the secret

The big "secret" that I mentioned on facebook a week ago is something you all know very well - I can speak Chinese! Because the students are NOT allowed to speak Chinese in English class and because they are a sneaky group, who like to slip in a Chinese word here and there just to test me, I told them that I don't speak Chinese. Of course, the students are skeptical and my incoherent answers just add to their confusion. Oh, it's so much fun!

Anyway, my school had a Parent Teacher Conference last weekend and it was interesting to meet some of the parents. During each one-on-one meeting, I discovered some startling things about some of my students. The most surprising thing was that one of my students is the youngest brother of this guy who graduated from my high school two years before I did. What are the chances of that happening? No wonder that student looked familiar when I first met him. The mom was super supportive and excited that I am an alumnus from the same high school her other two sons went to.

Now, the reason why the cat was almost let out of the bag was because my student's mom obviously knows that I can speak Chinese. I mean, I didn't tell her directly but I sort of knew her oldest son and most of the people who went to my high school can speak Chinese. It's not a big deal if all my students knew, but I know they'd just start getting lazy and take the easy way out by using Chinese instead of English to talk to me, which defeats the purpose of practicing and learning English! So, I emailed the mom and told her to please keep everything a secret. 16 hours later, she emailed me back saying she's glad I didn't tell the students that I could speak Chinese and to please keep this a secret for as long as possible. She didn't want her son to know either. Interesting. Did I mention she's really supportive? Yeah. It would've been perfect if only she kept my yearbook pictures a secret from her son as well. I threatened told him nicely to never ever bring any of the yearbooks to school.

For now, my secret is safe with... this parent, my supervisor, and some of my colleagues.