
Teachers Reveal What It's Like Working With a Professor All Students Detest
[rebelmouse-image 18360848 is_animated_gif=It's rare that we get a true look inside the inner workings of how teachers relate to each other during school hours. Don't you ever wonder how other teachers related to that teacher who made your sophomore year miserable?
Well, Redditor Reignbringer asked:
Here's a rare look inside.
Pre-Reqs
[rebelmouse-image 18346110 is_animated_gif=I'm no longer a teacher, but my students were very open about which teachers they hated. The hated teachers could be broken into two groups - (1) the excellent teachers with high standards who didn't tolerate any BS and (2) the clueless, narcissistic teachers with no standard or completely arbitrary standards. After a few years, the kids realized that the teachers in group 1 were the heroes all along. At absolute best, group 2 were good for laughs.
Retirement Life
[rebelmouse-image 18360849 is_animated_gif=One of my teachers in high school happened to be retiring the same year that we were graduating, the last class ever he closed the door and we reminisced. One kid asked him which teachers he hated, he went to lock the door and just went off like he had some list in his head of folks he hated. It was glorious.
Toxic Teachers' Lounge
[rebelmouse-image 18350998 is_animated_gif=About 85% of the time I find that I do not get along with the teachers that the students can't stand. Usually this is because they are quick to blame the kids for everything going wrong and they are unwilling to work/communicate with them. It stems from the old mentality "Teaching would be great if it weren't for the students!". Sorry, but if you got into this profession and you absolutely hate kids, I have zero sympathy for you. I've also found that those teachers will complain the most to any other colleagues who will listen about how terrible the students are. This is the main reason that I only go into the teacher's lounge once a week MAX.
Strict Vs. Awful
[rebelmouse-image 18359546 is_animated_gif=Some of my coworkers they hate because they're strict and don't put up with any BS. These teachers I like, and since I'm still a beginner, I often come to them for advice.
I have one coworker that is mutually hated by almost everyone. She's condescending. She power trips. She's nosy. She butts in to conversations. She tells obvious and meaningless lies. I don't let the kids know I can't stand her, but when they talk about her, I go mysteriously deaf.
A different coworker gave a writing assignment. No prompt, just required that they had to demonstrate all the techniques they covered that semester. One of the sweetest kids I've ever taught gave him a three page paper about how the hated teacher was an awful person. He got an A and became a legend in the teacher's lounge.
Closed Doors
[rebelmouse-image 18346427 is_animated_gif=There are a handful of teachers my students couldn't stand. When it was for no real reason I'd let them state their case then try to help them see the value in my co-workers approach. When it was for a very good reason I just made sure the door was closed then let them vent. I wasn't going to waste my credibility with my students sticking up for my racist, sexist, kid hating peers.
Good Apples
[rebelmouse-image 18360842 is_animated_gif=I think one of the unfair realizations you have AFTER being a kid is that it's not true that authority figures care and are even handed and fair. They are just people. Looking back on it, I have been blessed so many of my teachers were good, with only a few bad apples. A few of them have connected with us former students over Facebook and some of the gossip has been funny.
"Do I remember Mrs. Green? Oh, Peggy was the worst. We thought she'd die at any moment with all the cigarettes she smoked in the lounge, but she was too stubborn and mean to die. We felt bad for you kids but she had tenure and we just had to wait for her to retire. When she finally did, I only went to the party for the cake. Carol (Mrs. Walker) brought a hip flask with brandy and we all had our private toast to her finally leaving."
Amazon Life
[rebelmouse-image 18353507 is_animated_gif=I taught at an elementary school with another teacher who I thought was just absolute crap. Even her teaching partner said she spent whole days shopping online while the kids basically did very little. When students complained about her, I didn't say anything, but if parents complained about her, I subtly tried to validate their concerns.
Don't Abuse Your Kids
[rebelmouse-image 18351481 is_animated_gif=In high school my AP US History teacher told us all the time how much she hated us and her job. She would literally stand in front of the class, and whenever someone asked a question that she didnt know the answer to, she would say something along the lines of "All these smartass kids thinking they know more than their teacher is why I hate my job."
One day, there was a fight on the football field during her class (the classroom overlooked the field) and we all got out of our seats to look out the windows, because that type of stuff almost never happened. She started screaming at us to get back in our seats, and when noone moved, she quite literally walked out. She quit during the middle of a class. After she left, a lot of the teachers told us how much she sucked and how much they hated her. That was a weird schoolyear for sure.
