BOBOT

Teaching English in a foreign land, where English is just a second language (unlike ours, it's one of the official languages) is fun and I find it rather more rewarding because of the interest and enthusiasm shown by my students. I have 15 classes per week, and meet 3 classes everyday at 45 minutes per period. Each class has an average of 70 students, a big size compared to the classes in my country. I teach more of the spoken English and Chinese teachers teach them the grammar part. Surprisingly, they learn English grammar rules using Chinese as medium. So you can just imagine the confusion they have when they verbatimly translate a Chinese sentence to English. Syntax has become a problem and many students would speak Chinglesh. But their diligence in learning the language is admirable in that they would always carry with them their bulky English-Chinese and Chinese-English dictionaries in class, usually in 2 or three volumes. And, lest we forget that China is an e-country, they would always have with them, in their pocket, their portable and "reliable" e-dictionaries, not just in the class but anywhere they go, in case they encounter any foreigner. They love to talk with foreigners just so they can practice their English.

Here are some of the messages of my students I compiled. Sadly, before I thought about blogging this, I already deleted some. I have preserved the original messages so as to convey what I mean in the previous paragraph. I don't find them awkward and amusing, though. I find them honest and sincere way of communicating what they think and what they feel. And I understood them. Isn't the basic purpose of communication for human understanding? And so I was enlightened. Read on...

From: Jack, Class 433 12:22pm, 12-Apr-08 "Hello! I have been a bit unlucky recently.my parents treat me badly as i didn't get a good mark in the exam. I failed in maths and english.what can i do for me?"

From: Li Jiajun 11:17pm, 25-Jun-08 "Good night, wish you have a good dream."

From: My Boy 7:06pm, 9-Jul-08 "Yes! I feel happy. I hope you like me!"

From: My Boy 8:55am, 13-Jul-08 "Hmm...okay,take careful."

From: Martin 3:19pm, 19-Jul-08 "Hi Sir ALF: Long time no see! Is every thing goes Well?Where are you now?I very miss you deer teacher."

From: Humin 9:57am, 4-Aug-08 "ok! when you come across Guangzhou. you call me. ok?"

From: Unknown 10:04pm, 17-Sep-08 "good night. teacher I am the student who asked your telephone number in the afternoon, do you remember? what are you doing now? I like to have your lessons, you are very kind and hundsome. do you have many frends in Shimen? I want to be your frends too!"

From: Duwei You Class 460, 1:19pm, 19-Sep-08 "hello ticher ! i am your new stdent of class 460. how are you?long time no see i miss you very much,what about you?"

From: Karl 12:43pm, 24-Sep-08 "Good afternoon! i am NO.9 for a examination in my class. i am very happy." (Karl was my private tutee during the summer. During the previous term, he was number 16 in his class ranking. Now, in this term, he ranks No. 9.)

From: Li Xin Class 457 12:16pm, 1-Ocy-08 "A girl?no,Iam a handsome boy. I hate the headmaster.we have only three days to play."

From: Yi Jin Cang 9:15pm, 1-Oct-08 "Hi ALFRED. Are you enjoying your holidays?"

From: Yi Jin Cang 9:28pm, 1-Oct-08 "i am shopping today! i miss you! i will go to Jiang xi province with my family tomorrow.i may be stay there two days.good holidays for you."

From: Yi Jin Cang 10:21pm, 1-Oct-08 "ok,i think we have chance to travel together! and thank you for you regards! please take my some regards to ur parents!"

From: Yi Jin Cang 5:46pm, 2-Oct-08 "Teacher, i have been staying a small town of JIANG XI province. there have very nice view and a lot of mountains. people in there they have warm hearts. i will come back to CHANG SHA tonight.how time fly!the holidays have been passing 4 days."

Frm: Yu Chong Hong 7:21pm, 6-Oct-08 "what up, i am in c ass"

From: Yi Jin Cang 7:29pm, 6-Oct-08 "ha ha! i miss you!when do you come to CHANGSHA next time?"

Some of my students want to be given English names and it's a big joy for them to have one. So I also had fun of giving them names.

