Would you like to...

This is what I've been teaching to the 9th graders this week and last. P.28 of the New Horizon textbook where Judy asks Shin to go to a rock concert with her on Sunday. They're meeting in front of the station at 1:30. I've convinced most of the students that Judy is really asking Shin on a date. One of my teachers pointed out that Mike and Emi are probably a couple as well since they went on a picnic together in the 7th grade textbook - famous for the line "Oh! My cola!" (Don't worry Emi wiped up the spill with her hankie.)

We tried motivating them by telling them this is very useful English to use on cute foreigners. The unfortunate side effect however is that several of the boys have decided to practice on me. I love my students and there are several of the boys who if I were 14 I would be in love with. But I'm not 14. I'm 28 and their English teacher so when Kazuki asked me if I would like to come to his "Go to bed early party. It very enjoy," I threw my pen at him and told him "No!" and then a calmer "I'm sorry I can't. I'm busy." per the dialogue.

That was last week at Tobu JHS. This week at Tahara JHS I had 2 "Would you like to sleep with me?" 1 "Would you like to go to bed with me?" and 1 creative "Would you like to make a baby?" And I'm only half done with the 9th grade. I didn't realize my last week of teaching in Japan would consist of being repeatedly propositioned by 15 year old boys.

It reminds me of the time I was in a supermarket in Lyon, France and a teenage boy informed me that he had a "big tick." He seemed quite proud and repeated it over and over. I told him he should probably get that checked out by a doctor. At least my Japanese students are using correct English and polite English at that. One thing you can count on the world over though is that junior high school boys are all the same