Wednesday, March 14, 2007
bad cop
People just never cease to amaze me, and furthermore, Korean machismo is just about the strangest thing ever. Those of you who watch Lost know what I'm talking about. Remember when they were telling the whole back story of Sun and how she was going to leave her husband, and how he was so proud, and then remember how upset he was when he realized she spoke English and he didn't? It's just that Koreans are so mild-mannered and nice, but inside there, the men are SO proud. It's not a loud and bawdy pride like that of the Latino, the Italian or the Redneck. And I think that's why it's so weird.
We have this Korean couple floating around the ESL system. They've been to four sites now trying to take classes, and they've been told the same thing at all four sites. The husband can take classes if he wants, but the wife is too advanced. Her scores were off the charts. They were told this at the first site, but they decided to try to get around it by going to another site. I don't remember why they didn't make it at that site, but at some point, Dan told them they could go to Church of Christ, and the wife could get into their level 7 class (the only site with more than six levels). Unfortunately, they waited two weeks before trying that, and level 7 was closed. I happened to be there the day they went and talked to Dan about it all. I think they were kind of shocked that he was there because he was the one who tested them at White Plains to begin with. They were in the next room, so they didn't see me, but I heard it all, and Dan told me the rest of the story after they left.
So the next week, the husband shows up here, and I figured out who he was because he told me he'd been to two other sites, but he was the one who was allowed to take classes, so I let him in. The week after that, though, he brought his wife. I told them that since they'd come together, I'd let them both in, but that I was going to call and get her test scores from the first site. I hoped that this would dissuade them from trying to sneak her in, but they showed up again today.
The next 20 minutes passed with them either (a) trying to convince me to let the wife into the class, (b) trying to convince me to let her take the test again (because maybe her score would miraculously go down...can't imagine how that would happen), or (c) staring me down with alternating pitiful, upset, incredulous and angry looks. I didn't feel bad AT ALL about being very firm in my decision to kick her out. I knew that they'd heard all of this before. They weren't fooling anybody.
So then I called Shelley at Church of Christ to tell her about it, and come to find out that she had made an appointment with this woman to let her take the test that would put her in the level 7 class (the class that was supposed to be full), and the woman had called and cancelled on her. Well apparently the husband's only gripe about the whole thing is that he doesn't think his wife's English is better than his, so I think that they only want to be at the same site if they're in the same class because the husband doesn't want the wife to be in a higher level.
Pitiful. Just pitiful. So probably neither of them will come back now. We'll see.
We have this Korean couple floating around the ESL system. They've been to four sites now trying to take classes, and they've been told the same thing at all four sites. The husband can take classes if he wants, but the wife is too advanced. Her scores were off the charts. They were told this at the first site, but they decided to try to get around it by going to another site. I don't remember why they didn't make it at that site, but at some point, Dan told them they could go to Church of Christ, and the wife could get into their level 7 class (the only site with more than six levels). Unfortunately, they waited two weeks before trying that, and level 7 was closed. I happened to be there the day they went and talked to Dan about it all. I think they were kind of shocked that he was there because he was the one who tested them at White Plains to begin with. They were in the next room, so they didn't see me, but I heard it all, and Dan told me the rest of the story after they left.
So the next week, the husband shows up here, and I figured out who he was because he told me he'd been to two other sites, but he was the one who was allowed to take classes, so I let him in. The week after that, though, he brought his wife. I told them that since they'd come together, I'd let them both in, but that I was going to call and get her test scores from the first site. I hoped that this would dissuade them from trying to sneak her in, but they showed up again today.
The next 20 minutes passed with them either (a) trying to convince me to let the wife into the class, (b) trying to convince me to let her take the test again (because maybe her score would miraculously go down...can't imagine how that would happen), or (c) staring me down with alternating pitiful, upset, incredulous and angry looks. I didn't feel bad AT ALL about being very firm in my decision to kick her out. I knew that they'd heard all of this before. They weren't fooling anybody.
So then I called Shelley at Church of Christ to tell her about it, and come to find out that she had made an appointment with this woman to let her take the test that would put her in the level 7 class (the class that was supposed to be full), and the woman had called and cancelled on her. Well apparently the husband's only gripe about the whole thing is that he doesn't think his wife's English is better than his, so I think that they only want to be at the same site if they're in the same class because the husband doesn't want the wife to be in a higher level.
Pitiful. Just pitiful. So probably neither of them will come back now. We'll see.
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