Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Japanese fail

In fifth grade English classes recently, we have been working on "What's this?" and answering "It's a ~." I use this question all the time, so they understand it, but they always forget the "It's a" part and just answer "pen." 

Anyways, today we played a Mystery Box game where the class would ask and one student would reach in the box through the hole and have to tell what it is. Then we played a game where they had to figure out what a picture was when they could only see part of it. 

The kids had a whole lot of fun and one student asked me what the name of the game was when she was trying to write her reflection (this class does this at the end of every English class). I wanted to tell her (in Japanese), "you can call it whatever you like," but my answer came out in a big jumble of words. She nodded that she understood and we both giggled a little. 

It took me a minute to sort out the correct way to say what I was trying to say (or at least a sensible one): 「何の名前使ってもいい。」 (Nan no namae tsukatte mo ii). 

After I thought of it, I went back and confirmed it and she gave me an ok. 

When I make silly mistakes, my students see that trying is more important than getting it right all the time.