My English Teacher

In the course of our life, we come across different people. Some of them come into our life and then just leave without influencing us, while others leave an indelible imprint in our memories and determine our future life. My English teacher at high school has been one of the most influential people in my life. Not only did he teach me a lot of useful skills that I will definitely need in my academic life and future career, but he also nurtured the most positive features in me.

When I was a teenage, I was not that confident and outgoing; I was not talented either. I was shy and reserved. I was just an average schoolgirl who enjoyed reading and lived in the world of her own. I did not like my English lessons, since my teacher always looked down on me and disrespected me. Every lesson was torture for me because I felt really humiliated and miserable. Thus, when she resigned, I did not feel sorry for that. When a new school year started, we had a new English teacher. I did not expect any change in my attitude to the subject, but I was wrong. Our new teacher was a stocky man of medium height in his late thirties with pepper-and-salt hair and always dressed spic and span. His vivid dark brown eyes and radiant friendly smile enchanted everybody at once. He had a deep knowledge and understanding of the subject and could explain to us the most complicated issues. He encouraged us to think critically and look at any piece of literature from different angles. He taught us to form our own opinions and feel confident about expressing them.

Perhaps, one of the brightest memories about my teacher is the task he gave us once. It was another gloomy rainy day at the end of the winter and all of us felt exhausted and sad after a difficult math test. Our teacher asked us to advertise some unreal products like a musical mousetrap or nail polish for teeth. We had to prove that our product was the best and the most useful. At the end of the lesson, all of us were laughing trying to find another argument to support our idea.

As I have mentioned, I enjoyed reading a lot and literature was my escapism. Under the guidance of my teacher, I learnt to understand and appreciate the beauty of language and literature. He provided me with necessary tools to read between the lines and understand authors’ subliminal messages. Our lessons were always great fun; at the same time, they were really effective and unforgettable. My teacher was always interested in our opinion and perception. Whatever book we read, he would always ask what we thought about this or that event or character, how we would act under these or those circumstances. They say that a good teacher explains and the best teacher encourages. He was definitely the best teacher, as his passion for the subject made me burn with enthusiasm. I spent long hours at the library studying all available information about the books we were discussing. I became more confident and was not afraid to express my opinion and stand by it. Now I realize that he believed in me much more than my parents and other teachers did; he believed in me much more than I did. He once told me that I was a unique and talented personality and that inspired me so much that I realized there would never be any hurdles or obstacles I would not be Perhaps, the most important lesson that I learnt from my teacher is that you should love and respect people you work with. He taught me to empathize with people and reserve my judgments about them. This quality helps me a lot in my day-to-day life and academic studies. My friends say that I am a thoughtful well-read person who is pleasant to talk to. I believe that if it had not been for my teacher, I would not be the way I am today.