English teaching

I have been teaching English conversation to a group of grandmas and grandpas in a community center and it has been a blast. They respect me as a teacher but also treat me a bit like a grandchild. One of them always uses keigo (very formal respectful Japanese) with me and one calls me Veronika-chan and brings me candy and little seasonal presents. One can't here very well and only uses strong Hiroshima dialect. I very rarely know what he is saying but he always smiles at me and shows me translations of random words he looks up.

They decide the topics they want to talk about and it leads to both most interesting and most absurd conversations. I am learning so much from them and keep being amazed by their stories. Also, my English limits get tested regularly. Examples of the topics we talked about:

- dentists, teeth, types of teeth and their parts, mouth diseases, jaws, gums and ways their get infected
- disposable pocket warmers and how they work

- ways you can injure your back
- differences between a dean, principal, rector and university president
- cryptocurrency
- how planes work (and crash)
- many many many types of flowers and trees. pine trees and their parts. cutting instruments for different parts of pine trees.
- groups of animals - herds, flocks, schools. in Japanese, there is just one word for all the groups (mure), což vysvětluje, proč W. sensei nevěděl, jestli má magisterským studentům říkat stádo, nebo hejno monster.
- insects
- frauds in Japan and the world
- mental arithmetics and abacus school clubs
- endless list of Japanese festivals and traditions
- egg hole puncher (yes, it is a thing. you can buy one in daiso for 100 yen)

Seeing the cute elterly grandma literally jumping with excitement in front of the white board as she explained how eggs work and pretended to be the forces inside an egg was one of the highlights of everything. Getting excited about how eggs work when I retire is lifegoals.

languages

- watching Q. (Chinese) and H. (Japanese) talk about chinese characters and kanji might be one of the most mind-blowing and absurd things I have ever witnessed. watching the connection between the characters and the languages is a language freak dream come true.
- panda in Chinese is written with the characters for bear and cat. penguin for standing and goose.
- number of people that know the word for penguin in Czech, tučňák, is growing significantly. I have a sense of accomplishment.


- my Czech class has started again and I have three new students. They are awesome and it is so rewarding and fun to see their progress. We watched Bob and Bobek because they wanted to see a Czech cartoon. It was only our third class so I thought it would only be for the animation. But they understood so many words like prosím, děkuji, dva, králíci and naříznout (před tím jsme koukali na krtečka, kde ježek stavěl myšce po potopě dům, připravoval dřevo a u toho si zpíval řízi říz. pak v Bob a Bobek šli do školy sportu, kde trenér cvičil karate (!!) a přelamoval rukou destičky. králíci mu nevěřili, že to takhle dokáže, a tvrdili, že ty destičky jsou určitě naříznutý).
- the concept of cuteness in Japan is ever-present and so they already know how the word roztomilý
- following Czech conversations are happening spontaneously:

Mám ráda roztomilý králíky. Doma máme psa a králíka.
Já mám dva psy.
Výborně!
Děkuji

All "teachers" were supposed to prepare a small introduction for their language classes. The penguin situation - this is what it has come to.