Boy, Was My Face Red
[rebelmouse-image 18350104 is_animated_gif=We had a history teacher who was finishing out his last year teaching high school as he'd just been offered a position at a university and one day we were talking about teachers we didn't like- he goes on a rant about an English teacher and how she's such a c u next Tuesday (the only appropriate word to describe this woman). I raised my hand and explained my final with her the previous year was a 10 page report on the tomato... Being me, I talked about cultural uses of the tomato and then focused on ketchup in America and the Heinz- Kerry family and then politics. She failed me saying anything with ketchup and Heinz was unrelated. This dope teacher goes with me to the principal and explains what I'd told him and got my F final (bringing me from an A down to a C) revoked and I got an A in the class along with a promise of never having her again. My brothers had previously had her and she hated both of them.
Different Skill Set
[rebelmouse-image 18360850 is_animated_gif=Not exactly a teacher, but I generally dislike the ones that the kids dislike. You don't get kids to hate you for no good reason, generally. Everyone knows who that person is, and they're absolutely awful with other faculty as well.
They're out of touch with the kids, and think that since they home-schooled their middle-class children, they know how to teach underprivileged at-risk children. Dumb-ss.
Etude Of Hate
[rebelmouse-image 18360851 is_animated_gif=My students hated the music teacher. She was always nice to me, but I understand why they hated her. She was rude to them, yelled at them a lot, and was pretty disrespectful. It probably wasn't the most professional thing I have done, but I told my students that they don't have to like her, but they need to be respectful of her. That was the sad -ss pep talk we had once a week.
Teach
[rebelmouse-image 18346795 is_animated_gif=One thing I've noticed about teachers that students don't like (hate is a strong word) is that they're the teachers who always have to be right and can't admit when they've made a mistake or when a student has a different (and often better) idea than them.
Always A Reason
[rebelmouse-image 18360852 is_animated_gif=Most of the not-so-popular teachers at the school I teach at are not liked because they are impatient, rude, and not in touch with current educational trends/technology. These traits usually make them a poor teacher, and a horrible co-worker to deal with. It's impossible to be an effective teacher if you use the same information and technology you graduated with 10+ years ago. Educators have to be lifelong learners.
Teaching is tough. There is a middle ground that you have to assume that is between trying to be friends with the students, and being a complete hard-ass. It is extremely difficult to balance that for 180 days at a time.
I like to think that I am a more popular teacher, not because I am buddy-buddy with my students, but because I am extremely passionate about the content I teach, as well as education in general.
All that being said, there is usually a legitimate reason that students dislike a teacher. The same issues that make them a bad teacher usually permeate throughout everything they do, making them disliked by just about everyone.
They're Scary
[rebelmouse-image 18360853 is_animated_gif=It's not really "hate," but there's one teacher at my school who is feared by all the students. They always ask if they can leave my class a little early because "I have Mr. X next, and if you're late, he yells at you."
I find this guy a little brusque & bristly myself ... but honestly, I'm jealous of the power he has over the students, and sometimes I dream about being just as rough on them so they'll toe the line better in my class.
Adios Muchacho
[rebelmouse-image 18360856 is_animated_gif=I had this one teacher that always found it irritating and wrong when a kid did something independent. He seemed to have this mentality that he was the teacher, and that he should guide us through the school year. Problem was that he was a terrible teacher, and blamed everything on the students, including our worksheets that he lost. Thankfully, he's retiring, so no one will ever have to deal with his BS ever again.
Tutors Know It
[rebelmouse-image 18360858 is_animated_gif=I've worked at a tutoring center for 8 years, currently employed at a university as a graduate teaching assistant. I've worked with some really amazing individuals, some of which were loved by the students, hated by fellow teachers, and vice versa.
At the tutoring center, we had one employee who was an absolute monster towards the students. And us. It didn't help that she was bipolar, and would suddenly go from a sweet pea to a rotten carrot in a matter of moments. A student coughed too loudly? Student is asked to leave the room and parents called immediately. Student didn't do the homework correctly, 100% the way she wanted (ie. ONE cursive letter is wrong)? Student is verbally chastised in front of the room as well as in the front of the entire tutoring center. Talk about layers of mental and psychological abuse. Children and employees were driven to tears by her. Multiple times. Multiple. This individual was a monster, and she abused everyone. Even her son. And her husband.
