Driven to drink

I write this (2am Korean time) still hungover from last nights drink, where I got home after 5am. I needed a drink or two after the day I'd had at work and in particular one student who really effected my day. One boy cheated on his test. No big deal I suppose and I certainly didn't make a big scene out of it. I didn't shout at him, criticise him or make him look foolish in front of the other students. I just said that I have to discuss it with my partner teacher and see what happens, because there was suspicious writing on his desk.


Predictably he denied it, though far too quickly for my liking because he seemed to know what I was looking at before I even suggested that the writing on his desk may be cheating. Before the test was over the water works and amateur dramatics were well in action. I'm talking straight out bawling - for nearly thirty minutes. By the way, he has previous on this front and thankfully I am now immune to this trick. Whether he was crying because he would be punished, because he was found out OR more likely that he thought this would make me forgive the cheating I'm still not so sure. Because of the theatrics the class was wrecked. The student at one point glared at me venomously as if he would stab me given the chance. This was just the worst thing he could have done because that sealed it for me - there was no chance he was going to get away with it from there on.


He continued his denial with my Korean partner teacher even when presented with all the damning evidence (there was no way anybody else could have put the writing on his desk before his class). I am told that during a later class he admitted cheating. Things like this shouldn't effect me but they sometimes do. It's not the cheating that bothered me, it's the lying to me and the denial and accusing me of lying about his cheating and of course there will be no apology from him to me. I am just the foreign 'teacher', someone that doesn't count out here. Anyway, I enjoyed my drinks if not today's hangover.