For a while, a long time ago, I was a teacher at the University of Bucharest, at the Faculty of Foreign Languages.
I remember one day I went to the student enquiry centre – it was a room where it was unpleasant to go when we were students. The attitude was arrogant, inappropriate, as if they hated those who studied college.
I knocked lightly, I entered, and the boss there, famous among the students, since my time, threw me a ‘Miss, didn’t you noticed the working hours ended?’ She changed 180 degrees when I told her I was teaching French.
But I was very intrigued.
That attitude of superiority towards students was not an isolated case. I also saw it when I was a teacher at a college in Bucharest, where again I received comments like ‘Miss, can’t you see it’s exam time, what are you doing in the hallway?’ (When we were approaching each other, they even apologized, but I was thinking about how they actually address the children). I thought it was a good part if I’m confused with pupils or students, so I ignored those situations.
I have seen this attitude of superiority in recent years; less often, it is true and manifested in other forms. Whether it’s comments like ‘how you should do it, ‘how to dress’, ‘how not to dress’; whether it’s about not respecting some meetings where people leave me staring at me at the sun :); whether various people were trying to show me that I know much better everything, from my company to French, to what I need and what I don’t have at home; I’m still amazed at how easily some people sometimes treat me like I’m 10 years old.
It’s a kind of entitlement: I’m older and I have every right; I am a boss and I can do anything; I am a client and I am allowed anything.
I’ve been to Asia many times, I’ve worked with people there. Politeness and gratitude defined all my interactions with people from Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, India. I was crouched in front of them when they thanked me for everything. In the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic environment, however, when politeness and gratitude and respect were shared, some did not catch on. They left with arms full of superiority, arrogance, there was no room for others.