My
English Teacher, Bob
I
was eager to learn English for a long time. When I came to US to be a visiting
scholar at Lamar University, I was happy that I should have a good environment to
learn English. However, the department, Deaf Studies and Deaf Education of
Lamar University which I visited do not use English as their classroom
language. They use American Sign Language to communicate with each other in
classroom. So I prayed every day to have more opportunity to improve my English.
Sumalai told me that Bob was an English literacy professor of Lamar University. He retired from Lamar about five years ago and started to manage a nice used book store with his wife, Joyce.
At
the first time I met Bob at his book store, I asked him to be my English
teacher. I do not know why I had courage to do thus presumptuous thing. He did not answer me instantly.
A few days later, Bob and and Joyce invited my family to dinner at their lovely house,then announced he could teach me English and I do not need pay him money.
A few days later, Bob and and Joyce invited my family to dinner at their lovely house,then announced he could teach me English and I do not need pay him money.
I could not describe how excited I was. I run
around at my apartment and cheered “I have my own English class, ya! ya!” I
thought I was the happiest person in the world.
Bob asked me to read aloud some sentences to test
my pronunciation and he taught me how to pronounce those words better at the
first class. Then he gave me the Academic Word List to increase my English
vocabulary, and he encouraged me to embarrass myself at least twice a day using English. “If you
don’t do that you are not trying hard enough,” he said. It was really a wise
idea. From that time, I encouraged myself to take the initiative in talking
with an English-speaking person every day. If I could understand what the
person said I felt happy. If I misunderstand other’s words, I felt fine, too
because I have done my embarrassing experience homework.
During Bob’s English class, He would ask me many
interesting questions to improve my English speaking and share his life
experience to help my English listening. For example, “Who is the boss of your
family? “ “What makes you angry?” I enjoyed the conversation with Bob. He is a
wonderful listener, always paying attention to my words, having eye contact
with me. He made me feel comfortable to say anything to him. He is a good story
teller, too. He can talk about the issues of science, religion, political
affairs, history philosophy and NBA players. He knows much of different
cultures of many countries, especially Asian countries. When we talk about the
geisha he shares his young life experience in Japan. He told me the true
feeling of leaving his Japanese girl friend, pretending she missed him and
never had another boyfriend. He introduced me to the
movies “ Sayonara” and “Teahouse of the August moon” to let me understand the
interracial issues. He is the most Humanistic quality man I have ever
met.
He not only taught me English, but also gave me
important inspiration of my life. When I told him, I was worried that there
would be too much work to do when I come back to Taiwan, he said, “Follow your
bliss, you will be successful easier.” When I told him I missed my husband so
much, he helped me to write a poem to relieve my suffering from missing;
When I talked about my disappointment that I
found if someone wanted to make his article published on famous journal, he
should try to have a good relationship with the editors of the journal. He
said” Try to tell someone your idea, let more people understand you.” These
words were kind of “Shan” to me. It made my mind free from worries.
The feeling of sitting in Bob’s English class is just like bathing in the spring wind. I will
treasure the fate with Bob. I don’t know how to thank Bob, who has taken me
from shy to brave in English and taught me how to respect the others who have
different culture. I don’t know what I could give Bob in return. However. I
will pass Bob’s kindness forward to another person.
What a nice teacher Bob is.
回覆刪除and I did not know your English improved so quickly.
I am missing you, too.