Oops! Sorry!

In a middle school class at my hagwon the other night I was doing some review, and one of the sections was about continents/countries, especially names and spellings. So I took the class through each geographical name and, after a pronunciation review, I asked each student to spell one of the names out loud.

Now, this seems simplistic, but, in this class, as in countless other English classes in Korea, there are mixed skill levels. I have some students who can converse in English fairly well, while others can't understand a basic question.

So, "Dan, how do you spell 'Europe'? "

"E-u-r-o-p-e."

"Correct! Jenny, how do you spell . . . "

(Just in case you are wondering, these are not their real names, but then English names are not their real names either, so I guess I am protecting the anonymous. Big of me.)

And then we got around to Erica, a nice girl but quite lacking in English skills.

"Erica, how do you spell 'Taiwan'? "

"T-h . . ."

Should've known . . . "Nooo . . . please spell 'Taiwan'. "

"T-h . . ."

I sighed and said, "No, Erica, please look at page 77, number 8, and spell 'Taiwan'. "

"T-h . . ."

Oh, please! Feeling quite frustrated with the simple task I was asking her to perform, I walked over to point out number 8 on page 77. And, as my index finger reached that place on her book's page, I clearly saw: "8. Thailand"

What! Immediately I rechecked my textbook and then looked at all of the other students' books. Fuck me! (And this is a true "Fuck me!" moment, just like the Family Mart Triplets one.) All of our books had "8. Taiwan" printed in them, but, for some really screwed up reason, Erica's book had "8. Thailand".

Of course, I immediately apologized to her, explained to the class, and apologized to her again.

Who knows? Maybe someone at the publishing company anticipated (or hoped for) such a situation and subverted the printing process. Maybe it's a Taliban conspiracy. I don't know, but, while I hope it never happens again, I think I might be a little more careful in the future . . .