All the tutors knew it. We told our boss. The boss did nothing. Employees quit. Boss did nothing. Families left the center. Boss made excuses. Employees banded together, nearly protesting. No avail.
This went on for years until this individual was asked to leave after a verbal altercation while we were open and assisting with kids.
Don't Cross A Line
[rebelmouse-image 18360859 is_animated_gif=My friend is a teacher, and she is fairly liked by her students. There is always the student that thinks she hates them because she won't give them an A on a paper that was not only copied and pasted from the internet, but five other kids used the exact same paper! Seriously, that kind of sh-t.
However, there are always a couple -ssholes. She has one teacher friend that is very religious and cannot help but judge kids by their race, how they dress, how they look, etc. He thinks he's Mr. Wonderful, but he is really very sad and lonely with a horrible life that I won't get into, so he seems to take it out on the students. He will demand a popular class that my wife or another teacher are teaching. The next year he will get it and everyone immediately drops the class, yet he says it is because the counsolor tells the kids not to take it. They just know better.
Also, there is the group of teachers that think they are one of the kids and try to get into the lives of the students. That is dangerous. One teacher thought it was fun to see kids at the bar he went to and rather than leave or report it to the bar, he partied with them. He thought the kids loved him. They did not respect him though.
He would miss weeks of work at a time due to drug use. When he finally burned his last bridge, he messaged all his students to back him up at the board meeting that decided his fate.
Not one kid showed up. Students are not your friends.
Silence In The Library
[rebelmouse-image 18360860 is_animated_gif=We all know who those teachers are, and we hate them too. When I was teaching our librarian was a grumpy dinosaur who loved yelling at kids. My students were all on the autism spectrum, and she yelled at a few of my shyer kids to the point that they were in tears. It was so awkward trying to comfort them without telling them what a b**** she was to yell at them in the first place. Sometimes I would let my students skip library altogether so they didn't have to put up with her verbal abuse.
Luckily, I had a few students with severe behavioral issues who had some epic meltdowns in her library. I like to hope they helped encourage her towards retirement.
Unprofessional
[rebelmouse-image 18357424 is_animated_gif=There's a teacher who's looking at retirement in the next few years - students regularly complain about this teacher. Apparently, the teacher does the following: 1. Sends students to get soda from the teacher lounge (no students are allowed there) 2. Gives zeroes for the day if the student has a prior appointment during the class - these appointments are often made by the school for the students 3. Blathers on about life, children, complaints (think grocery-store line stuff you don't really care about) 4. We are a deaf school. This teacher also will stop signing and continues to verbally speak - then get angry when the hard of hearing students manage to "fill in the blanks" for the more deaf ones.
I know that several students have gone and filed complaints, but thus far nothing seems to have been done. But like I said, this teacher is looking at retirement soon. I'm angry for my students. I always encourage them to file formal complaints against the teacher.
As for how the teacher is with other faculty: In a word, unprofessional. Gets angry at the drop of a hat, verbally abusive, rants about random stuff. Shows up late.
There's two teachers like this - one is (mostly) on time, but is newer. We're all just hoping these two go but I don't know what will happen. The second one is in the third year, and the last "probation" year with the school. Will that one be quietly refused a contract renewal? Don't know.
Prediction
[rebelmouse-image 18360861 is_animated_gif=As a former teacher and admin, I dealt with all sides of this. I would say you can see the kids POV. But depending on the kids complaining you can understand why they dislike that teacher. If you have a teacher all the kids dislike, chances are the other teachers and admin dislike them. If you have a teacher that only the s***head dislike, chances are they are a good teacher. And chances are other teachers like them because they know they are good. However if you get a teacher that the good kids dislike and the s***heads like, it is likely the other teachers dislike them and the admin dislikes them. The thing about teaching or working is that kids are very good judges of character. If there is no discipline involved kids like good teachers and dislike bad teachers. But kids can turn and hold a grudge like no other.
The Mandela effect is when multiple people share the same, incorrect memory.
Its name stems from when paranormal researcher Fiona Broome falsely believed that the future president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, died in prison in the 1980s.
A false memory she shared with a number of others.
Our memories have been known to deceive us, as we might frequently forget someone's name or one of our numerous online passwords.
