I'm happy...I'm a man!

Yesterday I had another class with the bad boys at Tabuse Nougyo. I started the lesson with the normal greeting, and then selected certain students to answer the ALT's favourite question, "How are you?" From all of the students I got a mumbled "fine", and then suddenly there was a ray of hope on my horizon...the final boy proudly stated "I'm happy". Well, I was so bowled over by of these kids deviating from the norm, that I thought I'd ask him a follow-up question.."why are you happy?"....to which I recieved an emphatic "I'm a man," and a slight wink! The boy in question, and his little group of friends giggled, and then spoke to my JTE in Japanese to check that I understood what they meant...i.e he was happy because I was in the class. I just laughed, and told him well done for the good English! Always a professional! Well, I was until later on , when they caught me off guard, and they mumbled 'hair you me touch' (or something along those jumbled lines), and one of the friends started to stroke my hair! My JTE called them idiots! Seriously, why the obsession with foreigners' hair! I know that we have a different texture hair, and that in general it's a lot lighter in colour...but why the need to touch!? I don't go up to a Japanese person and ask to pat their thick black hair do I!

Later on in the class, a different boy was demanding my attention, and basically expecting me to do his class work for him! I helped him to complete some sentences in the 'clothes description' exercise they were doing. However, i then realised that he had left the 'r' out of shirt everytime he had written it. I pointed out his 'mistake', to which he replied 'no, no, no mistake,' raised his middle finger, and laughed! This guy has an eyebrow piercing, and PUNK tatooed over his knuckles, so I know he's a bit of badass, but still, I didn't expect that! I told him it was a bad word, and he shouldnt say it. He actually looked quite guilty, and apologised! When would that ever happen with a kid in the UK!!!! I think for a minute he thought he'd lost his ALT-mate Roren, and he didnt want me to be mad at him! So maybe not quite so bad after all! I seriously have to take a photo of this class at some point, just to show you the wide spectrum of kids I teach...from the neat and tidy academic students, to the funky-hair-styled, gangsta engineering kids!