When he expects me to know the answers...

Tonight, Zaki asked me to help him in his Arabic homework. Seriously, I don’t know what to do when he showed me his schoolwork. I have no basic knowledge of Arabic. Therefore, I found it tough to teach him, and he didn’t want anyone else to teach him except me. Anak manja.

So, as not to disappoint him, I took the book and looked at the homework.  I have no clue what to do as the instruction is in Arabic too. But I know that he needs to fill out the missing letters.

I looked at the previous page; the questions were to arrange the words in order. When he saw me, staring at the page, he said, “That’s the name of the day in a week.”

“Oh!” I said, and still couldn’t connect between what he said and the homework.

I flipped few more pages from the exercise book, but I still have no idea what is required. Finally, I asked him to bring the textbook.

“You won’t find the answer in the textbook,” he told me and handed me the textbook.

I didn’t say anything. I took the book and opened it up. Nothing looked similar. After some times, I gave up. I closed the book, and stared at the exercises book again, hoping for some clue.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared somewhere, and I could see some connection between the previous page and his homework.

“A-hah!” I said excitedly. “This page and this page is the same. It’s about the name of days,” as I pointed to the two pages.

“Yes. Didn’t I told you earlier,” he asked.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I told him how to do his homework, which he happily does it.

Nowadays, the young children are lucky. They have the opportunity to learn Arabic at the young age. When I was their age, I didn’t get to learn Arabic at school. There was no Arabic subject offered at all.

But it was not to late for me to learn the language with them. As I teach them, I also learned, but the only problem, I would forget what I learn few months later. Ahhhh!!…. I’m old already.