Thursday, January 14, 2010

I have AM grumpiness.

It has been a pretty shitty week, all around.
On Monday, my best class, or at least my favourite class, was doing a unit in a book called "True Stories," which deals with news stories that have been configured so the average ESL student can read them and discuss them and answer various scripted questions about them.
The story in question was about a young boy (three years old) who liked to ride in taxis, and got separated from his family for a short time.
There was a picture of the boy included with the story, and the reaction of my students to the picture is what is getting me down.
The young boy was black, and to my students he was a "gorilla.'
To me, he looked like a cute little child, but the reaction of my students was... disheartening.
They seemed so enthusiastic about their description of him that I could not come up with the words to describe how I felt about it. I was so demoralized I could not counter their so obvious racism.
These are kids that I like because of their enthusiasm in class, and their inquisitiveness, and their willingness to speak out. I could not even begin to explain what was wrong about their thoughts to them.
I have been trying to decide if I want to come back to this school for a third year. I was pretty much decided in favour, despite my folks' desire to have me back in Canada for good. It is a good school, and I have been happy with the students, curriculum, hours, and so forth.
My director broached the subject with me on Tuesday, and when I asked her if she wanted me back, she said it might be a good idea for the students to experience somebody new for a while.
Oh boy.
And then on Wednesday, I had another car accident. I've posted about this before, about how selfish and ignorant Korean drivers are.
When I pull into my neighbourhood, I have to deal with a two-lane road squeezing into one lane, with the added bonus of drivers waiting to turn off into their con-apt complexes.
Some drivers try (as I have said) to pull at least one car ahead (damn the torpedoes) in order to get home that much earlier.
I had one bitch pull up on my right side and then try to squeeze in ahead of me. Well, Homey don't play that, so I pulled in front of her. In the process, I clipped her side mirror with my own. This was a major, but major accident (according to her) and she pulled alongside to see if we could stop and agree on terms.
I had one objection to that.
I used one finger to express my objection.
Well, nothing really came of the incident, but it was the third on day three, so it sort of put its stamp on the week.
Eurgh.
I am drinking many Cass Red's right now in the hopes that I will be able to relax and get some sleep later on.

4 comments:

  1. Holy shit. Sorry man. That trumps anything I have been going through.

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  2. Stig,

    Hang in there.

    Child or no child, the innocence doesn't give the right to make fun of anything 'different'.

    Hopefully weekend should be fun. What say?

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  3. Thanx to Flint, I have a cigar, and am enjoying C1 with Cass. Mmmmmmmmmmm

    ReplyDelete