Ｊａｍｅｓ　Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ　Ｈｏｕｓｅ

It is customary for Japanese people who take trips to buy souvenirs for their family members and friends when they go someplace. This means, of course, that being a teacher means you get a lot of souvenirs. And other students in the class will get something as well.

One of my students went to Los Angeles and Las Vegas for a week and these are what she brought back for us. The snacks and the postcards were for the other two students in the class while the Grape-nuts were for me.

The snacks and the postcards are pretty standard souvenirs, but the Grape-nuts are a bit out of the ordinary. Why would I get Grape-nuts you ask? The student knows that I love granola and as she handed me the box she said, "I got you some granola." I replied, "Thank you, but this isn't granola. It's a breakfast cereal." "Are you sure?" she said, "look at the picture, it's granola." "Well," I countered, "look at the box, is the word granola written anywhere on it?" It took awhile to explain what the difference between grape-nuts and granola is. "I just looked at the picture on box.....and it looked so healthy......sorry!" was her carefree retort.

Another student in the class who likes to pick on me said, "You shouldn't complain, she got you something that you've never eaten before." I was a bit confused by this statement, "What do you mean??" I asked. "New is written on the box so you've never eaten this before," was her answer. It took a few minutes to explain that "new" meant that it was a just a new flavor for an old cereal.

The other student in the class then said, "Does the American Post Office sell food?" I was perplexed and asked what she meant. "Post is written on the box, isn't it??" It took awhile to explain that Post was the name of the company that made the food.

The three of them wanted to eat some of this and I poured a little into each of their hands. The first student started to complain, "I didn't get any of the red things like the others did. Give me some." So, I fished around in the box and gave her some of the dried fruit in the cereal. She picked one up and said, "Grapes in America are red??" "Huh, what are you talking about?" I got out as I recoiled in my seat. "The box says "grape" and these are red, so American grapes must be red!" It took awhile to explain what the name meant and how this was dried cranberry and not grapes. It was a pretty rousing start of the class.

Ah, the life of an ESL teacher in Japan! Never a dull moment and plenty of delicious snacks!!