Congratulations class of 2006!

if you ever find yourself down in the dumps and need an ego boost, might i suggest (especially if you are in japan working as an ALT) that you have your students write you good-bye letters--although, it wouldn't really work in the middle of the school year. anyway, the japanese school year is slightly different than the american one in that the beginning of their school year is in april. thus, the 3rd graders (9th in america) are graduating in three weeks, and since i am going to elementary school for the next two weeks, today was my last class with this year's 3rd graders. so the english teacher decided to throw in a special assignment: writing me a letter. actually, the exact words on the sheet were "let's write a mail to ashlee"--not exactly great english, but it gets the job done. and boy, did they do a great job.

that's why i wanted to share some with you. and gloat about what a great teacher i am--hey, they said so...along with a whole lot of other things. so enjoy!



not only do they make me feel like i am the best teacher in the world, scratch that, best human being in the world, but also i feel really good about my english skills. i mean, i can understand most of what they are saying even when the word order, verb tense, or spelling is off--even when they spell my name wrong. i realize that i am so much better at english than them, and that makes me feel good.

this one even said "you speaks japanese very well."--wow, i was under the impression that i sucked, but i guess i am pretty good!

my favorite however, (it's bad of me to make fun of the poor english, but i have to...) is this one. i guess i wasn't that good of a teacher if sentences like this are slipping through.

and this one made my blush when i read it. i think that was what they were going for...it was basically a group of boy students helping their buddy write it. good one boys. i didn't realize i was such a "special women" to them.

great advice and original: "double bubble blows bigger bubbles." thanks for that. and the picture of a knight. i will not forget you either.


and i am looking forward to "be in a fight in elementary school" next week. ok, i can't completely be a jerk about that. she means "good luck!" in japanese, their equivolent to good luck is gambatte which actually translates to fight.