What's in an F or an A with the tutorial kings?

'You want an F or an A?' Students in Hong Kong are always threatened with this question from teachers and parents from Primary One onwards. So it's not surprising that one of the city's most prominent private 'tutorial kings', Joseph Li, launched his new advertising campaign with a new slogan (in Chinese): 'Change F to A - you can do it!' Or is that rather a snide wink to fellow English teacher Siu Kai-wing, who runs a popular personal blog called Learning English Beginning with the F-word?

Li always has a moody look in adverts, wears leathers, sometimes also with chains hanging out of his pockets, and has a blown-out hairstyle. Like other tutorial 'heavenly kings', he drills his students with exercises he claims closely resemble actual questions in public examinations.

Siu's unconventional blog is free and is full of quirky observations and useful YouTube instruction clips on daily English usage.

He probably won't help you pass exams, but you are likely to speak better English with him. I hesitate to call Siu a teacher; rather a language lover. The latest features a cri de coeur clip that calls on locals to stop pronouncing 'Excuse me' like 'Egg kills me'. The blog has a cult following among young people in Hong Kong, at least by a middle-aged fan like yours truly.

I don't know about you but I'd much rather have my kids learn the F-word from Siu than have them earn A grades from Li.