Pervert kids

[snarp]

Today it was kind of warm in the classroom, so I pushed my sleeves up, allowing Zuzu, Princess, and Cookie to discover my arm hair.

Zuzu said, “That’s a lot of hair!”

“Yup. So what’s this letter?”

“S! S is for snake!” (One of the reasons I love Zuzu - even when she acts up, she keeps participating in class.) “Why do you have so much hair on your arms?”

“Princess, what’s this letter?” Princess, who does not have Zuzu’s multitasking abilities, was too busy trying to pinch my hair to respond.

Zuzu demanded, “Are you actually a man? Are you a man who changed into a woman?”

Cookie said helpfully, “That’s called a “New Half.”"

On the theory that denying outrageous accusations made by children has never in history done any good, I said, “Yes.” I wish I could figure out whether “New Half” is derogatory, so I know whether or not to yell at the kids for using it.

In Bonze, Jerkface, and Ken’ichi’s class we were playing a game where I gave each of the kids a color of Jenga block, and they had to try and collect all their color by completing a complex feat involving marbles. Bonze is named for his haircut, his extreme stoicism, and his voice, which sounds unnervingly like that of an unpleasant priest of my reluctant acquaintance. He had the red blocks, and was using them to make a line of torii. I found this adorable. (Bonze doesn’t like being found adorable.) (And I’m aware that multiple torii are for Shinto shrines and not Buddhist temples, yes.)

(Originally published at SarahPin.com. You can comment here or there.)

Comments

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

You need to make a yon-koma of your teaching life and get it published. XD I don't know if it should be in Japanese or in English ... If you can't draw, I think (out of all the comic-strip generators I have saved on Delicious) http://stripgenerator.com/ has the properly Kafka/Zim-esque look to it.

I suppose the kids haven't seen enough foreigners to know that we're generally hairier, and hairy barbarian isn't just a stereotype, haha (actually I have no idea what your ethnicity is, so I shouldn't jump to assumptions :P). But what a conclusion for Zuzu to jump to. Bwuh.

I get the impression that "new half" really is the standard mainstream term in Japanese, but I don't know what the transgendered women themselves think about it.

[elongated-tito.livejournal.com]

I generally think it's charming when kids are (or act like they are) unaware of correct social niceties. But then they go and turn it on you and you realize they are all little demons.

Also, I don't know why you got the hirsute gene and I didn't. (And you are not "extremely hairy". You don't look like Chewbacca or anything.) But I got the addictive personality gene, so it probably comes out even in the long run.

[lacrimawanders.livejournal.com]

I believe "new half" is just M > F. I have never seen it used the other way around. I regularly get asked what gender I am at preschool.

Also, hey, hello! I'm up in Sanpoku, north of Murakami. I was curious if there was any one else on LJ in Niigata and got sidetracked from doing productive things. Do you mind?