It’s best to admit it when you don’t know something—otherwise, you might just end up embarrassing yourself even more in front of everyone. Reddit user u/CLAGE929 shared a story with the r/MaliciousCompliance online community about an African exchange student in Germany.
Their professor was unwilling to admit that he had difficulty reading English, so he demanded that the student turn in all assignments either in German or Latin. Well, the professor soon realized his mistake after a surprise twist. Scroll down for the full story and a lesson about the importance of humility!
When you don’t admit that you don’t know something, you risk embarrassing yourself even more
Image credits: sergign (not the actual photo)
One internet users shared how their professor made a fool of himself when dealing with an exchange student
Image credits: drazenphoto (not the actual photo)
Image credits: CLAGE929
Germany is a popular destination for international students
Unwilling to let everyone know about his poor English skills, the professor forbade the exchange student from writing in English. Instead, the student maliciously complied with the educator’s demands. He wrote an assignment in perfect Latin.
Ironically, the professor wasn’t able to read it and had to turn to a coworker for help. The university later ended up modifying its guidelines, saying that assignments in Latin were only acceptable for students studying Latin.
Redditor u/CLAGE929’s story resonated with a lot of internet users. At the time of writing, their story had 8.8k upvotes. As one reader put it, some of the best r/MaliciousCompliance stories are the ones where authority figures and organizations are forced to change their rules as a result.
Erudera explains that there are two types of international students in Germany. The first are international students (Bildungsauslaender) while the second are resident international students (Bildungsinlaender). The former finished their education up to university abroad while the latter did so while living in Germany.
There are 440.6k international students studying in Germany, with 91k of them being residents. Most of these students come to the country from China and India and the majority of them—a jaw-dropping 145.7k—study engineering.
The number of people coming to Germany to study from abroad continues to grow. In the period between 2018 and 2022, enrollment from abroad grew by 17.6%.
Others see you as more down-to-earth when you admit to having made a mistake
With so many young people seeking education in the country, you’d think that all educators would understand the need to make them all feel welcome. The professor in the OP’s story could have avoided the embarrassing scenario by simply admitting that his English wasn’t that great.
Sure, it would have been embarrassing, but here’s the thing: showing mild embarrassment and admitting to one’s mistakes can actually end up boosting your reputation. When you do that, you’re essentially showing that you’re human, capable of making mistakes and owning up to them.
Your students are likely to see the educator as being more down-to-earth than before. And in a line of work that’s all about communicating important information, it can only help to foster these meaningful relationships that are based on more than just authority.
The obvious way to make students from abroad feel welcome at your university is to not try to make them fail on purpose. It’s important to set your ego aside here. Meanwhile, the institution itself could organize some events to introduce the students to the university’s culture, programs, and campus. Dinners and guided tours are just the tip of the iceberg.
On top of that, it can make the prospect of moving abroad feel less daunting if people get paired up with some of the local students whom they can turn to if they have any questions.
Of course, it would make total sense to learn the language of the country you’re moving to for higher education. However, life isn’t all neat and tidy that way. For instance, someone who’s focused on the sciences or math might not have had the time or talent for foreign languages. As such, it’s only fair that universities provide language support to help strengthen foreign students’ skills. Then again, some of them might surprise you with their fluent Latin!
The author shared a bit more information in the comments of their post
Many readers were impressed by what happened. Here’s their take on the situation
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