During the 2 months and 2 weeks I had stayed in Calgary, what I missed Vancouver the most wasn’t its beautiful ocean, beaches, and big trees. It wasn’t the busy Robson Street or the interesting Granville Island. What I had missed very much were 2 women live in Vancouver—Aili and Lu.

They were my teachers when I was studying in WLCC, Western Language and Culture College. Aili, who taught me “exciting” grammar, was my teacher in the morning and Lu was my conversation teacher in the afternoon. I think this arrangement is the most super perfect one in the world. I must thank the kindest god, whoever it is, and the miracle of fate for this.

Wonder why? If you know them, I think you will approve my opinion with your both hands rising.

★Who is Aili？

Aili is a little taller than me, long dirty blond hair, with eyes that change theirs colour to blue, green, or gray with different lights, looks like a mix of Cate Blanchett and Gwyneth Paltrow. Her major in university were English and drama but now she is the expert of WLCC’s copier machine, “For some reason,” she said.

Although she has being saying, “I like to torture my students,” ”I enjoy seeing my students suffering,” but in fact, taking her class is a kind of enjoyment. She speaks beautiful English. Her pronunciation is clear, without using too much tongue, and sounds very comfortable. I used to sit on her right so that I could hear her voice very clearly, observe the shape of her mouth and lips, try to learn stealthily, and knew that there were so many sounds I had pronounced incorrectly for my whole life without consciousness.

Besides, while she is explaining grammar, she can always make you understand in an easy, reasonable and understandable way. When I first started to take ESL class in Vancouver, I almost forgot all of the grammar I had learned in high school. However, after her teaching, they came back to my head gradually, and more logical, clearer than before.

Of course, being an excellent teacher, she uses her body language to show us some conditions in using grammar. When she does so, she isn’t exaggerated but still funny, which shows her great sense of humor.

Aili was taking her vacation during my first week in WLCC. The substitute teacher was apparently nervous because of lacking of teaching experiences. There was a Japanese young boy, who had no interest in studying English but going home, in our class, and the substitute teacher had nothing to do with him. But Aili, hey hey, she was much better at dealing with him. She could attract the homesick boy’s attention naturally and easily, grabbed his soul back to English temporarily.

What did Aili do for her vacation? She took 5 days off going hiking in the west coast of Vancouver Island with her father. Yes, hiking for 5 days. And actually, usually this trail takes people 7 days, even 10 days to finish it.

I’ll never forget how Aili looked when I first saw her. She looked a little bit tired but absolutely happy. You could tell her relaxing joy and satisfaction from her smilingly face and sparkling eyes. In fact, whenever she talks about hiking, she looks like this. Every time. And this kind of look inspires my longing to go hiking.

That day when I first saw Aili, I was the first student walked into the classroom. I sat beside her and she looked at me with smile. I looked around and hoped there was someone coming. But there wasn’t. I looked at her and smiled in return while she was still looking at me with smile. And then she said, “Let’s talk.” I asked, “About what?” She said, “About you.” I didn’t know how to start and asked her to ask me questions so I could answer. But she smiled, again, and said, “Yes, you know.” What could I do? I could just try hard to say something that I would like to talk to a stranger. At that time, she was just a stranger to me and I don’t want any strangers to know much about me.

This kind of situation when other students were late and there were just Aili and me in the classroom happened more than one time. Once she smiled to me, I knew it is time for me to speak. And also when there was nobody speaking in the class sometimes, I always felt that she was smiling to me, which let me think that I should say something and really tried to say something to break the ice, although she was probably smiling to everyone in the classroom.

After I graduated, I “complained” this to her, “I don’t really like talking, but your smile makes me talk all the time.” She said, with her tricky smile of course, and with an innocent look, “But that’s my job.” Pretty cunning, uh?

Basically, Aili is quiet. However, this doesn’t mean that she can’t be or isn’t a good teacher. On the contrary, I think she has gotten the talent of being an excellent teacher. She won’t get too close to her students. But when she is the teacher, she is indeed a great and wonderful teacher. She has her way to make students be concentrated. She has her own way to make you understand what she is talking about.

