From the "Teacher" File

I think it's kinda funny how God puts us in places way out of our comfort zones and gets us to learn new things. I'm kinda in a weird place right now because I've had no education on how to teach, and yet I'm teaching people, and they're expecting to learn. Probably about half of my students are older than me, and until two weeks ago, I was still technically a kid in their eyes. Must be humbling for them I think.
But I would like to share with you all some things you can laugh with me with about my new job as a teacher.

-> About a month ago I was teaching a joint adult class, because Arnie was somewhere for some pastor's meeting, so for that class I used different textbooks that focus on listening. It came up in the text, something about 'finding a girlfriend'. They kinda looked confused so I asked them what they thought it meant. This one guy who is 50 but looks like he's about 30 jumped in and was like, "HUNTING!" And I just about lost it. And the funny thing is he was being serious.

-> In my beginner kid's class right now I'm teaching them, well pretty much everything, which includes how to write the alphabet and what the letters are called. They were having problems with remembering "w", so I explained that it was like a double "u" and drew it like that on the board. The kids started laughing and I didn't know why. Then one kid came up and took a marker and drew how the Japanese people draw poop. It's not my fault I draw my "w's" the way the toilet companies print people bums on the toilet buttons. I will never draw a "w" like that for a class of 7-year-olds again.

-> Mountain vegetables are very popular here. Side story: One day I was hiking on a mountain with some people and there was a whole lot of rustling in the bushes beside where we were walking. Since we were in bear country we were all quite scared...until we figured out it was just a grandma picking mountain vegetables on a nice summer day. Next time she should go to a more convenient spot where she will not be mistaken for a wild carnevorious bear.
Back to my english story. People like to translate things straight across from Japanese to English. There is a popular mountain vegetable here called takenoko, which is a baby bamboo shoot (I actually really like them). One day in English class I was talking with the HUNTING! man, and he's like, "Have you ever eaten bamboo children?" haha. I couldn't help but laugh. Poor guy. Makes sense in Japanese, but worth a laugh or two in English.

-> One day I was doing an activity with the months in a kid's class; they were in two groups with month cards, and they had to race to put them in order. We did this more than once though, because it doesn't take very long, so they had to mix them up in between. The Japanese word for 'mix' is 'mazemas'. I don't know why I said this, other than to make it fun for both me and the kids, but I started saying "mazeh-mazeh-mazemas", kinda rhythmically. (It's quite fun to say; try it yourself.) But then I heard the kids talking amongst themselves. They were like, "Why is she saying that? It's baby talk." So then I was a teacher, saying the equivalent of "goo-goo-gaa-gaa" in the middle of class. Sigh. Just another time my language skills are challenged by an eight-year old. But laughable now, in hindsight.

All in all teaching is an adventure, quite a stretching adventure. But times like these perk it up a little and add joy to my day..and my days after, when I think about these stories and laugh to myself.
If you didn't laugh, you probably had to be there...