5.2.07

there's no substitute

Today in language class, our regular teacher, Teacher-ji, was sick and so we had a sub. Substitute-ji made class...interesting. I did learn the equivalent for "y'all", so that was great. And he really helped out with some work words that we had never learned before, so even better. But he went off on the craziest tangents. At one point, he started telling us, in Greek, the different types of love! Not that knowing the difference between eros, philia, and agape isn't important, but I wasn't quite sure how that fit in with language learning. To describe eros, he said he would draw us a picture. He drew a wavy line, then said, No, that's not it, and erased it. Then he repeated that wavy line/erasure step 4 times before he finished what he was drawing. I thought surely this must be some intricate and detailed picture he is trying to draw, what with all the erasing and re-dos. After close inspection, we realized Substitute-ji had drawn that oh-so intricate and detailed symbol - a heart. I could only tell it was a heart because of the arrow going through it.

Substitute-ji is as nice as he can be, but when he started singing a song in English in the middle of class, I found myself wishing for a miraculous healing for Teacher-ji. About halfway through the song, Substitute-ji must've come to his senses, because he stopped abruptly with this What am I doing? look on his face. I've never had that happen in a class setting before, so it was pretty entertaining. I hope Teacher-ji is back tomorrow for class.

4 comments:

jrob said...

That was one of greatest classes ever! I love going to class with you.

Anonymous said...

aww I've missed reading your blogs. I have been so busy, that I haven't been able to get on here in weeks. hope things are going well and I can't wait to catch up on all your entries.

merritt said...

You know we teachers plan subs that way. See, normally students are thrilled to have the teacher gone, but when we get terrible subs, it makes our students love and miss us like we want them to do!

Thanks for babysitting so we could experience the Old City!

julie said...

i am rolling into town sometime monday morning. we need to hang out!