Just Another Day at a Japanese Elementary School

I normally spend my time teaching between two junior high schools, but a couple times a month, I'll teach at a local elementary school for a day. Today was my first visit to this particular school and it certainly had its highlights.

1. I had a full-on, real conversation in Japanese with the woman sitting across from my desk in the teachers' room. And at one point she told me my Japanese was "awesome." Usually, when people tell me my Japanese is awesome, I don't take them seriously because it's typically after I say something simple and stupid like "thank you" in Japanese. And then everyone's all like "wow you speak great Japanese!!" and then they'll say something else and I won't understand it and I feel like a tool. I used to not know what people were even saying when they were telling me my Japanese was awesome. Can you imagine? Having someone tell you you're great at speaking a language and then you don't even understand what they're saying? Freaking tool of the century. But anyhow, today was different. We were making jokes together, too. I think being able to joke around in another language is harder than it sounds. I spent much of the rest of the day not understanding tons of things that people would say to me, but it didn't matter. I was glad to have had that conversation.

2. Most of the elementary school kids I teach really look like little kids, but then there's always that tall awkward one that's starting to grow facial hair and barely fits in the desk. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure that was me growing up. Minus the facial hair.

3. Two kids asked me what my bra cup size was today. (Yeah, really....). One actually tried to cop a feel and at first I felt really awkward about it and then I laughed that he's going through puberty THAT BAD that he just grabs boobs whenever he sees them. Man....

4. One of my students today was a super cute baby-faced 6th grader...with hairy legs. I don't know why but it just felt weird to look at his legs...like he was half man half child.

5. I think seeing twins is always cute. I especially like them when they're little kids because they still look exactly the same. Neither of them has tried to change their hairstyle or fashion sense or anything to try and look different from the other one just yet. They just look identical and it's freaking cute as hell.

The end<3
M