"I've decided to quit romping."

Im always amazed by the sentences I read from my students on their homework. Most are boring, such as: I promise to study harder, Im going to go to bed earlier etc. But every once in awhile i get an absolute gem that not only leaves me scratching my head wondering what in the world they could mean, but also provides some much needed amusement during the day.

Ive been teaching about New Years resolutions and so Im having to teach them "Im going to", "I promise to", "Ive decided to" etc. They have to fill in the rest of the sentence with their own ideas (which, trust me, is like pulling teeth. Getting japanese students to think for themselves is near impossible.). Anyway, yesterday I came across a girl whose English was pretty good, although it was obvious she was using her little electronic dictionary for every other word. How do I know this, you ask? Well because she would write things like "I've decided to quit romping." Im sure she didnt learn the word romp from any of the japanese teachers! Anyway, Im still trying to figure out what she REALLY meant by that. But it still gave me a chuckle! So today as im grudgingly sifting through and correcting their japenglish, I come across another one! This girl said, "I'm going to cut down on deserting dust" as a way to help the environment. Now immediately I picture a girl running about capturing and saving all the dust bunnies she can, and burst out into an audible giggle (which in the deadly silence of the staff room, is a bit weird). Im assuming she meant that she wants to cut down on waste and trash... who knows where she got "deserting dust", most likely her little electronic dictionary. Those things can be more detrimental than helpful at times.

And its not only the students I hear strange English from either, but the teachers themselves! One of my JTEs (jp teacher of eng.) came up to me to confirm tomorrows classes.

"Excuse me Angie-sensei. Tomorrows classes are 1st and 5th period, right?"

"Yes they are, thats right."

"So the first part of the lesson (insert japanese here that I didnt understand)"

"Um, sorry, Im not sure what you mean. The tongue twisters?" (Im teaching them tongue twisters for the warm-up)

"Ah, yes, yes, yes. Very good, so I'll go eat some tempura."

"Um excuse me?"

"Tongue twisters, yes so I'll go eat some tempura."

(Smiling and nodding) "Uh, ok....."

Yeah...... I still havent figured out what in the world that was all about! What the hell does tempura have to do with tongue twisters?? Maybe if Id understood her babbling in japanese itd make more sense.. but who knows!

Hey, whatever, just another day at Nishinokyo High!