But when we share a memory that turns out to be false with many others, convincing ourselves it wasn't the truth can be a very difficult ordeal indeed.
Redditor Mysterious_Boat_1701 was curious to hear people's most unsettling experiences with the Mandela Effect, leading them to ask:
"Which Mandela effect freaks you out the most and why?"
A mysterious gym
"Just had one personally."
"Went to a mall where there was supposedly a gym, asked around and nobody that worked at the mall knew what I was talking about."
"Looked around and couldn't find it."
"Come back a few months later and it’s right there in front of my face, you'd have to be strung out to not notice it."
"idk how or when it just appeared but it freaked me out."- prex320278
A "fruit"ful logo.
"That the fruit of the loom logo never had a cornucopia."
"What’s crazy about that one is that someone emailed the creator of the logo about it and he said even he remembers it having one."- mrcock2·
Less well intentioned than they thought.
"I Mandela effected my whole family once."
"Years ago there was a football player on a rival team that always did a dumb celebration after he got a sack and my family and I always hated it."
"One night after he did it my family started trashing the celebration and I said as a joke 'we are all going to feel terrible when we find out he is doing that celebration as a request from a make-a-wish kid'."
"Fast forward to years later and our team is playing that team again."
"The player got a sack and did the celebration."
"I rolled my eyes and said 'I hate that celebration so much' my mom instantly turned and said 'don't say that, he is doing it for a sick kid'."
"'I actually like it."
"So I was like 'what?'"
"'No there is no sick kid', my whole family then proceeded to argue with me'."
"They all vividly remembered reading articles about it, seeing special report segments before games about it, and other information."
"Some of them even thought they knew the disease the kid had and even extra details about why the kid chose that specific celebration."
"They all had these shared memories that they were sure were true."
"I was floored by all this and insisted none of that was true."
"So we looked it up.'
"Not true."
'No kid like that ever existed.'
"They still have trouble wrapping their heads around this one."
"Turned out human memory is not near as reliable as we think"
"It was American Football and the player was Jared Allen of the Minnesota Vikings and his cattle roping sack celebration."
"This was maybe 10 years ago."- AUSpartan37
His eyesight was better than we thought.
"Mr. Monopoly's monocle."- Additional_Day9903
It's not easy being green.
"I have a personal one that to this day a decade later still destroys my mind."
"I had an old(ish) 2001 dodge neon."
"With BLACK SEATS.'
"I drove this car for years and years, like 80,000 miles.'
'All through college."
"I took work breaks in my car, commuted hours every day total, to college and then the opposite direction to work and back."
"I even lived out of this thing on several occasions.'
'The day I go and trade it in, I'm pulling misc things out of the car at the dealer."
'And the seats are GREEN."
"Not even a little."
'Like very unmistakably GREEN."
"In my black Neon, with black interior, that ALWAYS HAD BLACK SEATS."
"My girlfriend then, wife now, goes oh they've always been green."
"EXCEPT THEY F*CKING WEREN'T DON'T LIE TO ME."
"This is still upsetting to this day..... life is a lie and nothing is real."- ZakuLegion
An urban legend was born.
"Not a global one, just a family thing."
"Back in 2002 my grandma had her 60th birthday, my father took us home at 10.00pm, ready for bed."
"We, me and brother, were 12 and 14 at this time."
'All went well."
"Over the years, a story was made up that we went missing after visiting the local playground after dinner at said grandma's birthday party."
"Some neighbors help to search us, the whole train of 'missing children in a smal village'-thing."
"Fun fact: we never went missing."
"Dad brought us home, put on 'Toy Story' on tv and left."
"My brother and I heard first about this in 2015.'
"From different people on different occasions."
"'Ah your one of the missing boys'."
"I first thought they were mocking me for a different event.'
"I got lost, but it was 2013, alcohol inflicted, different story."
"But then they ALL tell us the same story about us going missing."
'And the stories are damn close to 'true' in every story my mum is driving around the same neighbors to different locations to search, old wine yard, old mill etc."
"Sometimes I think I got lost on the most brutal way."
"I was lost and changed this plane of existence with another one."
"It sometimes made me think about my whole life."- tjorben123
Memories are a fascinating thing.
They can be changed or altered with even the tiniest suggestion.
And making the truth seem less believable than lies.
One last time. One last meal.
How do you chose a last meal?