★Let’s talk about Lu

As far apart as the sea and the sky, what Lu has is the talent to become another kind of excellent teacher. Her teaching is always full of vitality and she herself is always full of “scaring”, as Aili said, energy. Her voice and laughter can be heard around the whole school and so she is thought being the” noisiest” teacher of WLCC. Believe me, it’s very difficult to be distracted when a crazy woman is “shouting” and “jumping” beside you.

Lu is a little bit higher than me, too. She has short blond hair and sky blue eyes, as cute as Meg Rayne, in the movies, I mean. I think Lu must be the most popular teacher in WLCC, no matter is voted by male students or females, and not because of her beauty. She is definitely beautiful (so does Aili). But she’ll be shaking her head when someone says that (and so does Aili). She is a little negligent and dishevelled, and she likes to laugh at her negligence and being dishevelled. However, she has no idea that her accidentally revealing beauty is very attractive, even more attractive than the teacher who is thought being the most beautiful and well-dressed female teacher in school.

Just like Aili, Lu “acts”, too. She likes “Mr. Bean” and imitates him without consciousness. Therefore when she acts to explain English, that’s not just funny. She likes to make people happy and she certainly can make people happy. According to someone, 2002, she is a God’s gift for ESL students. She is an eye catcher and inspires her students to study English.

Taking Lu’s class was too “exciting” at first. She uses super strong and abundant body languages. More over than winking and smiling, she has many physical contacts with students. For us relatively conservative and shy Asian people, it was kind of being uneasy at the beginning. However, after getting used to it, you know that she has no other intention but treating every students as her friends, and she is a girl who laughs and plays all the time.

She really treats her students as friends. Being her student for one month, one can know a lot of her “history”, including her relationship with family, boyfriends she has had, places she has been and things she has done. Not really everything but defiantly numerous enough to surprise you. You don’t have to ask, she talks by herself. If you want to ask her something, maybe personal, she won’t evade answering, and sometimes her answers will be so straightforward that even shock you.

Lu is really, really very good to her students; she likes to do a lot of things with students, drinking, go hiking, dining, playing sports…she even tells students that they can call her to practice English. She loves teaching and never stops, even after school. She always tries to teach you something in any situation. This kind of teacher is so perfect to teach conversation.

Having a teacher like Lu is absolutely wonderful for students, however, how about being this kind of teacher for herself. Teachers are human, too, you know. They need their private time and space. They have their own problems as everyone does. I asked her once, “Don’t you feel tired sometimes? ” She held my hands and replied, ” No. I like teaching. I never need to shut down.”

Her passion and devotion sometimes make me worried. In my opinion, she spends too much time on her students! Take care of yourself first, Lu!!! But…I’m the one of them who takes her time, too.

Everyone thinks that Lu is noisy, however, she says that she is actually a quiet and introvert person. I’m probably the only one who believes her. In fact, I’ve never seen her being really quiet, not yet, but somehow I can feel that. She likes “Love finds hidden paths.” And then put it inside her ring and wears it. She thinks the day when World War Ⅱ was over is very important and uses relative numbers as PIN numbers. A special person like that isn’t just what she looks in appearance.

★They've made all the difference.

I really, really think that I am very, very luck to be able to have been taught by these 2 excellent teachers. During the 2 months I was talking class in WLCC, I woke up happily every morning and went to school with pleasure. I knew today was going to be another interesting and substantial day. Time flew so fast when I was in their class, so that I never had to check my watch and be wondering who long the class was going to be. All I did was just enjoy my every class joyfully.

Although my English isn’t so good, however, it’s easy for me to talk with them. They can understand me, which is a incredible work, and I can understand them, which is an amazing miracle. This is not just about language.

Moreover, the longing to communicate with them in better English has become one important motivation to make me study hard.

What they had taught was not just only English. They also taught me different cultures and more possibilities of life styles and attitudes. These two women are both crazy. Lu had traveled across Canada by hitchhike and slept in a tent in her early twenties. And Aili isn’t easy, either. She has been to Korea and Thailand and taught English there. She has being traveling in Nepal for one month, hiking, mostly. These two women make me feel sorry for myself. They make me survey my life I had gone through and think about it: how many thought in my mind had been buried under work that continued day after day.

Having good teachers really makes all the difference. Because of them, Aili and Lu, Lu and Aili, my dearest teachers that I adore, WLCC is the best ESL school, Vancouver is the most beautiful city, and the time I have being studying here is definitely the happiest time in my life.