What Is Up With People?
Workday - 8:15am-2:15pm
Strange things happened today. I thought of a number of stories I wanted to write about in this entry, and I couldn't tie them all together. They were all weird events, however, and so I figured I'd just list them.
First of all, I began my day by nearly being hit by a car. Always a good way to start one's morning! I was crossing (with the light), and he was approaching the red and turning right, and made no attempt to stop whatsoever. We were about an inch apart when we "met". He almost went through without ever seeing me, but then we finally made eye contact as my face was nearly pressed against the driver's side window. I saw him mouth "oh, sorry", but he still didn't stop as he was saying it! I lifted my arms up at him in a "what the hell are you doing?" gesture, but that's it. When I told my students the story, later, they were surprised I didn't react more fiercely. I told them, being in the school neighbourhood and all, I wasn't going to cause a scene (not that I'm ever someone to cause a scene). The person driving the car could very likely be a student's parent, and that would be a bad situation.
In second and third period, my math classes wrote their tests. As I figured, they were too long. Most students still seemed to finish in time, however. When third period began, I watched a student take out three (THREE) calculators.
I said to her, "wow! Three calculators?? The test isn't that hard!"
She then took out the rest of her things and laid them out in front of her, saying "yep! I have three calculators, three pencils, and three erasers!"
Indeed, she did.
My first thought was, hmm OCD? The three pencils made sense, as they weren't mechanical and the lead could have broken. I don't think I'll ever figure out why she needed the other things in multiples. I assume she's just trying to be quirky.
I also have two, very beginner ESL students in this math class. They're so beginner that I don't think they understand a word I say, even when I speak in monosyllables. Actually, one guy seems to react well enough when I say a word and point to what I mean (e.g., "book" and then "me", and then he realized he should give me his book). That student even knows enough English to say "yes" or "huh?" in response to whatever I say. The second guy, on the other hand, obviously knows zero English. The light is off no matter what I say to him. I have no idea how either of them are going to pass this math class, when more than half of the questions involve lengthy word problems. I tried to tell them they should use (Chinese-English) dictionaries to help them, but they can't understand me! The solution is usually to use another kid in the class as a translator.
Of course, when I said to my wise-asses, "can someone please tell him that he should use a dictionary?" the kid sitting next to him looked straight at him and said "you should use a dictionary!".
Duh.
I don't even know if the two of them speak Mandarin or Cantonese, because most kids in the school only speak one or the other (and thus can't translate to just anyone). Oh well. I'll look into this problem next week, perhaps.
After the tests were finished, my day was over. I hung around another hour, though, and did some work. On the bus home, I was unfortunate enough to glance past a passenger just as he was horking into a tissue. I almost lost my lunch right there on the bus for having seen that. I really don't understand the compulsion to spit.
...but it gets worse. After he finished this expectoration, he placed the tissue onto the floor of the bus! Ugh! Not a few minutes later, he repeated the exact same process. Luckily, I managed to avoid watching him spit this time, but I did see him place the second tissue on the floor.
*shudder*
Strange things happened today. I thought of a number of stories I wanted to write about in this entry, and I couldn't tie them all together. They were all weird events, however, and so I figured I'd just list them.
First of all, I began my day by nearly being hit by a car. Always a good way to start one's morning! I was crossing (with the light), and he was approaching the red and turning right, and made no attempt to stop whatsoever. We were about an inch apart when we "met". He almost went through without ever seeing me, but then we finally made eye contact as my face was nearly pressed against the driver's side window. I saw him mouth "oh, sorry", but he still didn't stop as he was saying it! I lifted my arms up at him in a "what the hell are you doing?" gesture, but that's it. When I told my students the story, later, they were surprised I didn't react more fiercely. I told them, being in the school neighbourhood and all, I wasn't going to cause a scene (not that I'm ever someone to cause a scene). The person driving the car could very likely be a student's parent, and that would be a bad situation.
In second and third period, my math classes wrote their tests. As I figured, they were too long. Most students still seemed to finish in time, however. When third period began, I watched a student take out three (THREE) calculators.
I said to her, "wow! Three calculators?? The test isn't that hard!"
She then took out the rest of her things and laid them out in front of her, saying "yep! I have three calculators, three pencils, and three erasers!"
Indeed, she did.
My first thought was, hmm OCD? The three pencils made sense, as they weren't mechanical and the lead could have broken. I don't think I'll ever figure out why she needed the other things in multiples. I assume she's just trying to be quirky.
I also have two, very beginner ESL students in this math class. They're so beginner that I don't think they understand a word I say, even when I speak in monosyllables. Actually, one guy seems to react well enough when I say a word and point to what I mean (e.g., "book" and then "me", and then he realized he should give me his book). That student even knows enough English to say "yes" or "huh?" in response to whatever I say. The second guy, on the other hand, obviously knows zero English. The light is off no matter what I say to him. I have no idea how either of them are going to pass this math class, when more than half of the questions involve lengthy word problems. I tried to tell them they should use (Chinese-English) dictionaries to help them, but they can't understand me! The solution is usually to use another kid in the class as a translator.
Of course, when I said to my wise-asses, "can someone please tell him that he should use a dictionary?" the kid sitting next to him looked straight at him and said "you should use a dictionary!".
Duh.
I don't even know if the two of them speak Mandarin or Cantonese, because most kids in the school only speak one or the other (and thus can't translate to just anyone). Oh well. I'll look into this problem next week, perhaps.
After the tests were finished, my day was over. I hung around another hour, though, and did some work. On the bus home, I was unfortunate enough to glance past a passenger just as he was horking into a tissue. I almost lost my lunch right there on the bus for having seen that. I really don't understand the compulsion to spit.
...but it gets worse. After he finished this expectoration, he placed the tissue onto the floor of the bus! Ugh! Not a few minutes later, he repeated the exact same process. Luckily, I managed to avoid watching him spit this time, but I did see him place the second tissue on the floor.
*shudder*
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home