Let's hope we never have to find out.
People on death row get that option.
Do they deserve it?
Whose to say?
But they have it.
A steak. A pizza... Burger King.
The food world is their oyster.
Oyster. Also an option.
The menu is endless...
Redditor No-Caterpillar4212 wanted to know what our menu choices would be if we faced the end. They asked:
"You're on a death row, you have one hour left, they ask for your final meal - what is it?"
I'd want 2 hours in a Golden Coral with a bar. Covers it all.
Years
"I want a nice filet mignon, medium rare, a baked potato with everything on it, and a nice Cabernet from a good year - I'm thinking 2135."
cleon42
"'Sorry, we couldn't get the Cabernet from 2135. So instead of what could have been a great wine request from a more plausible period of time, you get this crappy stuff we sourced from Wal-Mart. Enjoy your meal, I hope that maintaining your sense of humor was worth it."'
Until_Morning
Take Me
"Something badly cooked so I will be sick and want to die sooner and have diarrhea so bad it will be a last revenge!"
ratchet0101
"Taco bell it is!"
No-Caterpillar4212
"If Taco Bell makes you poop a lot, it's a sign that you probably need more fiber in your diet."
RDAwesome
The Yuck Factor
"A huge bowl of baked beans, a bowl of shredded wheat, a six egg omelette, and a gallon of apple cider. I'm gonna make it awful for everyone."
"Save yourself the hassle of eating all that, just ask for one pack of sugar free Haribo gummy bears. Should make for an interesting time for the folks watching you die."
MamaSweeney24
"You void your bowels when you die too so that should be lovely."
IDontControlTheFood
Perfect
"Fried chicken with some Fanta."
Aggravating-Year-776
Fried chicken is on the top of everyone's list!
Details
"150mg of MDMA. I’m dying happy."
W0nderfu1W0nder
"This should absolutely be allowed. If our leaders insist on the practice of capital punishment then the condemned should be able to ingest any substance they damn please."
forewontoi
Broken
"McFlurry. Those machine are always broken. I just bought myself some time."
Curiousuk_South9566
"Is this like an American thing? I worked at a McDonald's in Denmark once and our machine was never once broken when i was there."
oliv111
"I saw a video about this once. I'm a little fuzzy on the details but I think it has something to do with the contract that was signed in America. Only one company is allowed to do maintenance on the machines and they basically lock out if it's cleaned incorrectly. It's a crap system."
grilled-pbj
Sorry
"Cabbage!! Add some cabbage. I don’t know if an hour if enough to take effect but there was an old coworker on a cabbage diet. Omg she smelled, like it was coming out of her pores. She knew she smelled and kept apologizing and reminding us of the diet."
ImStillaPrick
The OG Always
"Olive Garden. Unlimited soup and breadsticks."
thegodfaubel
"I saw a sketch once, can't remember who it 2qs from. But a an inmate ordered the all you can eat buffet and had been eating for like 8 years. He's constantly on the toilet and takes micro-naps between bites."
KingOfTheGoobers
"Unlimited for 1 hour. Cool."
anticlockclock
How Golden
"If my grandma is still alive her potato soup and cheesecake. Hopefully I'd be able to cook said meal with her one last time."
ATLAS_IS_LOST
Let's hope none of us has to make this decision.
Most people have friends they've been close to for most of their lives.
But at the same time, friends evolve, and everyone finds themselves losing touch with any number of people they at one point considered their friends over time.
Most of the time, this isn't intentional, but just simply happens.
On rare occasions though, people might realize that their friends were not exactly who they thought they were, and didn't like who they revealed themselves to be.
Redditor One-Refrigerator69 was curious to hear stories of people who realized their friends were not exactly the nicest people to be around, leading them to ask:
"When was the moment you realized that your friends are assholes?"
Compared to others...
"When I started hanging out with better people."- Darklink326
All it took was getting my life together
"When I quit drinking ‘cos it was killing me."
"There were people I literally saw every single day who just disappeared as if by magic."
"12 years ago this week, as it happens."
"I’m not anti-drink, far from it."
"Some people, me included, just can’t enjoy it without it becoming a problem."
"Everyone is different."- bigdaftgeordie
A little perspective goes a long way.
"After I realized that other people don't sh*t on each other on every possible occasion in their circle."
