Saturday Briefs

Not self-evident after all

It had been driving me crazy.  All the Chinese would ask me if Tony was a boy or a girl.  I had thought it was bloody self-evident that he was a boy.  What were these people smoking while reading their little red books? I thought.

That was I thought, till today.  This morning, I see a 27 month old child that I could have sworn was a boy.  Her hair was cut short and so she looked like a boy, no question.  But she was a girl; and I will now point to all that my child is a boy (xiao erzi).

Strange Student

At my school, the students are generally a good lot.  But every once in a while, like last night, you get a student who you would like to shoot.  This student was strange the minute he walked in.  After calling out his name four times, I walked to the class.   This one student walked into the class and had to look at the list of names to see if he was in the class.  That sort of thing gets my goat, as they say.  The students are supposed to be practicing their listening.  Students who continually read rather than listen are dunderheads that need to be taken down a notch.  And this student then couldn't tell me what he did  --  a strange thing from someone who had been in the school for nearly two months.  I wondered if he was standing in for a friend -- he seemed so not-with-it.  He then gave me an answer to a question that was one-worded, and insolent to boot.  He had a torturous time the rest of the class and it was torture for me to see him there.  The other students strangely ignored him.  I have spent the last 24 hours wondering about him.  I assume that he was one of those summer students who just did not want to be there.