One dude hard to forget

Meet Mr Ki.

He's Khairul Azli. Take the "K" from Khairul and I from Azli, What does it spell?? Mr Ki!!(read it in a cheer leader tone)

Back in Kuantan, he used to teach us College Writing, one of my favorite subjects (though I kinda suck at it). He took over our previous lecturer coz basically, she sucks. Because of her sarcastic remarks, half of the class cried and the other half deeply de-motivated to learn College Writing.

What we did was we reported it to our coordinator, and she sacked that woman for us. Good riddance. That's when he came into the picture.

With the previous lecturer sacked, we need a new lecturer (duh). For about 2 weeks, we didn't have lecture for the Writing class. On one fateful day, Mdm Noraini, the then TESL program coordinator finished her drama class with us saying,

"Oh, and by the way, I've got you guys a new lecturer. He's male, and apparently very cute...So ladies, behave..."

Needless to say, after that statement from the person well known for her seriousness, I can't help but to be anxious.

I don't care he's cute.How will he be?.. Garang or not.. strict or not... ?

I got a feeling the girls were anxious about something else..

How cute..? Zac Efron cute or Orlando Bloom cute? Just joking..hehehe...

Then it was the moment of truth..

He walked right to the front of the class, and his first sentence that came out of his mouth was,

"Assalamualaikum."

haha... OK ok.. I'll get back to the point. This is what he did.

"Lemme lay down a few rules here in my class.

First, if you're getting sleepy and want to yawn, juz go ahead and yawn however manner you like. If you wanna follow the sunnah, fine by me. If you wanna yawn like animals, suit yourself.

Second, if you are hungry, just go ahead and eat in my class. Obviously not nasi bungkus or anything heavy, but please just eat. And don't ask for my permission whether you can eat or not.

Third, if you wanna go out, to toilet or just to get a breather, just go ahead, and again, never ask for my permission. It disrupts the class.

Fourth, just reply or answer any calls that may come to you during class. If you don't, the person on the other end may feel uneasy."

OMG.... He's broken every rules of thumb about disciplining students, but I like that. He understands us, see.

We can't control being sleepy and hungry. They're physiological needs...Maslow's hierarchy of needs at the bottom part, if I'm not mistaken.

At that time, I got a feeling that his class won't be dull.

I was right.

I can still recall one incident he said,

"I can't help to notice that we Malaysians are too polite. Even to point at things, we have rules for that.

If you think THIS is RUDE,

But THIS is RUDER!"

But the thing that made him unforgettable is because he's not your average lecturer.

For each writing class, we are required to submit journal entries. Pick a topic from the list, and say what we wanna say in writing. And then, submit.

Usually, during this time, I wrote about my problems. Relationships, personal, studies, whatever lah..And he'd give me advices written as comments on that particular piece of journal. He's helped me through tough times in Kuantan, and I am sure that he has helped others.

In the last class for the semester, we cried. If previously we cried because of insults, but on that day, we cried because he's a good lecturer and he'll not be teaching us anymore.

He's funny, he's kind, he's allegedly cute by Mdm. Noraini. He's Khairul Azli. He was my lecturer. He's a friend.

He's one dude I find hard to forget.