High school grads (+), when you think of English (the school subject) what comes to your mind?

Hello sir,

Thanks for the opportunity to let me share my part of the world with you. I think, the fact that I am from India and have studied English as a second language might interest you towards my answer. I am almost nineteen years old and have finished my high school only about three years ago so, my memories are really fresh as dew on grass. Let me try and put parts of them together for you.

TEACHERS...

I was given a lot of attention and applause by all my English teachers in the class. The English teachers that stand out of my memories are Mrs. Sharma, Mr. A K Singh and Mr Pathak (My apologies to my other wonderful teachers who remain unmentioned due to my poor show of gratitude. In my defence, there were a lot of teachers and I can't possibly introduce them all to you)

I remember Mrs. Sharma as a fair, cheerful, Punjabi (North-Indian) lady with a great sense of dressing. She wore light pink, olive green i.e really bright and graceful colours. She taught me in elementary classes so, not very clear memories I have there... but, I recall that she was strict, intelligent and used green ink to examine and mark our notebooks. I still remember her smile. She teaching my favourite subject might be a reason of me respecting her a lot. She had acne scars on her cheeks and maybe that's why she seemed a little bit stricter than she was.

Mr. A K Singh's class was never my favourite. He singled me out... scolded me for every reason from the desk being dirty to the chalk being unavailable. Actually, I was the class monitor and it was supposed to be my duty to arrange that stuff.... but I think I got reprimanded a lot more than I deserved. Mr. Singh's patience was tested to the limits by our class throughout his stay in our school. He joined our school with some high-flying expectations which came crashing down as he was welcomed with a broken chair and flying paper airplanes to the class. Ultimately he HAD to resort to corporal punishment... which didn't work either.

Mr. Pathak: I remember him as our simply dressed, extremely pleasant, always smiling but famous for his temper. You could almost see anger growing on his face as you told him that once again you have forgotten to complete the assignment. He had a daughter who studied in my class. She was bright too. Pathak sir was dressed almost always in a white shirt, pair of steel gray pants and a reddish brown pullover.

TEXTS...

In the earlier years, communication was emphasized the most. Chapters where two-three characters just stood there and talked with each other about daily life things like "discussing what to buy from the grocery store" or "introducing yourself to a stranger" etc were included in the syllabus.

There were three books in the syllabus- a textbook with conversations, poetry and prose by varied authors to develop report-writing, interviewing, speech-writing skills; a supplement textbook with literature from renowned writers from across the globe and a workbook for grammar exercises.

Some of the literature that I studied in those years includes-

Stories from renowned Indian author R K Narayan's "Malgudi Days" and "Swami and Friends."

Inspirational letters (Mostly father to son/ daughter) by great authors.

Russian literature (short stories) translated to English.

A few lines from a Shakespearean masterpiece like "Julius Ceasar"

Excerpts from timeless classics like "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

Stories of Robin Hood's bravery, William Tell etc were regulars too.

In the later years, I started appreciating poetry better. Another Indian author- Ruskin Bond's writings also left deep marks on my thought processes. Samuel T. Coleridge's "Rime of The Ancient Mariner" was my favourite.

India has a rich treasure of stories in the form of children's stories collections like "Panchatantra" and "Hitopadesha". Their stories too, constituted a part of my syllabus.

Ok.... I guess, I should stop now as you might have started finding all this a little boring and monotonous by now. I am sorry for a long response.

Thanks for the opportunity, again.

I don't really have any good HS memories, so I hope you'll forgive me for jumping ahead to my College education. My History of the English Language prof. She was also my Shakespeare Lit prof. Dr. Itzoe was her name, and this was oh, 11 years ago?

She was a little old bent over lady,must of been in her 80s, the sweetest woman I've ever met, and I learned more from her than I learned from any other teacher. I really enjoyed those classes.

Reading boring literature that I'd never read otherwise (even though I am an avid reader), discussing it, and writing analysis of it. Way, way too much William Faulkner, James Joyce, and Earnest Hemingway.

Graduated from high school in '97, took AP English.

I don't think that it's bad. Explain to the university/college why you did that and they might even like it. It shows that you are responsible, you have good decision making skills related to school. It tells me that are mature and can think clearly and in a positive way. Good job man.

i thing about reading long thick books and writting very long essays of up to 8 pages and doing really had project and and reports and researches thai i really use to hate doing exept reading i accually liked reading.

2 years ago

i think about essays and writing short stories being able to fantasize in other worlds..

4 years ago

complete and absolute bordom!!!!! to be honest ?28 years ago. ahhhhhhh