Nathan and Haroun, Tuesday afternoon
Sep. 7th, 2004 03:49 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsNathan stops by to see how the Arabic class that-was-his-and-is-now-Haroun's went. There are friendly insults discussions of teaching methods and the problems of the alphabet and how animals can be So Very Helpful in the marking process. Really.
Between Mandarin and Hindi, Nathan made a point of swinging by the Arabic classroom, half out of curiosity, half out of a lingering sense of duty. He smiled at the straggling couple of students - Haroun's now, not his - who were just leaving the room, and then stopped in the doorway, regarding their teacher. "Well," he said dryly, glad he had practiced his 'I'm okay, really' facade in the mirror a few times before coming down for classes today. "You look largely intact. So did they. A good start."
Haroun looked up at Nathan. "There's no blood on the floor. Yet." he said with a groan. "I don't know what you were teaching them, but that was just _abysmal_."
Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Why, thank you. I'm really glad I stopped in to see how it went now."
"I don't know if I'm cut out for the touchy-feely teaching thing." he said with a deep sigh. "Is it wrong that I've had _one class_ and I already want to smack some of these little rotters?"
"Depending on how that first class went," Nathan said, moving into the classroom. So long as Haroun wasn't actually going to go on a tirade about the deficiencies in their Arabic education up to this point, he could be magnanimous, too. "Were they actually giving you lip?"
"NONE of them want to sit down, shut up, and pay attention. No, they'd rather wander around, talk to each other while I'm trying to talk, and I thought I saw Clarice passing a fucking _note_!" he said with gritted teeth. "Doesn't anyone want to _work_ anymore?"
"Have you tried sitting there and staring at them when they do that?" Haroun blinked. "No, I'm serious. Works perfectly well. Sit there, look real pissed, and they'll shut up." A faint smile tugged at Nathan's lips. "Just remember, you're scarier than them and they know it."
"I have not yet _begun_ to be scary." he said with a feral grin. "But that's good advice, I'll have to remember that. To be charitable, they are a pretty good bunch of kids. Soft, but we'll work on that. By the end of the term they'll at least have a beginner's grip on God's tongue." he said with a grin.
"We should sit in on each other's classes once or twice," Nathan suggested after a moment. "Compare teaching methods, since we're both doing languages. We might both pick up something useful."
Haroun nodded. "Could be useful. I get the feeling your classroom is a lot more relaxed than mine." he said. "Judging by your students, they seem to be expecting group hugs and a rousing singalong."
"I prefer to let them do most of the work, yeah. Just call me lazy." He snorted softly. "I object to the group hugs comment, though. There was never any hugging."
"Could have fooled me." Haroun groused. "Ahh, well, things will get better as they get to know me and I get to know them. They'd better. I wonder if I can get them into traditional dress ..." he said with an evil grin. "I think half my class would look stunning in burqas."
"If you want to be jumped in the hall and beaten soundly by your female students, go right ahead," Nathan bantered. "Trust me, Haroun. They're not actually as soft as they look. Especially the girls."
"We'll see." Haroun said. "I was mostly joking about the burqas anyway. Can't stand those things - girls are made to be looked at and appreciated for who and what they are." he said with a grin. "I am faithful, but I'm not one of the howling desert fanatics."
He really was a good guy, Nathan thought, unable to help another slight smile. A bit of a lunatic, but that just meant he would fit in here just fine. "Good to know," he said with a perfectly straight face. "Are you going to keep using that textbook I had, with the Koran readings? I forgot to ask..."
Haroun nodded. "For this term, I'll use it. After it's all said and done, I'll re-evaluate. They seem to expect it, and I was inclined to be generous." he grinned. "I've got some pop-culture stuff - some music, some magazines, that sort of thing - that I'm going to have them take a crack at. Once they learn some basic vocabulary, and the ever-loving problems with the alphabet."
"Ah, yes. The alphabet." Nathan sighed. "Similar problems with the Mandarin. It does add an extra level of challenge."
"You could say that. It also drives me insane. Yes, it's right-to-left. Yes, it flows. Yes, it has weird little dots and lines everywhere. But it's NOT THAT HARD!" Haroun vented. "They'll learn eventually. So - how did your classes go?" he asked, changing the subject.
"I've only had Mandarin so far. I know all those kids - this is the reading course continuing on from the summer - so there weren't any surprises," Nathan said, then looked at his watch. "Hindi in another ten minutes... the two others start tomorrow. Should be interesting. I'm used to the language courses now. These history/political science ones, for all that I designed them myself, may be more challenging."
