Teacher! You say Chinese!!!!

I found a new way to amuse my older students last week. Just throw in a Chinese word or two.
That's strictly forbidden for the students, since the only way you're going to learn a foreign language is to practice it as much as possible. (This can be a sticky situation for the teachers, who need to enforce the rule without looking like we hate their culture. But I like to think I'm pretty good at it.) It's not usually much of a temptation for me to speak Chinese, since there aren't very many things I can say in it.

But last week, I did have a kid ask what "thank you" meant. That's a fairly tough one to explain in simple language, if you think about it; and besides, he'd been studying English long enough that he really should have known anyhow. But, seeing as I was at a loss of how to explain it, I just said it in Chinese. (The most common Anglicized spelling is Tze Tze, two identical syllables starting with "sh" and almost rhyming with "pay," but not quite.)

And the kids loved it. "Teacher!" "Chinese!" "You can't speak Chinese in class!" "Say sorry!"

The kid who said the last one (the same one who'd asked what "thank you" meant, as it happened) was particularly insistent, so I said sorry. In Chinese. "Deibuchi." More laughs. Lots of them.

Since then, those kids have tried to encourage me to speak a lot more Chinese, including a number of phrases I don't know and which probably shouldn't be said in a classroom full of kids anyhow. It's come to be something of a running joke. "Teacher, say 'thank you' in Chinese." "Thank you in Chinese." They think that's pretty funny too.

Still waiting on a Third Recommender, by the way. I just love organizing this garbage from halfway around the world. At least most of my applications are ready to be sent as soon as I know whose name I can put in that third slot.