Knowing that I needed something to do other than staying home all day watching TV and reading my bro's collection of doraemon comics, My mom sent me to tuition. The tuition is owned by a lady who we all call Teacher Amra. Teacher Amra is always smiling somehow, she's warm and hilarious. Unlike my previous kindergarden teachers, she seldom scold children. Instead, she tried to understand one's problem. This vast difference made me like her instantly, though I was never one to be naughty in class but being in the spot where you feel secured about not being scolded for something you didn't do really helps.
She speaks in a carefree manner, you'll always hear prim and proper english from her. Because of her, I never even dare to mouth the word "stupid" even though other kids were cursing each other with foul languages I failed to understand. But she likes to give her students nicknames , sometimes the nicknames were so funny I swear I'm glad she didn't give me one. She'd call a buff boy "satish-kurti "(don't exactly know how to spell it but whatever, kurti means small) because the fella used to be a small kid when he was young and grew up to be buff. I'd be lying if I said I was good in English naturally, coming from a chinese family , Teacher Amra was my only source of english education other than television and storybooks. For that, I'm sincerely grateful for all the effort she put in teaching me the language widely used in the world.
She kept moving from a place to another back then, the first time I went to her tuition , it was situated in a peaceful area. But what made that place mysterious and fun at the same time was her neighbor, the green monster. Teacher called him the green monster because he had a green car, green this, green that, green EVERYTHING. I've never seen green monster before because the fence was really high (and i was a teenie tiny kid). But I heard that he was a bad-tempered man, always quarreling for a small reason. (I don't know whether the rumors were true or not though). I think my favorite was still that house with a green monster living next to it. Kids could run around outside on the small patch of grass and say "HI" to Ginger. (Ginger is teacher's dog)
I just finished teaching my 4 year old niece some alphabets and when she told me alphabets weren't important, I got slightly emotional. I tried making her understand the importance of alphabets but sadly, It was of no use. She didn't have the heart to continue learning. I got back to my room and I thought,
"how in the world did teacher do it?"
I felt like I failed miserably at teaching. (Kudos to all teachers out there.) Even though I knew from the start I wasn't cut out for being a teacher anyway given my level of patience but it really feels dreadful . Teacher Amra was possibly the most fun teacher I had throughout the years, no one could beat her at that. Not only did she teach us english, she taught me manners and lots more. I remember the satisfaction and pride when I received those few stickers on my homework signaling a good job or a pen for completing dictation. She taught me that hard work will earn me not only rewards, but also appreciation. It made a big difference for a kid because people seldom realize that kids need appreciation as well.
She introduced us to this alien named MAMI. He has only one eye and has loads of problems. Sometimes he had a girlfriend, sometimes he had a car. MAMI was an alien she created to teach students english. I could still remember the one-eyed alien with the stickman figure till today.
I spent most of my birthdays at teacher's place. (while most of you celebrate it with a dinner with parents or a birthday party, I'm celebrating it in tuition with my tuition friends and teacher) I couldn't say I regret any of it, it was indeed something I cherished till now. Teacher Amra helped the birthday boy/girl cut the cake and sometimes even gave us presents. Funny how a small gift can brighten a person's day but it's true.
Others may call you umbrella due to some sort of failure of pronouncing the word amra (lol, I still don't get the umbrella joke till now), Maybe you're really mary poppins. Maybe all your students were actually jane and michael banks. (that really explains the umbrella thing doesn't it?) All in all, I sincerely thank teacher Amra for all her teachings. She will always be the funny teacher that taught me something more than just english.
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