A New Version Of “The French Mistake”

I work as a teacher in a small college. I am talking to a new student, explaining the front sheets that they need to place at the start of every piece of work they hand in.

Me: “You just need to create a front sheet for the homework.”

The student seems puzzled for a second.

Student: “Sorry, what was that?”

Me: “You need to type up a front sheet for every piece of homework that you hand in.”

Student: *Incredulously* “A front sheet? What’s a front sheet?”

Me: “It’s the procedure. But you can’t hand in your work unless you write one.”

Student: “This is stupid. I refuse to do something so ridiculous!”

Me: “Well, I’m sorry, but your work won’t be marked unless you write one. You can ask [Student’s Special Needs Helper] if you need a template.”

Student: “But why do you need one? It seems arbitrary.”

Me: *Shaking my head* “It’s not arbitrary.”

Student: “It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. We’re not associated with them in any way. We’re in Somerset.”

I am confused by that last comment, but I need to walk away.

As I walk off, I hear the student muttering:

Student: “Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.”

Later that day, I tried to find [Student]’s helper when I heard that [Student] was spending a lot of time at the computer. From what the helper told me, [Student] had already completed her homework but said that she needed time with her template. I found this silly as there were only a few alterations they needed to make to the front sheets; there were boxes already created for them to write in. But this girl had taken several extra minutes typing up her front sheet.

When I came to look, I saw that she had written an extra copy of the homework… in FRENCH. She came from a Thames Valley area and hadn’t understood my thick Somerset accent, so she thought that I was asking for every piece of work that we did to be translated into French.