Today at school
I was eating lunch with one of the eighth grade classes. I ended up sitting next to a girl who is a swimming legend in our school. She's the only one in our school on the swim team, but she has won state championships.
So I asked her a few questions.
"When did you first start swimming?" I said.
She had to have help having that question translated.
"Four," she said, holding up four fingers for some reason.
Ok.
"Why did you start?"
A few more minutes passed wherein everyone at the table banded together to figure out what I'd just said, and how to answer it. Answering a "Why" question is difficult in any language.
"Fun," she said.
"It's fun?" I said.
"Yes," she said.
I was expecting her to say something like her parents had made her do it or she wanted to win a medal, which I would've heard her first say in Japanese.
I do this a lot, actually. When I want to hear the answer, sometimes even though I know it's a question that maybe is too difficult for them to answer, I ask it. This is because they then ask their friends "How do I say [whatever their answer is] in English?" I also get to hear them think aloud and choose if they want to bother telling me an honest answer or not.
For example: "What's your favorite manga?"
Boy [in Japanese]: "I don't really read manga. How do you say that in English?"
Boy 2 [in Japanese]: "Just name some popular manga title and she won't bug you anymore."
Boy [in Japanese]: "Ok." [In English] "I like One Piece."
I nod politely like I am completely fooled by this, and mentally note that the boy doesn't actually like manga.
Anyway, she simply said that swimming is fun, and so she does it.
Next question: "Do you have a pool at your house?"
She didn't need a translation for this one. I was so pleased that she could correctly translate it into Japanese that I almost missed the astounded comments from everyone else in the lunch group.
"Did she just ask her if she has a pool?"
"What kind of a weird question is that?"
"That's so strange."
It was like I'd asked if the girl enjoys swimming on land as much as in water.
And then I remembered that I have never seen any house in Japan with a pool in the backyard. Ever. Part of me thought that since she's so hard-core at swimming that her parents would install one. My school where I teach is, after all, in the middle of no where. Space isn't so much of an issue here.
But apparently it's still incredibly unheard of to have a pool in one's backyard in Japan. I still have so much to learn.
So I asked her a few questions.
"When did you first start swimming?" I said.
She had to have help having that question translated.
"Four," she said, holding up four fingers for some reason.
Ok.
"Why did you start?"
A few more minutes passed wherein everyone at the table banded together to figure out what I'd just said, and how to answer it. Answering a "Why" question is difficult in any language.
"Fun," she said.
"It's fun?" I said.
"Yes," she said.
I was expecting her to say something like her parents had made her do it or she wanted to win a medal, which I would've heard her first say in Japanese.
I do this a lot, actually. When I want to hear the answer, sometimes even though I know it's a question that maybe is too difficult for them to answer, I ask it. This is because they then ask their friends "How do I say [whatever their answer is] in English?" I also get to hear them think aloud and choose if they want to bother telling me an honest answer or not.
For example: "What's your favorite manga?"
Boy [in Japanese]: "I don't really read manga. How do you say that in English?"
Boy 2 [in Japanese]: "Just name some popular manga title and she won't bug you anymore."
Boy [in Japanese]: "Ok." [In English] "I like One Piece."
I nod politely like I am completely fooled by this, and mentally note that the boy doesn't actually like manga.
Anyway, she simply said that swimming is fun, and so she does it.
Next question: "Do you have a pool at your house?"
She didn't need a translation for this one. I was so pleased that she could correctly translate it into Japanese that I almost missed the astounded comments from everyone else in the lunch group.
"Did she just ask her if she has a pool?"
"What kind of a weird question is that?"
"That's so strange."
It was like I'd asked if the girl enjoys swimming on land as much as in water.
And then I remembered that I have never seen any house in Japan with a pool in the backyard. Ever. Part of me thought that since she's so hard-core at swimming that her parents would install one. My school where I teach is, after all, in the middle of no where. Space isn't so much of an issue here.
But apparently it's still incredibly unheard of to have a pool in one's backyard in Japan. I still have so much to learn.