(above) MASTER TEACHER: Madam Ng Tai Cheen, a Chinese language teacher, drew inspiration from her parents and grandmother who were all teachers. She has been teaching at Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) for 23 years. -- ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

AS A girl, Ng Tai Cheen was a model student who tutored her five younger siblings and neighbours.

Now 57, she is a master teacher who has devoted her career to helping generations of Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) boys get over their problems learning Chinese.

Teaching was something she had set her heart on from the time she was 11. Her parents were teachers, and so was her maternal grandmother.

As a pupil at Poi Eng Public School, she felt 'like a princess' as her late 'papa' Ng Yen Gee was the principal, she recalled.

She was impressed with how hard-working and decisive he was and wanted to follow in his footsteps.

Her mother stopped working to look after the children, while her father headed Poi Eng for 30 years until he retired in 1985.

Poi Eng, a government-aided school in Upper Thomson Road, has since become a government school in Yishun and is now known as Peiying.

After finishing her A-levels, Madam Ng taught at Seletar Chinese School before joining ACS (Junior). She drew inspiration from her mother, who was very loving and gentle, and her father, who was very fair and decisive.

'You have to use a mixture of the soft and hard approaches,' she added.

As most of the pupils at ACS (Junior) come from English-speaking homes, it is not easy to interest them in the Chinese language.

But there are aspects of teaching that she enjoys.

'I like the feeling of having a lot of people listening to you talk. It's very satisfying,' said Madam Ng.

She also has to use a variety of lively teaching methods, and has to be encouraging.

She remembers coaching a boy who had scored zero for his listening comprehension, teaching him just one word a day every day after school.

The five words he learnt in a week helped him to pass, because he managed to get five out of 10 questions right.

Madam Ng, who has two children, said she has seen Chinese language standards improve in her 23 years at ACS (Junior).

'In the past people thought that ACS was lousy in Chinese but they have now changed their minds,' she said, pointing to the 95.6 per cent pass rate for the subject in the Primary School Leaving Examination.

She counts herself blessed to have had a happy career with few obstacles, except for the challenge of helping those who do not like Chinese.

When a group of former pupils returned to register their sons for Primary 1 a few years ago, she made them speak to her in Mandarin.

'Some of them went di-di-du-du, but most of them had no problem,' she said with a laugh.

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