Mr. Lee -- Male or Female?!

Just yesterday, a Form One student asked me, "Teacher, is Mr. Lee a man or a woman?" She was doing a grammar exercise I asked her to, and was not sure if she should use the pronoun 'he' or 'she' to represent Mr. Lee. Although rather taken aback by this seemingly simple question which I thought every student who has gone through six years of primary school education should know, my teacher instincts took over and I answered her as objectively as possible, being careful not to betray any expressions of incredulity or shock on my face, lest I made her feel bad for making a genuine effort to learn. In any case, I should be thankful that I could clear her doubt now. I can't imagine how her future teacher would feel if she asked this same question even later in her school life.

However, in retrospect, I realised that given the type of students I have in my school, this question didn't seem quite so out of place. Many a time, my Form Four or Five students have asked me if I am married. This may seem like a perfectly normal question, until I tell you that they have been calling me 'Miss' (or 'Cik' in Malay) all the time, which in the Malaysian school context, means that I am still single.

So, I asked my students, "Do you call me Miss or Madam?" I like to make my students find out answers on their own rather than spoonfeed them, because they will retain the new knowledge better through self discovery. They answered, "Miss."

"So, what does this tell you -- am I married or not?" I asked again. Seeing their blank expressions, I prodded again, "Miss means Cik in Malay..." Still, blank expressions.

I was literally strangling myself mentally. If they did not understand English, at least they should understand Malay, as it is the national language. Fearing that I might actually strangle them with my own bare hands if I put up with this any longer, I finally gave up my attempts to facilitate their self discovery and answered their initial question, "No, I'm not married."

"Oh..." was all they could say. Their neutral expressions made me wonder if my short lesson had registered in their brains. In the not so distant future, some of them may probably ask another "Miss" in school if she is married.

I, as well as my counterparts in other schools within the district, have always remarked that English is more like a foreign language to our students rather than a second language.Instead of feeling miserable about the poor standard of English among our students and grumbling our heads off all the time about our near impossible task of educating them, we see these "eye-opening" moments in the light of humour. Not in a bad way, mind you. We do not look down on our students because of their poor English, but with all the stress we get from trying to teach them English, and half of the time, failing miserably, God knows we need some humour therapy to keep our minds sane till we retire!

Retirement is a long way from me right now. Think another 26 years. As I continue my journey as an English teacher in Malaysia, I wonder what other "eye-opening" questions my students will throw at me in the future. Well, at least I can tell people that one advantage of being a language teacher is that my students never fail to make me laugh (even if it is just in my mind)!

The Wonder of Books

Recently, a friend and I went to a big-scale bookfair to see what books we could buy with great discounts. I myself am crazy for books, and despite my mother's protests -- she says my books take up precious space at home -- I still believe that books are the greatest treasures one can have. My friend, on the other hand, had just discovered the joy of reading and was eager to buy more books to satisfy her literary hunger.

Staying in the teachers' quarters one level below mine, her only entertainment at home is a TV that can only receive about three channels, and which come in poor quality. So, to avoid boring herself to death, she watches drama series on CDs, or reads books. That's how she discovered that reading is actually not such a boring activity after all.

I started reading at a young age; around 5, actually. That was when I fell in love with books. I could shut myself off to the outside world for hours and immerse myself in the world of make-believe characters and their wonderful adventures. I could feel them coming alive in my mind, and they were how I imagined them to be. That's the wonder of books -- they take you to places that you don't get to go, and they let you see life through the eyes of another person.

I'm guessing also that my friend is preferring books over movies or TV shows now, or if she isn't, she'll soon be. Watching a movie is less fun, because most of the time, you do not see what goes on in the minds of the characters. We interpret the movie mostly through the characters' actions, and for a person like me, this is only half of the story. We may even make wrong guesses. Whereas by reading a book, the author allows us to enter the minds and thoughts of that character. This is much like our personal encounters in life; we observe and experience what goes on around us, and we process them in our minds. And of course, a movie dictates how we see a character, i.e. their appearances, reactions etc. but a book allows more room for imagination, making it more dynamic and fun. So, if there's a novel version and a movie version of a story, you bet that I'll make a beeline for the novel version first!

Well, I get it that some people prefer the visual experience, so they would choose a movie over a book. And there are also people like me who prefer to "watch" the story unfold through words, which is why I prefer books. But this doesn't mean I don't watch movies at all, and likewise, those who prefer movies should also spend some time reading novels and get in touch with their imaginations.

Besides, as a teacher, I should point out that reading has a tremendous effect on our language learning process, introducing us to new words, expressions and sentence structures, all while we are enjoying the story. All these are registered subconsciously in our minds, so most of the time, we do not even realise that we are learning these things. This is way better than learning a language consciously in a classroom, which needs more effort on our part to remember the words or grammar items, simply because we are learning them out of context. Of course, don't expect a miracle to happen after just reading a few books. It has to be developed into a habit and practised regularly for it to make an impact in anyone's life. As they say, Rome is not built in a day, right?

So, try reading today... it may change your life!