Life lessons from the story
As employees, we carry out our duties to the best of our ability. But then, our personal background, with our likes and dislikes, influences the way in which we do our work. For example, the receptionist in the story waives the consultation fee for the narrator because she thinks Wamma is from her tribe. Wamma expects a fridge in the Ugandan classroom for children to keep their snacks because her school in Australia had a fridge. The maths teacher hangs Wamma's bag on the wall and throws out another bag because he wants to favour Wamma, who is a new student in the class.
The social science teacher prefers to focus on African culture in her teaching because she feels proud about her heritage. In contrast, the English teacher interacts with her students rather unprofessionally, showing anger and beating children. She does not care to explain her behaviour to the child, even though it is her wrong assumption that caused her to beat the child.
On the whole, the student who is preparing to go to Australia for higher studies throws light on the working styles of the various people, including merchants and police officers. What is significant in the story is the close connection between mother tongue and personal identity, that is, self-esteem. The story brings out the importance of learning, understanding and using one's mother tongue for the cultivation of positive self-esteem in individuals, which will go a long way in enhancing people's workplace awareness.
Many of us believe that our mother tongue may not be as useful as our second or foreign language, like English and German, for personal and professional development. But then the story clearly underscores that it is our mother tongue that becomes the passport to other tongues like English. One can say that without the passport of the mother tongue no port can be reached in life. Otherwise, we may have to live the life of a legal alien like the narrator.
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