“Let’s write to Drew sensei in English”

Dera Drow sensei.
Thank you for teaching, English. I had a good winter vacation. I want to Koube with my mother. I went to the mosaiku. I goed the sepping. I eating a Pasut and aisu.
Sincerely,
Shiori

Dera Drew sensei.
Thank you for teaching English. I went to the amusement park in Okayama with my family. I ate a spaghetti and drank a juice. I rided rollercoaster. I baught souvenir to my friends. I enjoyed it.
Sincerely,
Misaki

Dera Drew sensei.
Thank you fou teaching, English. I went to my friend’s house. I played games. I had a good time. I went to home at five o’clock. My bike is new.
Sincerely,
Shunichi

Asago Quotes III

“I eat…cat”

“In Japan, we lick the box” (To be fair, he was describing how to use a traditional square sake cup, which is covered in salt)

“Mormons! They’re like the borg!” (OK, Meghan said that, not a Japanese person)

Nohmi sensei: “I was wondering how you pay for your, sort of, water, gas, electricity…”

Me: “I don’t know, I pay for something at the konbini, but I can’t read it”

Nohmi: “Oh…”

Me: “Is there a problem or something?”

Nohmi: “No, everything is fine”

(I had actually not been paying my water bill. One letter apparently said my water would be shut off on Jan. 31st. I guess they didn’t mean it)

Solo Class and Pen Pal Letters

So today when I got to school Nohmi sensei hands me a note written in Japanese and says that Kakio sensei (who I have ni nen sei class with on Thursdays) won’t be at school today. So I was unhappy because I really like those classes and assumed that she would eventually tell me they were cancelled. As it turns out the note was instructions about what I was supposed to do for the class, alone. Well, technically I wasn’t alone the whole time, because the homeroom teachers from each of those classes showed up at the beginning and end to unlock and relock the classroom door, and copy the note onto the board so the students could read it. The classes went fine though, mostly because we just worked on pen pal letters which gave them something to do but also let them get up and talk to each other. Anyway, I read a lot of first drafts, and here are some of the funnier revisions I made (there’s is in black, mine is in red):

I want the letter to you receiving.
- I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

I am a cheer character. What are you character?
- I am a cheerful person. What are you like?

Please don’t spend your body all at one time.
- I hope you stay healthy.

How many minutes are you making? I make thirty minutes.
- Please show this to Kakio sensei (I only said this to him, but he wrote it down at the end of his letter anyway)

20 Questions

During the mid-year conference one of my group members mentioned playing 20 questions as a warm up with his class. Today I used this game with my ni nen seis, but it took up almost the entire class. I was pretty impressed at how quickly they were able to pick up on the game and use the different kind of questions creatively. Anyway, here are some of the questions I got:

“Is it cute?”

“Is it made of tree?”

“Is it eaten on weekends?”

“Is it in your family?”

“Is it a beaver?”

“Is it smaller than Earth?”

“Is it smaller than Doitsu (Germany)?”

“Is it a robot?”

“Is it taller than a Drew sensei?”

New Years Lessons

Since this week was the first week of classes after New Years all my classes had a section about how New Years in Canada is different than New Years in Canada. For the most part it consisted of the JTE asking students what they did, and then the JTE and students asking me about what I did this year and other years. Here are some excerpts (I’m using quotes, but this isn’t really what they said, more like what they would have said if they were fluent in English):

JTE: “Did you eat mochi on New Years?”

Me: “No”

JTE: “Did you fly a kite?”

Me: “No”

JTE: “Did you play…(makes a gesture that looks to me like badminton)?”

Me: “No”

At one point I described Western New Years, and they immediately focused on the ball drop. I think maybe I didn’t explain it well enough:

Student: “Has there ever been an accident with the ball?” (this required a lot of gesturing)Me: “Probably, but I can’t remember one”

Student: “How big is the explosion?”

Me: “What explosion?”

Student: “When the New Year ball explodes, how big is it? How many people get hurt?”