Mario-Luigi

I am back at my 2nd high school and I will be with them for the whole month of December. I thought they were my favorite but after being from my other JHS who are so serious and focused to the point of looking and acting like military cadets sometimes. However, seeing these boisterous, fun but most of the time really unnecessarily noisy students, (even in class), I have to think again.

They do seem more enthusiastic but to the point of showing no respect to their teacher. I see students standing and going to their friends’ seats even while the teacher is explaining. I am most disturbed because one particular student who is causing distraction and disruption in class is a Filipino. He claims to know English and understand whatever I say but his grammar is wanting and he refuses to do the assigned worksheets. What’s more, he is in cahoots with a student who I think has ADHD and thus need extra help, badly. I so pity those students who have genuine interest in learning and studying but have to endure their noise.

Anyway, in one of my 3rd year class, the boys have somehow developed a call sign for me. We have somehow gone into the habit of them saying “Mario” and me, answering “Luigi” back. It’s innocent enough so I let them, plus, I thought it would break some barriers and encourage them to talk to me more. But perhaps my one-month absence from their class is too much that when I came back, they tried their English on me. After class, the Mario-Luigi Banter followed plus a “shall we dance?” My guess is, they recently watched the movie “Shall we Dance” which is also originally Japanese. We exchanged a few sentences then off I went. However, as I walked away, I heard somebody say the “F_ _ _ Y _ _”. I looked back, not smiling, indicating that I understood what they said. And then, again, which I ignored. The third and fourth time, I thought, I really had to do something because, I was personally offended already. Granting that they are only trying out their English on me, I don’t want them to learn English using curse words besides I refuse to be the recipient of such an offending phrase, which originally was not really offensive. How it became to be such is perhaps a result of man’s abuse , again. So I went back, with my sternest face and somehow the culprit has already been warned. I confronted their leader and asked him who was shouting the phrase. Of course they wouldn’t say. I left their midst with a sharp retort of “If you don’t know the meaning of the word, don’t use it because it is not good”. Whether they understood it or not, I am not sure but perhaps my face and my voice said it all because the following days, the Mario-Luigi banter is gone and they do their “shifting eyes” whenever I meet them in the hallway.