Teaching English in Japan is awesome and sometimes hilarious

I am not a fan of pants personally. When I typed this to a friend on dialup (I know horrible right?) I forgot the ' in girl's.

can be worse

haha!

Hahah. How old are your students? I'd hope they're kids, but I can also see a 35 year old Japanese salaryman writing this.

What a jerk. I teach English in Japan as well and have the respect not to ridicule my students behind their backs.

The sad thing is that while his grammar leaves much to be desired, his writing is far more legible than mine.

Teacher pickup FAIL.

Dis hirarious!

That was too hilarious!! I'm a teacher in Bangkok, Thailand. I have seen my fair share of funny/strange stories but I have to say that this takes the cake!

This stems from a translation error. Pants in Japanese [パンツ] traditionally means "panties". The student extended it to include the boxer variety for men. I'd have given this student an A!

Possible it´s a fake

I like pants

Hilarity. 楽しかったよ。 I wish my students said what they thought. Or any English at all for that matter.

"Pants" (パンツ) in Japanese refers to underwear… In case you didn't get that from reading this…

Pants in UK English refers to underwear. I'm guessing the teacher is from the UK. As an American living in london i've made the "pants" mistake in conversation many times. For example "Did you see that guys pants today? He wears those like three times a week!"

I agree with everything he said

Not only does "pants" mean underwear here, it's not even a mistranslation. It's a Britishism. What we call pants, they call trousers. They also call erasers "rubbers" and cigarettes "fags." And they call soccer "football" for some reason . . .

lololol that was funny

I studied Japanese while over in japan and had to do a report, I did it on Japanese bathrooms and toilets compared to the one's in America. I can only imagine that they posted my stuff like this…I had to give this speech I memorized in front of all the professors, They couldn't stop laughing it was great, nothing wrong with a little cross language humor.

In real English (from the motherland) we say pants for underwear. I guess he's not teaching them American English 😉

I like pants down

oh my god. relax, already.

good lord, pull the stick out of your ass- he did not ridicule the student, was merely a humorous letter.

I like walnuts sans pants

This looks fake. This writing demonstrates a good command over grammar that typically troubles Japanese learners, but the innappropriacy of the topic and content is not commensurate with the level of vocabulary and sentence structure. If a Japanese learner of English knows that much vocabulary and is that good with punctuation, they would write with much better organisation ( or at least they use Japanese organisation) and they would avoid taboo topics. And the fact that it is on the net suggests to me that the teacher is very unprofessional, and probably not above generating fraudulent content for his blog. Sad.

you ppl are such disgrace to make fun of the work of a student. shame on you!

how about blocking out the name? he trusts you as his teacher.

make up your mind, is it fake or not

Scolders, lighten up! If you ever taught English in Japan, you would know the unintentional funny things that are said and written. One of my students returned from a vacation in Mexico. I asked him, "What were the people like?" He said, "They were pussy." I then had to spend 10 minutes doing 's' and 'sh' drills.

no, because I is not the subject. So it is, "They appear to be smarter than me." You only use I when you are the subject, but in tis case, "They" is the subject.

I think that comma should be either a semicolon or a dash (though I'm not sure what the correct name for a "dash" is). More to the point, anyone who says "they appear smarter than I" is a pompous prick. Saying "they appear smarter than me" is, while technically incorrect, common enough that it's acceptable. So is "they appear smarter than I appear".

i'm in the wrong business.

Wrong, drunko. Both are right, depending on whether an implicit "am" sits at the end of the sentence. But grammarbolshevik's sounds less pretentious, so he wins.

As Rich said, in British English (which, by the way, is not necessarily "real" English*), "pants" means underwear. *I am British, by the way, not American.

If I was this student, I'd find it funny. I know that if the oral presentation I gave for my French GCSE which caused the teacher to nearly fall off her seat ended up on the Internet, I'd wander around for the next month with a smile on my face.

don't be a square

A & N, you are a class A idiot. it's not about getting a sense of humor when you post it up on the internet fool. Teachers have a professional responsibility and all this guy does is bring that level of professionalism down in the name of humor. To post their homework even if it seems harmless shows a lack of good judgement as well as a total disregard for their students. Do you have children? How would you feel if their teacher took their mistake filled homework with funny remarks about those mistakes and posted it up on the internet for everyone to see? Would you think it is funny if that was your child even if the teacher felt it was harmless? Just because this is ESL doesn't give a teacher the license to use it as comedy material on the internet. BTW Abram if you are reading this, I'm documenting and collecting all of these postings related to this from your blog and sending them off to MEXT so that they can decide if you are infact violating any teacher-student confidentiality policies at the school you are teaching at.

Good God, Vigilante. Lighten up…

Ahaha this gave me a good laugh. I'm going to live in another counry for a few months soon and barely speak the language. I'm HOPING for some hilarious mis-translation, if only to break the ice. If this was my kid, me, or my student, no doubt I would post it on the internet myself.

Hehe, very cute.

I have heard people from other countries talk about how confusing the English language is. After reading all of the comments so far, I can agree. Even people born in an English speaking country/or countries do not agree on proper usage of words, or punctuation.

By the way, Australia also calls soccer football and vice versa… But we know its wrong.

Correct.

The student's name was not relieved was it?

Actually, "They appear smarter than he [appears]" is right. It would be incorrect if you used "him" instead of "he". And you can't swap out "I" and "me" in any old sentence. One is a subject, and one's an object. I only say this because you sound a little condescending yourself.

