An Interview with Mr. Peter Soh, by Geraldine Yeow.
Before he became an English and Sociology teacher with Kingsley International School, Mr. Peter Soh had been contributing articles, news, and short stories to local and international literary media since 2014. Four years later, he made his publishing debut in the ‘Emerging Malaysian Writers 2018’ anthology, and just recently, he managed to feature his student—and Kingsley International School—on the world map when his student became the first runner-up in World Junior Schools 2020 International Critical & Creative Writing Competition.
Q: How did you find your passion for writing?
A: I put my thoughts, emotions, and reflections down on cascades of papers and because I moved back home, I started to put my observations of my mother into stories. I am always fascinated by her strengths in maintaining a baba household and I made my debut as a published writer through a short story I wrote based on the inspiration that I had living with my mother.
Q: What do you learn from writing?
A: Writing always calms my thoughts when things are out of my control. Also, writing makes me a better communicator because it trains me to look at the bigger picture as well as minute details. In order to have a breakthrough in my own writing, I have to read widely to learn from other writers. In that process of reading and writing, I get to know myself better because I will know which genre of book I enjoy reading the most and which is the one that I don’t connect to. I enjoy discovering and rediscovering who I am.
Q: Did writing have an impact on you as a teacher?
A: Writing helps me to learn to accept differences. Reading has this power where we get to stand in other people’s shoes and look at the world from their perspectives. As a teacher, this activity helps me to accept my students for who they are, instead of changing them into someone we think is best for them. The keyword here is to improve, not to change their stories.
Q: What is your advice to our students?
A: If you would like to improve your writing, you have to live your life. Your thoughts, reflections and actions will give you your own distinct voice and that’s what readers want—to read or experience something that they didn’t in their lives. There is no way for you to skip reading if you would like to become a better writer. Whenever people tell me that they don’t enjoy reading because it is boring, I would tell them that that’s because they are yet to meet a book that they like. People need to know that investing time to look for a book you enjoy is equally important than investing the time to read. Once you manage to find a book that you enjoy reading, you know what genres or types of reading you would prefer, and from there, you build the habit! Lastly, don’t succumb to the idea of having lots of complex sentences in writing a good story.
“Whenever people tell me that they don’t enjoy reading because it is boring, I would tell them that that’s because they are yet to meet a book that they like.”
Peter Soh
