THE DAY THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

The Day That Changed My Life




In my six years of Primary school life, in which everybody mainly conversed in English, if one was to utter a word of Mandarin, one would be deemed as “cheena,” which is a local term used to label people who is uncool.

Perhaps it is not surprising, considering that most of us are from English-educated families and are exposed to the western pop-culture. Mandarin was the bane of our life, and people who spoke Mandarin are treated as the pariah of the students, though there was never a valid reason for loathing Mandarin.

My class then in particular, despises the Chinese language, and had a reputation of driving away countless of Mandarin teachers, thus when Madam Goh assumed the role of my class Mandarin teacher, nobody had expected her to last long.

Madam Goh had wrinkles on her face and wore thick goggle-like glasses that covered most of her face. She also had black hair which was accompanied by hints of white hair now and there, which led us to presume that she was only a few years past half a century year old.

Everything about Madam Goh was “cheena,” her taste of clothing, her traditional belief… the list could simply go on. In additional to that, her command of English could not be poorer. Her English was without a doubt, appalling.

Needless to say, my class rarely paid attention to her lessons and could not be bothered with work assigned to us, and because of that, she complained to the principal, getting a majority of us into trouble.

Thus, my class had to appease her by handing in our assignments, but she was still very displeased at the quality of the work. Madam Goh lasted for a rather long time, near to seven months, yet my class just simply did not know how to get rid of her. My class was all longing for her to leave. Little did we know that our wish would come true very soon.

Despite being aware of her unpopularity, she still gave her all to teach us. Her desperate pleas for us to pull up our socks for the imminent Primary School Leaving Examination fell on deaf ears.

Madam Goh thus decided to take things in her own hands when not a single person from the class passed the Chinese preliminary examination. She announced that there would be extra supplementary class every Saturdays, and it would be compulsory for all to attend.

In our bid to infuriate Madam Goh, the class agreed on being late. On the first day of supplementary class, my classmates and I all went in at least half an hour late, but much to our astonishment, Madam Goh who was always punctual still had yet to arrive.

A discussion was immediately started on why Madam Goh could be late. Nobody was certain, but plenty of ideas floated around, some which includes that she had forgotten about the supplementary class.

At that moment, John burst into the classroom, putting a stop to our debate. He was panting, finding much difficulty to speak whatever he was planning to say.

“Madam Goh… … had died!” John said to the deafening silence of the class. We were uncertain if it was meant to be a joke, however, the looks on John’s face did not seem to be anywhere near that of being a joke. John then slowly related what he had seen. Madam Goh apparently had met with an accident on the way to school.

My classmates rushed down to the scene of accident, which was near the school.

A huge crowd of on-lookers had by then gathered there. My classmates and I squeezed our way through the crowd, only to see Madam Goh lifeless body being carried away by the undertakers.

Nearby, a policeman was taking down the statement of a passer-by. We overheard the passer-by say “She seems to be in a rush, muttering something about being late and getting blamed for it.”

Upon hearing that, we shifted around uncomfortably while some of the girls broke down into tears.

Madam Goh never made it to her first supplementary class… She never made it to teach us… If we had studied hard enough to at least scrape a pass in the Chinese preliminary exam, would there be a need for supplementary classes? If there was no supplementary class, Madam Goh would not have…

The next day, the newspaper splashed headlines of a hit and run accident, blaming the driver for the death of Madam Goh, but deep down in my heart, I knew that my class and I were partly to be blamed for her death.

For as long as I live, I would never forget the day of Madam Goh’s death, as it made a huge impact on my life and too changed it.

My class was given a replacement teacher, and my class did not create any problems and too did everything expected of us. For the Primary School Leaving Chinese Exam, I slogged very hard.

You could not imagine my elation when I received my results. I received an A grade for Chinese. It was unexpected, as I was at the most only expecting a B or C grade for all my sweat in the one month of hard work.

Sorry, sorry Madam Goh… I know you are no longer around to hear my apologies, but wherever you are, I know you will are up there watching me. Thanks for everything. Thanks.

[918 words]

Done By: Aaron ( who is ME! )