An English teacher in Kunming asks her student the meaning of “up to you” in Chinese. In an epic translations fail or probably the most genius intentional mistake ever, the student says “上你“. “上你” literally means “up yours” in English.

Normally, this would just be your funny afternoon in class but the teacher was not very pleased. The female teacher, who took the boy’s response too personally, became infuriated and decided to give the boy a good beating.

This may be a shock to most of those who still believe China to be a cruel and backwards country, but physical punishment for students was banned long ago.

The parents of this boy were equally infuriated; complained to to the school board who decided to suspend the teacher. Now other parents aren’t please and want the teacher back.

So those who think China is still old-fashioned, you are not entirely wrong – at least some parents are.

I personally despise teachers who resort to beating a child. If you can’t teach without physical punishment, you probably don’t have the skills to teach.