More messages next time.

I am contemplating of changing my phone unit soon and that would mean saying goodbye to it's sentimentalities. It has been my companion for years. It has been there for me through thicks and thins. It has made me meet more people and visit different places.  But before I say goodbye to my faithful companion, I would like to capture the beautiful messages I have stored in it.

And so here are the mesages I have saved for long in my INBOX.

From: MY BABY, 2:48PM, 4-aPR-07 "Kla m b msaya ako, d k mn lng alam kng aus k jan, nd tntwgan kta d kontak, ng mapagring tnxt kta,wla k man lng gnawa"

From: MY BABY, 5:38PM, 4-aPR-07 "Mgingat k jan, mrami akng mata jan!promis yan ha, old frnds nd dnt4get ur limitations dat u've 2ld me"

From: MY BABY, 8:10AM, 5-aPR-07 "Gndang umga, musta n baby k? mwaaaah, kht d n nya ako pnpncn bsta alam  nyang nand2 lng ako at mahal k xa, msya n ako"

From: MY BABY, 10:29AM, 5-aPR-07 "Ang bebe k, baw, d ako pncn kya ako nglcing, s pg2log, ako'y inihulog, d bale n sna, kng malala, mumultuhin kta!!!"

From: MY BABY, 9:31PMPM, 5-aPR-07 "Bhe, asan k n? msya k b s sobrang pagaala2 k sau, ano k b manhid ha?

From: MY BABY, 8:18PM, 6-aPR-07  "Cge n nga, kht nattiis m ako, hmmm mwaah, tmng tma bhe prang nllagnat ako e, luv u"

From: MY BABY, 8:51PM, 6-aPR-07 "N22 lng po, wla po ako mnmsahe, marunong dn pla mgselos bebe koh, ikaw lng po, lika, kis nga kta, mwaaaaahh"

From: MY BABY, 9:40PM, 6-aPR-07  'Bkt,ayaw k,bka mipsk k, uhmmmmmmwaaaaaaahh, ccgaw cgaw p, inaano b kta"

From: MY BABY, 5:38AM, 7-aPR-07  "'morning bhe, luv u, mwaaaah!pnpak m nmn ako,dami k 2loy marks!mwaaaah

From: MY BABY, 7:16 AM, 7-aPR-07  "D k b mk2log pg wla k nyykap?uhmmwaaah,bebe k tlaga,prang gus2 k uwi 2loy"

From: MY BABY, 10:30PM, 8-aPR-07 "D m lng me mtiis, luv u baby koh, mwaah"

From: MY BABY, 1:33PM, 9-aPR-07 "Oo o hndi lng kailngan kng skot,bkt mgppursige p b ako if ol is jst a fling, huh, nggglit gltan n nmn bebe koh, lika n nga, kgtin kta s tenga, mwaah"

From: MY BABY, 6:28AM, 13-aPR-07 ",mornng bebe qoh, glt daw kunwari kgbi, d rn ako mtiis, mwaaaah?

From: MY BABY, 2:36PM, 14-aPR-07 "Bhe, ikaw ata pgod n skin? uhmmmwaaaah, tma n yan,wag n umiyak,kla m b ggnda k pg my luha jan s pisngi m, mwaaaah,uhmmmmmmmwaaaaaah, 2rid un ha"

From: MY BABY, 10:22AM, 18-aPR-07  "Un sbi m nun eh, pro d k n un inicp p, MAHAL nga kta"

From: MY BABY, 12:16PM, 18-aPR-07 "I am wrng!..n sna nklala kta nun pa,mali rn n d n sna tau ngkkla2 p"

From: MY BABY, 9:59PM, 18-aPR-07 "Conservative daw oh, halos d nmn me phingain, luv u bhe, mwaaaaah,uhmmmmwaaaaah, mwaah!"

This is one person I would never forget.

Wherever you are now, thank you for the wonderful memories. Our days were fleeting, but I surely had one of the best memories in my life being with you. I felt loved and needed because of you and somehow, you showed me how is it to be myself.

