Have you seen this video yet?
ya sure everyone has la who hasn’t ever watched a Jinnyboy video.
(actually me, this was the first video of his I ever properly watched :X)
It’s a collaboration between Jinnyboy and INTI International University & Colleges
But lately I’ve been thinking about Mount Holyoke a lot (because I was reading the monthly alumnae newsletter wtf) and it made me miss my school days and teachers so much.
No teachers at primary and high school made such an impact on me as…..
To give him some privacy, I’ll just call him Lipman. (cos that’s his name wtf)
He was my teacher advisor at Mount Holyoke and I was also in one of his classes my very first semester – History of Intellectuals in 20th century China.
Ya and he’s part of the reason why I declared Asian Studies as my major.
I trolled my archives looking for blog posts I wrote on Lipman, trying to find pictures of him but…. Not. A. single. One.
He breaks my heart really T__________T During graduation, I rushed after the ceremony to look for him to take a picture and to give him a thank you present… but he’d already left to attend a wedding </3 </3
And then! I was talking to a friend at Mount Holyoke who also knows Lipman recently. She told me that she told Lipman about our meme proposal and Lipman asked if Fatty was a good man *touched
Do you not see the love that is blooming between us! (on a purely teacher student basis of course)
So four years after graduation, I plucked up the courage to invite him to the wedding. He’s a professor of Asian Studies and I don’t think he’d ever been to Malaysia so I asked him and his wife to come!
But then he has another wedding to attend in Oregon </3</3 rejected for another wedding again </3</3
Shit him play with my heart like this wtf.
But it’s ok because two years ago I heard he spoke to another student at Mount Holyoke and he referred to me and my honors thesis and called me remarkable T________T
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: you don’t live until your favourite teacher calls you remarkable.
Anyway, that picture above was taken what looks like twenty years ago and when I was at Moho, he looked like Santa Claus wtf.
When I took that first class with him, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Chinese intellectuals is honestly one of the driest classes ever… and he made that interesting.
He’s extremely extremely smart, I think he went to Harvard, then got his doctorate at Stanford. (actually I know for sure cos I stalked his profile.) His Mandarin is flawless, with a Beijing accent. I think he used to find it very interesting that I am ethnically and culturally Chinese yet don’t speak the language. And whenever he spoke on a subject I was spellbound wtf.
I revered him so much that I used to refer to him as my first love WTF *crazy
It wasn’t that he was smart. It was that he was a wonderful teacher. I loved his classes and soliloquys so much that I tried to make sure I scheduled a class with him every semester.
I rarely get close to my teachers because they’re just…teachers to me. But with Lipman, I felt that he thought I was better, smarter than what everyone else (including me) thought. Ok maybe with the exception of my parents haha.
He made me believe I could do whatever I wanted, go teach English in Japan, go to grad school, be a professor or researcher… anything.
At school everyone laughed cos I’d carry fluffy pink pens to class and hang bells off my cell phone wtf. And my own friends who aren’t from my school didn’t even believe I got all A’s in SPM fml. People who didn’t know me well liked me like how you’d like a kid wtf and treated me with affection. I never minded this honestly but Lipman treated me like a peer.
He forced me to think. He challenged me and asked me questions and made me consider possibilities I’d never did before. He told me I could write an honors thesis in my sophomore year and I pffft-ed him. I did end up writing an honors thesis in my senior year.
Lipman is a big part of what I miss about Mount Holyoke.
Lipman, if you’re reading this, Happy Teacher’s Day!!!
(actually no I hope you’re not reading this because I’ve already written numerous blog posts about you and I think I might be bordering on creepy now FML)
But Happy Teacher’s Day to you and to every other teacher who’s inspired students the way you have 🙂
Comments (20)
Beautiful post Audrey.
I hope all foreign students can have similar wonderful experiences at our colleges and universities here in the U.S.
Great post, Audrey ! 😀
This is really sweet.
