Yesterday after I finished teaching customer relations and map reading 
to my group of prospective taxi drivers, a small Bengali man, who had 
been sitting front row center and applying himself to my lessons with 
smiling assiduity made a point of shaking my hand and complimenting me 
on my teaching at the end of the day.  Not so unusual, Bengali's, I have 
found, are very respectful of education and educators.  In general they 
are a delight to have in the classroom and on some rare occasions they 
have wanted me to pose in photos with them.  Today the subject was Rules 
and Regs and the same man was front row center smiling pleasantly all 
day, always very serious about note taking and doing the in class 
exercises.  At the end of class today, once again he came up to me and 
complimented me on my teaching style and expressed again and again how 
pleased he was to have had me as a teacher.  Again I thanked him.  After 
answering some other questions he came up to me again, and again the 
handshake and the compliments and thank yous.  As I continued to pack up 
my things back at the 'desk' at the front of the room, once again he 
comes over and shakes my hand, again so pleased to have had me as a 
teacher.  So again smiles all around.  Now, he suddenly drops to the 
floor and starts putting his hands on my Nike's, as I step back he 
kneels in front of me more formally and performs some form of 
genuflection that involved kissing his own fingertips, pressing them on 
the toes of my shoes and then to his own forehead several times.  Talk 
about your gob-smacked! I was simply astonished.  Then he stands back 
up, yet another smiley handshake and he quickly moves to exit the room. 
  All I could do was to give him a sort of goofy, exaggerated thumbs up. 
  Dunno what to think about that one.  Won't be teaching him tomorrow, 
which is good, not sure I want to know what comes next.

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Great story, Jim - always fun to hear your stories, I really miss the 
blog.  :-)

Jim

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Jim Charter wrote:
>  Dunno what to think about that one.  Won't be teaching him tomorrow, 
> which is good, not sure I want to know what comes next.

sad to think like this, but I hope not a bomb.

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nemesis wrote:
> Jim Charter wrote:
>>  Dunno what to think about that one.  Won't be teaching him tomorrow, 
>> which is good, not sure I want to know what comes next.
> 
> sad to think like this, but I hope not a bomb.
Mmmm nah, Bengali's seem to want to westernize.  Almost every one I have 
met is studying Accounting.

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Jim Charter wrote:
> nemesis wrote:
>> Jim Charter wrote:
>>>  Dunno what to think about that one.  Won't be teaching him tomorrow, 
>>> which is good, not sure I want to know what comes next.
>>
>> sad to think like this, but I hope not a bomb.
> Mmmm nah, Bengali's seem to want to westernize.  Almost every one I have 
> met is studying Accounting.

The guy who would explode the airplane studied in a high-class western 
University.

of course, I'm not saying he's a terrorist, but the thought comes to 
mind, doesn't it?  I think terrorists are cold-blooded though, not this 
warmth...

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nemesis wrote:
> Jim Charter wrote:
>> nemesis wrote:
>>> Jim Charter wrote:
>>>>  Dunno what to think about that one.  Won't be teaching him 
>>>> tomorrow, which is good, not sure I want to know what comes next.
>>>
>>> sad to think like this, but I hope not a bomb.
>> Mmmm nah, Bengali's seem to want to westernize.  Almost every one I 
>> have met is studying Accounting.
> 
> The guy who would explode the airplane studied in a high-class western 
> University.
> 
> of course, I'm not saying he's a terrorist, but the thought comes to 
> mind, doesn't it?  

Well yeah, but basically I am immersed in it.  But more in my face is 
just the general ruthlessness of many of these guys, which they take out 
on their customers by gouging them, not with bombs.  I am actually more 
suspicious of one of my fellow instructors, born in the US, of Pakistani 
heritage, who is often with lines about how much he hates it here 
relative to Pakistan, how he is only here for the money.



I think terrorists are cold-blooded though, not this
> warmth...

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