這件事情很久了，但是
有時候想起這一對表姊弟，嘴角還是忍不住會
上揚
某天，有一位高一女生跟我說
「老師，我對我表弟是真愛。」
我有點疑惑，上課你突然跟我說這幹嘛？
“ I truly love my cousin.”
I blinked.
Wait… what? Why are we talking about this—now, in the middle of class?
“Uh… what's going on? That was kind of random,” I asked, a little confused.
Maybe she was tired and just wanted to chat a bit.
Then she launched into this:
“You know my favorite beef noodle shop? I never tell anyone about it. If people ask, I always recommend a different place. I don't want my go-to spot getting crowded—I don't want to wait in line for my own noodles.”
At this point, I was just nodding along, thinking,
“Okay… interesting life strategy… but what's the connection here?”
She continued,
“Well, that new eighth grader—XXX. Yeah, he's my cousin.”
Ahhh, now it makes sense. That kid's your cousin.
Honestly, in this job, it's pretty common—parents love signing up siblings.
If the older one likes the class, the younger one usually gets enrolled too. Business as usual.
But then I asked,
“Okay… so what does that have to do with true love?”
She looked me dead in the eye and said,
“Your class is impossible to schedule.
During our school festival, I had to ask for time off from your class. When I tried to book a make-up session, there were zero openings. I had to wait for someone else to cancel just to squeeze in.
And your company has this ridiculous policy—if you don't make it up within a month, it's your loss. Do you realize it took me three months to finally get one makeup class with you?!”
Whew. She was venting hard.
我覺得這個眼神，有點像是當初學生看我的眼神
Clearly, this scheduling thing had been building up for a while.
I tried to explain:
“I actually asked the company to find another teacher to help cover some of my classes, but they said it's really hard to find reliable instructors these days.”
Then I gently suggested,
“Maybe your parents could hire a private tutor? Or try a different cram school?”
She rolled her eyes and said,
“I've tried, like, over ten private tutors. Either their level wasn't good enough, or they were good but had zero patience and would snap at me. I've been to group classes too—they just cram a bunch of vocab into your head, which is useless if you don't even understand the basics. Total waste of time and money!”
“…Oh.”
Honestly, I didn't know what to say at that point. Since when did casual student conversations become this intense?
“So,” I asked again,
“what does any of this have to do with you loving your cousin?”
And she goes,
“Think about it. I still introduced my cousin to your class—
even though that means there's now one more person competing with me for your time.
If that's not true love, I don't know what is.
I'm way too good to him.”
It gave me a glimpse into how students really see things.
And honestly? I kinda love that perspective.
課中
「怎麼了？突然跟我說這個。」我眨了眨眼道，想說他今天是不是累了，
想跟我聊一下天，休息會。
「就你知道的，我喜歡吃的牛肉麵店，我都不會跟別人說。都介紹別人去吃別家牛肉麵店，免得之後自己愛吃的店排隊排不到。」他開始敘說
其實我想跟他說，我不知道啊！你之前又沒跟我說，我哪知道
「所以？牛肉麵店和你表弟啥關係」我搞不太懂之間的關聯性
「就那個XXX，你新來的學生，是我表弟。」他說道
喔！原來那國二生是你表弟。也對啦！我們這行大多是做熟客，從國中帶到高中是常態
哥哥補的不錯，家長就會把弟弟也塞進來。正常操作。
「那跟真愛有什麼關係？」我疑惑地問他
「就老師你的課也太難排了，我校慶去學校得跟你這邊請假，想補個課你都沒位置，還要等別人請假我才能補課，而且你們公司還很扯，說啥一個月內要排補課否則視同學生自己放棄補課權益。你想想我上次排到你的補課整整等了三個月ㄟ！」他突然話變得很多，可見對補課排不到怨念深重
「這......」
「我有叫公司請新老師，這樣還能幫我代個課啥的。但公司就是說請不到，說什麼靠普的老師不好請」我嘗試解釋道
「要不你叫你家長給你請個家教？或是去其他補習班？」我弱弱地建議道
「我之前請了十幾個家教有，我都不滿意，很多水平不行，水平行的又沒耐心會兇我。團班我也去過，就是補充一大堆單字，根本沒啥用，我也跟不上。去那邊就是浪費時間浪費錢！」他有點忿忿不平地說著
「喔！」我有點尷尬的喔了一聲，這真的好難接話，現在跟學生聊個天這麼難的嗎？
「所以這到底跟你表弟是真愛有啥關係？」
「就是我居然介紹我表弟來這裡，這不是真愛是啥？這樣多了一個人跟我搶位置耶！我真是對他太好了」
那天的對話，我覺得真的挺特別的，就紀錄下來
原來學生的視角是這樣的啊！