"Didn't that little Spanish tosser sign up for your polisci course?" asked Haroun. "Don't envy you with that one."
"Manuel signed up for international relations, yes," Nathan said, his smile wobbling a little. "We'll see how it goes. I like to think I can manage to be objective, previous experience or not."
"I've got Flight with Paul tomorrow. Now _that_ class is going to be _fun_!" he said with a truly evil grin. "It's all gonna be about finding the limits."
"Paul mentioned back a few weeks ago that the two of you might find it useful to have me create a telekinetic obstacle course at some point," Nathan said, the memory coming back to mind abruptly. "I'm still game for that, if you two decide it's a good idea."
Haroun nodded. "It is, but not for a few weeks yet. We need to know what they are capable of before we start in on pushing their limits. I'm going to assume that I never saw their dossiers and evaluate them independently."
"Probably a good idea." Nathan smiled wryly. "Very glad that all of my powers-related training responsibilities are individual. I don't think I could handle a whole class."
"The rest of us will thank you." Nathan glanced at his watch again, then shook his head. "I should go," he said. "Haven't really gotten a feel for the Hindi classroom yet and I don't want to be running in late." He looked up, then offered Haroun a tentative smile. "I should be up for lifting large flying objects by the end of the week if you need me."
"Thanks. We'll see where you stand officially by - say, Thursday? Most of the new parts are in, and all the belly tiles have been replaced. Shiro was a big help with that." he said. "Landing struts are in, I think the engine is due in Any Day Now."
"Thursday sounds good. I've got another round of tests that afternoon - I'll drop you an email or something afterwards." He turned towards the door, but paused, unable to help a grin. "And hey, if the frustration gets too much, just bring your marking over to my place. I can show you how Bella marks. It's very entertaining."
Haroun stopped to consider that, and then grinned. "I was pondering letting Allah decide. Or perhaps Amanda's lizard. Stack the papers under the cage - the first one to receive droppings gets the highest marks."
"Much more satisfying to see Bella jumping up and down on a paper she's taken particular dislike to, screaming 'F! Bad! F!'" Nathan said with a chuckle.
"I don't know - lizard droppings hold their own appeal." he laughed. "Go on, get to your class. I'll catch up with you later."
Between Mandarin and Hindi, Nathan made a point of swinging by the Arabic classroom, half out of curiosity, half out of a lingering sense of duty. He smiled at the straggling couple of students - Haroun's now, not his - who were just leaving the room, and then stopped in the doorway, regarding their teacher. "Well," he said dryly, glad he had practiced his 'I'm okay, really' facade in the mirror a few times before coming down for classes today. "You look largely intact. So did they. A good start."
Haroun looked up at Nathan. "There's no blood on the floor. Yet." he said with a groan. "I don't know what you were teaching them, but that was just _abysmal_."
Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Why, thank you. I'm really glad I stopped in to see how it went now."
"I don't know if I'm cut out for the touchy-feely teaching thing." he said with a deep sigh. "Is it wrong that I've had _one class_ and I already want to smack some of these little rotters?"
"Depending on how that first class went," Nathan said, moving into the classroom. So long as Haroun wasn't actually going to go on a tirade about the deficiencies in their Arabic education up to this point, he could be magnanimous, too. "Were they actually giving you lip?"
"NONE of them want to sit down, shut up, and pay attention. No, they'd rather wander around, talk to each other while I'm trying to talk, and I thought I saw Clarice passing a fucking _note_!" he said with gritted teeth. "Doesn't anyone want to _work_ anymore?"
"Have you tried sitting there and staring at them when they do that?" Haroun blinked. "No, I'm serious. Works perfectly well. Sit there, look real pissed, and they'll shut up." A faint smile tugged at Nathan's lips. "Just remember, you're scarier than them and they know it."
"I have not yet _begun_ to be scary." he said with a feral grin. "But that's good advice, I'll have to remember that. To be charitable, they are a pretty good bunch of kids. Soft, but we'll work on that. By the end of the term they'll at least have a beginner's grip on God's tongue." he said with a grin.
"We should sit in on each other's classes once or twice," Nathan suggested after a moment. "Compare teaching methods, since we're both doing languages. We might both pick up something useful."
Haroun nodded. "Could be useful. I get the feeling your classroom is a lot more relaxed than mine." he said. "Judging by your students, they seem to be expecting group hugs and a rousing singalong."
"I prefer to let them do most of the work, yeah. Just call me lazy." He snorted softly. "I object to the group hugs comment, though. There was never any hugging."
