You know, I keep talking about this coffee house I regularly patronize as if it were my office. Well, I suppose thats true enough, especially after what I witnessed yesterday afternoon as I was so enthusiastically attempting to think of a subject interesting enough to fill the pages of the notebook in front of me. I think Ive mentioned that within a few hundred yards of this place are two ESL schools, and, judging from their size, both are apparently popular with language students the world over.

Well, there I was, sipping on my second tall drip caf, when in walked what appeared to be a small (8 students) ESL class accompanied by a male and a female instructor. I was sort of excited to see such a spectacle a Friday outing, as it were if only because this was something in which I used to engage my own classes in the past. The students of this particular group entered rather quietly, I must say: two Islamic ladies in traditional dress, a few Koreans chatting to each other, and a few others of varied (Asian) nationalities. They all purchased their drinks and retired to a large table at which the teachers had placed adequate chairs for all. I motioned and smiled to the male teacher who smiled back and confirmed that his group was taking a much-needed coffee break. Then he sat at the table with his colleague (evidently his assistant) and he sat and he sat addressing her a few times BUT NEVER ONCE DID HE SAY A WORD TO ANY OF THE STUDENTS IN THE GROUP! HONEST, not one bloody word from EITHER of them during the (roughly) one hour they all spent at the coffee house. I couldnt believe it! Never had I witnessed such a case of intentional quiescence as flagrant as this not even from my son when he was 5 years old and trying to be spiteful! These are ESL instructors from a fairly expensive school at that an institution which, in fact, demands sterling credentials and mountains of experience as hiring requisites. With this in mind, I am not only shocked, but quite confused. Is it that we ESL instructors give only that for which we are paid and refuse to render anything over and beyond? Please tell me its not all as cut and dried as that. Please reassure me that our general discontentment with both ESL management and our wages is not destroying our prime purpose in being associated with this profession in the first place: the cause of universal communication and subsequent understanding. Then again perhaps, after all said and done, ESL is only for the intellectually-driven, as opposed to the financially-inspired. Apparently I was blessed (or damned?) to be a part of the former group. Oh, well thats life, I reckon.

The Arrogant One