Thursday, November 6, 2008

How are your philanges?

Being a junior high school teacher has its frustrating moments.

I have a few students who act like learning English is a big waste of time. On a scale of 1 to 10, their interest level is a one. I'm doing my best to change this! It annoys me immensely when they continually talk while I'm trying to teach, and I try to get them to pay attention.

Then there's Tomoki.

At the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Tomoki hangs on my every English word. On the 1 to 10 scale, his interest in English is at least a 15! Tomoki comes to my apartment twice a week for hour-long private lessons. If it were up to him, he'd probably come over every day of the week for the entire evening!

Tomoki knows that LOL stands for "laugh out loud" and IDK is "I don't know." He says "What's up?" and "Peace out, homie." And he also knows the word "philanges." All of this is my fault.

Philanges are the bones that form fingers and toes. I've always thought the word is kinda funny, and I taught it to Tomoki because he wanted to know a funny-sounding English word. That was a mistake. He uses it in everyday conversation now. HA!

Besides having a hunger for English knowledge (it's more like starvation, really), he has an exciteable, goofy personality. :) He took the following pictures with the self-timer on his fancy little camera. (He loves technology!)

Thinking deep English thoughts while staring at my laptop. (Totally posed. Tomoki's idea.)

Ohmygoodness, I can't believe it! (Again, posed. Again, I just followed his lead.)

Tomoki came to church with me on Sunday, and I introduced him to my friends there. Later, he sent me this e-mail:

Hi Dana,
How are your philangees? My philangees are fine. Thank you for inviting it to the church. I think I am going to go to church again. Please teach me when you go to church. I had a nice day. Today was very very good. Please teach me when you meet other ALTs. Because I want many foreigner's friends. My foreigner's friend are Dana&Liz&Mayla. Kenji has many foreigner's friend. I want to become a companion. Allright?
Tomoki


Tomoki with two of his "foreigner's friends." :)

Needless to say, the boy cracks me up. The other day he had written on his hand, "F's change notebook." He meant "exchange." (haha) And the day after Halloween, he rang my doorbell and said, "trick-or-treat" before presenting me with a box that contained three slices of cake! This isn't quite how the concept of trick-or-treating works, Tomoki, but I like your version better!

Tomoki is now into on-line social networking and has a profile on facebook. So I guess you can say that Tomoki and I are "officially" friends. Or as he says..."homies." :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Daaayna,
Tomoki sound like a very fun person, know wonder you and him get along so well! I cannot wait to meet him!
Love ya!
Ps: I hope your philanges are doing ok!

Wendy City said...

Dana, Tomoki clearly things you are the greatest thing ever.

You are going to have a huge impact on his life. Doesn't that feel crazy/awesome? :)

Amanda said...

I cannot wait to meet Tokomi!!!

He sounds like a neat boy, someone I'd really get along with. Tell him hi for me.