Teachers vs. Students

I'm surprised to get an E-mail today from one of my students who is currently studying in UK. I remember he didn't like English and even hated the subject before I started teaching in his class, the reason I have an idea of who he was is that he was one of the "black sheep" in the whole college, but now his major is Journalism (Is there any connection between? I can't help wondering... But anyway, that's another story.) in one of the most famous universities in the world. I'm proud of him and his effort in the achievement after these years' hard-working. As far as I can recall, there is nothing special I did for him, I just simply gave him the equal respect and patience as for other students, and in his E-mail, he extended me the highest honor a teacher can possibly get. I was impressed and happy of course, but at the same time, I also realized how important a teacher's role is.

I never knew I influenced my students that much, but certainly I know how my teachers did to me. The most recent one failed to kill my desire of studying Finnish even though they tried so hard to make the language IMPOSSIBLE to learn. Finnish itself as a language is already difficult to get the hang of even for beginners, let alone to have such a "helpful" teacher to confuse us with errors here and there all the time, imagine what a headache and frustration it can be! Still, I attended their class regularly, and sat the exam finally not just because there were only less than half of the students left since the third lesson on three months ago. I'd say there are no bad students, only unqualified teachers.

The most important thing for being a teacher, in my personal opinion, is to put yourself into your students' shoes for a change, which applies to any other occupation associated with people. We have all been students once, did you like what your teachers did to you back then? If not, don't pass the bad on from generation to generation!