You're Late!

I am so aggravated right now.

I got on the bus at about the normal time, but there was some road construction so it took a little longer than normal. It should have been no problem because I walked into school with 3 minutes to grab my book and marker before the bell rang. However, Grace and Jennifer were standing at the secretary's desk (I guess paying for the next month) and Grace had her too annoyingly perky sing-song "Good morning!" Yeah, yeah, hello. Then as I walked into the teachers' room she called out after me, "You're late!" No I'm not, class hasn't started yet. And you're late 70% of the time; maybe I need to start pointing that out to you!

I got my book, pen, marker, CD player, and filled up my water bottle, took some deep breaths as I told myself that I can't kill my students, and walked into class.

Right away the "Good morning!" came again. STOP IT. I haven't been awake that long and anyone who talks to me with that tone of voice in the morning usually gets their head bitten off (ask my Dad). I am not a morning person. I have no tolerance of people who are. THEN she comments on my choice of clothes: "Are they training pants?" If you mean "exercise pants," then sure. They're comfortable, they're not hot, can't I dress down from time to time?! They're certainly not "training pants."

Then Grace felt the need to comment on my being "late" again. I tried to restrain myself as I answered in a tone of voice that would be considered rude in the West, "No, I'm not late. I'm right on time" (as I point to my watch). She continued. "But usual is you are early in the school, isn't that right?" Well, since you're never early, you wouldn't know, now would you? "I was here very late last night getting ready for the test so I'm tired." Grace: "Test? What test?" SESSION TEST FOR THE NORMAL STUDENTS, DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT.

We did the very minimum of small talk and then I steered them into the book. A new student came in a couple of minutes late. Her pronunciation is nearly perfect--she was an English literature major and her husband used to teach high school English. Grace and Jennifer were being silly: "I'm nervous," "Oh no, I'm scared." Are you adults or children? Oh wait, I can answer that question for you, forget I asked. Grace, as she does with every new student, had to make a big deal of pointing out that she was the oldest student in the class.

At the end of class I gave them homework to find a news article about cloning in Korea. The two old students complained that it was too difficult, and I was changing the class because of the new student. Uh, no! Yes this chapter is more difficult than some of the others, but I've given them this assignment before, always on a Thursday so they have time to work on it until Monday. I was glad when class was finished.