These celebrations come and go, don't they? But for the last 31 years of my life, I could never forget Puan Rahmah, or Miss Rahmah as she is affectionately known, my first secondary English teacher.
I came from a kampung school, in Johol (that's in Negeri Sembilan) to be exact to enrol in MRSM Kuantan in 1977. In my old school, it was awesome to be able to pronounce 'Hero' as he-ro and not hair-ro. Well, welcome to the real world girl!
This wonderful school had what they call free periods - break between the hours - whereby students could spend their time in the library to browse, read or sleep - you know - just do your thing.
Early in the year, Miss Rahmah made a deal with us - that whoever could recite examples of homonym would be let off early. So we stood in a circle to take turn. Yours truly was lost - what could I say with my limited English, let alone vocabulary? Actually, it went like this Errrrrr..... a number of times, i.e until there were only 4 of us left in class.
The kind Miss Rahmah let us go without penalizing anyone more than the embarrassment for our ignorance. It made me think, and think very hard I did. How could I patch up my weakness? After some thought, I visited Miss Rahmah's room. Knocking the door made me sweaty. imagine standuing there stumbling on my words.
I asked her if she could provide me with extra exercises so that I could improve my English. She didn't even blink her eyes when she gave me a book with a picture of a tiger in front of it. She marked the ones that I had to do. I promised myself I would make a dictionary my best friend (I still keep that promise till today).
After finishing the work, in sadness I must say, I went to her room a few days later. there were a few guys, in From 3 and form 4 in front of me. I was the last to go ini, but I noticed something. They were doing the exercises from the same book as the one that I did. It's the Tiger book! Hey, suddenly, I realized I wasn't so bad, and I know I made the right decision that early in time. Well, I made some mistakes but...what the heck - those guys discovered them when they were ALREADY in form 4. I skipped back to my room while singing along the way.
I've come a long away since then. In the US nobody understood what I wanted to say when I said it the Malaysian way. I had to learn to change my but-ton to butt - en and more..but that was fun. Who cares, I'm Malay and a Malaysian. I never expect an American to speak Malay perfectly.
Miss Rahmah had freed me from my English and inferiority complex. Two years earlier, Cikgu Haris and Cikgu Azizah from Johol had forced upon my twin sister and I FREE TUITION.
Beautiful teachers - these individuals - that's their kind heart and Ikhlas.
MAY GOD BLESS THEM FOREVER.
Manis Jean Tan
p/s: Can you imagine if teachers force free tuition on their students nowadays? How do you think that can happen?
Monday, June 23, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY
Every time I come across this day, I wish I have the opportunity to wish my late father (Abah)Happy Father's Day. He passed away on 2nd April 1995.
He was a great man, to say the least.
I was born 4.5Ibs, the first of an identical twin, bald and expected to die. He whisked me away on a train to Singapore and for the next 22 years, brought me up as an army kid. I grew up curious, a constant traveller, always discovering new things, fearless and ever so confident of my own strength. He wouldn't let me think otherwise. He always push me to the max of my potential -- never to fear falling and failing. Death will stop us, but for anything else, there's a cure for everything, he said.
This amazing man had once gone after a snatch thief in Chow Kit Road market alone. He had waited until he was certain he would catch the guy right there in the bright sunlight - like the most famous hero then - Mannix - before he strike. When I think about how difficult it is to get passersby nowaways to help snatch victims, I know the world shares with me the loss of this man.
My late father wasn't a well educated man. As a young man, the hip thing to do for a young Malay chap was to join the army, and so he did. It brought him to Kuala Pilah, where he 'discovered' my mother and they got married when she turned 14. He was 23. What? you said. Yup, that's a no-no now, but just asked the people of the early 1900-1950 if you like...it seems like that was about the ripe age to get married.
Educated or not, he also pushed for my entry into MRSM - now a ubiquitous boarding school, but then was a very new set-up. How would a kampung girl like myself be able to compete with all those polished urban folks? Well, being 1 of 50 accepted into Kuatagh that year wasn't so bad. The rest was history -One that couldn't have happened without him.
