<html> <body> <head> <LINK REL=StyleSheet HREF="../stylesheet.css" TYPE="text/css" MEDIA=screen> <title>yoshiwara nikki: things my students say</title> </head> <div id="rightcontent"> <center><br><img src="../header text.gif"><br> <img src="student writing.gif"></center><br> <p>At the beginning of the year, I passed out "Information Cards" to the students to get them to fill in their interests so I could get some ideas of what to include in lessons, to catch their interest and keep them from dozing off. I was expecting some funny answers, and while most of them were the predictable "sleeping" or "baseball," there were a couple that really floored me. Here are some of the best.<br><br> <b>Dream:</b><br> I want to marry with pretty girl!!<br>Hero<br>rich-rich-rich<br><i>sekai no oishii tabemono o taberu</i> (trans: eat　delicious food from all over the world)<br><br> <b>Favorite Singer:</b><br> THE BLUE HEARTS<br> <i>(This is a Japanese punk band from the 80s that a friend introduced me to when I was still in college. I freaked out that the kid would even know who they are - and so did the Japanese teacher, after he finished freaking out that I knew who they were too. Later I got to endear myself to the Japanese teachers by singing some of their hits at karaoke.) </i><br><br><b>Hobbies:</b><br>Read a magazine about basket ball<br>Lesten to music, watch the movie.<br>See the sky, take a walk.<br><br><b>Something You Are Good At:</b><br>I am good at to speap.<br>Laughing.<br>I know car name.<br>Following.<br><i>sugu neru koto.</i> (trans: falling asleep immediately)<br><br> <b>Pet:</b><br>Golden fish<br>Many fishes<br>Hamustar<br><br><b>Interests:</b><br>I started to feel an interest in the English.<br>I am interested in "Pooh San."<br><br><b>Places You Want To Go:</b><br>Franch<br>Frinch<br>Moon<br>Uchuu (trans: space)<br> </p> <br> <p>Of course, the fun didn't stop there. Midway through the year, I got to correct droves of small writing quizzes for the students, each containing a few unconnected sentences that they had to translate from Japanese to English. As you can imagine, it produced some very interesting results. Unfortunately, not all of them were preserved for posterity, but I still have a few.<br><br> "Japan is one of the largest markets for beautiful in the world."<br> "How can Spielberg interesting movie in a mind way?"<br> "I have difficulty finding your house. I'm tired."<br> "How can Spielberg make interesting movie in such a splendid way?"<br> "Human who are nodding their head up and down."<br></p> <br> <p>And who could forget the memorable things my students have shouted to me? The most common things were, "I want you! I need you! I love you!" (Who taught them that?!) "Beautiful!!" "SEXY!" (Both boys and girls shouted these, seemingly to embarrass me or piss me off. They seemed to equate these as having equal offensiveness potential, which I am not too clear on.) Boys would want to know if I had a boyfriend, and when I said that I did, they replied with a knowing look and the pronouncement that there would be a "fighto" if they ever met. The most unforgettable, though, was a boy who was very quiet but always wanted to tell me something strange. He'd come up to me and give me weird looks, all of his friends in tow, and prepare to say something that he'd conjured up. One day, I was leaving the school grounds and he and his friends came running up after me. "Hey!"</p> <p>"What?" I answered. "See you later."</p> <p>"Say hello..." he began, obviously thinking hard about it. I raised my eyebrows, waiting for the end. "Say hello.... TO YOUR MOTHER!"</p> <p>I was floored. I had no idea where he was going with that (despite insistence of Americans that he meant "word to your mother," I don't think they would have heard of that - they're too young), but it was obviously something he had thought out for a long time. We are talking about kids who can barely string two words together in English, let alone do anything complicated with it. And yet he had spent all this time finding a way to communicate this thought to me. "Say hello to your mother."</p> <p>Perplexed, I did the only thing I could think of. "You say hello to <i>your</i> mother too!" He just stared at me for a moment as though I had said the strangest thing, and then wandered off with his friends. "See you."</p> </div> <div id="leftcontent"> <p><a href="../pics">photos</a></p> <p><a href="index.html">writing</a></p> <p><a href="../bio.html">bio</p> <p><a href="../links.html">links of interest</a></p> <p><a href="../">home</a></p></div> </body> </html>