There are no stupid questions

[rynling]

I know - I know!! - it's in poor taste to make fun of your students, but I have to share this.

I had a kid come up to me after class yesterday afternoon to ask me if there's any place on campus where he can borrow books so that he doesn't have to buy them. The money isn't an issue, he assured me. Rather, he just thinks it's wasteful to buy books that he probably won't take back with him when he goes home over the summer. Not the books for my class, of course, which he's already bought and can't wait to read. But books in general.

I was like, Do you mean: The library??????

I dug a bit deeper, and it turns out that this kid is a bonafide Crazy Rich Asian who is not, in fact, familiar with the concept of "a library." Can you imagine.

Putting that aside, I think I'm going to schedule some time next week to teach my students how to set up a VPN and pirate books. Honestly that's probably a much more useful topic to know about than the Meiji period.

Comments

[runicmagitek]

You deserve a fucking raise for answering that. I don't think I could've, strictly because I'd be on the floor wheezing and dying from laughter. Or just sitting there like the surprised pikachu meme come to life.

God damn. No stupid questions, indeed. HOWEVER.

[rynling]

It was even more surreal because this child (who is from Hong Kong) has the poshest British accent I have ever heard in real life.

"Is there a place on campus where I can borrow books?"