I WAS born in the 1970s and do not share the views expressed in the letter, "It didn't help that Chinese teachers meted out harsh punishment" (my paper, Nov 24).

The letter is a great disservice to the many Chinese-language teachers who taught those of my generation with passion and dedication and, most importantly, made us aware and proud of our cultural identity.

When I was in Primary 2, my English-language teacher tore up my workbook and threw it out the window because my handwriting was illegible.

I also recall teachers threatening children with wooden rulers and rapping us on the knuckles over the slightest spelling mistake.

However, can we blame our teachers for these incidents and our problems with language?

Back then, most children came from Mandarin- or dialect-speaking families.

Lessons - except Chinese - were taught in English, and we faced the same problems with English that children from English-speaking homes now face with Chinese.

While we had problems understanding the teachers, surely we cannot use that as justification for losing interest in our studies.

The best gift our parents could afford was to enrol us in public schools to get a proper education.

I also have not forgotten the time and effort our teachers put in for us.

Although we did not have as conducive a learning environment as kids do today, I would like to tell my Chinese-language teachers that I enjoyed their lessons the most.

MR PANG TEE HOW

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