Things I Find Funny

70 years ago today is the day Pearl Harbor was attacked.  I don't find this part funny, just an interesting thought to reflect on.  My 11th grade students are in Nagaski right now on a week long field trip.  In light of eternity, 70 years is a short time frame and so much has changed.  I am sure if you would have asked my grandfather back in 1941 if he ever thought it would be possible for his grandchildren to live peacefully in Japan, he would have said no.  But here I am.

On to the funny stuff.  My students are hilarious!  Maybe I was a bad teacher in America.  I never got giddy to grade papers or tests like I do in Japan.  Maybe that is because my students never said some of the things my Japanese students say.  Let me enlighten you...

My 8th grade students (this is their 2nd year in English) were learning sentences that were built like this: subject + to be + adjective.  An example I gave was "He is tall."  I cannot even begin to tell you the number of papers I got back that said, "She is easy."  

In that same grade, they were learning to say future tense sentences with "to be".  This is just a reminder that I teach at an all-girls "christian" school.  One of my girls wrote, "I will be a male nurse."  Knowing they had to stand up in class and read their future tense sentences, I tried to talk with the girl before she embarrassed herself.  But, lo and behold, that was exactly what she wanted to say.  To my surprise, my co-worker had another girl in her 11th grade class give a "Future Speech", that is a speech where they talk about their future goals and plans, about the fact that she wanted a gender reassignment.

My 9th grade students just got back from a two week field trip to New Zealand.  One of the questions they had to answer when they got back was, "What is the difference between uniforms in New Zealand and uniforms in Japan?"  One student wrote, "New Zealand uniforms are one piece dresses and Yokohama Jogakuin's uniforms are jackets and shit."

We have one student who comes to our row nearly everyday at lunch to talk with us.  She is loud and really happy and super non-traditional Japanese.  She really likes sparkly things like sequin and flashy jewelry.  The other day she said to my co-worker as sincerely and excited as always, "I really like the costumes you always wear."  

Oh, and I can't forget the best one yet.  Below is what a 12th grade student wrote on a pretest for an entrance exam into college.

Yes, I love my job.    It is quite wonderful and always exciting.  My students are great and I love that they experiment with the English language.

In the near future I plan to post a blog about learning to speak fluent Japanese.  Stay tuned...