Ambushed

A student shadowed me on my way back to my office after class last week. I turned around and there he was.

Sir, boleh minta tolong sikit?
Tolong apa?
Boleh pass-kan saya semester ni? Saya mengulang, kali ni dah empat kali…

How dare! I should have just told him off, but being the *nice* lecturer that I am, I told him that we don’t aim to fail students. Students fail by themselves. As the saying goes, you can lead the horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. I already keep regular consultation hours and give the students my email address, office telephone number, even my mobile telephone number if they have problems. I remember later one student in the class had not been submitting assignments. Looking at the matriculation number, it could be him. So this punk wouldn’t do assignments, yet dare to ask to be given a pass, for free?

It reminded me of a certain classmate in SDAR who asked Mr Pang, our Physics teacher for some extra marks, only to be humiliated in front of everybody. Maybe I should try doing that some time.

On Saturday I arranged to meet Olan, who was travelling from Tanjung Malim, at the Sungai Buloh Overhead Bridge Restaurant. I was reading the newspaper while waiting for him under one of the shelters when a girl came and sit.

@#$%
Huh?
@#$$ (@#$#@(% _@% ) #(^%) *#^)!#$
Tak faham lah.
Aiya, awak bukan Cina ka?

I wish I get a plasma TV every time somebody comes and speak Chinese to me; or perhaps I should just learn to speak the language. At least I wouldn't have to depend on the lousy subtitles when watching Chinese movies.