This morning I put a bunch of crying Japanese girls on a bus to the airport. Although they brought a lot of stress and extra work into my life, I was sad to see them go. For one thing, I've never felt so tall amongst adults. It was the first time in my life that I have been asked to turn on the projector because others couldn't reach it. Also, my cat made my house a bit of a tourist attraction. (Nate Dubs, you were right about small, cute, and/or sparkly things being a hit.) In my short teaching career, I have been blessed with many wonderful students, but as a group, these were the sweetest and most pleasant.
Teachers aren't supposed to have favorites, but some students do bring me extra joy. The girl on my left in the above picture is the one I lost. She is so funny; she makes noises all the time. One of her most common exclamations was "Eeee - haa," uttered in two distinct syllables at very different pitches. For a while, I assumed she was saying something in Japanese with extra animation. Then I thought maybe she was just making some kind of expression through sound. Finally I discovered that Becca had taught her to say "Yeehaw."
Teaching ESL always guarantees a good laugh. Why is it so funny when our language is misused? I've blogged about mistranslations before, but I can't help myself from sharing www.food-faq.com with you. I'm not sure exactly how this site works. I think a bunch of people ask and answer questions about food - but maybe through an internet language translator?There are countless gems to be found, but here are a few of my favorite excerpts thus far:
Q: Is it ok to chomp through chickpeas every day?
A: Chickpeas are very low contained by saturated curvy and cholesterol. They are also a very dutiful source of dietary fiber, Vitamin B6 and Folate, and a very appropriate source of Manganese... I would say you could own them every day, but cut-off date your portions size... don't overindulge.
Q: Is the banana that is used surrounded by vegan banana cake as polite for you as if you just ate it unprocessed? If not, would I be better off not drinking it at all? I don't approaching raw banana.
A: Usually you lose some nutritional efficacy when you cook a raw fruit or veggie.
Q: I want to crumb and fry some vegetarian chicken-substitute fillet so that they have the flavour of Yukky Fried Chicken and after put them in buns beside mayonnaise to surprise my vegetarian boyfriend. He used to resembling it when he was a kid but won't devour real chickens now. What should I put in the crumb mix?
A: Tell him to act close to a man and eat some meat.
Q: Who think knees are better than elbows? (I'm not sure how this made it onto faq about food...)
A: A knee to the facade hurts far more than an elbow to the face.
Q: Can breakfast really be served adjectives year?
A: its always pious!
Q: A small dumpling octopus, forgot the autograph. Please aid!
A: Tako yakis are the bomb! Potato and egg starch are squirted into this tennis ball size mold on a hot plate. And boiled octopus tenticle will put inside the globe later.
oh my word that is hilarious!!!!!!! i LOVE your blogs about mistranslations! i miss you too!
It looks like you had so much fun with them!
broken english is one of my favorites. absolute favorites. hilarious. but i suddenly realize... i'm not sure exactly what your job entails...
Its always pious!! Ha ha!
Those translations are the best! and so are you, teacher!
You definitely finished off that one with a tasty morsel. Looks like you had heaps of fun. I had favorite students too. And Japanese people are so cool.
Classic Amanda!
Your blog made me laugh Amanda. I am glad that you were able to do some awesome ESL teaching. Haha....if I was right about the small/cute/sparkly...do you still doubt my tatoo advice?