Tuesday, December 20, 2005

A bright spark

I laughed until I cried today. Long time since that has happened.
The teacher I was working with handed out a work sheet. The topic was telephone conversations. We were working with the beginners group. One funny student, who never stops talking, began reading some of the English to himself. Here are the actual words...
May I speak to Naho, please?
Speaking.
He stuttered his way successfully through the first line. The only trouble there was the Japanese name (I was surprised at this). Next he attempted the word 'speaking'. It was new for him. He tried anyway and announced loudly 'sparking'. His dialogue was as follows...
May I speak to Naho, please?
Sparking!
I started to laugh as did the other teacher... I continued to the point of crying. The student is so good natured he laughed too and asked, "What does sparking mean?"

5 comments:

Victoria said...

what DOES sparking mean?

Turning Japanese said...

Hmmm, I guess like the following...
Ahhh, look out. My microwave is sparking! It is going to explode.
Something where sparks are coming out. He kind of said it quite naturally and I couldn't help but laugh. The whole thing was spontaneous.

Dan said...

This was probably the greatest blog entry ever. Thanks for the informative insight into Japanese culture. Please teach us more oh wise one.

Dan

J-girl said...

Glad your student took it so lightly. I once accidently laughed at something a student said, and I think I scarred him for life. Oops.

J-girl said...

Are you feeling better yet? Ganbatte! You have to be well for your trip!