Jesus

Some Memories of Mr. Zhou By Chen In primary school I met my first English teacher. However at that time, for most children including myself, I did not have such a clear idea about something like foreign language. We did not consider it seriously and have clear impression at the time. The situation took a 180 degree change when I entered middle school. English became one of three major courses that every student has to attend. Meanwhile, I also met the strictest teacher, Mr. Zhou. The first image he left me was intimidating, although he was not so strong or muscular, the harsh face and the sharp eyes through his glasses left a tough impression. He had been an English teacher for over 8 years and just promoted to the position of English office supervisor who had the responsibility of English education for the whole school. Mr. Zhou was a very competent and approachable man. And I will tell two stories about him. The process of learning a language is very long and uninteresting, at least for me. I never thought English would become one my major tools of communication. At that time, studying English was just another one of many difficult classes for meeting the requirements of exams. Even dominated by this opinion, the humor of Mr. Zhou still attracted me. More importantly his humor always involved some wisdom. At that time, the school had an exchange program in which teachers from another foreign school came and taught English. So one day, there was a teacher who had a big nose, two gray eyes and blond hair that came to our classroom. However, for most of us who were just 11 or 12-years old, we rarely saw foreign people, not to mention participating in class with them. We were shy, inactive and close to ourselves. After class, Mr. Zhou got really angry about our behavior, but he did not yell at us, instead he said,” Why are you so scared? Is it because he is from other country? Let me tell you that one day when you go abroad you will be a foreigner too!” At that time we all smiled, but now this situation became true – I’m a foreigner now. Another time Mr. Zhou gave me confidence. I just hated English, the strict grammar, the infinity vocabulary, endless model sentences and paragraphs that needed to be memorized. It’s easy to understand why I did not get a good grade in English in middle school, when I held this kind of attitude. However, Mr. Zhou seemed to never give up his concern for me. After a quiz in which I got a fairly good grade, he walked up to me, touched my hair and said,” You should be better”, when I was focusing on reading questions in class. Obviously, this touch did not change my mind about English, but it really changed my attitude for studying English. The last time I saw Mr. Zhou was after the high school entrance examination. The students were at school for taking their class photo. Mr. Zhou turned around, waved his hand with a smile as he was walking away. I never saw him smile like that in class. However I would no longer see Mr. Zhou in class anymore.