I had just started primary school. My mum, in all her 'wisdom', taught me a couple of phrases in hopes they would help me if I have any pressing need. One of her advice was to tell the teacher that I had 'high tide' if I needed to go to the toilet.
I can no longer remember the face of the teacher but I recall she was Malay. It was between classes and I went up to her and told her I had 'high tide', hoping she would grant me leave to rush to the toilet. I was already full and needed to go immediately. But she couldn't understand and ask me in a nasty condescending tone "What high tide? What do you want?" "High tide teacher ... *struggling to keep the pee in" "What high tide??! Can you say properly?!"
I must have made an agonising expression as she soon understood I needed to go to the toilet and wave me off. I ran as fast as I could to pee. It was one of the embarrassing moments in my early childhood which I could never shake off. I vaguely recalled that I was angry at mum for teaching me silly phrases. But on hindsight, she was doing the best she could with the limited education she had.
I did promised years later to never fall fault of this with my own children. I'll teach them the proper way of expressing themselves so others can understand them. It's important to save them such unnecessary embarrassment ... which one can still remember 30 odd years later.
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