TWA Teacher: Charles
For someone who seldom walks along streets of Little India or shops at Mustafa, the largest Indian shopping mall in Singapore, it is an unimaginable experience and challenge that I have setup for myself.
But I am clear of what I want to achieve from this Teacher Work Attachment. Summing up my total experience, I must admit that I have indeed enjoyed the experience and achieved my objectives. The experience is definitely further sweetened by the warmth of the people, here, from Nirmala, Sudha, Veena, Deepa to all the content developers as well as the animators and programmers.
One of my objective was to learn and at the same time, contribute to one of the leading mathematics online education provider in India, HeyMath! The learning and sharing was open and enriching to both parties. The experience gives me a glimpse of their open working culture. It makes me understand their content development process from ideation work to technical scripting and programming before the work is pushed to market.
We also had some deep discussion on Singapore ICT Masterplan 3, particularly on approaches to self-directed learning and collaborative learning.
Another objective was definitely to experience the life in Chennai. Communication with the 3-wheeled cab drivers was always a problem. To me, able to travel from one point to another point is hardwork. I had to use different slangs to make them understand the destination I wanted to go. This would always be followed by a few rounds of bargaining about the cab fare with the driver. My only relief was that I could rely on my TWA mate, Sharon to do the talking whenever she travels with me. Thanks Sharon!
One of the most enjoyable experiences here must be the tasting of the local fare. Most dishes are flavored with spices; even drinks are also mixed with spices. They had very good names for these drinks too, Masala Coke, Spice Girls, etc.
I had tried to explore beyond Chennai to Mahabalipuram and Covelong Beach. It was a good attempt. My relationship with India will not end here. One of these days, I am going to backpack to explore different parts of India.
