Friday, September 28, 2007

TGIF & American TV Boy dilemma


Today I taught my students the phrase T.G.I.F. As it is Friday, we Americans tend to use this phrase quite frequently so I thought I would teach it to my 一年生 ichinensei (first grade) students. I taught them that T means thank and G means God and I means It's and F means Friday. Then I had the Japanese teacher explain the deeper meaning to them in Japanese. We practiced this many times and they seemed to enjoy using T.G.I.F. (F.Y.I.: T.G.I.Friday's is the name of a restaurant/bar chain in America.)

American TV Boy is a topic totally unrelated to T.G.I.F. But I thought I might as well write about it before I forget. The other day I had this really naughty kid come up to me at my desk in the teacher's room 職員室 (shokuinshitsu) and he looked down at me with this impish little grin. I said "Hi American TV Boy." He said hi back and then he asked me, "Big Booger-sensei, what's your email?" all in English. I was shocked that he could speak English so well, so I gave him one of my online email addresses and prepared for the worst.

I was thinking this kids is going to send me some spam, a virus, nude photos or some other inappropriate thing, but then I get his email:

Hello��
I replied back and then he sent me another email:

I am fine thank you !
Do you like play station or nintendo ?
I like American game.
That game name is a Grand theft.
Grand theft is DANGER !!
Who is the most favorite person in a Prison break?
Because I use English translation of the PC, I may become a funny sentence.


And I replied back that I like some games and I knew Grand Theft Auto and so on. I discussed some American TV shows and he seemed to zero in on TV. He seemed to really be a huge Prison Break fan. Prison Break is a show about a brother who goes to prison to break his elder brother out.

And so we emailed back and forth about the TV programs, games, movies and just about any other topic a typical 3rd year student might be interested in. I never dreamed this kid would be so interested in American TV and culture. But then I get this email:

I am good !!
I have the elder brother.
The age is 18.
Opening was seen with Youtube.
INVASION seems to be interesting.
I was surprised because Mahorn of PrisonBreak had gone out.
I think that I borrow DVD because it look very interesting.
I know Florida state.
For me, the drama in the United States seen for the first time is AXN.
I wanted to be born in the United States.
[Big Booger] teacher's younger brother is 14 years old wonderful with the high school student.
I am 14 years old.
What kind of person is [Big Booger] teacher's wife?
My elder brother retired though he learnt the judo.

So now I don't know what to say to him about wanting to be born in the United States. I guess I 'll have to think about it a while before I reply.

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