This is so cute 🙂 You are so wonderful and seem like a lovely person , yay for doing honours thesis , rebuilding the whole basement Asian stereotype <3 ! Stay cue and fluffy ^^
*cute T.T
I used to have one primary school teacher that made a big impact in my studies until high school (cz he was my tuition teacher after I left primary). He stood up for me when other teachers were not in favor of me. And ive proved them all wrong cz i did well in studies right up till SPM. He was like a fren that I could even share problems to. But everything change after he is married like 3 years ago! I din even know he was getting married until someone told me!! Called him few times trying to get info or him telling me abt the wedding but to no avail he acted so so COLD that I gave up in keeping in touch with him 🙁 I duno if im gona greet him even if I saw him on the streets.
i actually do remember you writing about your love for lipman before! *old reader. but aside from that, i think it’s sweet that you invited him for your wedding. i am sure he would have wanted to go if he didn’t have prior engagements.
is your professor married ah? i think he’s quite cute leh! smart guys turn me on and he can speak mandarin also which is even better cos that means he can communicate with my parents and ask for my hand wtf hahahhaha
I smiled when I read this. I can relate to this post so much (except there is no wedding hahaha so forever alone…).
The pure sense of achievement I felt when my lecturer said I was bright and intelligent was… indescribable. Whenever I felt bad about myself, I try to remember that one of the best political science theorist in the world said I was clever… and I give myself a big kick and try to face things anew.
His course was undoubtedly one of the most difficult and intensive course in polsci, and he made it good. It was never dry, made me think, questioned how I perceived, first with my course, then as a university student and ultimately how I relate to the bigger scheme of things. It was life changing and truly a privilege to have met him.
I read your post and it makes me happy. I hope all these wonderful teachers will continue to inspire many others. They might never find out how much they have changed someone else’s life but the trails have indeed been left.
p.s. I used to joke with my mates that he can brain sex me anytime… Of course I was joking (he is a mature gentleman in his 60s I think), but due to my poker face, they were quite aghast *snickers*
That’s cool that santa claus can speak mandarin..haha. yeah, u can do anything, even a wife that berjimat cermat is not a problem to u. =P *read tim’s blog, and made a conclusion of it wtf*
inspirational teachers are hard to come by! 😀
Hello Audrey
i had a piano teacher who scolds me to death when i don’t practice… she was my favorite teacher… because i know she does that because she wants me to do great in piano. 🙂
Great post! You were so lucky to meet him! Teachers are so important in out lives!
Thank you Audrey. This is a wonderful post indeed.
i also had this lecturer i revered (but probably hovering on the edge of being crazily obsessed) so so much while studying hahaha *embarassed** but he didn’t called me remarkable and i think he don’t remembered me also =( *very hurt* but he inspired me so much too!!! could totally relate to this post hee… Happy Weekend Audrey (=
eric: with professors like lipman, of course!
debbz: thanks!
ash: thank you 🙂
krystal: haha what is the basement asian stereotype? i’ve never heard of it
ladylike: why after married then change wan? maybe he had some problems himself 🙁
linlin: hahahaha ya i wish he coulda made it T_T
strawberry: he’s a grandfather WTF so ya i suspect he’s married wtf
ivry: ooo congratulations! ya the feeling of achievement of impressing someone you’re so in awe of is indescribable :3
lynn: hahahaha
windy: definitely!
lipman: don’t bluff hahaha
meryl: awwww 😉
olga: i know! dozens of other students worshipped him too i think hahaha
jonathan lipman: ZOMG PROFESSOR IS THIS REALLY YOU DON’T PLAY WITH MY HEART. i kinda wish this was a prank so you wouldn’t have to see this shallow side of me T___T
huey: hahaha i’m sure he did! did you talk to him a lot?
i unashamedly and unbashedly always tried to talk to him (ah-hahahaha) but he always too busy or i’ll be drowned by the others more clever ppl lol!!! thanks for your nice reply hee… (=
Yay for Professor Lipman!!!
The best professor ever =)
This was a great post! I’m still waiting for my that kind of encouragement. It really does mean the WORLD when your professor says something like that to you.
I’m curious as to what your honors thesis was on??
Best!
Ann