I was very raw in English as a child. I did not understand grammar. I used to memorize and pass in Tenetun. His parents were not less worried about him. Father was a very good teacher of Maths and Physics. I was doing well in Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology. I went up to class 10 with the knowledge of English. SSC exam is ahead. Father fell in thought.
My father persuaded his colleague Nurul Islam Sir, an English teacher at Government Laboratory School, to teach me. Sir started teaching. A man of father’s age. Sir used to teach me 3 days a week. At first it was a little rough, but within a few days I became a fan of sir. Sir started almost from zero. He covered all there is of English grammar in 8 months and hardened my fear. After that English essays and questions did not have to be memorized so hard. If I knew the information, I could have written it myself. Most importantly, I began to like English.
Besides English, he enriched me in many other subjects. I liked doing the English passages the most. Usually a part of a story was given as a passage. He used to tell me the whole story of each passage while looking at the test paper. I heard many stories of Shakespeare from Sir at that time. Never said a word. Very sweet voice. I still use what Sir taught me at that time. Passed SSC with 65% marks in English. At that time it was not very easy to pass in English with that number.
Intermediate time is no longer blocked. After joining the office, English test was taken from UNDP to go abroad for scholarship. I got the second highest marks out of 14. Confidence increased. Called for IELTS test by British Council for Ph.D.
I came to know about the exam just before the exam. I passed the exam without any preparation. After that, it did not stop anywhere. I did my PhD in Biotechnology from Nottingham University, England. A 280 page thesis had to be written for Ph.D. There too, the teaching given by Sir was useful from the beginning to the end. According to my supervisors this is a well written thesis.
Today I often think about that dedicated soul teacher sitting on foreign soil. How good a teacher can teach you to love a foreign language. Now I understand how many other aspects of learning English language. How much more is left to learn? Remembering Sir with respect. He left the world a long time ago. May God bless him wherever he is.
I have written so many words because they may not even know how much a teacher contributes to the lives of their students. They may change any chapter of students’ life with their magic wand. With the charming power of their education, with their love. Strengthens the students’ fear by increasing their confidence. Change their lives. Bowed in respect to those teachers again and again.
