This is the Case I found in the store-room several days ago and the wonderful contents will make for several revealing postings.In a file I re-discovered my collection of my Primary Six examination papers. Don't ask me why I kept them. Is it the magpie in me or the karung guni man? I cannot tell. Some of the stuff is sweet and poignant, while others are hilarious - at my expense of course.
Here comes the first.
My first big boo boo is my failure to give the right title for the composition topic 'Yourself'. I should have conjugated it to 'Myself'. Mr Tan Sin Ho was quite strict. 'Pr.' as a short form for 'Primary' is unacceptable. The roman numeral for V needs a stroke at the top and the bottom. My name is spelled without the additional 'o' and that remained uncorrected until I got to secondary school.All in all, what a yucky piece with a sentence like 'My hair is black, my eyes are brown, and my skin is also brown'. How unimaginative. I would have given myself 20/50
instead of 35.
Anyway 2 generations later, our great-niece Sarah Hana wrote this version of 'herself' in a little 555 notebook that I had given her . By the way, in the 21st century, you write down your 'biodata', not 'Myself'.
Here's the data input.
I would mark her 7 out of 10 - after all she's only 7 years old. She has a broader sense of family and nature than I had and for that I have to give her 8 marks. And for those who are unfamiliar with the KL jargon, 'Giant' is a supermarket. In my time all we had was Kedai Seng Teow and Kedai Ah Chwee.And because she did not describe herself, here's the data-maker. Hmm, should I reduce her marks for this omission - but then I was 13 when I wrote that howler? Maybe nowadays these hi-tech kids resort to mobile cameras, ipods and drongles and do not depend on words. Still, it's a shame for words require more thinking and imagination.
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And this song is for Nadia, Bella, Adam, Ariff, Tasha, Sarah Hana, Anis, Ilyas, Emir and Sofia from tok ngah and tok kacang aka tok iain.
this is precious, AsH!
ReplyDeletep.s. and "tok kacang" just cracks me up. what's the story there, if i may ask. :D
Mekyam,
ReplyDeleteYou and I have a sense of history and time. Thank you for your thoughts.
When my sister's 'cucu' were much younger - about 5(?) - they asked Iain 2 questions. Firstly why are you white and why are you so tall?His typically cheeky answer was :
(1) he fell into a bag of flour when he was a baby and (2)he ate a lot of 'kacang panjang'.
They were nonplussed for a while and then their faces lit up and realised they were being taken for a ride. Their revenge was to call him 'tok kacang' and that stuck despite their tok wan's admonitions. I could have given them better nouns like SOG (silly ole git) or MOG (miserable ole git) but then their tok wan would give me a right telling off!
gosshhhhh........
ReplyDeletesooooo long u keep that paper.. and i do proud tosarah, even still 7 but alread can write in english.. during my time, so funny.. i only know "yes" and "no".. and all my english i will start wit the word.. "once upon time" hehehe
Thank you Helas. You know , that paper is over 53 years old, older than your parents!!
ReplyDeleteAnd Sarah Hana thank you too.
When I was 7, my English was also limited to 'yes' and 'no'.