Imagine the Audacity

Three students approached me on my way to another lesson and started with “we are all ill…” and wanted excused from our fifth pair class (I was heading to my third pair) but used some Russian words and looked at each other and knew they could not explain. I was a tad angered by the “we are all ill…” line and saw that a group of 2nd year translator students were sitting nearby. I called out for one to come and translate. “They have no classes till your period and they want to know if they can go home.” I looked at her incredulously. “Are you kidding me?” I thought. My eyebrows came together and I shook my head no.

After that I went up to my favorite group, getting ready to give them an exam, but just as I was settling in an old man with one student came in and started asking who as in charge and then the girls pointed to me and he suddenly spouted off that he has the room for the pair. I told him that badly spoke Russian and the girls would have to translate. He refused to move though. He ordered my “leader” student to go to the department and find another room and requested a second to get the key for a locked room across the hall. Again, I was aghast. We got moved to another room where I just looked at all their faces and I was ready to explode. “So let me get this straight,” I started, after apologizing for any remarks I would make, explaining that if I didn’t say it, I’d just continue to be angry. “So we had to leave even though there are more of you and even though we had the room because he’s older, right?” They affirmed by shaking their heads. I could not believe that that had happened, but they did not seem surprised at all.

The best part was however that during the break (I have these students back to back) I went over to my room to see if he had gone, but he had not. A student went with me and we asked him if the room would be free next period (as it said in the schedule that it was mine for both classes) and he said that it would be, but now he was busy with a student. There was no one in the room besides him. I later heard my student relate this ridiculousness in Russian to one of her classmates who was in disbelief. While apparently it is normal to have to give up ones classroom for an older person, it is not normal to say that you working with a student when no one else is in the room!