Chua Xue Ya (AHS 2C 2015)
Before I started Mr Kok's chinese tuition, I took lessons at a regular tuition centre where they took in more than 10 students at a time. They only focused more on the stronger students and with my horrible chinese, I found it quite hard to catch up. Thus, my chinese grades started to drop and eventually lost my interest towards the subject and even started to hate it. However, when I first started my lessons with Mr Kok, I changed my perspective of chinese and started to take a liking to it. His lessons were more interesting and meaningful as compared to the regular tuition, as he tried to integerate different ways of teaching into the lessons, such as the use of technology and internet, where its easier to type out assignments rather than hand-writing them, and the apps he uses for his lessons provide useful information that is easily accessible. He focuses on trying to improve my weaknesses, like improving my language skills. I find his method of teaching different than other tuition as he is very dedicated to his students and tries his utmost to improve our grades and help us develop a liking to chinese. For example, I used to hate chinese oral but with his method of using recording and watching current-affairs in chinese helped me to develop confidence in speaking. Futhermore, when I have homework or graded assignments that i do not know how to do, he would look at my assignments and correct me and teach me how to apply writing students, as techniques and vocabulary to make it better. For instance, for a holiday assignment that had high weightage on my grades, i had to do a writeup on my trip to china. However, with my limited language skills, i could not write much and had plenty of mistakes in the assignment. However, Mr Kok asked me to do a draft for the assigment and send it via sms to him so that he would help me correct my mistakes and improve on it by adding vocabulary and certain writing techniques. With his help, for that assignment, i managed to get high grades for it and i even learnt new vocabulary phrases and writing techniques that i can apply in my future assignments. I find that he is different from other teachers, and he is passionate in teaching and guiding his he tries to understand his students. He does not teach for the sake of teaching but also reaches out a helping hand as a caring teacher who puts his utmost into teaching. It is no doubt that he has done a fantastic job and i would definitely recommend him to others.
Alyssa Savier (AHS 2C 2015)
To fulfill our duties as students, we have to adopt the mindsets to be as versatile as we can. However many have adopted the wrong mindsets to score well using the L1R5 system. To be able to utilize only one's better language is can be very detrimental to one's determination and drive. One would grow complacent and neglect the weaker language. However, after attending Mr Kok's tuition, I have realized that there is so much more to learning Chinese than it is a weaker subject that I can neglect. I have learnt how to truly enjoy studying the Chinese language and to balance out the stark difference in grades between my better language, English, and my once loathed subject, Chinese. His lessons are engaging, thought-provoking and allows us to expand our knowledge besides using the textbook-style teaching method. I highly recommend his tutoring as he managed to revert my dislike for the Chinese subject to one which I truly enjoy and look forward to. As I attend the lessons at a time which I feel rather lethargic and tired, his lesson-plan caters to us in such a way that would be less taxing on our mental capacity, and manages to capture our interests. He integrates technology into our lessons to allow us to improve our understanding on the subject. What differentiates Mr Kok from other teachers, is that he can see the potential in different students and can bring out that potential by changing his teaching style to cater to them. Instead of having only a one-to-one private tuition, we can group along with others in order to allow more interactions within the class for a more interesting engaging experience, as well as to motivate and encourage each other.
