The Things My Students Say
During the time I have been here in Japan, I have overheard some very interesting English words randomly thrown out in Japanese conversation, and I have also had many students say some very funny English.
Once, I was teaching at Iitomi Jr. High with a really good teacher – Sunaoshi sensei – and we asked the seventh grade students to make some sentences with the grammar pattern “Do you know ~?”. I demonstrated with a few sentences, and then it was their turn. They were throwing out all sorts of famous Japanese people, most of whom I didn’t know since I don’t have a TV, when one of the boys shouted out, “Do you know Bump of Chicken?”. I started laughing and everybody stopped talking and looked at me, the strange foreigner laughing her head off. Through fits of laughter (and a few snorts), I managed to ask the English teacher who or what was Bump of Chicken. After she and the class explained to me that it was the name of a famous rock band here in Japan, I tried to explain to them that it was some very….interesting English.
Well, there is a lot of English around in Japan. Down the street from church, there is a shoe store that is named At the Breast. I have seen a restaurant named Men and Sushi (men is the Japanese word for noodle). There is a brand of car around here called Naked.
Unfortunately, the English that a lot of my students are exposed to comes from American movies, which isn’t always good English. I cringe every time a student – or any Japanese person – says “Oh, my G--!”. I never realized how much that phrase was said in American movies/TV shows until I came to Japan. I have been flipped off by my students a number of times (usually by my upper Elementary school students). I know that most of them don’t completely understand what it means to give the bird, but they do know from the movies that it is offensive to Western people. So, when they flip me off, I usually don’t respond because they lose interest in trying to see if I would respond like they do in the American movies. After the first or second time, they stop.
I have one sixth grade student who says to me every week: “I want you to be my girl.” I ask him in Japanese if he knew what he was saying, but he never answers me. Now I just say, “OK!” and he runs away from me as fast as he can go. So maybe he understands what he is saying.
The other day I was teaching the eighth grade communication class with Sunaoshi sensei. This class is a pretty genki (energetic and fun, sometimes crazy) class. We were doing an activity where pairs of students had to make a conversation using English verbs they had drawn from a pile. They also had to include the grammar patterns ‘will’, ‘have to’, or ‘must’. The first time they had to make only two sentences, the second time, four, and so on. Here are a couple of the conversations that made me chuckle:
S1: I will walk to school. S2: No, you must not walk to school.
S1: Ok. Will you drive me to school? S2: Sure.
S2: How are you? S1: I’m fine, thank you.
S2: Do you have any friends? S1: Yes, I do.
I was totally confused about the randomness of this conversation and I told them so. Then they explained to me that it is a conversation between a mother and son, the second part of which occurs in the car on the way to school.
Here is my favorite conversation. This one was constructed by the coolest boy of the class. Since he is so cool, he had no problem constructing these sentences without a partner (whom was absent). He also has the best English of the class, so he always creates some very interesting conversations. Here is the conversation he had with himself:
A: What do you do? B: I will give love to you.
A: Really. B: Yes, I will give big love to you.
A: Oh, thank you.
Many times, my students fire questions at me in Japanese, especially my younger elementary school students. Today, a first grader showing me something so I could admire it, stopped in mid sentence and said, “Jessica sensei no me wa aoi des.” (Your eyes are blue). I responded with a “So da yo ne!” (Yup, that’s right!) and then asked him to say it in English since he knew the words eyes and blue. On the playground, one of my fifth grade girls asked me why my hair wasn’t black. I told her in broken Japanese that it’s because my father’s hair isn’t black either. Quite often, my students ask me if I have a boyfriend or if I’m married and when I say no, they start asking me who I like and start listing off all the names of the male teachers. They are all about the “hook up”, even more than the people I met during my Oklahoma Christian University days.
I will end with the phrase “Kids say the darndest things.” The more Japanese I learn, the more I’m opened up to their world and it is quite often hilarious. Now, since I can follow some basic conversations in Japanese, I really enjoy laughing with everybody else where before, I just sat quite because I had no idea what was said.