You will always remain in my heart... wherever you are.

PRELUDE: I read this in my inbox during a chilly morning. I have this habit of junking forwarded messages as they only occupy space in my inbox aside from the wishful-meaningless thoughts that they carry. But this one is different. It strikes a cord. Credit is due to my "Kabsat" Maky for forwarding it to me. The message says that it was originally forwarded from Ate Ciony (Maky's Sister) who works at BDO-Loans Administration Unit, Baguio City.

I am a little bit nostalgic of my childhood memory. Well, people would always brand me as a bitter brat. I am not. I do, at times, cherish some wonderful days of childhood. What was mentioned in this article is a normal childhood during those years. But I have my own share of childhood days. Bittersweet. And sometimes, it haunts me to think back...

First, some of us   survived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne and drank San Miguel Beer while they carried  us.                                                       
                                                                                                                                                           
While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine,  ate isaw,  and didn't worry about diabetes.                      
                                                       
Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, pati na yung walker natin, matigas na kahoy din at  wala pang gulong.                                         
                                                        
We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads , sometimes wala pang preno yung bisikleta.                                     
                                                      
As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (yung JD bus na pula), or cars with no aircondi-tioning & no seat belts(ngayon lahat may aircon na)                                      
                                                       

Riding on the back of a carabao on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (ngayon hindi na nakakakita ng kalabaw ang mga bata)                                             
                                                       
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 711 ( minsan straight from the faucet or poso)                         
                                                      

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this. Or contacted hepatitis.                             
                                                        
We ate rice with star margarine,  ate raw eggs straight from the shell,  and drank softdrinks with real sugar in it (hindi diet coke), but we never get sick or overweight kasi nga......                                                 
                                                       
WE WERE ALWAYS  OUTSIDE PLAYING!!                                         
                                                         
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on. Sarap mag patintero,  tumbang preso , habulan at taguan.                                                   
                                                      
No one was able to reach us all day ( di uso ang cellphone ,  walang beepers, ceelphones or GPS  . And yes,  we were O.K.                                              
                                                
We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (yung bearing ang gulong) or plywood slides out of scraps and then ride down the street , only to find out we forgot the brakes!  After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (sewerage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands .                         
                                                     
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD's, no cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and   no Friendsters. .......                 

WE HAD REAL FRIENDS  and we went outside to actually  talk and play with them!                                  
                                                         
We fell out of trees, got cut, broken bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents.                       

The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words..masakit ba ? pero pag galit yung kalaro mo... ang sasabihin sa iyo..beh buti nga !                          
                                                    
We played marbles (jolens) in the dirt , washed our hands  just a little and ate dirty ice cream & fish balls. We were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.                                             
                                                       
We had to live with homemade guns " gawa sa kahoy, tinali ng rubberband , sumpit , tirador at kung ano ano pa na puedeng makasakitan. .pero masaya pa rin ang lahat.                                                
                                                         
We made up games with sticks ( syatong ), and cans ( tumbang preso )and although we were told they were dangerous, wala  naman tayong binulag o napatay. Paminsan minsan may nabubukulan lang.                                         
                                                     
We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend's house  and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!                          
                                                       

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team.  Those who didn't pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala yang mga childhood depression at damaged self-esteem ek-ek na yan. Ang pikon, talo.                       
                                                        
Ang magulang ay nandoon lang para tignan kung ayos lang ang mga bata, hindi para makialam at makipag-away sa ibang parents.                                                    
                                              
That generation of ours has produced some of the best  risk-takers, problem solvers,  creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO's, Engineers,  Doctors and Military Generals of today.                                                 
                                                      

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.                                                
                                                       

We had failure, success, and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.                           
                                                   
You might want to share this with others who've had the luck to grow up as real kids.                             
                                                          
We were lucky indeed.                                     
                                                        
And if you like, forward it to your kids too, so they will know how brave their parents were..                                                    
                                                   
It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn't  it?!                                                      
                                                 
PS - The big letters are because your eyes may not be able to read this if they were typed any smaller (at your age).