Can't Keep Names Straight

I’m sure that everyone can relate to the difficulties and struggles with keeping peoples names straight. In my family, my mom could never get my brother Stephen’s name right. She would always call him Kristephen. It eventually got to the point where she would pay my brother a quarter every time she messed up his name. Well, I am finding that I have a similar problem with my students over here. Its pretty amazing how similar some of these names can be. I sure have a hard time keeping them all strait in my brain.

There are four students in my high school class…three of their names start with the letter “A”…I continually look at a student and call them by the wrong name. For some reason, I can’t keep Arakawa, Arato and Asahi straight in my mind. But that is probably the easiest to keep straight because the names are different enough once you get back the first letter. Here is a list of my student’s names that are difficult to keep straight:

Yuki, Yuuki, Yukine

Aya, Ayaha

Rina, Rino, Shio (Rino and Shio are sisters who sit next to each other in the same class...can't keep their names straight)

Mai, Mao, Miu, Mio, Moe (x2), Momoka, Momone

Geared Up!

I don’t really think there is a very elegant way to start this post. I’ll start of my mentioning how lucky I am to have awesome students with awesome parents. I have a high school student who is a really cool guy. His name is Asahi and he is only 16 years old. It has been sweet to see his English improve over the past 7 months. I also get the pleasure of teaching his mother, who attends on of my ladies classes. Now, it wouldn’t be right for me to put words in their mouth, saying that they like me a lot. But, I would say that have seemed to take a genuine interest in getting to know me. Like wise, I have enjoyed getting to know their family. I have taken me out for lunch and invited me over for dinner, and sometimes they will come to church on Sunday mornings or attend church events. Through some of these outside of class encounters, I’ve had the opportunity to meet the father of the household. He is a very interesting guy and can speak English fairly well. We have had some good conversations together.

One of the most interesting things I’ve gotten to know about him is that he is a professional skier. Learning this excited me a lot, cause I love skiing! I asked him where he has skied and his response was, “Every where, ask me and I’ve probably skied there.” My first guess was pretty week. “Colorado?” He replied by saying a friendly “yep.” He gave the same answer when I continued to ask if he’s skied the Swiss Alps and the Himalayas. I didn’t even know you could ski in the Himalayas…but I guess if you find a local Napoli guide that can take you deep into the mountains, its possible.

We have talked lots about trying to find a time to go skiing together, but no date is set in stone. We are hoping to hit up the slopes in a couple of weeks. Well, I’m sure your wondering why I mentioned earlier that I was so lucky. Well, I think the following pictures will do the talking. He gave me, free of charge, all the outer skiwear I need (with the exception of skis, ski poles and boots). I got the works: Pants, jacket, gloves, hat, goggles, and glasses.