Thursday, December 3, 2009

Liberté

When we got here they asked us to teach American English, which pissed me off a bit. I mean, colour, favourite, centre, right? Well, always being the model employee that I am, I obliged and kept my mouth shut (except for the times where I wanted to talk, eat, drink and you know, breathe and stuff). Whatever, today I get to elementary school and I have to teach English words that the Japanese use in everyday life but massacre. In Japan, a radio is a ra-jio. A TV is a terebi. A lemon is a remon. And salad is saladaa. So yeah, I’m going through the flash cards and then I get to ‘Parfait’... as in parfait the dessert. Well I first said ‘par-fay’ like a dumb American trying to speak French. The next flash card was ‘Gratin’. So I said gratin like an American tourist walking around Paris and acting fancy (with ‘tin’ pronounced like in ‘tin foil’). And then I realized what I was doing. I was denying my roots, yo! Parfait and gratin are French and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna teach them the wrong thing to say. So I came back to those two French flash cards and I said: ‘Look, when you say parfait and gratin, you actually say it better than the Americans, so please, never ever ever change that’. And then I made the flash cards into giant paper planes and threw them out the window. It was a beautiful moment. I felt very liberated, like a girl taking off her bra (Not that I would know how that feels because… you know, I would never wear a bra… except on half moon, Tuesdays and the 2nd and 3rd Mondays of every month).

8 comments:

Angela said...

Your insubordination is inspiring - been watching Dead Poets? Just don't start shovelling Carpe Diem down their throats.

And, while we are on cultural heritage words - "Worcestershire" is particularly grating when pronounced the non-British way...

-Angela

PS A girl removing her bra is a liberating as you getting to remove a girl's bra.

Thunderstorm said...

Toujours aussi fort ton blogue P-Pourquoi! Mais disons que ce punchline m'a vraiment surpris!

Puis le commentaire posté aussi. Merde, les poètes sont loin d'être morts. Robin Williams a les oreilles qui lui cillent en ce moment...

Guillaume

Angela said...

Response to the surprised former: Never said poets were dead - just unoriginal when spouting Carpe Diem.

And Robin William's ears can keep ringing - he's an ACTOR. Don't take the character literally - he also played Mrs Doubtfire.

Respectfully,

-Angela

Jean-Luc said...

Je suis fier de toi, faut pas tu renies tes origines boyyyy...
Jee

Thunderstorm said...

Dear Angela, I think you misunderstood my comment. It's probably the fault of the language and my fast writing... I wanted to say a eulogy about your comment.

By the way, Mrs Doubtfire is my favourite movie! I still have to return it to the Blockbuster because it's three weeks late now. But, I'm still in communication with Megan Roberts, the store manager to get my fees waived.

Regards,

-Guillaume

Julie et la Tivi said...

J'aurais aimé voir ça!
Les racines, P-Y, faut jamais oublier.
Allez, va lancer une paire de souliers de course encore attachés sur un fil électrique du Japon. :)
xxx

Frank said...

Look at you, Braveheart-sensei

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