zenn bites...

i've started giving tuition to this monkey of a secondary 3 kid from china.

and arty farty me who didn't do well in my sciences in secondary school is tutoring him in physics and chemistry. thank god he's in combined science.

it's agonizing teaching kids who can't, and don't want to, speak english. every english sentence i said to him was met with a blank, sleepy gaze. i had to use my rusty chinese to convey some points to him. and he had to use his english-chinese dictionary to check almost every other word.

he wanted to deal with his chemistry yesterday, so we went through a 2-page worksheet (yes, only 2 pages, in an hour and a half) on acids. he had to dictionary "acid" before he knew what i was talking about (and that's the topic!). his handwriting is atrocious, he'd copied down things he didn't understand, and he didn't even copy them right.

i got him to memorise what weak and strong acids are. i bet he no longer remembers.

it took him half an hour to learn how to spell HYDROGEN...and he still can't find it in the periodic table.

he nodded off while learning to spell NITRIC ACID...and i hit him on the head with my pen (he woke up and gave me a cheeky grin).

he's a very naughty boy. rah.