My most avid reader and moral supporter, Valerio, has inspired this title with his comment on my blog “Never off duty”.
How right Valerio is. I was waiting for a bus around 11pm one warm summer’s evening last year when an apparition suddenly leapt out from behind me on the pavement, stood in front of me and said, with a big smile, “老师，你好，我是 Brenda! / Hello, Teacher, I am Brenda!” It was a Taiwanese ex-student who’d done my MA Bilingual Translation course back in 1998(??), and I hadn’t seen her since, which makes 12 years. Yet she recognised me, in the dark, from behind!
A few months after that, I was on the bus home from St Paul’s, seated upstairs just in front of the top of the steps, therefore had my back turned to the steps. As the bus moved away from the next stop, I heard my name called out by someone who’d come upstairs. It was another ex-student, David, who’d also recognised me from behind.
Indeed, Valerio, a teacher can run but cannot hide.
I am amazed that you remembered the name of the students, more than they recognizing you...
ReplyDeleteAfter all they only had a handful of teachers, but how many students did you have?