[susan53]

I wonder if there's a US/UK difference here too. Because to me, the "pain" example sounds very odd with "with". I'd just say "I'm bearing the pain." It wouldn't occur to me to use "with" in that context. In the other example I would see a difference in meaning between "bear the current situation" ie tolerate, carry on without damage and "bear with the current situation" - ie wait patiently, ride it out despite the damage. Given which, the "pain" example should also be able to have both meanings too ...

In the student's example though, it seems that the meaning is clearly tolerate rather than wait patiently. So the answer is perhaps more clear-cut. The problem with your examples above is that the speaker could potentially mean either - or maybe intend a sort of overlapping middle ground. That seems to me especially true of the company example. I'm waffling a bit here though.

Odd things, words.