps she doesn't wash.", I empathized.

This seemed to get the Mongolian going: "I have NEVER seen her wash. She hasn't showered since she first came to my room: NEVER!"

She was clearly upset at having to share her room with such an unhygienic person. There was repulsion in her face when she mentioned her room-mate -and I could understand why. You can just imagine how smelly someone would soon become, who never washed, yet lived in ever hot, humid, equatorial Singapore.

"Perhaps you should change rooms...and share with a Mongolian." At least, I thought to myself, they would behave in ways that she had come to expect.

"I can't. Not for another week."

There was clearly something else on her mind, something more delicate and in some way worse than what had gone before. I waited in patient silence, while she gathered the words to continue.

"She stole my money. All of it."

I understood her situation. She wouldn't be allowed, by her type of visa, to open a bank account in Singapore and so would have kept quite a lot of cash in her room.

"Have you reported it to the police?"

"The police?" The thought was clearly unpleasant to her. "No. I told the manager of the hostel...he says he will give me another room, in a week."

"You really should report her to the police." I reiterated.

She shook her head slowly. It seems that is not the way Mongolians did things.

"You know what?" she said, "She is studying cookery at University."

That jolted me.

"She never washes," she said, spelling it out unnecessarily, "and is studying cookery. So, one day people will eat her food."

It was my turn to feel repelled. I had to go, however, so I wished her well on changing rooms.

Now, I have never had a room-mate, as such, though I have shared a suite of rooms with another. There are, I feel, many reasons why it can be quite risky. If you are unfortunate in whom you are allotted, it can make for an unpleasant situation indeed, as this Mongolian student's example reveals.

I understand that many Colleges have a premium on residential space and that this forces the need for room-mates, upon their students. I feel, however, that there should be a choice: those who would rather have their privacy, than a room-mate, should be accommodated. There should be room for those who do not wish to have a room-mate.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

What makes a favourite teacher

Everyone has a favourite teacher. Even if someone disliked all of their teachers, one would be the least disliked and this one, therefore, would be the "favourite".

I once asked a class of foreign students, whom I had taught for only a couple of weeks who their favourite teacher in life had been and why. I didn't expect any of them to point to me, in answer, given our short acquaintance - though the odd one did, in fact, do so.

That, however, was not what surprised or interested me. The peculiar answer of one Chinese mainland student did.

She named her favourite teacher as being an English teacher she had once had, long ago. He had been a Caucasian - but that wasn't why she had liked him. I was curious about her reasoning and so enquired further.

"Why is he your favourite?"

"Because he wore different coloured socks everyday.", she declared, seeming to be pleased to remember him and his strange habit.

I must have looked appropriately puzzled, for she fell silent, not knowing quite what to say next.

"Why did that make him your favourite teacher?", I prompted.

"Because he was fashionable.", she explained, as if it were the most obvious, and the most important reason in all the world.

I couldn't stop myself, but found my tongue echoing her reason to the whole class, just so that they could hear her softly spoken reply.

I left it at that. I didn't want to embarrass her. Yet, I confess I was flabbergasted that an inconsequential matter like the colour of one's socks, can make one the most memorable and appreciated teacher in a person's life.

This, of course, leads one to ask the necessary question: how is it possible to teach students who don't know how to measure the quality of what is being imparted? How is it possible to teach students whose values are so distorted that the colour of socks is held up as the measure of a teacher?

I wonder, now, how common such shallow views, as this young woman, ostensibly in her twenties, held, are in modern China? Is it a nation of superficial people unable to identify what is important in life?

I hope not. For soon the birthplace of this remarkable, sock worshipping, young woman, will be a financial superpower.

Of course, if it turns out that young women like her are common in modern China, you know how to cope with it: just wear differently coloured socks everyday. That is sure to impress them.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)