Today’s lesson for 11 year-olds was spelling. Spell cat. Spell dog. Spell hippopotamus. Spell platypus. Spell your name. Spell Shunsuke’s name. Spell Keiko’s name. Spell my name. A ha!!!
I turned to my desk to pick up a sheaf of papers and when I turned back, I saw this on the whiteboard:
Shunsuke is hamusuta.
“Keiko,” I said. “No.”
I added the “a.”
Shunsuke is a hamusuta.
They always forget articles.
none of us speak japanois, ribu.
Cheech – “hamusuta” is not Japanese; it’s how Keiko spelled “hamster.”