Photo Source: Unsplash by Volodymyr Hryshchenko
What would all of you feel if you received this kind of message:
“I can’t come to your class at 4 pm＂, my student client said.
“I think you could change your class to 4 pm,”I said.
“I suppose you should know it is 4 pm now.”
That was already 4 pm when I texted her but I was not so clear-minded when I typed this because I was still very sleepy at that time but I can’t resist saying Wow!
Mind-blowing!How come a decent Hong Kong educated girl with impressive English competency that she later showed in my class can be so disrespectful like that? I was totally blown away, but in a negative way, once I’d read her reply.
What does “I suppose you should know” mean? I apologize for my absent-mindedness in the text but WHAT does “I suppose you should know” MEAN? Is it something that is suitable to say as a student or any decently-behaving human being to another person who provides you a service? Who on earth does she think she is? Is she my boss? If yes, all I can say is that she is a really stern one but she IS BY NO MEANS my boss or any supervisor of mine! She is nothing but just a customer!
Oh! I’ve suddenly realised that there is no course in any official curriculum educating people on how to be a decent and polite customer.
After attending my class, I realised that her English competency and speaking proficiency were neither low. So, why is there such an unbearable attitude in a superficially presentable girl? I mean, she is dressed so tidily and everything on her just looks and sounds absolutely normal. Without her text, I would never ever in my lifetime imagining her as such a nasty impolite bastard, nor would I even drag her along the closest distance towards the noun “bastard”.
When everybody is indoctrinating their kids about how excellent their academic performance should be, who has ever taught them the appropriate manner they should at least show when talking to a stranger? Perhaps, the explanation lies on the equally unacceptable fact that people nowadays only respect another human being when that person is possessing a higher ranking or social power.
Some Chinese describe this kind of superficial, shallow person as a dog. To me, it is a humiliation to dogs.
When the poor (in terms of the lack of manner) girl texted me, she might not know that I was her English tutor in class. In other words, to my best estimation, she might just think of me, who is replying her on WhatsApp, as “the receptionist answering endless replies from WhatsApp for this poor, small-scale tutorial centre”. Actually, I am both.
What saddens me the most is not merely the awful attitude of the girl when she texted the “receptionist” but the disappointing fact that a well-educated person cannot guarantee the relevant level of civilization in the same person.
To me, civilization is not only about how to use a tool, how to build a house or not even law but the decency of a person.
Still remembering the fury among Hongkongers when there were a flood of Mainlanders visiting Hong Kong as tourists and some of them (Not all though, luckily) just peed on the street. We angrily pointed our fingers (probably the middle one) on them for this uncivilised behaviour publicly witnessed in the public area – an open outdoor street in a city centre. How about us? What about our yelling on the Japanese subways when every Japanese was quiet as if they were in a library? What about some Hong Kong people talked on the phone so loudly on the bus? What about some teenagers laughing so hilariously that made you and me feel the headache immediately and wonder if their parents had done a good job on parenting?
I think that poor girl in my class had no memory of all these.
Being educated is more than being scholastically educated. In fact, education in school is just a very little part of a human being.
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