(Photo- Above – (left) When I was a child, I and my brother sat
together obediently at the circular table and we were taught English
from our grandparents.
Photo - (middle) - We were once country boy and country girl at
Pathein (delta town of Irrawaddy). We were happy there by going to
school by foot, playing across the paddy field, swimming in the river
and enjoying our country life.
Photo - (Right) - With our grandparents and our mother (middle), we
stood in front of the door of the private tuition of our grandfather
in 1980. We were school boy and school girl of our grandfather during
our holidays at my grandfather's tuition. My father took this photo.)
garden (K.G). When we were 5 years old, we went to school. At school,
all the subjects were in Burmese. (At that time teaching all subjects
in English was not in the education system at school until the
students reached 5th standard at the age of 10. We were unfortunately
met that system).
When we reached school, our father was transferred to Pathein (delta
town of Irrawaddy, also known as Bassein). Bassein, city in southern
Burma, capital of Irrawaddy Division and of the district of Bassein.
The city is situated on the Bassein River, one of the mouths of the
Irrawaddy River, and is accessible to oceangoing ships.) We left our
grandparents and went with our parents to Pathein (Bassein).
We continued our school at Pathein and we were happy there. My mother
read Classic, School Friends, Knowledge and Science books to us in our
free time. (These books were treasures of our father. He collected
them when he was young.) But we missed our grandparents. Our
grandparents missed us too. They came and visited us in the weekend
and we always went to Rangoon to meet them in weekends too. Every week
we returned to hometown by ship. We travelled by ship for at least 40
times a year from Bassein to Rangoon vice versa. My grandmother loved
the places in delta because she passed her childhood in these places.
After 2 years, we met super cyclone in Pathein. It ruined houses,
schools, Universities and many buildings. All the schools and
Universities were closed. At that time our 3rd standard was in a half
term. We quit our school and we all returned to Rangoon.
We tried to continue our school in Rangoon. The school mistress was my
grandfather's friend and she accepted our admission with kindness. At
that time no school allowed any new admittance for the half terms
students. The exam was nearer and the courses were too difficult for
us. We borrowed books and copied the whole courses from our school
mates. Our parents helped us too. At that time the photocopier
machines were not yet popular here. Our grandmother made a gist of our
lectures to memorize easily for us. We passed the exam by the
gratitude of our grandmother. During the holidays, we attended the
classes taught by our grandfather at his private tuition. Our
grandfather also taught us 'Peter and Molly' conversation lessons with
cassette. We were happy to learn English from him.
We were started to learn English at school when we reached 5th
standard at the age of 10. After we passed 10th standard, we reached
the University. When 1988, the University closed for 3 years because
of the demonstration in Burma. We were forced to stay at home to wait
when the University reopened. I and my twin brother had been taught
English literature at home by our grandparents. My grandfather'
tuition was also closed at that time. All the private schools and
tuitions were closed too. Our grandparents decided to teach us English
during these years.
My grandfather was an English teacher and he was happy to teach us
English very much. My grandmother was a writer who loved to teach us
English Literature as plays of Shakespare or Bernard Shaw or Greek
famous plays or others poems. They taught us every day. At that time
I was not interested in these books. But I was afraid of my
grandparents. I did not want them to be disappointed of my boring
manner. I tried to make myself interest learning English from my
grandparents. My twin brother was more intelligent than me because he
discussed with our grandparents about the books they taught and chat
about difficult sentences. I was only watching them and envied my
brother because I was not intelligent enough to discuss with them. But
I was happy by seeing their faces which were full of delights during
their teaching time. For these three years we were learning English
literature, poems and many books from our grandparents.
When the University reopened in 1991-92, I continued my studies in
University. But our grandparents' teaching schedule was not stopped.
They changed their time table to the weekends. I noticed that my
studies in University were more improved than before. The sums in
physics were all in English. Before 1988, I was very weak in that
subject. But now I understood them very well. I realized that our
grandparents' training made me improved my knowledge.
I wondered if the University were not closed for 3 years and if I had
not a chance to learn English from my grandparents, I would never have
a chance to realize the value of knowledge. It was a blessing in
disguise. Closing the University for a long time was not a good thing.
But it made us to get a good chance to stay closely with our
grandparents and we were taught valuable knowledge from our
grandparents.
--
'J'
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