Being Bilingual Poem by Gert Strydom

There is something
in being bilingual
and when I grew up
we were forced
to take both
official languages at school
being English and Afrikaans.

It was another thing
to be taught maths in English,
when your home language is Afrikaans
and where I was taught in Afrikaans
up till then,

at a school that was
supposed to be
double medium

and to really struggle
with unknown terms
and not being able to comprehend

and to this day
I despise Mrs. Ritchie
who thought that I was stupid

and without the teacher caring
or being able
to teach in Afrikaans
I struggled along

but at university
a professor teaching
Algebra and Calculus
really did care
and taught me well.