Early this week, I called home from the office and spoke to an enthusiastic M1. “Hi mummy! Guess my History marks?” M1 enthused.
“Hmm. 84?” “No. Out of 100. Guess!”
“Err… 78?”
“Mummy! Out of 100!” she chided me.
“94? I dunno… Tell me,” I gave up.
“100, mummy! I scored 100 for my History!” beamed a happy M1.
Wow. What a brilliant child my M1. I beamed with happiness too.
Every now and then, right after the school exams, I will call home to check on them receiving their results. Dutifully, M1 would report her results, with the usual opening of “Good news or bad news first?” followed with enthusiasm, no nonsense reporting and all’s fine; I don’t have to have a panic attack. However, the same cannot be said for M2, the drama queen.
She would put on a sombre tone and rattle off a number, say 58 for a subject, catching me off guard and I would be like “Aiyoh! So bad ah?” Then she’d go, “No laa, mummy, it’s actually 85! heheheh” I would be caught in this little play, many times, believe me, many times. The drama queen’s good.
I’ve always loved telling my kids that prior to attending college, their grandma (my mother) had advised me to study English to become an English teacher (don’t laugh!), this being a noble profession. But I would scoff at that idea and gently break my mother’s heart and convinced her that I would fare better as a graphic designer instead.
While in college, I did enjoy my English classes, having signed up for both English101 & English102 AND scoring ‘A’s in both courses. I am most proud of the ‘A’ in English102 because firstly, it is not a typical class taken by Asian students and secondly, the lecturer was a mean looking, typical American lady and I was the only Asian student daring enough to be in her class full of American students. Until today, I still remember her name, Carol Ewing (and thoughts of Dallas and its theme song would break out in my mind!) Thankfully, the class was more of creative writing and I guess I stood above the rest.
Despite this, I feel my knowledge of the language is inadequate as I still cannot tell the difference between a verb, a noun and a pronoun, you know, all those linguistic jargon which are very important, along with correct punctuations and pronunciations. But having said that, it irks me to no end to see spelling mistakes and grammar error.
Last night M1 was sharing stories about her teacher and the way she pronounces her signature phrase: “Thats mean…” instead of “That means…” It has becoming so glaringly wrong and disturbing that her friends decided to pick on it. They purposely created a scenario to question the teacher to prompt her reply. And the whole time using the erred sentence repeatedly to the teacher, unaware of the situation! Naughty kids!
I think “That’s mean!” in this proper context of use.
And not to be outdone, M2 also shared about her teacher, who made a comment “I knows” in class. Immediately, her good friend made eye contact with her and pointed to her eyes and nose! These 12 year olds are so cheeky but then again, are they at fault?
Angieneering 
Remarks