What makes you nervous?
Being corrected by people who know nothing better makes me too nervous to explain myself.
Especially in life and work.
Being called a hallucinate psycho from people in Plato’s cave, I’ve known better to respect people’s different life backgrounds.
But once people ‘educate’ me while I don’t do anything wrong. I’m often too nervous to explain myself.
Here are two nerve-wrecking moments:
While teaching in a junior high school, one time I said, “I’ll go get it.” A senior colleague acted out dramatically, saying, “Two verbs cannot be put together! Don’t you know this basic grammar rule as an English teacher ?”
The first time I went to the U.S. and dined out with a person who studies there from junior way up to Doctorate degree (including two master’s degrees in the process.)
As we finished the meal, I asked, “Should we get a doggie bag for the leftover?” His eyes were wide open with a weird superior light, criticized, “Gosh! You’re embarrassing me. Are you going to pick up the dog shit outside? Please don’t speak English if you don’t know how to speak it!”
I got nervous both times and didn’t know how to defend myself, even now I still don’t.
