Let This Be A Warning...

This is what happens when a Japanese word can be translated into English as either"cute" or "pretty"
Students and teachers looking at a picture of 5-year old Mark in a Halloween costume: "Oh! He's very pretty!" (to be fair, he was dressed as a butterfly...maybe they knew what they were saying)

This is what happens when your Japanese teachers translate English lesson plans straight from Japanese into English, using only a dictionary:
"1. It practices a facial part in the pronunciation
2. It does a fortune laughter game
a.) It does at the whole
b.) The representative child does
3. It does looking-back, a greeting"

This is what happens when your neighbors aren't sure of how to spell your name, but they don't let that fact keep them from addressing a note to you:
"Dear Mark and Curry,"

This is what happens non-English speakers choose to create English t-shirts (credit goes to Caleb Holsey for this discovery):
Girlfriends are fun
Men friends are funner

This is what happens when kids are wiser than some of their parents:
Kids: Mark-sensei, do you have a girlfriend?
Mark-sensei: No, I have a wife.
Kids: Yeah, that's good. It's kind of dangerous to have a wife and a girlfriend, huh?

Finally...this is what happens when you don't let your AET spell-check your class' motto poster:

Good ol' rock...

Lisa: Look, there's only one way to settle this. Rock-paper-scissors.
Lisa's brain: Poor predictable Bart. Always takes `rock'.
Bart's brain: Good ol' `rock'. Nuthin' beats that!
Bart: Rock!
Lisa: Paper.
Bart: D'oh!

Bart Simpson wouldn't fare well in Japan, where rock-paper-scissors is the main means of conflict resolution and decision-making (though it's not just for kids). Don't know how to divide into fair teams for playing dodgeball? Janken (the Japanese name for rock-paper-scissors). Don't know who should get the leftover milk at lunchtime? Janken. Don't know who should volunteer for an English class demonstration? Janken. Don't know who is "it" in a game of tag? Janken. The most amazing part about this simple game is that, as one AET put it, "kids respect the janken." No one disputes the outcome of janken. If you throw out rock, but your opponent throws out paper, you accept your lot in life as the janken loser--for this round, anyway.
If janken could catch in other parts of the world, think of the implications for international conflict resolution and world peace. Sure, solving by janken doesn't take into account moral issues or issues of what's right. But janken does embody an important truth: each person gets his or her turn to win in the end. If you didn't win this round, just hold on...your turn will come soon. I don't have too much experience with conflict resolution on an international scale, but I do deal with it daily in the classroom, on the playground, and with Mark (I feel compelled to explain that Mark is the best peacemaker I know; I am usually the instigator of conflict ). And what janken reminds me is that today's winner may be tomorrow's loser, and vice-versa. That can keep us all remembering that sometimes we're the Bart, and sometimes we're the Lisa, in the janken game that is life. And that seems pretty fair.
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Speaking of fair, if you're looking for unique Christmas gifts this holiday season, check out Ten Thousand Villages. They sell some beautiful and cheap items from around the world. If you're wanting some blue mosaic coasters from India, why get them from Pier 1? Instead, your money can go to more directly to the people who make them! Also be sure to look at their impressive collection of nativities.