Oh, by the Way...

I came in to work a few minutes early today. The other teacher has left, and the new one arrives on Monday...I've been asked to cover both my class and her classes meanwhile. It works well enough since most of the older kids are studying for exams and aren't all making it in. Still, it requires A BIT of extra work. Also, my vacation starts Thursday, so I wanted to get ahead and get things organized and ready for my return. I'll be climbing Mount Fuji in a few days, and working pretty much as soon as I return. The less I have to prepare when I come back, the better...

So imagine my, um, surprise, when I walked into my class and glanced at the note on my desk. Notes, it turns out, are my boss's prefered way of communication. Imagine my surprise, then, not at seeing one of these customary notes, but upon grasping its content. The note, today, was to let me know that report cards are due. They are due tomorrow. All 163 of them.

Breathe, Blanchard. BREATHE! And besides, it okay. I type really fast.

You Know You've Mastered the Language When...

Usually, the students I teach last on Tuesday are engaged and witty. Today, however, was a constant battle for productivity. They came in wanting to "just talk" and promised me they "wouldn't tell" the school's director. Touching. They coaxed, and cajoled... and I kept plowing through the material. We were reading an article on David Beckham, and the text was supported with pictures. I'd developed a sudden interest for soccer and no sodden 15 year-old could vie for my attention for very long.

At one point, we were getting through a discussion worksheet that had the students address Beckham’s feelings through the media outlash that surrounded his move to Spain. They had to scour through an autobiographical text and come up with examples of his emotional turmoil.

Usually quite animated, our exchanges tonight were lackadaisical. Beck’s darling blue eyes didn’t have the same effect on them as he had on me, I guess.

‘Teacher! I think he was anxious.”

-Okay, what else?

“He was nervous, and excited.”

“He was sad.”

“He was depressed.”

-Sure. But, come on! What ELSE?! Put yourself in his place… You’ve just left your country, you’re a world-renowned celebrity, and nothing you do is going right! How DO-YOU-THINK-HE-FELT?

‘Teacher! I think he was like a teenage boy: his feelings always going up, and down, just like a rollercoaster…”
-Ahh…now we’re talking. Very poetic, Daniel. Well-said.

“Or”, pipes the very same Daniel, “he just very badly wanted to use a four-letter word.”

These are the days of my life. 8)