Okay, quick update here to fulfill my once a week obligation. I hope to have some time to write on Thursday night, but I'm not sure I'll be able to find spare moments. Sorry. The drivers test update is halfway done, but I'm too tired to finish now.

ON BEAUTIFUL QUESTIONS
Middle of class. 30 Japanese students looking on. Teacher turns to you and asks, "Do you know how to reproduce?" How do you answer? Turns out it's a teaching technique they use in Japan, and the term "reproduce" is the best translation they have for it. Nice. Who would have thought? I just figured it was going to be a really, really interesting question.

ON BEING LOST IN CONVERSATION
I "teach" an English adult conversation class in which 5 elderly Japanese people sit around and talk in Japanese for 2 and 1/2 hours. Highlight of my life, really, because I couldn't ever hear Japanese otherwise. Wait. I'm in Japan. I hear it EVERY DAY. I so dislike teaching this class. Imagine 5 people you really don't like. Doesn't have to be a reason you don't like them - they just get on your nerves. Now imagine having to sit in a room around a very small table with them. For 2 and 1/2 hours. Every week.

They talk for the whole time, mostly in Japanese. I will sometimes make a contribution in English (it IS an English conversation class), and they will nod, one of them will translate for the others (only one of the 5 even attempts to speak English), and then they will discuss whatever I said in Japanese. Occasionally one of them will turn to me after a joke and encourage me to laugh at it. They will be talking for maybe 20 minutes straight in Japanese (at which point my eyes have glazed over, when suddenly, someone will turn to me and say, "It was a joke. So funny!" through their laughter. Ahahahaha...yeah, I still don't understand Japanese, especially not jokes that take 5 minutes to explain. Last week, they were once again speaking in fast Japanese, and I was trying to catch some of it. I caught a few references to years (1992-1993), and I think I heard the word "dog", but I'm not sure. They all then burst into peals of laughter. One of them turned to me and said, by way of translation, "It's so funny! 1993!" and then looked at me expectantly. That was no help. That was actually the only part of their conversation I understood. Why did she translate that? And what was so funny about 1993? I was 11. Unless it was a joke about Tiny Toon Adventures, I probably wouldn't have understood it. You know the part of the song "Mary had a Little Lamb" that says, "It made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh and play..."? Well, this conversation class makes me want to scream and cry, scream and cry, scream and cry.

ON IDEAS FOR GAMES THAT I'LL NEVER USE
I was trying to think of new games to play with the elementary school students. I was teaching them the names for various items of clothing, and I thought that we could play a type of go-fish. But as the thought further developed, I could see problems. "Taro, do you have any pants?" "Yes, here." "No, Taro, you're supposed to hand over the card with the picture of the pants..." But I do think it would be supremely fun to hear someone say, "Jun, do you have any pants?" "No, go fish."