.my teacher rocks!.

with a serious face he said, “my name is Yue Kam Chuen”.

then...he paused for effect.

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“a.k.a Rambo”, and he grinned.

that sweet, funny moment was what always brought me back to the memory of my beloved primary school teacher. on the first day we met officially, i learnt the meaning of the abbreviation ‘a.k.a’.

.oh yeah!.

i had always preferred english over other subjects (oh yes, art too!). therefore, it was not a big surprise to classmates if they saw me rubbed my palms eagerly and my eyes sparkled with anticipation whenever english period was approaching.

alright, alright. that is an exaggeration.

years ago, schools do not have the luxury of copying machine for teachers to prepare and reproduce examination papers. teachers would have to painstakingly prepare these themselves with what we light-heartedly called ‘mesin gelek’. no silly, not the famous M. Daud Kilau’s gelek. gelek is as in reeling of a cylinder. sorry? who is M. Daud Kilau? aahh...that’s a story for another time.

we also do not have the various GSM white A4 papers as today. our papers were yellowish and crackled noisily whenever we flipped them. yellow worm-like dust formed as we vigorously erased any mistakes.

sometimes the notes given are just for exposure to the language. it wasn’t compulsory for us to memorize it for exams or get penalized when failed to provide him with the answer correctly. proverbs, animals and its young, terms for types of meat. you name it, we got it! he would meticulously compiled all the information, typed them and finally gelek them for us. ain’t he a darling? :)

he is one of the reason why i love the subject.

i miss those days.

even the bitter ones (ejan and a few others would know about these) haha.

today is the state level teachers' day celebration..

happy teachers' day to all my teachers!

and for all of you as well,

my teachers :)

p/s: my nine-year-old kids asked me when are we going to learn idioms.

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thank you for reading!