It is time for more stories from the classroom/campus. I wanted to keep up with this every week, but I have fallen behind. As a teacher, I sometimes get frustrated when I am marking, or annoyed when the students are loud and disruptive. At the end of the day, however, I make sure to think of the positive aspects of my job, which is the students. That is the idea behind this series. I hope you enjoy it!
You Forgot Your Spoon!!
I ran into some students at the canteen, and they were kind enough to invite me to eat with them. I was in a bit of a hurry, so I went to the shortest line (always chicken rice), grabbed a fork, and sat down.
Student: “Oh, Mr. Taylor – you forgot your spoon! I’ll go get you one”. The student stood up and started to move.
Me: “No, wait! It’s ok. I don’t need a spoon.” The students all look at me funny, and ask, “well, if you don’t have a spoon, how are you going to eat your rice?” After laughing, I replied, “with my fork”.
They insisted that I need a spoon, and argued that it is too hard, and takes too long to eat rice with a fork. One student even compared it to eating soup with a fork. It was amusing.
I Will Always Accept Food
Last week I was starving after my class on dining etiquette. I spent so much time talking about steak dinners, my mouth was salivating. Fortunately, my students are awesome, and a group of them brought me Indian food! It was delicious. So delicious.
Birthday Celebration
Last week I got to celebrate a student’s birthday after class. We ended about 30 minutes early, and I let them stay in the class to eat some cake and hang out for a bit. I kicked them out when they started a small-scale food fight, which involved smearing icing on each others’ faces. Like most Singaporean students, they took a zillion pictures, many of which included yours truly. That reminds me…
Zero to Picture-Ready in 1.2 Seconds
These students love to take pictures. I have never seen anything like it. If you see a group of students sitting around and you walk over with a camera, they will merge together and pose faster than it takes you to turn on the camera.
My favorite is when they take photos in class with their computers. For some reason, they don’t think I notice when they all try to squeeze into a photo during my lesson. Especially when they flash the ‘Asian peace sign’ (most of you know what I am talking about). What do I do? What any respectable teacher would do of course – try to get in the picture! On two different occasions, I have pretended not to notice, and then I quickly run behind the computer and try to get in the photo. I have not yet succeeded.
Don’t worry, it gets better. Students will actually leave class (‘to go to the bathroom’), and take pictures either together or of themselves using the mirror. If you are wondering how I know this…let’s just say I have seen the evidence. If you are a teacher wondering why I did not stop them – (a) I let them go to the bathroom without asking permission and (b) I did not notice this until recently.
The Flying Chicken
This was the highlight of my week.
We took the students to the Alumni House restaurant for a practice assessment on dining etiquette and networking skills. Basically, they eat, make small talk, and try to discuss business deals (we give them a scenario). It is an interesting lesson, but I will save that for another time. On with the story…
While observing one table, I suddenly heard a great deal of commotion and laughter from the table behind me. I went over to see what happened, and I noticed one of my students picking her chicken up from the floor. She told me that she does not know how to cut with her right hand (**see note at the bottom), so instead of cutting into the meat, she just pushed it off the plate instead. Her explanation was so cute and funny, I burst into laughter and had to walk away in order to stop.
That’s all for now. Hopefully, I will have more stories next week!
**Note: In Singapore, people usually eat with a fork and a spoon, which is why this student, and others, have trouble using a knife. Since the students were practicing Western dining etiquette, they had to use their right hand to cut, and their left to hold the meat with the fork. This is OK for most of them. What they really hate is the fact that they have to cut one piece, set the knife down, move the fork to the right hand, and then take a bite. They don’t like it because it slows them down. They just want to scarf it down! The other issue is that they are just not used to cutting. One major difference between meals in Asia and the West is the way meat is served. In Asia, it is almost always diced or shredded, but in the West, we like our big slabs of meat!
Speaking of slowing them down – prior to being served, the students are very loud. In theory, they should be working on their networking and small-talk skills, so I give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are practicing. However, when the food is served, the room falls silent. This is their biggest challenge – making small talk during the meal…
