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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/mdlapla on 2024-12-17 10:15:16+00:00.
This happened in Argentina, and, as you probably know, in Argentina we speak spanish.
In spanish, there are quite a few phrases and questions that can mean different things depending on context.
For instance, the question "¿se puede correr?" can mean "can you move?" or "is it allowed to run?". Again, depending on context.
So, when I was in high school, age 13, pipe-smoking, stern-looking, non-nonsense language and literature professor was writing something on the board, green board, white chalk, boring class.
As in any class in any school in any country, I suppose, there are a few "conflictive" students that, usually, sit in the back, pay no attention and are prone to shenanigans. Let's call them BACKERS.
We are trying to copy what professor is writing and he's blocking the view for some of the guys (as we would later learn in physics class, you can't see through solid matter), so one of the guys that are paying attention asks the question to the professor: "profesor, ¿se puede correr?".
You might see where this is going.
He, of course, says, "yes, sure" and moves a little to the other side, still looking at the board and continues writing.
But, for those BACKERS, this gives them an opportunity to stop getting bored, because they aren't paying attention.
So 5 or 6 students started running around the classroom.
TLDR: Professor answers a question that has two meanings because of first meaning, children start doing the second one.
PS: Being a language professor, he acknowledged what happened, laughed a bit, told the BACKERS to sit and continued like nothing happened. He was cool despite the façade.