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Finding Joy
My students left my classroom. They didn’t leave my life
For this law lecturer, maintaining connections with former students over coffee – or fried chicken – is an underrated joy.
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The writer with one of his former students, Joanna, in London in 2025. He counts her as one of his dear friends.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF DAVID TAN
David Tan
I first met Joanna Tan back in 2009. She was sitting centre-right, second row from the back, in the first-ever entertainment law class that I taught, and she struck me right from the start.
Unlike many of the more reverential students in my class, she was, from the outset, relaxed and convivial in her interactions with me. We would chat and laugh together before and after class, and in fact, she was the one who jokingly coined the term “David Tan Fan Club”, comprising students who took both of my entertainment law and freedom of speech modules at the National University of Singapore’s law school.