Abah was closest to my eldest son, since he was the first grandchild. He always made excuses to buy things for him (ok- this one is for this year's birthday, that one for next year) and Abah was the happiest person when my son articulated the word 'Atuk' on top of a luggage. Abah's love for children never stopped with mine. He used to suck the noses of his grandchildren whenever they couldn't breathe from cold. Hmm, not too many people would do that.
But most of all, I love him because he never thought of me as an adopted child. He brought me up as his own, and while others jibed me with some very malicious words since I was young, he was, and always is my father.
I would have died if he didn't remind me to buckle up half hour before the accident that took his life away. We were travelling towards Bali from Surabaya, and met an accident just two hours from Banyuwangi. He shielded my second son when they fell off the car. He died from internal bleeding. I was there with him in the back of the lorry in the rain while he breathe his last breath. My poor mother was helping my children. Those last moments seems to be etched forever in my mind.
It didn't seem right that such a good man would be taken away so fast. There were so many things that I wanted to tell him. That I love him. That I love him. That I love him. That he has shaped much of my values about life.
Please learn from my experience:
If you still have a father,
--please keep in touch
...please pray for him
...please tell him that you love him.
If you are a father
--please keep in touch
...please pray for them
...please tell them that you love them.
To the fathers of the world, please realize that you have a big impact on your daughters!
Manis Jean Tan
He was a great man, to say the least.
I was born 4.5Ibs, the first of an identical twin, bald and expected to die. He whisked me away on a train to Singapore and for the next 22 years, brought me up as an army kid. I grew up curious, a constant traveller, always discovering new things, fearless and ever so confident of my own strength. He wouldn't let me think otherwise. He always push me to the max of my potential -- never to fear falling and failing. Death will stop us, but for anything else, there's a cure for everything, he said.
This amazing man had once gone after a snatch thief in Chow Kit Road market alone. He had waited until he was certain he would catch the guy right there in the bright sunlight - like the most famous hero then - Mannix - before he strike. When I think about how difficult it is to get passersby nowaways to help snatch victims, I know the world shares with me the loss of this man.
My late father wasn't a well educated man. As a young man, the hip thing to do for a young Malay chap was to join the army, and so he did. It brought him to Kuala Pilah, where he 'discovered' my mother and they got married when she turned 14. He was 23. What? you said. Yup, that's a no-no now, but just asked the people of the early 1900-1950 if you like...it seems like that was about the ripe age to get married.
Educated or not, he also pushed for my entry into MRSM - now a ubiquitous boarding school, but then was a very new set-up. How would a kampung girl like myself be able to compete with all those polished urban folks? Well, being 1 of 50 accepted into Kuatagh that year wasn't so bad. The rest was history -One that couldn't have happened without him.
Abah was closest to my eldest son, since he was the first grandchild. He always made excuses to buy things for him (ok- this one is for this year's birthday, that one for next year) and Abah was the happiest person when my son articulated the word 'Atuk' on top of a luggage. Abah's love for children never stopped with mine. He used to suck the noses of his grandchildren whenever they couldn't breathe from cold. Hmm, not too many people would do that.
But most of all, I love him because he never thought of me as an adopted child. He brought me up as his own, and while others jibed me with some very malicious words since I was young, he was, and always is my father.
I would have died if he didn't remind me to buckle up half hour before the accident that took his life away. We were travelling towards Bali from Surabaya, and met an accident just two hours from Banyuwangi. He shielded my second son when they fell off the car. He died from internal bleeding. I was there with him in the back of the lorry in the rain while he breathe his last breath. My poor mother was helping my children. Those last moments seems to be etched forever in my mind.
It didn't seem right that such a good man would be taken away so fast. There were so many things that I wanted to tell him. That I love him. That I love him. That I love him. That he has shaped much of my values about life.
Please learn from my experience:
If you still have a father,
--please keep in touch
...please pray for him
...please tell him that you love him.
If you are a father
--please keep in touch
...please pray for them
...please tell them that you love them.
To the fathers of the world, please realize that you have a big impact on your daughters!
Manis Jean Tan
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