Last week, upon observing my Tuesday writing class, the directors of Oberlin Shansi, Deb and Carl, told me how sorry they feel for me. "You have a tough bunch of students, Sarah, the worst group we've seen in a long time. Good for you for putting up with them."
Today, the same class nearly drove me to tears. As I explained yet again the rules on plagiarism and machine translation (many students still don't get the point, that they have to write original journal entries, not verbatum translations off of a computer), one particularly insolent [fill-in-the-blank] student, Naoki, grinned wickedly and gave me the finger. That's right, he flicked me off. (Please note: I do not teach at a middle school, I teach at a university).
Furious, I told him to leave the classroom. He refused. "Please write in your journals now" I told the rest of the class and ordered him outside with me. When asked to explain his behaviour Naoki replied, "I'm just in a bad mood today." Admittedly, giving someone the finger doesn't carry as much weight in Japan as it does elsewhere in the world; many people here don't even know the exact meaning of "flipping the bird." Still, I was madder than I've ever been in my short teaching career and I made sure he knew it...
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