Looks interesting

Submitted by Carole Balcombe (United Kingdom), Sep 22, 2006 at 13:32

A Turk once went to the Prinicipal of the school and accused me of being racist. He was about 45 and the only thing I could think of was that he had asked me a question on the first day .I put him in the direction of an old-timer called Nathalie ( a very pretty French girl of about 25) to help him out. Any hot-blooded European of that age would no doubt have been delighted but I guess he saw it as a slight to his age, male dignity and position. So I guess this might be a Middle Eastern thing not just arab. Quite baffling for us.

Do tell Julia the story about how I inviligilated for TOEFL for those 40 Palestinans The minute the other woman was out of the room they all started cheating and asking me the answers. It was a nightmare. When I tried to stop them and refuse to help they were livid and afterwards said "We thought you were our friend!!"

They had no concept of exam rules at all!! The protest march when they thought I was leaving was great!!

How they laughed at your Morris Minor too!! It was so rude to us but t hey thought it was hilarious a teacher could have such a downmarket car!! They were all a friendly bunch like all the Arabs I taught, so cultural differences never created problems. The Korean on the other hand would stab you in the back and not realise they had upset you ie complain about you to the Director and expect you not to mind....

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