Mug

I have learned a very useful Japanese word this weekend, it translates into English as "mug". Not the one you drink from, but the one from "you have one hell of a mug" :P. Please check the dictionary if you'd also like to know this wonderful word.

I am sure I will have plenty of opportunities to use such a useful word, muahahaha. (Hopefully not)

I've been learning a lot of random crazy vocabulary from my friends, students, TV, and other people. By crazy I mean the kind you would not use in a polite conversation at dinner table :P. I am not planning on using them, but then it's nice to know so you can understand when your students are saying things they shouldn't be in the classroom.

I wonder if my kids know and use the word "mug".

I sometimes feel like it would be fun to record a day in school,or just one clas, and transcribe it. Some of my students get pretty creative with language, Japanese and English. The things they come up with amaze me sometimes.

Today one of my students came into the office before the lesson and told me something about her day at school. Then I go, "so you were tired?" Blank stare. "Tired?" Another blank stare. "Tired?" (accompanied by a gesture). She goes, "はい、つかれた！” (which basically means, "yes, tired"). And then she repeated, "tired" (in English). Amazing, no? She's seven, I think.
During the same conversation I went, "spring! Outside, (point outside of the window), "nice weather!" And she goes, "sunny and warm!" I was floored. We do weather every week, she knows "it is sunny and warm", but she doesn't know the word "spring", and while I say "nice" a lot, I never translated it for her class either. Usually I don't see the kids speak outside of the classroom, and outside the designated task (e.g. talking about the weather when we are not pointing to the weather card). I mean, these are kids who get confused when you ask them "how old are you" outside of class, even though we review "how old are you" every week in the classroom.

I guess in the end of the day, all the arguing with the kids, the "please sit down, please be quiet, please do your homework", and all the energy drain by the time I finish my last lesson, is really worth it if you can have moments like this one.

I probably sound like a little kid, and I probably said this many times before, but when I get glimpses of how people learn, I am just stunned, and moved beyond words. I feel like a child in a candy store. Human brain is an amazing thing, and people are such such amazing creatures for being able to learn the way we do.

And on a totally unrelated note, gee, I have a fever today. I thought my cold was gone too.... O_o..... Hehe, this time I have someone to blame too, a friend who got me to ride without a jacket in a weird jeep car that had no roof or doors... but that's a story for another day, and I am probably too lazy to write about that anyway, but it was one cold drive (X_X)....

Aaaanyways, I am off to sleep, I have to teach kindergarten tomorrow morning. It's sad, every time I go there I am so sleep-deprived.... somehow it just happens that I don't sleep enough on the days before the kindergarten lesson, no matter what day of the week it is.