"Could have fooled me." Haroun groused. "Ahh, well, things will get better as they get to know me and I get to know them. They'd better. I wonder if I can get them into traditional dress ..." he said with an evil grin. "I think half my class would look stunning in burqas."
"If you want to be jumped in the hall and beaten soundly by your female students, go right ahead," Nathan bantered. "Trust me, Haroun. They're not actually as soft as they look. Especially the girls."
"We'll see." Haroun said. "I was mostly joking about the burqas anyway. Can't stand those things - girls are made to be looked at and appreciated for who and what they are." he said with a grin. "I am faithful, but I'm not one of the howling desert fanatics."
He really was a good guy, Nathan thought, unable to help another slight smile. A bit of a lunatic, but that just meant he would fit in here just fine. "Good to know," he said with a perfectly straight face. "Are you going to keep using that textbook I had, with the Koran readings? I forgot to ask..."
Haroun nodded. "For this term, I'll use it. After it's all said and done, I'll re-evaluate. They seem to expect it, and I was inclined to be generous." he grinned. "I've got some pop-culture stuff - some music, some magazines, that sort of thing - that I'm going to have them take a crack at. Once they learn some basic vocabulary, and the ever-loving problems with the alphabet."
"Ah, yes. The alphabet." Nathan sighed. "Similar problems with the Mandarin. It does add an extra level of challenge."
"You could say that. It also drives me insane. Yes, it's right-to-left. Yes, it flows. Yes, it has weird little dots and lines everywhere. But it's NOT THAT HARD!" Haroun vented. "They'll learn eventually. So - how did your classes go?" he asked, changing the subject.
"I've only had Mandarin so far. I know all those kids - this is the reading course continuing on from the summer - so there weren't any surprises," Nathan said, then looked at his watch. "Hindi in another ten minutes... the two others start tomorrow. Should be interesting. I'm used to the language courses now. These history/political science ones, for all that I designed them myself, may be more challenging."
"Didn't that little Spanish tosser sign up for your polisci course?" asked Haroun. "Don't envy you with that one."
"Manuel signed up for international relations, yes," Nathan said, his smile wobbling a little. "We'll see how it goes. I like to think I can manage to be objective, previous experience or not."
"I've got Flight with Paul tomorrow. Now _that_ class is going to be _fun_!" he said with a truly evil grin. "It's all gonna be about finding the limits."
"Paul mentioned back a few weeks ago that the two of you might find it useful to have me create a telekinetic obstacle course at some point," Nathan said, the memory coming back to mind abruptly. "I'm still game for that, if you two decide it's a good idea."
Haroun nodded. "It is, but not for a few weeks yet. We need to know what they are capable of before we start in on pushing their limits. I'm going to assume that I never saw their dossiers and evaluate them independently."
"Probably a good idea." Nathan smiled wryly. "Very glad that all of my powers-related training responsibilities are individual. I don't think I could handle a whole class."
"The rest of us will thank you." Nathan glanced at his watch again, then shook his head. "I should go," he said. "Haven't really gotten a feel for the Hindi classroom yet and I don't want to be running in late." He looked up, then offered Haroun a tentative smile. "I should be up for lifting large flying objects by the end of the week if you need me."
"Thanks. We'll see where you stand officially by - say, Thursday? Most of the new parts are in, and all the belly tiles have been replaced. Shiro was a big help with that." he said. "Landing struts are in, I think the engine is due in Any Day Now."
"Thursday sounds good. I've got another round of tests that afternoon - I'll drop you an email or something afterwards." He turned towards the door, but paused, unable to help a grin. "And hey, if the frustration gets too much, just bring your marking over to my place. I can show you how Bella marks. It's very entertaining."
Haroun stopped to consider that, and then grinned. "I was pondering letting Allah decide. Or perhaps Amanda's lizard. Stack the papers under the cage - the first one to receive droppings gets the highest marks."
"Much more satisfying to see Bella jumping up and down on a paper she's taken particular dislike to, screaming 'F! Bad! F!'" Nathan said with a chuckle.
"I don't know - lizard droppings hold their own appeal." he laughed. "Go on, get to your class. I'll catch up with you later."
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Much less upset...
Date: 2004-09-07 03:00 pm (UTC)Redhawk
Re: Much less upset...
Date: 2004-09-07 03:12 pm (UTC)I once had a Japanese teacher who'd let us say anyting as long as it was grammatically correct. we had great fun calling her a hooker.