The wash room
CHINA | Wednesday, 14 May 2008 | Views [127]
About five minutes into class, one of my more...attention deficit students randomly stood up.
"Yes, Allen?"
"I want to go wash room."
"Allen we just started class! Sit down!"
Scattered and nervous laughter followed. I've never told anyone they couldn't go to the bathroom. And he seemed particularly desperate with a pack of tissues in his hand.
For the next 30 minutes or so, all he would say was, "I want to go to wash room." Whethere I asked him a question or not, he laid with his head on his desk, repeating the grammatically incorrect phrase.
Finally, I'd had enough.
"Allen, if you don't shut up, you'll never use the bathroom again!"
Then, I quickly covered my mouth and turned around. I realized how ridiculous that was and couldn't help but laugh at myself. When I thought I'd composed myself, I turned back around to wide-eyed Chinese students. But I hadn't.
Never one to supress a giggle, I started laughing out loud. And the students responded with the same action. I tried again, but eventually just let it out. It took me a few minutes to get a hold of myself.
But after that, I had every single persons' attention. I'm not sure if they were waiting to see if I was going to loose my shit again. Or if they just were amazed that I'd broken. Or if they were that interested in what I was talking about. But all of their almond, black eyes were glued to my round, hazel ones.
(I did eventually let him go to the bathroom. But first, I took a vote. "How many people think I should let Allen go?" No one (not even Allen) raised their hands. "How many people think he should have taken care of this before class?" A few students raised their hands (including Allen; I'm not sure he understood the question). I told him it wasn't my fault. His classmates had voted.)
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