Students make it all worth it

I realized that I am horrible about giving specific details and that these blogs have taken on the tone of simple, generic updates. Let’s try to remedy that!

My students are adorable, and I know I have said that several times. Allow me to finally elaborate.

At Iwatsuki, I teach a class called News English. It’s not necessarily about news, but we try to incorporate the media industry into it one way or another. For example, the final exam covered topics like advertising, censorship, fact and opinion.

Anyway, as this is a semi-advanced elective English class, the students have a slightly better grasp on the language. One student, however, approached me because she wants to improve. She has little confidence in speaking, although she listens attentively and is aware of the topics. Her strength lies in writing, so she came up with the idea of writing a daily English diary to me. It’s not overly complicated, but it’s daily reinforcement and I really enjoy making corrections and writing her little notes back at the bottom of each page. It has also cracked the barrier that lay between us. She has asked me questions about things I have written back to her, and then expanded the topic further in her journal.

There is also a pair of students that I like to call the ‘Society Girls’. Embarrassing as it is, I don’t know their names: I don’t teach their class (Sabina does) and I have 510 students total so cut me some slack. They earned their name because they asked me to translate the word 社会 into English one morning while walking to school, and it means ‘society’. Now, whenever they see me they shout out ‘Society!’.

Except… I had a cold when I said the word, so it came out sounding more like ‘Socie-tay’, ala Eric Cartman’s ‘authori-tay’. Of course the girls memorized my butchered pronunciation. I get a kick out of it every time.

Today, in fact, the girls bounded into the Staff Room, shouted ‘Socie-tay!’, then raced out and down the hallway shrieking ‘Teeeeeeigan!’, ‘Sabiiiiiina!’.

It’s a good thing the people around my and Sabina’s desk already think we are nuts, because we collapsed into giggles.