can I / may I

[loobeylou]

reading one of the threads here reminded me of my primary school teacher, who when the class PITA asked "can I go to the toilet?"

replied "if you are asking whether you CAN, I don't know, you need to see a doctor. If you are asking whether you MAY, the answer is NO"

thought you pedants would like that

Alan Carr has a great routine on this - to the teacher's smart-ass comments, he puts hand up and says 'may I have a mop sir, I've effing p----d meself now?' You have to be there.

Or, as my mum used to say, "You can, if you're physically able."

[cringes] A very sadistic older male primary school teacher once used this to humiliate me in front of the class

My Mum was an English teacher and always corrected our grammar, so I grew up using "may I" if I was requesting permission to do something.

Each class had a "communal" heavy-duty pencil sharpener on the teacher's desk, so I went up and said "may I sharpen my pencil?" - not loud, everyone else was working/chatting etc, but the teacher raised his voice (he was very scary so everyone shut up straight away) and said "Did you hear that children? LemonyAle said 'MAY I sharpen my pencil' not 'CAN I sharpen my pencil'. We all know she CAN, but it's up to me whether she MAY or not".

Cue mass daggers from most of the class - I was a bit of a swot but trying hard to fit in (aged 9 in the next year up), and this just set me back to square one trying to make friends

lol at alan carr

LOL at Alan Carr too Fabio - l'esprit d'escalier isn't in it

Oh god, my children are not allowed to leave the table after dinner unless they ask if they MAY leave. Have I set them up for a lifetime of being mocked and ostracised?

I heart alan carr for what he said about Norman Kember

It's funny. Wrong, but funny.

No LadyGP, you are equipping them with politeness/nuance-skills which actually do still matter. School years rough nevertheless IME.

Fabio - PMSL at Norman Kember [feels guilty]