"And that it isn't right when a 'friend' uses every known insecurity as an argument against you when you do not behave the way he/she would want you to."- ViscousPlateman
Lack of respect for other people's things
"I let my friend borrow my ps2 when I went to boot camp."
"When I came back, he said he sold it and gave me $50 I think?"
"This was in 2006."- madmike-86
Lack of mutual respect
"When he does sh*t to me and acts like it’s no big deal, then I do the same back and he gets offended."- Primary-Maybe-2749·
Constantly being taken advantage of.
"They only bothered with me when it suited them."
"I'd rather have nobody than have to deal with that."- zombi33mj
When they literally revealed themselves to be criminals
"When they robbed me at gunpoint."- Ok_Student8032
When they stopped liking them after a change of situation
"Fourth grade, when my parents economical situation went downhill and suddenly no one invited me to their birthday party."
"Until Seven years later no one had never invited me to their birthday, or to anything at all actually."- Justalittletoserious
Not being able to get a word in...
"When they tell me to shut up when I say anything."- the_golden_cheese
Violently playing with emotions
"She got a boyfriend and would let him listen to our phone calls and not tell me, even if I was crying about personal stuff that I would only ever tell her."
"Then they both started lying to me about my crush liking me back, forcing both him and me into awkward positions, telling everyone we liked each other so they'd play along, swapping places constantly to make us sit next to each other, pressuring him into giving me a lap dance, making him kiss the prettiest girl in the room, etc, and encouraged me to shoot my shot more and more."
"All the while they knew he didn't like me, he had told them both directly."
"One night I was crying on the phone cause I was so confused why my advances weren't working, and they just kept explaining it away, blaming some other bullsh*t reason and telling me to try again."
"The next day they told me they were laughing throughout the whole call, because I didn't get it and I was so upset."
"I should add I had no dating experience at all and nobody had ever liked me at this point."- Juliemj
It's always sad when our friends disappoint us.
But when our friends proved to be completely different people than we thought they were, it can be devastating.
As the saying goes, one never truly knows who their friends are.
When visiting any foreign country, one should always be familiar with the laws and customs of the land.
After all, what might be generally accepted on your home turf, might be frowned upon, if not illegal, elsewhere.
For that matter, even locals might need a refresher course on what they can and can't do while at home.
A recent Redditor was curious to hear what tourists and locals alike should avoid doing in the USA, leading them to ask:
"In the United States, what should you never do?"
Stay out of the skies!
"Don't fly a drone in Washington, DC."
"The whole D.C. Area is a no fly zone."
"It's a federal offense."
"Just don't do it."- PeytonCarrK
Cops can't be bribed.
"Don't try to bribe cops when you get pulled over."
"I had some Argentinian friends immediately pull out their wallets and start pooling their cash when they got pulled over once.'
"Fortunately someone in the car noticed and told them to put it away immediately."- PeytonCarrK
"Don't pay off the police."
"My dad has friends from several third-world nations where it is common practice to give the police some cash when you are pulled over."
"However, if you try to bribe a police officer here, you'll get into a lot of trouble."- JohnASmiley
Know your rights.
"Everyone, including foreigners, has the right to be silent and have a lawyer when being questioned."
"Don’t say anything."
"Also, even if you speak English fairly well, ask for an interpreter."- WickedLilThing
Enjoy all that nature has to offer... carefully!
"Don't wander off in the national parks."
"It's very real wilderness and you can get lost and die out there."
"This includes going over railings you aren't supposed to, or off trails."
"People have died accidentally falling into a steam geyser that looked like normal water, mauled by animals or left to the elements."- AlphaOhmega
Allow plenty of time!
"Expect consistency at TSA in airports."- WickedLilThing
Some terminology doesn't translate...
"If you’re from England, they’re called cigarettes here."- Yung_Onions
Make sure your license is up to date.
"If you come from a walkable country don’t come here expecting the same."
"There are some areas with good public transportation and bicycle/pedestrian friendly streets but for the most part, especially outside of cities, the areas are designed to accommodate cars more than anything else."
"The reason a lot of Americans drive everywhere is because, depending on where you live, we have no choice."- The_Cars93
Wait for instructions.
"Get out of your car and approach the cop when being stopped by a cop unless told to."- hildrash
Whether your'e waling down a street in a foreign country, or the street you've lived on for your entire life, it's always wise to be on guard and aware of your surroundings.
Not to mention, obey the law.