Later

Now for a look on the other channel.
I've been complaining too much.
So on with a funny story:
I had my worst class ever yesterday. (Remember: not a complaint, a funny class).
I don't really care when my kids muck up. Especially if its a private class - when they waste their own money its fine - other kids mone is just not cool. This doesn't mean I let them get away with stuff. I'll try and steer the class towards their enjoyment - usually with reluctance - but if they are just being brattish - we can spend the entire lesson saying "no", "don't", and "minus points" and "sit down".
Without fail the first 10 minutes of this class (about 8 or 9 y.o. boy private) is spent saying these words (I'm 88% sure he has ADD) -- but usually its not even class time yet. Which can be jut befun - because in Japan its not freak out if you touch students --- so I can physically pull him away from my goodies shelf - as long as I do my best so he doesn't hurt himself.
Normally its bubbles and bingo - but yesterday he was set on playing Battleships -- which I don't think they have in Japan because I have to teach Junior High kids the game. This game is usually used as a final reinforcement so you can have question - answer - fire - return. So I just said no, and "Later". But he was at it still. I brought out 'Bingo' (Connect 4) and said we'll do this game (Rock Scissors Paperwinner asks a questionresponseput a counter inRSP again) and he replied "No, Later!".
Now, as I wasn't expecting "Later", and he had decided to start pretend sulking - so I had no clue what he said - or whether it was in English - especially with a Japanese 'L' (wader, waiter, raider, rbluber...?).
This was his mantra for the next 10 minutes. And I still didn't twig onto what was happening until he got up, pointed at battleships and said clearly "Later". He had obviously thought the name of that game was "Later". I seriously almost did the fall out of your chair onto the floor comical thing. By this stage he had somehow crossed the boundary from pretend crying to actual crying - not out of sadness - just from being a cranky little brat - and we were now on minus 1,000,000,000 points - I decided maybe it was time to cave in - we might get some semblance of a lesson yet.

(I didn't --- but his cries of "Later! Later!" still crack me up --- I'm sort of hoping this tale doesn't depict me as some sadistic hardass tormenting Japanese children for my own pleasure).

In other news -- I had the maximum permitted classes possible this week - plus two. It can seriously give you heart pain.

PS - Where are my nurses?