The Learning Teacher

Even as I was sending new year greetings to my Chinese friends, as many of you were, I received an sms which changed my mood completely for the day. It was the news of a passing of a friend. An unexpected one at that! I sometimes brace myself for the death of some friends who have been ill or are frail. But they seem to live on, not that I wish them to die. When you hit a certain age, your peers no longer seem quite that invincible. Neither am I.

Today, I received the news of the death of my friend, Gene. Geneveive K. Angking passed away at 4 p.m. I didn’t know she was ill. She probably wasn’t. I knew she was diabetic and was on insulin injections. Gene was said to live dangerously at times – not being careful with her food. I hope she enjoyed her food and life till the very end.

Gene is a friend who I will miss in my workplace. She was a wonderful friend who always had a smile and a happy greeting. I worked little with her but still managed to have a friendship. We even had mutual friends and acquaintances.

The last time I saw her we exchanged the usual pleasantries as we rushed off to our classes. One never knows when you will see a friend for a last time. Should we treat each time we meet as if it would be our last? That will be all too intense, am sure.

I know the next time I pass her cookery kitchen, I will look in but the familiar small sized lady will be there no more.

Without sounding too sentimental, I wish you goodbye and God bless.

The Faculty will be different without you, at least for some us.

Rest well.

It’s been a week since I became the former President of the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA). I feel it is a little early for me to reflect about my work with MELTA. And I should leave it to others to assess my work as President which ran from June 2001 to January 2008.

I will say that being in MELTA has been a wonderful experience for me as an ELT professional and practitioner.

Being a member and better still being actively involved in the Association is something I would recommend!

I first joined MELTA while I was still an English Language Teacher. My work with MELTA began during my post-graduate days. Hyacinth Gaudart my Master degree academic advisor and project work supervisor drew me into active involvement with the Association. In 1989, I was elected as a committee member. Then on, I held various positions, taking a break while I was away working on my PhD. It was a pleasure and a privilege to have worked under two former Presidents – Dr. Basil Wijasuriya (UKM) and Prof. Dr. Hyacinth Gaudart (UM). Then to lead a group of diverse, talented and dedicated committee members was just amazing. We enjoyed doing what we did we often forgot we were working.

The year 2007 was 25^th anniversary for MELTA and we worked hard at making it a memorable year. This we did by organising the largest ELT Conference ever in Malaysia – the 5^th Asia TEFL Conference which was held in the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur (around 1500 delegates attended the conference) and MELTA  also organised the National Colloquium on Teaching Mathematics and Science in English at the Palace of Golden Horses, Seri Kembangan.

I thought hard and planned my relinquishing the duties of President for over a year. I knew I will be leaving it in very capable hands.

I am not completely out of the picture where MELTA is concerned. I will support its activities and participate in them as a life member.

I wish the new committee the best and I believe they will reach new heights of success for English language education in Malaysia.

I look forward to carrying out my duties as Vice President of Asia TEFL.