On Tuesdays and Thursdays I tutor at the U of Washington in the ESL program.

Today I was talking with three kids (19,19,22), one from Korea, two from Japan, and we were talking about their host families after the lesson. The kid from Korea was saying how one of the kids in his host family takes about 4 showers a day. After wondering why in the world someone would take four showers a day, one of the Japanese kids says, "Maybe masturbation." OMG. The other Japanese kid heard him, but the Korean couldn't understand. So there we are the three of us laughing quite a bit. I'm a little stunned and taken back. It's just hilarious to hear some things from foreigners in an accent. So the poor Korean kid is asking, "What? What?" And finally he looks it up on his translator and is a little embarrased but laughs anyway.

So when I left about 40 minutes later to go to a different class, the one kid says, "Don't forget masturbation!" Jeez! "Never," I said. I mean really, how could one forget masturbation.

And then there's this smoking hot blond from Belarus. Damn.

Gotta write that one down for your memoirs. Very funny!

Sadly, this was the highpoint of my day. Well played!

I talked with her last week and she's cool. This week we were sitting across the room facing each other. When I started talking about bowling with the boys they mentioned she went with them. She heard us talking about her and started paying attention. And then she started with the eyes. Gahhhh......

While living in Tokyo, I designed the curriculum for an online English school & avatar world for NEC - an exclusive program to better prep employes for overseas assignments. Long & short: my contents developers held nothing back when creating text, net and open forum material. The most discussed topics behind practical business English were sex & potty talk. Three lessons alone were dedicated to diarrhea. No shit! And it was usually the ladies who would initiate conversation, nonchalantly reliving their recent bout with squirts. (Web cams are used to personalize the lesson - not that we really needed them.)

By the end of my five-year stint, I too could casually rap about the late night ramen ripping through me like the shinkansen.

so my wife works at home taking reservations for the theatre she works & acts at, and someone wants to reserve tickets under the name "dick over". she called back thinking it was a joke, and sure enough, it wasn't a joke. And sure enough, it's spelled just like it's pronounced.

Nice!

Are you on the main campus?

I work with a woman who has this last name. That's a tough one.

Back to the subject: in high school, I remember getting correspondence from students in France who were practicing their English. I remember only one line from the letter I got:

"What color are your hairs?"

Laughed hard at that one--I thank God that English is my first language, because I can't imagine trying to learn all of our idiosyncracies.

I´m on the main campus on Tuesdays and a downtown ESL branch on Thursdays. It´s really cool. Good times.

Been a while. We should get together sometime. Anything coming up?

My friend and I tried to explain to his girlfriend who is Japanese about a man's beard.
"But there are many hairs. Why is it singular? Just beard?"
"Well it's just one thing. The whole thing is the beard."
"But so many hairs!"
"Hmm."

Heehee, that is so funny. But don't forget, Japanese have a very sexual culture (and a strange one at that).

This is a very noble discussion. I would liken it to a sports team, where a group of people playing together can become greater than the sum of their parts. I think this board needs more Beard Appreciation...

I'd just like to say that my beard now rivals many cabbies here in chicago. I'm duly proud of myself.

That is all, return to your conversation.

-phil

Now this is a man who knows Beard Appreciation: