Victor over the Past - Chapter 10

From: … Nguyen @yahoo.com>
Subject: Nguyen 's Biography
To: thuyhang606@yahoo.com
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 9:42 AM

Thân tặng TH quyển hồi ký …

" Về chia sẻ kinh nghiệm với bạn bè. TH cứ tự nhiên. Nếu bài học cuả mình có hữu ích được cho đời thì mình nên chia sẻ. Có vậy thì xã hội mới tiến bộ và phát triển được. Những gì mình có thể để lại trên đời này thì mình nên để lại."

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CHAPTER 10

 A few weeks later, my father arranged for lieutenant Hien from his battalion to come

and stay in Can Tho. The lieutenant's mission was tutoring my sister and me in our

school work. Every day the lieutenant came to our house about 2 o'clock in the afternoon

to teach us. My sister did very well on her own without any help at all. Therefore, the

lieutenant did not have anybody else to worry about but me. At the new school, I did not

have the same special treatment as I had when I was in Tra Vinh. My grades now truly

reflected my own ability which was usually poor. I was in the eighth grade then, but my

mathematical skill was less than fourth grade, and my reading skill was about fifth

grade. I was used to being ignored by the previous tutors, so I did not pay much

attention to the new tutor. Every afternoon, the lieutenant came and sat in the study

room by himself while I stayed in the living room to draw my own fictional stories. A

few days later, the lieutenant asked my great aunt which one of us he needed to tutor.

My great aunt told him that I was the one who needed the most help. So the next day, he

came and looked for me and asked me to come to the study room with him. After the

first few inquiry questions, he realized that he had a lot of work cut out for him with

little hope of bringing me up to the grade level within a year's time. He told me that I

really needed to put in tremendous effort and time just to be able to make it to the next

class. I smiled at him and nodded my head pretending that I understood and was willing

to cooperate with him, but inside my heart I told myself that there was no way he could

help me at all because I thought to myself that it was too late to do that already. After the

initial meeting, he said that he needed to go home first to prepare for my study next day.

Then he left. The next day, he showed up at 2 o'clock sharp again. This time he asked me

to show him my homework. I brought him my homework, and I thought that he would

complete my homework for me just like all the other tutors. But he did not. He put each

task one by one up on the chalk board and asked me all the questions that needed to be

answered to come to the right conclusions and solutions to the problems. But no matter

how hard he tried to make it easy for me, my brain was not used to thinking, so it stayed

blank and failed to follow the tutor's line of reasoning. I began to get frustrated and soon

I began to lose interest. At that moment, I began to stare at the board, and I blocked

everything and everyword that he said completely. At that point, he began to get

frustrated because he did not get any response from me anymore. Then he asked, " Duc,

can you see the relation that I just told you at all?" I stood there and stared at the board

again for about a couple of seconds and turned to him and shook my head. Then he

asked," Why don't you see it? You understand what the givens are, don't you?"

I nodded my head and said, " Yes"

 Then he asked, " You know the law that dictates the relation of the givens, don't you?"

  I said, " Yes"

 He continued, " So by knowing the law and the given, can you come up with the

conclusion for me?"

 I then shook my head and said, " No."

 He continued, " Why? Why can't you? Where did you miss? Are you trying at all?" He

acted very frustrated.

At that point I said to him, " You don't have to act like that. If you cannot teach me,

you don't have to teach me. If you want to help me without being mad, you can just go

ahead and do the homework for me instead of asking me all kinds of questions."

 Then he said: " Let's stop now. I have something to take care of. I will see you

tomorrow. O.K?" Then he left.

 I was mad too. The next day he showed up in the study room. I did not bother to go to

the study room at all. Then he went and told my great aunt about the incident of the day

before. My great aunt came to me and insisted that I go to the study room to study. I

brought my homework to the study room again. As I walked into the room, I greeted

him just to be polite, and he greeted me, too. After I sat down, I told him, " I have some

homework that needs to be done. If you can finish it for me and I can copy them, that

would be much easier for both of us."

Then he looked at me and said," I know that yesterday I was mad and unreasonable,

but I hope you know how frustrated I was."

 I said, " Yes, but you did not know that I did try very hard, too. The only thing was

that somehow I could not make the connection at all, but I did try. "

 He said," I know you did, and I know that I was not patient yesterday, but if you were

in my shoes, you would understand how I felt. Let me put it this way to see if you can

understand my situation. Your father took me off the front line and sent me to this town

so that I can help him with his family. If you do well, your father will continue to keep

me here, and I won't get killed. But if you don't do well, he will replace me, and I will

return to the front line where I will likely be killed. So whether you like it or not, my life

is hanging on the line just because of you. If you care for me and for my life at all, can

you try harder so that I don't have to return to the front line?"

 I sat there in silence for a few seconds. I never thought like that at all. For the first time

in my life, my performance in school affected someone's life. And for the first time I

learned to take things seriously. Then I turned to him and said, " From now on you will

see me try my hardest to do well in school. But I want you to be patient with me because

I never studied at all before in my life."

Then he said, " You can bet I won't get mad at you at all. Anything you don't know,

just ask me; I will find the answers for you. Now can we start?"

 I said: " Yes. Let's start." Then we began.

For the first few weeks, I had a tremendous headache because I was not used to studying.

Later on, it became easier and easier as we went along. I began to understand where my

tutor's questions were leading, and I became more at ease with relating things to each

other. A month later, the effort began to pay off. My mathematics skill not only rose from

fourth grade to eighth grade level, but also soared to the top of the class. All of my

classmates and my teacher were surprised with my progress. From there on, my tutor

and I had a much easier time studying and getting along. He began to influence me in a

lot of ways. Besides teaching me and helping me with my school work, he also shared

with me his successful stories and his own personal belief. He told me stories of great

men who had lived and led their lives successfully. He explained to me the virtue of

being patient, and he showed me the need to search for wisdom. He explained to me how

powerful is a human mind. He instilled in me the desire to learn and to know everything

around me. I was always thankful to have a great tutor like him. I thought to myself as

long as I live I will never forget his effort to turn my life to a better direction. 

To be continued ...