Today at school I continued my Christmas lessons. I’m having the students listen to “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”. It’s all fun and Christmas-y, until the teacher translates the part about finding Grandma dead at the scene with hoofprints on her forehead. The students’ reactions vary from laughter to shock, and the teacher tells them not to worry – that it’s black humor. Still, it beats “Jingle Bells”.
A funny thing happened when the teacher today was translating. He got a little confused and asked me, “So did Grandpa kill Grandma?” and I told him, “No, no. What kind of Christmas song would that be? It was Santa!”
He just nodded and explained to the students. My sense of humor is rarely understood, no matter what country I’m in.
After school I met up with Keiko-san, and she took me over to the local coffee shop to have dinner with a bunch of her friends. They are an enthusiastic group of women that are really into studying English. I spoke with all of them in a group setting, and then did some one-on-one conversations. They really rely on my Japanese, though, and they are clearly relieved when the conversation switches to Japanese. I still feel the same way when I speak with my Monday tutor – I need to get out of the English habit and really just speak Japanese.
We had a good time, and the first group of women left around 7 p.m. The others asked me to stay a little longer, so we chatted for another half hour before I said that I had to go. It was a fun time – they are really nice people.
Tomorrow should be a relaxing evening, and I’m looking forward to it. It’s been a busy week for me. Jane invited me to join a group of her friends for a run to the Mexican restaurant in Kobe, but I’m leaning towards skipping it. Later I’m hoping to go to Kobe with Kuniko to see the Luminarias, so I want to wait it out.
