Mack Goes Murphy

Well I Definitely Know how to Make an Entrance

So my job today consisted of shadowing the other English teachers and answering the questions that students asked me about myself and Canada.  Turns out they think that kangaroos live in Canada and that chocolate is pretty much the greatest food ever.  Their favourite question turned out to be “how old are you” and in an attempt to answer indirectly, I told them that I was older than twenty but younger than thirty.  It’s important to keep my age a secret to some degree because in this Confucian society, age equals respect.  The class seemed to accept this answer and I feel that I’ve built a good rapport with them already, especially the teenage girls.  Unfortunately, it may have been a little too bond building too fast.  One of the girls had a green cast on her leg and I tried to show the class my own scar from breaking my ankle.  The class thought that breaking my ankle while wrestling in the snow was exciting (I personally thought that the green cast girl’s story of falling down the stairs was even more so) but when I raised my leg up on the desk to show them I ended up showing off more than I expected.  All of a sudden I heard “Teacher, your dress!” and realized that I had flashed the female side of the class.  Thank goodness these classes fall into the same social set up as a junior high dance and the male side of the class were tucked to the left so they missed out on the whole show.  Now the question is whether I can make it past that memorable slip up and have them remember me for something a little more appropriate.  Not to mention that my female co-worker was also sitting right in front of me and I’m sure that my first day of an ESL teacher shall always remain the day of Mackenzie’s panty-slip-up in her mind.  Well that’s my first day in a nut shell.  If this is any indicator, this should be an interesting year…