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#but I did speak Japanese with them for funzies sometimes (esp. if they were having trouble understanding something)
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Back when I was teaching Japanese college students, I remember escorting some of my students back to their dorms from a burger place one of the other mentors invited them to late at night (he ditched them there and I was mad about it because they didn't know the area well).
While we were walking back, I was expressing my disappointment and saying it was inappropriate for that mentor to invite them out without walking them back since it was late at night and it wasn't a great part of the city, but after a few minutes I apologized to them saying something like "I know most of you are grown adults and I don't want you to think I see you as helpless children, but I do want to make sure you get home safely," and one of them said in the kindest most sincere voice, "We know. You are like a Japanese mother."
And I was just like *voice cracking* "Cool" and walked them the rest of the way back to their dorms, then walked to the bus with my face buried in my hands.
#i talk#My favorite student also said I reminded him of his mother (who he'd spoken of very highly the entire trip) and I was like#*VOICE CRACKING* ''OH. THANK YOU.''#Man I love all those students so much#That was right before one of the worst periods of my life#but I remember the time I spent with them so fondly#One of them was a 40 year old woman who was so surprised I knew who Kaito was when I saw him on the background of her computer#and she was like ''That is Miku's boyfriend'' and I was trying my best not to burst into giggles because she said it so seriously#My favorite student was an absolute sweetheart. When I said goodbye to him and the rest of my students I burst into tears while going home#All of the Pokemon nerds and I played Pokemon Go together and it was so fun#I mostly spoke English with them because I wanted to make sure they were getting enough practice#but I did speak Japanese with them for funzies sometimes (esp. if they were having trouble understanding something)#but I have a tendency to use casual speech and when I found out one of my students was older than me#(one who I always used casual speech with)#I was like WHOOPS. Well. Oh well#he thought it was funny but I guess technically it was fine since I was his mentor / teacher#He was a very serious guy but he was always very nice#Though the one day I wasn't there he got into a fight with another student because they were rude to him#but you know. it happens#anyways. All of them were so sweet#I almost cried saying goodbye to my elementary school students too when I finally decided to swap jobs#The little Mexican boy and girl I taught came up to me and silently hugged me so tightly and cried and cried and cried#and I almost started crying too#agh#I love kids I love college students#aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh. education is such a tough field to work in and the pay sucks and you're constantly overworked#but I loved my students so much. I still love them. I hope they're all doing ok#I remember when the Orange Idiot got elected one of the students who was planning to study abroad here messaged me#and I asked him if he still planned to come study here and he said yes because ''I believe the good people outnumber the bad''#I think about that all the time
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