Once, I was teaching at Iitomi Jr. High with a really good teacher – Sunaoshi sensei – and we asked the seventh grade students to make some sentences with the grammar pattern “Do you know ~?”. I demonstrated with a few sentences, and then it was their turn. They were throwing out all sorts of famous Japanese people, most of whom I didn’t know since I don’t have a TV, when one of the boys shouted out, “Do you know Bump of Chicken?”. I started laughing and everybody stopped talking and looked at me, the strange foreigner laughing her head off. Through fits of laughter (and a few snorts), I managed to ask the English teacher who or what was Bump of Chicken. After she and the class explained to me that it was the name of a famous rock band here in Japan, I tried to explain to them that it was some very….interesting English.
Well, there is a lot of English around in Japan. Down the street from church, there is a shoe store that is named At the Breast. I have seen a restaurant named Men and Sushi (men is the Japanese word for noodle). There is a brand of car around here called Naked.
Unfortunately, the English that a lot of my students are exposed to comes from American movies, which isn’t always good English. I cringe every time a student – or any Japanese person – says “Oh, my G--!”. I never realized how much that phrase was said in American movies/TV shows until I came to Japan. I have been flipped off by my students a number of times (usually by my upper Elementary school students). I know that most of them don’t completely understand what it means to give the bird, but they do know from the movies that it is offensive to Western people. So, when they flip me off, I usually don’t respond because they lose interest in trying to see if I would respond like they do in the American movies. After the first or second time, they stop.
I have one sixth grade student who says to me every week: “I want you to be my girl.” I ask him in Japanese if he knew what he was saying, but he never answers me. Now I just say, “OK!” and he runs away from me as fast as he can go. So maybe he understands what he is saying.
The other day I was teaching the eighth grade communication class with Sunaoshi sensei. This class is a pretty genki (energetic and fun, sometimes crazy) class. We were doing an activity where pairs of students had to make a conversation using English verbs they had drawn from a pile. They also had to include the grammar patterns ‘will’, ‘have to’, or ‘must’. The first time they had to make only two sentences, the second time, four, and so on. Here are a couple of the conversations that made me chuckle:
S1: I will walk to school. S2: No, you must not walk to school.
S1: Ok. Will you drive me to school? S2: Sure.
S2: How are you? S1: I’m fine, thank you.
S2: Do you have any friends? S1: Yes, I do.
I was totally confused about the randomness of this conversation and I told them so. Then they explained to me that it is a conversation between a mother and son, the second part of which occurs in the car on the way to school.
Here is my favorite conversation. This one was constructed by the coolest boy of the class. Since he is so cool, he had no problem constructing these sentences without a partner (whom was absent). He also has the best English of the class, so he always creates some very interesting conversations. Here is the conversation he had with himself:
A: What do you do? B: I will give love to you.
A: Really. B: Yes, I will give big love to you.
A: Oh, thank you.
Many times, my students fire questions at me in Japanese, especially my younger elementary school students. Today, a first grader showing me something so I could admire it, stopped in mid sentence and said, “Jessica sensei no me wa aoi des.” (Your eyes are blue). I responded with a “So da yo ne!” (Yup, that’s right!) and then asked him to say it in English since he knew the words eyes and blue. On the playground, one of my fifth grade girls asked me why my hair wasn’t black. I told her in broken Japanese that it’s because my father’s hair isn’t black either. Quite often, my students ask me if I have a boyfriend or if I’m married and when I say no, they start asking me who I like and start listing off all the names of the male teachers. They are all about the “hook up”, even more than the people I met during my Oklahoma Christian University days.
I will end with the phrase “Kids say the darndest things.” The more Japanese I learn, the more I’m opened up to their world and it is quite often hilarious. Now, since I can follow some basic conversations in Japanese, I really enjoy laughing with everybody else where before, I just sat quite because I had no idea what was said.
posted by Jessica Graumann @ 10:51 AM
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