Korean Children are Animals and Other Miscommunications

I had just made a kid cry when Smith, my new boss, pulled me into the side classroom. Really, the crying wasn't my fault: sometimes Justin gets upset if I get disappointed in him. He said some bad things about another student, and I asked him why he needs to say bad things about the other students all the time, to which his reply was tears.

When Smith sat me down, I ran through all the possible things I could be in trouble for. The list is short but significant. I wasn't terribly worried, however, as none of my offenses are what I'd consider death-penalty worthy.

"We got a complaint from a mother about you," he told me in a very straight forward matter. I appreciated that he didn't dance around it, but I was still taken aback. Aside from little issues over my teaching style or method of punishment, I haven't had any complaints (that I know of). "She said that you called the children 'animals' in the elevator the other day."

I was floored. Sure, I might say a child is acting like a monkey or something to that effect in a joking manner, but I certainly won't ever call them animals.

"She must have misunderstood me," I said. "I might have been joking with the kids."

Turns out that the mother barely spoke any English. She jumped to the conclusion that I was calling the kids animals because I must have said 'animal' and 'children' in the same conversation somewhere. That's one hell of a lot of information to fill in--and one big conclusion to jump to.

I apologized to Smith and said I'd be more careful about what I said, but truthfully, how can I be more careful when people fill in information in my conversations without fully understanding them? Best not to talk around the mothers, I suppose.

In any case, I felt bad. It's not a pleasant feeling to have someone thing that you think their kid is an animal. I wrote a letter apologizing and asked Mrs. Gu, the head of the school, to relay the message to the mother. Mrs. Gu said it wouldn't be necessary. She figured that the whole incident was a miscommunication and said as much to the mother (or so she told me. It's hard to be sure). I feel a little better having at least tried to do something.

Still, I'd prefer people not assume I'm that type of guy.

R