Thursday, November 11, 2004

Caught out

Early last month I was at the petrol station of just south of the city I live in and they were having problems with their register. While we were waiting for the technician to repair it, I spoke the language of the-country-that-won't-be-named to the lady, making a few jokes to lighten the mood. A minute after that, I head someone said, "Hi MrTeacher." I spun around and saw it was a student from one of my day classes. She had heard the whole thing and leart that I can speak the language of the-country-that-won't-be-named, albeit far from perfectly. She then told her entire class, and now they all know I speak their language.

It was a good charade for the 1 1/2 years it lasted. I still refuse to speak their language to them and also refuse to respond to them on the rare occasion one of them speaks it to me.