He had the nerve to act surprised.

I told this student–let’s call him Akuma–last class that he was going to his speech first today. He responded with this usual performance of turning to the rest of the class and going “Okay! Okay! Okay!” to everything I said.

Then, today, I started to explain the next lesson (for various complicated reasons the lessons are overlapping) and several students were talking. I stopped, passed out the assignment, and told the loudest student (not Akuma this time) that he was second. I also told the class that they could refuse to do their speeches exactly zero times. “If I call you name and you say ‘no’, you get a zero and have to do your speech later anyway.”

After a 10 minute practice, I told Akuma it was time to do his speech. He said “Okay!” I repeated what I’d said and he said “No. I’m not ready.” I said “Then you get a zero.” He said “Okay!” and I called the second student.

At that point, someone translated what I’d said for Akuma. Suddenly it wasn’t “okay!” But I ignored him.

The guy who went second did a good job, though, and then others started lining up.

Akuma hasn’t done his speech yet, and the longer he puts it off the less time he has to do part two. It will be interesting to see if that’s okay or not.