The Second Day of being a Teacher, How Annoying!!!

Today was my second day to teach in the primary school. It was a wonderful morning and it should be a good day for me too, so I walked to the school light-heartedly.

Initially, everything was going well. However, it was not till I entered 6S class, which is the top class among the other Year 6 classes - 6R, 6J, 6K, and 6C. I was offended and irritated by a student due to the pronunciation of a word - women.

I was reading out the examples of some plural nouns for the students and when I read and pronounced women as "wɪmən", the class immediately corrected my pronunciation and told me that the word should be pronounced as "wimin" instead of "wɪmən". I was surprised as I have never heard anyone pronouncing it in that way! As a result, I insisted that my pronunciation was correct, but they also insisted that their pronunciation, which was taught by their English teacher(the teacher I am currently taking over) was correct. During the fight, I accidentally saw a boy sticking his tongue out at me! How could he be so ridiculously rude! Nonetheless, I ignored it and I could not imagine I could tolerate such an act from a kid to a senior or a teacher like me.

Then, I tried to find out who taught them to pronounce in that way and they uttered the name of the teacher I am taking over. In order not to lose my face, I said, "you ask your teacher to come and see me!" At the same time, I felt bad once the sentence came out from my mouth... To my surprise, there was a reply that totally made me speechless, "辛老师已经大学毕业了，你连大学都还没有进啊！(Madame Sin has already graduated from the university, but you still haven't entered it yet!)” It was the boy again! I could not believe that reply could come from a kid! So, the kids nowadays are like that? Dare to answer back and be rude to a teacher? Still, I could tolerate his annoying act again!

After the class, I mentioned this embarassing event to my colleagues. I also apologised to the husband of Madame Xin,who is a teacher as well, for talking in that manner. Besides, I asked some senior teachers about the pronunciation of "women". They also told me that they initially pronounced it as wɪmən but it was not until Mr. Lim(a retired primary school English teacher) taught them to pronounce it as wimin during a course, but they also told me that Mr. Lim said that both the pronunciations could be used. Anyway, the teachers were very shocked when they heard that the boy was really ridiculous for acting in such a way! Then, a counsellor met him, counselled him and asked him to offer me his apology.

Before he could do anything, I still had one more lesson in his class at 1 pm and I decided to give him a really good lesson then. When I was in the class, after telling them that both the pronunciations could be used, I glared at the boy for a short moment and reprimanded him indirectly by talking to the whole class in a firm tone, “刚才，有某某人讲辛老师已经大学毕业，而我还连大学都还没有进。我想问一下，你们是谁？我虽然还没进大学，可是我起码已经读到中学，也是差不多要进大学了。我大学毕业之后，我就会跟你们的辛老师一样，也是大学生！你们又是谁？你们连小学都还没有毕业，你们有什么资格批评人！你们连奶都还没有戒，还不能自立，你们有什么资格！你们最好是把你们那瞧不起人的态度跟我丢到远远的，因为你们没有资格！（Just now someone said that Madame Sin has already graduated from the university and I still haven't entered one yet. I want to ask, who are you? Although I am still waiting to enter a university, I have at least the secondary school qualification and I am about to further my study to the institution of higher learning. After I have graduated, I would be like your Madame Sin, I will also be a graduate! Then, who are you? You still haven't completed your primary school and you are trying to criticise people! You can't even be independent so you don't qualify to criticise people! Get rid of your attitude for being cocky because you don't qualify!)” The class was silent. And the boy seemed feeling guilty...

After the class, it was time to go home, while I was tidying up the stuffs on my table in the teachers' room, the boy went in and said sorry to me. I was not sure whether he was sincere or acting, I just entertained him by telling him that I accepted his apology. Then, I told him he could leave.