Good and Bad Attention

Good attention:

My co-worker and I grabbed a cab on our way to happy hour Friday evening.

"American?" the driver asked.

"Yep."

"Obama!"

"Oh yes, Obama. Very good. ha ha ha"

"...CLEEEEN-TON!"

"Oh wow! Yes. Clinton. Wow."

"....Leeeeen-con"

"ha ha ha ha. Lincoln. that's great!"

"WA-SHING-DUN!"

My co-worker and I had a laugh.

"What about him?" I asked. "He's not American. He's Australian"

"Australia"

"Yes," co-worker says.

"Breeeees-ban-nuh!"

"Ah yes, Brisbane."

"Mel-low-bour-neh..."

And so on. I love it. It's friendly. It's funny. We get out of the cab ready to have a good time.

Moving on to bad attention:

I'm standing on the train Saturday morning trying to read a magazine and some guy starts prodding his daughter to speak English to me. After a minute or so it becomes clear the kid is shy and doesn't want to, but he persists. So at the next stop, I take a seat

farther away from them. And they sidle up beside me. Guy persists in prodding his daughter, so that now everyone in the car is looking at us. I wouldn't be so opposed if it were an actual opportunity to practice English, but the girl looks like she's about 6 and totally incapable. She was very cute though, she had pigtails and a little peacoat, so I suppose what irked me most was that it seemed more about him making a scene with his adorable daughter than actually having a teaching moment.

And more bad attention:

On my next subway ride of the day a guy in a suit with a wheeled suitcase pops up and asks, "Excuse me, where are you from?"

"America."

"You study here?"

"No, I work."

I move away, because his tone of voice is such that I know it's not just small talk. He re-approaches:

"Excuse me, I have a small language center near here-

"I'm not a teacher."

"Oh okay. That's okay. Bye."

As I type now, I suppose I sound more irritable than is warranted, but after a couple years it gets old. I came home and retold the last story to James - "Who looks for an employee in a subway station?!"

"Well you are the perfect candidate - young, white, female..."

Then I felt a bit more sympathetic to the school owner. It's much tougher to find a white lady teacher. Alas - as the gentleman visiting our fair city this week might say: It ain't me babe.