When I am...

The eighth graders are learning how to use the future tense in English. It's kind of an odd tense for them to get a grasp on, as there is no future tense in Japanese to the extent that we use it in English. There is something I would call a "provisional" tense, but nothing so explicitly future oriented that goes beyond a certain "It might rain tomorrow" or "Probably it's expensive," sort of language. Hmm, there is also a way of saying something like, "Open the door in advance so the breeze can come through, which has a certain shade of the future usage in it, but again, not so explicit. If there is anyone out there who knows something I don't, by all means, correct me. But this is what all my teachers have told me thus far.

In any case, there are some kids who are just natural language learners. I think the reason is because they know how to make it fun for themselves. For example, while all the other kids were writing, "When I am fifteen, I will study to enter a high school," one of my star pupils, Sho Kimura, was writing, "I'll charge Yoshinori Kido of stealing my pencil when I am fifteen years old."

Several weeks ago, when Sho was learning "I must" and "I have to", during a practice conversation, he told me, "I must kill Daiki Miyamoto."

"Why must you?" I asked in feigned shock.

"Because it is my destiny," Sho told me in utter seriousness. Then we broke up laughing.

And like that, it's just so much more fun learning a different language.