Isabelle Neo

I am generally quite a tolerant person when it comes to the problem of third world foreign talents. Or I should say foreign "Talents" in this case. Because the word is apparently debatale. Whether the talent is real and substantial or not, it's another matter in entirety. And if I ever do make ah tiong and ah neh comments, I mutter it under my breath. I am generally okay with them being around, as long as they the little dragon girls don't come and seduce my dad, they don't squeeze past me with some potent BO in MPSH during exams that combine with people from other facutlties, don't blow bad breath in my face, and don't speak in their native language and interrupt me during movie/lesson, and don't speak like a know-it-all just because they earned some peanut little scholarship to come to singapore to study. See...I'm okay with them. But some frigging little pea-brained ass hole had to piss me off. And yes, they belong to one of the aforementioned.

Did I mention, please do not come here and act like a major know-it-all when you cannot even speak english properly, not to mention mark me down for it?

A while ago, I received my project grade for a certain science elective that I am taking this sem. My group got a C+. I was a little shock at when I went online to check it, because I thought out presentation was pretty good, with the only screw up being that the video couldn't play during the presentation. But I didn't really take it to heart because after all, I S/U the module.

When my group met again today to sit for the final paper, I was informed by this other group member, who went to collect the comments that the TA had dispensed for the grading of the project, that made me fume.

In case anyone doesn't know, TA stands for teaching assistance. Not lecturers, not qualified teachers, just facilitators. Now, I must say that I had my fair share of superb TAs from ARTS in the past few semesters that I've been in NUS. They are receptive, facilitative, dynamic, not to mention smart, and eloquent. Potential lecturer material in the making...you can see. I've also had a couple, from a certain nationality, who can't speak english all that well, but at least they try to play fair. But these TAs from SCIENCE, fucking cannot even understand english properly, and they were grading my presentation. Do they have the right to mark me down because my english was beyond their comprehension? In the first place, were they qualified to MARK???

Now you see where did my lashing out on these "telents" didn't come from no where.

I was angry not because they gave us a C, because if I deserved that grade, then I deserve it. But no, I got a C because according to my friends, the comment went along the line of:

a) Implied that we did not visit the zoo. Reason because this particular TA so smugly asked us during the Q&A session of our presentation when did we visit the zoo.
Us: We can't remember the date, but it was in Late Jabuary, early Feb. Just before CNY.
Viet: REALLY? Because you know what, the sea lion enclosure is closed for renovations now. You sure you went to the zoo?
Me: Umm yea, So what are you trying to say? It's April now. We went in February. It wasn't close in February.
Viet: (Obviously didn't understand english) wrote something done on his paper, shook his head, muttered something to another TA, and smiled smugly to himself.

Errr excuse me Viet, our group member actually claimed the entrance ticket to the zoo, hello....do you understand that in Feb, Sea Lion enclosure is NOT close yet. Now close not equal to febraury close. Got ticket to claim = got go to zoo.
KNNBCCB! He still had the cheek to write down and implied we did not go to zoo.

Please la...if you can't even understand simple english, please go home to your kampung and rot in one corner. But don't grade me down because you are lousy and don't understand me when the rest of the class did.

b)Okay fine, I admit that my group used a set of word that is a wee little bit cheem. "Polygamous" and "Polygynous". The 2 damn zai sociology majors in my group attempted to explain them when they asked about the distinction between these 2. But they didn't understand. The distinction is not so important, but the meanings it imparts. We explained, but that lousy kennasai bunch of TAs who cannot speak nor understand english properly simply didn't understand. The difference is too colossal for square-brain to process. So they got stuck in the rut deciphering the difference.
And when they couldn't, they gave us a lousy grade and ask us "why must we use 2 different word to confuse them?"

WTF?? You get confused and so that is a fucking good reason to mark me down? I didn't invent the usage of the word on sea lions myself. Some ang mo professor who wrote a book on sea lions did. Go and mark the ang mo down la. GO!! GO call the publisher and slam the ang mo la. Say the ang mo cannot speak english properly...tell him you wanna boycott his book because he has 2 terms that you don't understand.

c) This is getting even better. This woman, who obviously doens't know what a fucking presentation is ask us to refer back to slide number X, and said, "YOu mentioned blah blah blah blah blah, how come it's not on the slide?"

Me: Erm, it's an elaboration of the point I was making.
The Unpresentable TA: Huh? But why is it not on the screen?
Me: Because it's a presentation. You only put the mainpoint on the screen and elaborate the rest. I can't possibly read off the screen
The Unpresentable TA: But it's not on the screen, I can't see

By now, I was visibly pissed by all their stupidity. Though she can't see, but she remembers it, so basically my elaboration on that point struck a chord. It means it got through, it served the point of an elaboration. Therefore it's a good elaboration, because she remembers it. And if the other TAs don't remember it, then it only shows that nobody in SCIENCE listens. They only read text books.

If you want everything on the screen, I might as well just write out a whole damn essay and use Microsoft powerpoint to flash it. I will use my standard Size 12 Times New Roman, complete with double space to write a whole full length 1500 word essay on the analysis and observations of sea lion behaviour in the zoo, and slowly scroll though the full 8 pages worth of elaborations, arguments, ideas and observations.

8 full pages of elaborations for her to see. Right smack there on the screen. Want that right? Jeez, these people have no concept of what a presentation is...

D) Then our video could not play. Somehow suay suay, it just couldn't work on the teacher's computer. I dunno why. But they wanted a video, we took good videos, just that it didn't work despite multiple runs and rehearsals at home.
So some stupid TA insisted again that we didn't go to the Zoo. Fuck la...if they really want, they can always verfiy with the module coordinator that we had receipt that said we went to the zoo one so and so date, and if they had wanted, the video cam that my group mate brought had a time and date as well.
In fact, I had the whole outing on my blog.
So there goes the whole thing about us not going to the zoo again.

Can these stoopid third world migrants just stop thinking that they are so smart. They should just go and see their own comments. See if they make any sense anot. Pity, the cohort is sooo big that the lecturers probably didn't bother going through anything. Not to mention the fact that most of us were arts students and this was an easy-peasy module, a no brainer, that no science academics would wanna waste their time on.

It didn't help that the other 2 girls in my group were drop dead gorgeous and hot. Something these TAs would never achieve, not in a million years.

You get what I'm implying?

Like I mentioned above, I dont really care if they gave me a C+ for my project. It's not the first time I am awarded with a C for anything. But they jolly well shouldn't give me some fucked up reason as to why the project warrants a C. I don't think it's fair for us to pay for their dumb ass mistakes.