Oh My Students...

I love them so much... and it's funny that even after two and a half years-ish... they still manage to shock, surprise and plain out make me laugh.

I was teaching second graders today. Basically doing a random activity with differentiating between the adjectives long and short... and more specifically, the respecting superlatives... longest and shortest.

So, divided into lunch groups, I told them to find the longest and shortest of certain objects within their group... and then compare it to all the groups for team points. Obviously the shortest or longest of a certain object will get the point.

Things seemed to be going rather smoothly... but, as time passed I began running out of ideas.

That's when I decided to come up with things that would benefit girls... since, I tended to come up with boy biased things (longest shoe, longest hand, shortest hair... etc.). So, knowing girls would have shorter bottom clothes (don't know what's the correct word for it... but, pants, shorts, skirts... that stuff), I went along with that.

In Japanese... the language tends to borrow some foreign words... just change the pronunciation a bit to make it easier to say. For example... cake ---> kehkey (spelled phonetically)... door ---> doah... bed ---> bedoh... PC, or personal computer ---> pahsocon (shortened version of pahsonoru conpyutah)... you get the gist of it.

Well... sometimes, the foreign-borrowed word has a different meaning to the actual word. One good example, pants does not become pantsu. I mean, sometimes it works... but, that's usually for Japanese people that are more familiar with the English language. The word pantsu, however, usually refers to underwear.

So, going back to my class... you can see how a problem could arise. So, after carefully wording myself... I was confident I wasn't going to have kids comparing the length of their underwear.

However, second graders being second graders... or actually... boys being boys... one kid wearing pants decided to compare his pantsu. I managed to stop him as he was unbuttoning and was like... "NO PANTSU!!!!!"

PHEW... catastrophe avoided.

Or so I thought... I turned around to see two other boys with their shorts at their ankles and saying, "Shortest pantsu!"

Yeah... I couldn't help but laugh... these kids are too much. I told them pantsu's didn't count... and they returned to their seats with their shorts still at their ankles.

Now, I'm not familiar with elementary kids back home... but, does that even happen?!?

Do kids strip down in the middle of class?

I know, for a fact... I don't remember seeing that when I was in elementary.

But, Japan... as conservative a country it is... sometimes has a different idea of modesty.

I mean... they have public baths and hot springs where they bathe naked... I know that kids in middle school will change to their PE clothes in the classroom between periods... while surrounded by other friends.

But, hey... that's what you experience while being in a different country and culture than your own... and it makes for funny stories to share later on... heh heh...

I love my kids... they keep things fresh and new!