::A Geek in Korea::

My “socially promoted” student has been bumped up to keep up with his peers. He’s completely oblivious to most forms of logic and coherent thought. For example, today, without irony, when one of his classmates spoke Korean, he shouted, “Hangul mal! HANGUL MAL! (KOREAN! KOREAN!)” to tattle. I just looked at him like he was from another planet.

Him: “Teacher! HE say~HANGUL MAL!!:

Me: “So did you!”

Him: “NO I didn’t! WHEN?” (Also in Korean)

Me: (FACEPALM)

This is typically how conversations with this student goes. You just grab your head and try to shake out the stupid.

The student the socially promoted boy tried to get in trouble has been his rival for the past few weeks. It turns out that the socially promoted boy was in the bathroom, and the rival boy walked into the stall on accident and saw him exposed. The rival had embarrassed the socially promoted boy by saying, “Oh, so you ARE a boy, and all this time I was wrong. How was I supposed to know this was the bathroom you used?”

OH SNAP!

I didn’t know of this rivalry until today when the rival student raised his hand to go to the bathroom. The socially promoted boy evidently saw this as his chance at revenge. I granted the boy permission and the socially promoted boy asked, in Korean, “Big one, or little one?” as his rival was heading towards the door.

The rival was looking aghast, as he didn’t really feel the need to tell the entire class what he was planning to do in the bathroom. Coming to his rescue, I said, “What, do you want to see what he’s going to do? If you do, you can go with him and watch.”

Everyone laughed, and the rival boy left to go to the bathroom alone.

The socially promoted boy tried again when he returned and tried ribbing him again in Korean. “That was a long time in the bathroom? Wow, did you get thirsty and drink some of that bathroom water?”

Harsh.

In Korean, I replied by asking the returning student, “Hey, did you take a picture of your trip to the bathroom? He wants to see if it was big or small. He really wants to see a picture. I think he missed you.”

Score another one for me. The aggressor boy backed down after being laughed at again, and the class got back to business. I’m usually not this mean to students, but this whole class is filled with students that snipe at each other constantly, and the mean streak is can infect you.