My Alleged Bad English

At school, I have always been reprimanded for my bad English.  It does not mean that I teach broken English all the time.  Every now and then, my head of department tells me that some parents have complained about my poor proficiency. When I ask her to give me their contact numbers, her face is a mask of uneasiness and she will  claim that they wish to be anonymous.

To find out if my English was really inferior to that of my colleagues, I secretly checked their record books one day and found out that their lesson plans were riddled with lots of atrocious errors.  Occasionally, I enter their lessons as a relief teacher and I will take it upon myself to scrutinize their students' exercise books. What I usually find out never fails to give me a shock. Many properly written sentences are crossed and the so-called correct ones suggested by the teachers are totally ungrammatical.

Let me share with you one of the examples:

      * The book belonged to Ali.(written by an Indian girl and it was marked wrong)
          The correct one suggested by the teacher:
       * The book was belonged to Ali.

One day, the principal asked me to learn how to teach professionally from an outstanding teacher. Well, her class control was great and so was her activity. But then something happened. She wrote a sentence on the whiteboard and I immediately detected a wrong usage. This is how it goes:

       'The speeding car knocked her down and her face was instantly caked with blood.'

It was beyond me how the blood was able to dry up so fast, but one thing for sure, the word choice was inappropriate.  I remained quiet throughout the lesson, resorting not to correct the teacher. Several years ago I corrected a teacher and it had incurred her wrath.  Who is the person? My head of department.

When a colleague learnt that some of my articles had been recently published, she remarked that any one could do that provided  they copy from books.

The recent discovery makes me realize that I could have been treated as a scapegoat all this while. 

Comments

suituapui said…
Even my students would correct my slips and I would graciously accept my flaws - some had very good command of the language but a sprinkling, very very few. Many teachers did not like that - they would single out the poor kid, say how obnoxious he was, thinking he was so smart bla...bla...bla... People who never admit their mistakes and weaknesses will never grow and improve. Let them dwell in their ignorance.
September 24, 2016 at 2:29 PM
sintaicharles said…
I would appreciate it if I really make an error. But the school remains mum whenever I enquire about where I have gone wrong.
September 26, 2016 at 5:23 AM
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