::A Geek in Korea::

I was sitting around with Yoshi before I had to go to work. Due to how our schedules work out, my wife was in transit when I got a call from a stranger. I dutifully answered the phone, expecting it to be either be an advertisement, or a wrong number. I was mistaken! It was a caller, asking for me, no less! She even used to polite “teacher” suffix for my name.

First thought: Someone from work was calling me because I had forgotten something like a meeting or my classes had been changed without me being told. We are doing evaluations and grading for the past few months, so something might have slipped my mind.

No, this wasn’t about my current job. This woman went on to explain that I used to teach her daughter at my first school which is nearly six years ago! This woman said, “Oh, my daughter loved your class.” I have no memory of students that drop out of my classes from last month, let alone a single child in a school of a few hundred from five years ago.

It seems that a woman I last ran into a few years ago that had a student in one of my kindergarten classes at another school had passed on my phone number to this complete stranger. She claims I’ve met her before, and that since I’ve taught her daughter I must remember her. I don’t have a clue who she might be.

Anyway, after she showered me with praise, she quickly proposed a series of classes that would be for her daughter later in the evening. My schedule is completely packed with legel evening classes at a school, and I don’t just arrange things with strangers that “know someone I used to know”.  She wanted classes for a speech contest for her daughter. I’ve coached a few students and made tapes as favors for friends that usually have positive results for the people involved, but this is “big time favor country”, not “called by stranger” land.

I was getting the wiggins from the creepy false praise. Eventually I pulled a move worthy of a superstar, I told them to contact my “manager” AKA, my wife, to see if there was something worth discussing. It was more of a “polite way to get off the phone without saying ‘No’ directly”. This is a skill I’ve learned while navigating the Korean rules of etiquette that used to infuriate me. Now I’m using it to deal with mothers that used to do the same thing to me. The tables have turned.

Anyway, I gave a quick rundown to the wife about the situation, and she called me back to report that she felt the same way. When asked to describe me to make sure I had met her before, the woman told my wife I was “Australian, Handsome, and Homesick.” No, maybe, and never that I recall.

My wife dealt with the the lady and basically explained that the class wasn’t going to be possible. I was getting messages begging for my time. It’s not often someone calls and offers money that you turn down, but she was that forceful about it that made it seem very “strings attached”. My wife managed to get across that I wasn’t interested far better than I could.

I don’t know what kind of impression I make on people when I teach. People seem to think they remember me five years after I taught their students, and that I’m worth hassling into a class I’m not interested in teaching. It’s kind of flattering, but scary at the same time.

I don’t like old student’s mothers handing out my phone number to people I don’t know. It’s also a testament to how interconnected the English community is in the city. One bad recommendation along the way can wreck contacts made through the grapevine, even if it’s unwanted. I’ll just do my job the best I can and try to steer clear of the people that think can win me over with false praise and lies.