Thursday, May 01, 2008

What not to ask 12 year old boys in class...

Today in two classes, I had boys with nosebleeds.

The second time it happened, I asked the class (in broken Japanese), "This is the second boy that's had a nosebleed in my class today. Why?"

I was imagining it had something to do with all the hay fever that people were suffering. Instead, the girls remained silent and the boys eagerly piped up,

"It's because of you sensei!"

"What?" I asked, "What do you mean it's because of me?"

The boys got very excited and started saying something in Japanese that I didn't understand. I asked "What does that mean?"

Meanwhile, the girls remained silent.

Suddenly, I remembered reading somewhere that in Japanese manga, nosebleeds are used as a euphemism for, well, a certain type of attraction. I needed to end this conversation quickly.

"Ooohh, it's because I'm scary! You're all scared of me."

From the back of the class, one of the boys said "No, sensei, it's because you're cute."

"Well, aren't you a nice boy. OK everyone, turn to page 13 of your text book and please repeat...."

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Giving them nosebleeds, are ya?

Imagine all of the recess and after-school talk about you.

I say, go to class in a smoking-hot dress and send half of 'em to the nurse's office.

Melanie Gray Augustin said...

Mmmm.. think I'd prefer not to imagine what they're saying...

Maybe giving nosebleeds is my superpower, I knew I had to have one!

OzBurger said...

See? He was dying for a peek! :-)

Melanie Gray Augustin said...

Hey Cont! I knew you'd come up with something to do with the getting a flash during the xray exam ;)

Sherrin said...

whoops!! hehe - yep, you do have superpowers... who would have thunk it?! ;o)

Danielle said...

this is hilarious. sounds like u handled it very well though :)

Melanie Gray Augustin said...

Hi Sherrin! - I knew I had to have a superpower, though I always hoped it would be something more exciting that causing nosebleeds. Maybe I just haven't harnessed it yet ;)

Hi Danielle! - It was one of those moments when I could have kicked myself! I'm so glad a Japanese teacher wasn't in the room at the time!

Brad said...

Haha. Yeah I've seen that on several animes where a male character's nose starts bleeding when he sees a sexy lady.

Not really sure how that started though.

I'd imagine strip clubs here must be messy. ;)

Melanie Gray Augustin said...

Ummm Brad... ewww... ;)

theuptownlife said...

haha. i can imagine the manga nosebleed! cute, but maybe a lil disturbing. hehe.