I suggest none of you consider teaching abroad.

I think people call whatever type of football (there are many types) is played most in their country fotball, while calling the rest by their actual names. That's not very clear, so let me explain. England's football = soccer America's football = American Football Ireland's football = Gaelic Feel free to correct my grammar or my opinion if you wish. I will laugh at you.

I love being Australian.

Hello. My name is George W. Bush and I don't appreciate you posting my memoirs here.

I agree. At least have the decency to take away his name.

this made my day

your a nerd your a loser

who likes pantss;. i dont even wear them

Every languages are meant to change (evolve) over time, and so will their grammar. You guys are just afraid of losing something you are confortable with. The change is inevitable but it will happen gradually. We'll probably be all dead by then anyway. So you can still bicker on about unappropriate grammar/syntax/orthography, but in the end it's only a matter of following the current "order" (meaning "what must be done and how"). I've seen people getting really mad over some silly mistakes that happened in non-formal context. Seriously, I don't think it really matters, as long as the text is legible.

HAHA BANGKOK LADYBOY TEACHER.

>:[ For your information those were made illegal awhile ago. 😛 Some people from almost any country would do the same thing.

good for you. Perhaps Bobrick is right and the pupil's permission was given – in which case i'd expect Abram would reassure his readers, as it seems to be a matter of concern for a lot of them. Perhaps 'who cares' is right, and we should all just 'lighten up'. i.e. cease to care, turn a blind eye, stop making an effort, conform to the idiot crowd. And I don't care if anyone thinks i'm miserable or feels obliged to diagnose my psychological problems or offer me advice on how to be more like them. I'm quite happy thank you. Good day.

you try to sound smart in your long reply to what you say angers you but really, are you that loanly and bored that this topic really effects you in such a way that you insist on taking time out of your obviously boring life to mention that it angered you and that these people should not be acting idioticly by thus replying with an idiotic responce by anattempt to insult?

OMG that's beyond AWESOME..:) LMAO

Hey I think i read the novel to that!

I wonder whether this site is getting more hits because of the original post or because of the commentary following it…

lol – Kids say the darnedest things.

This is pushing it. Most laugh at themselves when they find out what the actual translation is of something they write. I took spanish for 3 years and although it is difficult to learn a new language and yes it is not "nice" to make fun, it is also not hurting anyone. Much of the fun in learning anything new is to be able to laugh at yourself when you screw up.

I agree. And you also have to think about how the human race creates humor. Most are created by something someone did. You people need to get over it and learn to sit back and laugh, because I can tell you, there are at least 10 people everyday talking about you and making fun of you.

But Kelly, Milla is at least an able communicator. You are not.

We’re no strangers to love, You know the rules and so do I. A full commitment’s what I’m thinking of, You wouldnt get this from any other guy. I just wanna tell you how I’m feeling, Gotta make you understand… Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, Never gonna say goodbye, Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you. We’ve known each other for so long Your heart’s been aching But you’re too shy to say it. Inside we both know what’s been going on, We know the game and we’re gonna play it. Annnnnd if you ask me how I’m feeling, Don’t tell me you’re too blind to see… Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, Never gonna say goodbye, Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you. Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, Never gonna say goodbye, Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you. Give you up. give you up. Give you up, give you up. Never gonna give Never gonna give, give you up. Never gonna give Never gonna give, give you up. We’ve known each other for so long Your heart’s been aching But you’re too shy to say it. Inside we both know what’s been going on, We know the game and we’re gonna play it. I just wanna tell you how I’m feeling, Gotta make you understand… Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, Never gonna say goodbye, Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you. Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, Never gonna say goodbye, Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you. Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, Never gonna say goodbye, Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

ValleyGurrl has a valid point. You lack the basic thing that makes humans advanced. An IQ.

Uh, no. Fag is an uncommon slang term not frequently used, and eraser/rubber are interchangable. We .call jelly jam and jello jelly though. ;3 Chips are crisps are fries are chips, hahaha/

Then learn to spell, or use spell check.

Be-Jesus and I've read some bollocks on this internet thing but this shit just takes the biscuit. The student's essay was obviously faked 'cos no teacher would put it on here for pricks like you to laugh at it. But the best part was all the illiterate fuckers trying to correct each others English. If it appeared on television as a sit-com you would switch it off for being nonsense. Go away and do volunteering work in some remote place like Alaska.

ahaha, so true , Our men love panties …….

ValleyGurrl has a valid point… and she loves PB

Bless that kid, nothing abnormal about that. Who knows if the teacher’s got the hots for his students as was asked by little Suguru. Soft lad never bothered to comment on that.

A friend of mine taught English in Korea for a year. More than likely, that essay is real. And hilarious.

My uncle recently showed me a letter that I wrote to him when I was 10 or 11. And while English is my first and only language, it was nearly as nonsensical as the Japanese one.

I don’t think the author of the post meant to mock the Japanese, I think he just meant to mock kids learning English (which is OK, maybe?).

Such drama over a simple bit of humour! It occurs to me the people who are offended by this might be misinterpreting why it is funny. The people who are laughing are not thinking “Haha, what a stupid kid!”. This is not ridiculing the student. The humour is in the missteps everyone makes when learning a new language applied to the subject of pants. That really is, without question, harmless fun. Feel offended for this boy all you want, but realise he is likely not actually offended himself.

I like this essays. (笑)