Eugene says
When you engage me, you will be engaging a tutor dedicated to helping your child, not just to score for the exams, but also to develop a lasting passion for the subjects he studies; you will be engaging a tutor enthusiastic to share with your child the wealth of knowledge he has accumulated from years of inquisitive study.
I will help your child with the humanities and languages subjects with which he has problems through worksheets specially customised to suit his areas of weakness, tests designed to stimulate your child's cognitive and logical thinking powers, as well as creativity. I will also use my familiarity with the styles and requirements of Cambridge examinations to give your child adequate practice with the types of questions he will likely face.
Over and above that, however, I will teach beyond the syllabus, in as unstructured an environment as possible, adopting a few of the classroom innovations of the Gifted Education Programme that have been proven to encourage deeper lateral thinking. Wherever possible, I like to bring in relevant information from the real-world to allow students to connect what they are learning with the world around them, taking a broad, interdisciplinary approach to studying. In teaching a student utterly disinterested in Chinese, I have made extensive use of English as a medium, and brought in snippets of China's history, geography, and the historical development of Chinese as a language and its literature as well as calligraphy.
I tend to prefer an inquisitorial method of conducting the lesson, where the student steers the direction of the lesson, having done his homework beforehand and seeking to question what he has learnt and to clarify what he does not understand. From experience, this is the method that works best towards helping students internalise what they need to know, and this is the method I recommend parents. Spoon-feeding achieves no results.
But ultimately, it is the student, the student, the student -- he lies at the centre of the learning process, and all else circles round on the periphery. I take conscious effort to understand the learning styles of each child as well as what they hope to take away from each lesson.
It takes two hands to clap, however. While I will put in my best for your child, it is of absolute essentiality that your child possesses in him a keen fire, the drive to learn. It is as important that your child does not come away from the lesson feeling resistant and demoralised, and to this end I firmly adhere to the principle of treating all my students as adults, giving them wide leeway over the scope and direction of the lesson.
I mentored a final-year university student majoring in media and communications studies for her year-end research paper, for which she garnered a Distinction.
In addition to that, I have tutored two students in Economics at 'A' Level as well, during which period their grades improved from a C and a D to A's for both.
I also have experience in tutoring for secondary school Math and Geography his grades improved from C5s to A1 and A2 respectively.
StarTutor's Review
Eugene radiates with warmth and sincerity. During his own years as a student, he realized that once he sets his mind to improve his grades he was able to do so with little help from his teachers. It dawned upon him that in just a short period of four months, he is able to get his tutees to grasp a stronger foothold on the subject, that is of course with determination and hard work.
Specializing in languages, Eugene feels that language must be utilize daily, a consistent effort must be spent and most importantly, a feel and love for the language must be there. He also highlighted that while learning for example, French, he would bring in many different aspects of the French culture. This would actually cultivate more interest in the student, learn the French culture as well as derive more general knowledge about France. He would coach his students on French local street talk, French literature as well as introduce them to French music.
Eugene is fluent in Native Japanese, Chinese and English as well. It is effortless for him to change from one language to another fluently. When faced with a GP student who does not enjoy reading, Eugene helps motivate her by preparing short snippets on GP topics like death penalty, abortion, etc. Although this might seem as spoon feeding, Eugene feels that interest and passion for the subject should be cultivated first.
Eugene loves to teach History and Economics as they are subjects that require the use of language he feels for and love. He encourages his students to stretch their limits and present a rather stylistic approach, however if the risk is too great sticking to the hard and fast rule would be the best approach.
Having taught for 4 to 5 years, Eugene has not yet met with a student he cannot handle. He analyses their characters and interests and their strengths to reach greater heights.
Once acquainted with the student, Eugene will use different perspectives of the same concept to help the student gain full understanding. Eugene considers a combination of hard work and talent to be the key. If his student has a flair and passion for the subject, he believes a certain prod in that direction is all it takes for the student to understand.
- Interviewed by StarTutor (Belle, Gabby and Elvin), 27th May 2008
Testimonial
This tutor is very good! My daughter will miss him when he leaves for overseas studies. - Mrs Tan, Parent of a JC2 for GP
2005 GCE A (
Raffles Junior College)
English Literature (A), English Literature S Paper (Merit), History (A), Economics (A), Japanese (A), General Paper (A1)
Other Qualifications
Japanese Language Proficiency Test (Level 1), 2003 Japanese Speech Contest (National Secondary Level Champion)
Commitment Level
I can start in July up till mid-September, and will see students 'O' Level and below through their Term 3 CA's.
I am also available to teach JC-level students.
Recommended for intensive revision purposes.
