Samuel Liew

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*"It is mandatory for a good creator to be his work's biggest fan." ~Samuel Liew*

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Samuel Liew is the main protagonist of Teach. Teach follows Samuel's journey through adolescence, college and adulthood. At the start of the story, Samuel is 14 years old, and he is of Singaporean nationality. He has an older brother, Abel Liew, and he graduated from Layton Hill Teacher Training College in 2009.

Samuel lives with his family in a 5-room flat in Marine Terrace at the start of the story, but moves to Ang Mo Kio later in life when he rents a house alone. He also goes on to adopt a community cat in his childhood neighborhood, which he names Blackie.

In the later part of the story, Samuel is a chemistry teacher at Stamford High School.

## Part Three

### First Day of School

Samuel Liew is a new teacher at Stamford High School. The story starts with him arriving at Stamford's general office and sitting down nervously in a chair. After a few minutes, Amanda enters with Mr. Neo, a senior teacher at Stamford. Mr. Neo introduces the two of them before leaving, and Samuel is originally awkward around Amanda - by making awkward conversation that disgusts even himself. Almost immediately, Samuel realises that Amanda and he are polar opposites: he is quiet and reserved while Amanda is enthusiastic to chat with a fellow new teacher. He quickly removes himself from the scene, leaving Amanda baffled.

There is a brief allusion to Samuel's first few lessons - the students are confused by his appearance as a new chemistry teacher, Callum even asking a difficult question as to why a teacher would ever have such unimaginably horrible fashion sense. It is inferred from this scene that Samuel is finding the students a handful already on the first day, and the nature of the students is revealed to be that of a typical Singaporean secondary school class - at least some of them delight in watching their own teachers suffer, and are so daring as to stand up and question the teacher outright in front of the whole class.

At lunch, Samuel goes to the canteen's cai fan stall to buy his lunch, and as he is queueing, he notices a chicken wing in the plate on the display. He feels an immediate connection and desire for it, but accidentally drifts off only to realise that while his mind was wandering, another teacher in front of him has left with the chicken wing. That teacher is Amanda. Having lost his train of thought, Samuel quickly orders something and goes in search of Amanda, only to berate himself at once for being weird. As he walks toward an empty table to eat his lunch in peace, he trips over the back of Amanda's chair in his path and does a magnificent job of falling over and spilling all his food on the floor. He is helped up by Amanda, who immediately offers to buy him another plate which he quickly declines. She then goes as far as to offer him the once-coveted chicken wing, during which he embarrassingly excuses himself on the pretence that he feels ill.

The day ends with Samuel arriving home. He has moved out by this stage, now residing at 151 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5. As he opens the door, Blackie rushes out at him and he expertly soothes it down with kibble and water, as though he is used to this. He then proceeds to take a shower and as he is exiting the bathroom, Scoville calls. They share an enjoyable chat. From Samuel's relaxed tone when chatting with Scoville, it can be inferred that Samuel and Scoville are very good friends even to the extent of 'brothers from a different mother'. The day ends with Samuel hanging up the phone.

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*"Ah...It was alright lah. Same same, liddat lor. Chaotic students, new environment, new colleagues..." His voice drifts off. "Aiyah don't so stress lah! Students all like that one. First day already like that, next few years how?"*

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### Amanda's Storyline

Amanda feels sympathetic the next few days. She's a rather sensitive individual, who takes time out to care for others around her, so she is worried that she intentionally caused Samuel to trip and fall by placing her chair out too far. Hence, she decides to bake some cookies for Samuel and place them in his pigeonhole.

A few days after the accident on the first day, Samuel finds cookies in his pigeon hole (placed in by Amanda). He debates over whether he should accept them or not, since accepting them would mean acknowledging Amanda's carelessness even though he is convinced it is just an accident. He also finds a note of apology.

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*Omg sorry for yesterday. Hope you're better X< Please enjoy the cookies!!! Amanda*

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It is inferred that he brings them to the staff pantry to eat. Amanda walks in and after checking in on Samuel's condition, inquires about the cookies. Samuel compliments them and even offers some, but she declines. They have a brief conversation about Amanda's hobby which is baking, but this is not touched upon again till slightly later in the story. The audience also learns that Samuel generally does not have the patience for baking, though he does engage in the activity occasionally. They also talk about how their school lives have been so far, and about the students. This conversation ends with them exchanging contacts and declaring their friendship, even though Samuel does so with a hint of amused reluctance.

### Students' Storyline

The Students' Storyline centers around Samuel's relationship with the class 3C. The class greets him like any class would, before he starts teaching Chemistry. We gain insights into the nature of the class as well as two students in particular, namely Callum Chua and Kayden Lim (also known as Pipette Boy in the story). As Samuel starts the first chapter Acids and Bases, he miscalls Kayden as Jayden, eliciting laughter from the class. Kayden is revealed to be a mischievous and erratic character who is not up to respecting his teachers, though he hints at an affinity for the subject. He also has a close relationship with Callum, who is slightly less daring but still rather playful. He also appears to be weak at chemistry and hence fears the subject. Their two colliding personalities are mentally deflating to Samuel and dismay him.

On the way back to the classroom,

## Biographical Profile

Samuel is born on the 3rd of October, 1986. He is a Libra. His nationality is Singaporean.

His father, Liew Yi Long, is a second-generation Straits-born Chinese. At the start of Part One, he works as a wholesale seafood distributor at Jurong Fishery Port. Hence, he cycles from the Liew home at 12 Marine Terrace to work at 4 in the morning every day. He works weekends, so Samuel hardly sees him at home. His mother, named Tan Ting Xuan at birth, is a Malaysian born Chinese who came down to Singapore for job prospects. She works selling economic bee hoon at a famous economic bee hoon stall in Lorong 5 Toa Payoh Hawker Centre, which means that she usually returns home by afternoon, once the bee hoon sells out.

The Liews do not earn much, and throughout the entirety of Part One they are struggling to make ends meet. In his years at Temasek Junior College, Samuel takes on the part-time job of a private tutor in Chemistry and Biology in order to support his family. This does little to alleviate the family situation, but when he grows up and gets a stable job as a chemistry teacher, one of the focuses of his life is to take care of his aging parents by giving them a generous regular allowance every month.

Samuel has an older brother, Abel Liew. Samuel followed in Abel's footsteps throughout his education at Temasek Junior College, though it is noteworthy that he took H2 Biology in junior college while Abel took Physics. Samuel looks up to Abel as a sort of role model, and when their mother passes on they look after each other's well being as their father is constantly at work. They keep in contact even into adulthood, and make it a point to meet up at least once every few months. As seen in Part Three, Samuel does not hesitate to confide in his brother even regarding personal matters like Amanda.

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*"Ahem." "Yes?" Abel turned around. "Actually, I've gotten to know this girl lately - "*

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Samuel is also an alumnus of Tao Nan School (prior to the events of Part One), Dunman High School where he got to meet Roadrunner, Kopi-O, Stephen Zhao and A-Zhe, who go on to become his close friends later in life, and, later on, Layton Hill Teacher Training College where he meets Scoville Ng.