Today was the sort of day alpha and beta blockers were invented for.
As per the plan I examined just over half of the students in today’s two classes. When I finished Kevin popped in for a chat. Shortly thereafter a chap came in, an ugly looking brute, and he started to talk to us but in Chinese. Upon being informed we don’t speak the lingo he disappeared and returned with a boy I had just tested, who tried to translate but was only partially successful and so departed to find a more fluent student. At this point Kevin disappeared to test his own students elsewhere.
Translator number two fared better and I managed to glean that the chap wanted to be tested on his English. He had left the school some years earlier to join the army and had never had a final English exam, ergo he was unable to complete his graduation from here. He has never been a student of mine and as it transpired, Kevin’s either. You may understand my confusion? On further three-way questioning I found out that his teacher had told him to come to me to get a pass mark and had been assured (in not so many words) that it was a mere formality.
1. The teacher has not approached me.
2. The student can’t speak English!!!!
Whilst I have sympathy for the chap’s predicament I pointed out that as a teacher I could not in all conscience issue an exam pass mark in English to someone who doesn’t speak a word of it! I suggested he return to his teacher and get them to come and speak to me to explain what exactly was going on. The boy/man was only here for the day but I had no option other than to stand firm. I now wonder if the other teacher will in fact approach me or if indeed the lad will receive a pass with “my” blessing via someone’s intervention on the school computer system. There is always something to stun me here.
As I was leaving Ollivier was passing in his car and he stopped and gave me our passports and what I thought were our copies of the contracts. As I was late to meet a girl who was coming with me when I took Pepsi out, on my return I simply put them in a cupboard and left to collect the student. En route I received a message from Kevin’s assistant. You may remember I predicted there would be a problem with the passports when the time came?
Well there is.
At midnight tomorrow we will both be illegal aliens because far from the FAO getting off of her bone idle arse and getting new resident permits, WE have to go to the police station tomorrow to do it. Not only that but she expects us to pay 400y each and claim it back later. Every mortal thing that woman is involved in ends up being a last minute crisis. The depths her incompetence plumb appear to be limitless and it beggars belief that she is still retained in a position for which she is manifestly incapable.
I was of course irate, as was Kevin, but at least I hadn’t got exams scheduled for tomorrow. I had to either cancel my morning class or my afternoon classes in order to go and because Kevin is testing in the morning but free in the afternoon I have cancelled 4 lessons after lunch - all due to the waste of oxygen supposed to be looking after us. We have resolved that should our expenses and flight reimbursements not appear before about the 23rd of this month we will constantly harangue and if that doesn’t work we will camp outside her office. This one person destroys all the good things about this place and even though people are aware they do nothing.
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