"THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR ENGLISH"

I was sitting in the classroom, conveniently ignoring the unwelcome presence of my peers when the teacher literally kicked my brain out of the room through the keyhole by saying: there's something wrong with your English. It wasn't even meant for me, as I had always been excused from taking justifiable statements of this kind personally, but that particular one undermined everything I had believed about myself. It ironed out my brain creases. (To know how much it hurt I suggest you consider the resemblance between iron and irony. Ouch.)

Taking into consideration the doer of the action and the circumstances, I shouldn't have minded. So sharp a tongue it could scrape up your self-respect, conflated with the class displaying commendable mental clumsiness.. Later the selfsame day we were told by another teacher that we knew so little about English that we could just as well study Mongol and wouldn't be able to spot the difference. Again, it was a venial deed. But when someone says something's wrong with my English, they mean something's wrong with me (let alone the accompanying gatecrashing image of having my chest pricked repeatedly by means of a scornful index finger.) I may not have been the exact addressee of either of these statements, but being there was enough to make my flesh creep.