Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Oct 09/00) - Whether you love, dislike or are shocked by Mick Mallon's classroom antics, one thing holds true -- the man can teach Inuktitut.

Mick Mallon

And after 30 years of doing so, a group of his friends and colleagues honoured his efforts during a ceremony in Aberdeen, Scotland this summer.

Mallon said he was completely surprised by the event particularly because his partner, Alexina Kublu, had managed to secretly plan and execute the award during a dinner held at the university.

"Kublu got up and started to talk about someone who really helped her learn the language. Then she says 'well Mick, I guess you know what's going on.' I hadn't the slightest idea," he said.

"I had about three minutes to recover before I had to say something so I said this is a complete surprise, I had no idea at all and the fact that my wife has been able to concoct such a plot without me knowing anything about it makes me wonder about the stability of my marriage."

Mallon was then presented with a book of photographs and comments collected from various students over the last three decades. Some of the memories, he said, were not all that flattering.

"One person says what they really remember about me most of all was an evening when we were all going out for some dinner and I had black socks with a hole in them and I simply took black marker and painted my skin black. That's what she remembers," he said.

Other notable moments during his still ongoing teaching career included the food his late wife Cynthia used to prepare for the students, the enormous respect he's learned for the language and having his teaching style described as a "raucous house party after 3 a.m."

Mary Wilman, the chair of the Nunavut Social Development Council, was in Scotland for the presentation.

She also worked with Mallon in 1973, a job that left her feeling embarrassed much of the time.

"When I first started teaching with him, I thought he was silly.

"He did things with his body and used his body parts to teach. I was much more shy at that time and I thought how can my husband recommend me to work with a guy like this," said Wilman.

Twenty-seven years later, she said she had come to think of Mallon as fun and an expert linguist.

"Either I've grown up or he's mellowed," she joked. "I've learned to say that's Mick, that's how he is."