Okay... So September Has Come and Gone

Random thoughts and recollections:

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I went to the McDonald's up in Kanaike to grab a quick bite to eat between lessons.  I took a seat "galley seating" area and looked over towards the windows.  What caught my eye immediately was a "chonmage", a topknot, being sported by a young fellow.  There were three youths sitting at that table; two looked like high school students and the last one, the one sporting the chonmage, was wearing a heavy yukata/light kimono.  He obviously was a sumo wrestler.  Given his looks, his somewhat slim build for a sumo wrestler, and his company I figured he probably would've been in one of the lower divisions, perhaps Sandanme or Jonidan.

When I got back to work and mentioned who I had seen to my co-worker, he immediately said "Wow! I would've chatted him up right away".  I pointed out that the young wrestler was with friends and I wasn't about to intrude on the group.  My co-worker agreed with "Yeah, I see what you mean"....

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One of my kids classes consists of four sixth graders and one fifth grader.  They've just completed a text and to my surprise they were able to pass the final test on their first attempt.  Thus I'm going to spend a working on their English phonics skills and review the text before moving them along to the next level textbook.  In order to add a little variety to the class I decided it would be a good time to teach them a song to sing in English.  My choice was The Beatles "Yellow Submarine".  I distinctly remember learning Beatles tunes when I was back in fourth grade so I figured "Why not?".

After a first reading of the lyrics I went back to see how much the kids understood.  I picked a few phrases which I figured the kids probably wouldn't be able to suss out and gave them rough translations.  One student is quite bright and he made inquiries as to the meanings of some other words and phrases.  I sang the tune to them once, where the kids snickered a bit, and then had them go at it.  First they read it with some semblance of the song's melody.  Then I pulled out a CD and played the track for them.  Finally I had them sing along with the CD.

At the end of all that the fifth grader looked at me and asked "What's the purpose of this?".  "It's just for fun", was my reply.   I told one of my co-workers about that exchange and he laughed and said "That's just like him!".

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