KNOW-IT-ALLs vs KNOW-NOTHINGs

I'm still in training with my new job at the travel company call center. It's now coming on to the tail end of the 2nd week of a 5 week classroom session. After that I've got another 4 weeks OJT (on-the-job training) with "live" calls. After that and another 3 months, I'll be a full-fledged travel agent with IATAN credentials. I'll be traveling again but getting the full exposure of the lodging (for free sometimes) at all the best hotels and resorts too! Cool, huh?

It's not a hard task of learning all of the concepts with the job at hand, but there is a lot of information that I have to drill into my head. The theories behind certain aspects I can grasp. It's the actual memorization of airport city codes and state capitals that are another story. Yes -- I'm back to middle-school Civics class, but you try to MEMORIZE 300 separate things backwards and forwards. It ain't easy! I also have to contend with daily reviews and quizzes on the material covered too. The pace is somewhat slow -- we read, we discuss, we read some more. Since I have some travel experience working with the airlines, I was put into an advanced class. (The novice class has another 5 more weeks of classroom training!) There are some people, however, that just don't get it. Because of that, the classroom pace slows down A LOT! We got reamed out yesterday for our general demeanor in class. That is, for coming in late; interjecting in discusions; inability to grasp basic things, etc. It just got ugly when one of my classmates just didn't know when to shut up. Bless her heart, but this woman is a little older (probably in her 50's) just didn't appreciate being spoken to in the manner our instructor was addressing us. The teacher said one thing. The woman had to answer back. This went on for quite a long while to the point where it was just unconfortable for everyone. After the fact, the class mate pretty much pouted and I knew she was just about to go over the edge because it appeared she was diverting her agressions to a piece of paper writing continously something like, "I will learn how to shut up." (as if she was on a time-out with a dunce cap on in front of the class). This older woman is actually quite nice and friendly, but from day one in orientation, I just knew she would get on my nerves. She was one of those types that needed EXPLICIT explanations and had to verbalize everything. It totally appeared that she couldn't restrain her own inner "inside voices" at all! Needless to say, the class went on smoothly and for the remainder of the day, people raised their hands and didn't ask a lot of unnecessary questions. Wow, it was like being in 8th grade again! Thank goodness I have a pretty good handle of the whole experience. I'm far from a "know-it-all," though. Just don't call me a "know-nothing" because I'll kut you! I am in southern LA after all. HOLLA!