Just a t-shirt away

When I lived in Japan I collected a whole bunch of t-shirts with Japanese-English printed on them. 

I especially love the ones that are grammatically correct but have little – or no – meaning at all. And the spelling mistakes are quite endearing.

Wearing these shirts and hoodies reminds me that Japan is sometimes just a t-shirt away...

So arb

arb (ärb)

adj.

South African English Slang
1. Based on or subject to personal whims, impulses or caprice: “That was such an arb thing to say.”

2. Having little or no application or relevance

3. Having no specific purpose or objective
v. arbed, arbing, arbs
1. To wander about aimlessly: “I just arbed around the mall all day.”

[From Standard English arbitrary]

A friend recently reminded me that before everything was “totally random”, it was “so arb”. I’d forgotten how often we used the word “arb” as teens and university students.

So Nineties, I thought, and so local. I hadn’t thought that it might be South African English slang – or, perhaps more specifically, “White South African English” slang. But I spotted the word in a post on a local blog dating back to 2005 so I guess it’s still arbing around Cape Town with young urban middle class English-speaking South Africans – of all colours in post-Apartheid South Africa.

With a little help from: http://brainwavez-watman.blogspot.com and http://www.thefreedictionary.com 

Very, very thank you!

Anyone who has taught English in Japan (especially at junior or senior high) would have ended up with a pile of these: thank you messages from students. I worked as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) on the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme for two years and loved it – it was the best start for a teacher with little experience (participants actually need none and no teaching qualifications) because it involved so much creative and energetic teaching, a lot of interaction and very little marking!

These were written by some of my first grade students at Ojima Junior High in Nagaoka where I was based for two years. I had met them when they were still at elementary school so knew them well and they were a genki bunch – they got on very well with their young Japanese teacher and were always keen to take part. I really enjoyed my lessons with them.

And these are some of the comments students made on a thank you card I received at another junior high where I filled in for a few months. Although I was only there a short time (so short I seem to have forgotten its name!), I remember this school as one of my favourites. It was much smaller than Ojima and on the outskirts of the city, and I can’t say I was looking forward to simply filling in there as I trudged to school through thick snow from the bus stop down the road on my first day. But I was met with such excitement (I soon found out I was the first woman ALT these students had had), curiosity and enthusiasm that it was impossible not to enjoy my often noisy and sometimes quite boisterous classes.

They were written by some of the third graders I taught. A few students wrote only in Japanese and a few only drew me pictures, but most tried to write their thank yous in English. You can pretty much guess which are from the boys! 

You look very beutiful.

You are teaching a little time. But very interesting.

You are beutiful woman! Thank you!

I want to be like YOU!! So you are very beautiful.

I love you.

You are nice girl!!

Very thank you!!

I wanted to study with you more and more.

I was glad to meet you!!

Good. Very good.

You are good smile!!

You are nice body.

You are GODDESS.

Good for you!!

I am ENGLISH! Thank you.

You are very cute!! 

My favourite is this last one – despite the unfortunate mistake, the boy who wrote this was actually quite good at English, and bright and sharp. I really enjoyed his honesty after so many over-excited compliments...

I was grad to see you. I’m good at English. And I want to study English more and more. I will go to South Africa some day. <- It’s a lie.