EF#29 Little Missy and English

The featured image is borrowed from myblackpink blog

This is a very late submission for BEC’s 29th challenge About Someone.

Well-well, it was quite hard for me to tell a story about someone for this challenge since there are so many people I would love to write the story about. But then an idea struck me.

Why don’t I write the story about someone who drove me to learn English? I hope I don’t fill this story with much anger though it all started with it. 😀

It was back when I was still 7 or 8 years old. Still in my first or second year in elementary school. There was no English lesson at that time. The subject was only for junior high school back in the 80’s. Nothing and there was no way for a poor elementary school student like me to get an access to English related material.

On other side of the story,  I have an aunt who always watched me when my mother had to attend her little shop. During that time, I hung out a lot with my aunt’s friends. She was in junior high school. Also at that time, there was this telenovela ptogram aired in  TVRI well known as Little Missy though it was not the official title. As you may already guessed, how the last Little Missy episode aired in TVRI would be the main topic of the discussion between us that time.

That particular day, I was so interested to join a chat between my aunt and her friend. They talk about, yes of course, the telenovela last episode. Without permission,  I almost screamed:

“You all must be talking about Little Missy, I know!”

But I made a grave mistake. I pronounced Little as li-tle instead of li-tel. Soon my aunt’s friend broke into laughter. She laughed at me, at how I pronounced the title of the show,  mercilessly. My aunt knew how hurtful it was for me and tried to stop her friend.

From that moment on I swore that I will learn English by myself and get better than her. A promise too big but never be regretted.

I started trying to find out how the correct pronounciation was. I tried to find it from the books in my school library and there it was, a dictionary. That was my first time learned about a dictionary. I finally knew how to read it. And then until one day there was this program, Sesame Street aired in SCTV, a new  private TV station which taught kids to learn about English.

I remembered it well how I asked my mother for a blank book and a pencil to write down every single words displayed in the show. All of them just to satisfy my childhood rage and my swear to master English better than my aunt’s friend.

Hahaha. I still even remember about it clearly now.

Don’t get me wrong, I was in good terms with the lady, my aunt’s friend who laughed at me turned out to be a big help during my wedding in Surabaya four years ago. But unfortunately,  she already passed away a couple years back. Bless her and may her soul rest in peace.

I thank her for that devilish laugh and that Little Missy telenovela to push me to learn English so that I can explore the world more than I can imagine as a boy.

Here’s a trailer from Little Missy:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=076kk_7GxLk&w=450&h=380&rel=0]

This is my story about someone, Little Missy and English. What about you? What story do you have?

Warm regards,
Dani. 🙂

My other posts in English:

[display-posts category=”English”]