In middle school, my first few English teachers loathed me. Each semester saw the former one substituted with a new one.

In Grade 9 Miss Meng assumed the role. In the very beginning she seemed to have good impressions of me. I was an obedient studious pupil, anyway. Then in one class she heard my pronunciation. Her initial impressions were thus shattered. In another class when I said August instead of October for the tenth month of a year, she went mad.

After that, Miss Meng did not allow me to ask her any questions. Worse still, she stopped reading my homework. As a teenager, I was just getting rebellious then. I ignored Miss Meng’s attitude. I took my English homework seriously and did it with great care. My grades in the exams picked up gradually as a result. Still, Miss Meng was not impressed.

A couple of months later in a test, I scored 115 marks out of 120. To my disbelief, the mistress, beaming all the while, heaped praise on me in front of the whole class.

It was a turning point in our relationship. After that, Miss Meng’s stance softened. Our relationship thawed a bit. In time, the silent war between us came to an end. Not only did Miss Meng mark my homework carefully, but also she offered me extra help in her office, where she gave me daily dictations to check my memorisation of the key vocabulary covered the day before.

As we were working together more, we became almost like friends. Whatever difficulties I might run into, she was there. She often shared with me candies and other treats.

As the high school entrance exam was drawing near, she lent me her priceless language repeater, a gadget which helps a user to practise his pronunciation. According to Miss Meng, the repeater had been a birthday present to her from her grandad when she was my age.

Full of appreciation to Miss Meng, I practised my English pronunciation on the repeater before bed almost every evening. The day before the exam, Miss Meng gave me her blessing.

I passed with distinction the high school entrance exam. It was to Miss Meng’s credit that I achieved incredible solid progress in English in the last year of middle school.