Inspiring Teachers Awards: Ms Chai taught me to love myself more and cherish what I have

When Zer Hern felt like he had no way out and wanted to give up, it was Ms Chai who made him see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It was also her who transformed his hatred for the Chinese language into love, such that he is even planning to pursue it further for his tertiary education.

Here is Zer Hern's entry for the Samsung-Stomp Inspiring Teachers Awards:

"My name is Zer Hern and I am writing to nominate my current Chinese language teacher, Ms Michelle Chai, for the Samsung-Stomp Inspiring Teachers Awards.

"Ever since I was in Primary School, I have hated the Chinese language. Sometimes, I would even want to give up Chinese because I was failing and this problem persisted even after I was in secondary school. I was failing and I could not understand what was taught by my teachers in Secondary One and Two.

"It was only until Secondary Three that my Chinese grade had a turning point.

"I started passing the subject because Ms Chai gave me confidence to build my foundation for Chinese. She often makes her lessons more interactive by playing games or broadcasting music to allow us to learn Chinese, which motivated me to do well for this subject.

"In Secondary Four, I surpassed my cohort in Chinese by getting an A2 for N-Levels and even received an award just recently, because she was willing to sacrifice time and give her 100% in preparing me and my classmates for the exam.

"Now that I am in Secondary Five taking the O-Levels, she puts in even more time and effort in reading the assignments that we hand in to her.

"I even remembered that two nights before the actual O-Level written paper, I sent her an essay that I wrote to be marked by her. She read it and corrected the mistakes within the night so that I would have more time to prepare, despite the fact that it was a weekend and she needed to rest, but instead she was helping me for my last lap of preparations.

:In the end, I attained a B3 grade with a distinction in the oral exam.

"Although I was not satisfied with my result, I am still grateful that Ms Chai is my Chinese teacher because she developed my love for Chinese and even made me want to pursue Chinese for my polytechnic education.

"Without her support, I would never be who I am today. She inspired me to do something I never expect I would want to do .

"Ms Chai is not just a teacher but also a friend. She often lends a listening ear and hear each and everyone of her students.

"When I faced a minor setback last year during December, I wanted to commit suicide.

"When I came back to school, the school wanted us to write something that we hope our form teachers would know about us.

"At that time, I wrote I wanted to commit suicide. Nobody including my parents knew about this except for Ms Chai.

"After she read that piece of paper, she told me she was shocked by what I wrote and counselled me the same afternoon. She shared with me about a similar life experience that she had when she was a student. She taught me how to love myself more and cherish what I had.

"In addition, when I received my O-Level certificate on Aug 16, 2018, I was crying because I was disappointed in myself for not getting an A.

"She saw me crying and tried to encourage me, and I heard from my classmates that she cried upon seeing me being affected by the results.

"She deserves this award as she displays a passion for teaching. I will never forget a passionate teacher like Ms Chai and no words can ever express my appreciation to Ms Chai."

The contest is now closed and winners will be contacted shortly.

Read all entries for the contest here.