3 Immigrants: Keng

Mine was the first presentation of the semester and when I finished, my lecturer commented that I had “a startling grasp of the English Language. And after only one week in Australia.”

The rest of the Australian students laughed and he patted me on the back like an amusing pet that had done good.

But he was a funny, innovative lecturer. One who had actually been in the world, had made his mark, and came back to make better business professionals by first making them better students.

He was not the condescending racist fuck I’d complained about to my friends. He was a man of good humour who dressed badly and loved his half-Malaysian children.

His wife’s name is Keng and she’s from Penang.
Despite having lived in Melbourne for 10 years, her accent remains like mine.

Keng: Did he give you his ‘your English is pretty good’ speech yet?
Me: First day in class.
Keng: Yeah, he did that to me too.