PRIMARY school teacher Tan Tat Eng has always wanted a deep understanding of Chinese language and culture.

So the 59-year-old instructor spent almost a decade hitting the books, while still holding down her job teaching Chinese to primary pupils.

Her dream finally came true yesterday when she garnered a master's degree in Chinese Language and Literature jointly offered by SIM University (UniSIM) and Beijing Normal University.

She was among a pioneering batch of 35 students who received their master's degrees at a graduation ceremony at UniSIM. Sixty-nine graduates from a Chinese Language and Literature bachelor's programme also received their scrolls, bringing the total number of graduates in the course to 538 over six years.

Madam Tan began her educational journey in the bachelor's programme, spending six years as a part-time student before graduating in 2005. But this only whetted her appetite for more.

So that same year, she signed up for the master's in Chinese Language and Literature at UniSIM. Over the next two years, she would rush to class after school and even fly to Beijing to consult her lecturer and do research on her thesis.

'After you start to learn something, you find that there's no limit to the ocean of knowledge, especially in the study of Chinese culture,' she said.

Besides the Chinese Language courses, the university also offers bachelor's degree courses in Tamil Language and Literature, the only one in Singapore.

Next year, it is starting the Malay equivalent.

For Madam Tan, getting her master's does not spell the end of her learning journey.

She is taking classes in English Language and Chinese-English translation at the university to better reach out to pupils who come from English-speaking homes.

HO AI LI

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Mar 15, 2008.