Nip It in the Bud

In schools there's never a dull moment when you are teaching with teenage Japanese children.  Today I was teaching a lesson on  the following pattern:

"Do you like ~?"   Why? /Why not?
With the answer being:

"I like ~ because it is/they are ~"

 I had taught the students several fruit names from pomegranate to blackberry and words about taste like disgusting, tasty, delicious, and yummy.  After teaching those words, I then gave them a worksheet and they went around the room polling their friends and taking notes about what they like and what they don't like using the targeted vocabulary and sentence patterns.

Well one little squirmy, sly and quite intelligent boy who can speak English rather well comes up to me and asks, "Do you like shit?"  Now I could have told him to piss off and scolded him for it, but then I knew by making a scene out of it, this would only add fuel to the fire.  So I just said, "I don't like shit because it is disgusting."  And moved on leaving the kid feeling a bit let down that I didn't overreact and make a scene.

Sometimes teachers have to learn that there are times to address things like bad language and their are times not to.  For me this was the right way to handle it.  If I had made a scene all his friends would have asked him later on and then I would have a shit storm of shitty questions to answer later on in the year.

In essence I have nipped this one in the bud!