connard!

so today was the first of my days teaching english to a group of middle and high schoolers. it's a group of about 15 boys, the youngest being 9 and the oldest being 15. they know a lot of english. enough that we were able to talk about their favorite movies, their favorite sports teams and players, as well as their hobbies. one of the 12 year olds mentioned music to be his favorite "thing." he said to me, "tu connais la justice?" almost immediately i replied, "oui bien sur, je le connais." and he, flipped, a, shit. "oh la la, connard!!! putain de merde (almost every french curse word you could imagine was combined into this long tirade about how he wants to be like Xavier and make music like the duo) tu le connais! j'aime bien la justice." he kept saying it over and over and over again. he even broke out in song, "We. Are. Your. Friends. You'll. Never. Be. Alone. Again. C'mon!" it was very cute. i then told him to repeat what he said in english and to write it on the blackboard hahaha. he looked at me, sat down, and said, "non, je ne peux pas le faire." the whole class laughed, including the wide-eyed 13 year old.

at another point, the 9 year old, jean-alexandre, had a nose bleed. he was playing with an empty tuna can, which actually didn't cut the inside of his nose??? i didn't really understand what happened. one of the 15 year olds told him he shouldn't play with the tops because they're sharp and that's what cut him. but the principal said he is just prone to nose bleeds. all i know is that when his eyes started to tear, i immediately ran to the bathroom to grab some towels and told him to push as hard as he could. some kids gave him candy. it stopped him from crying and he took care of himself!

i'm really excited to work with these kids, despite their occasional rowdiness. i feel as if i'm going to learn more french from them than they will learn english from me. for example, one of them won't know a word in english, then ask me what it is in french. if i don't know the french word, one of the other students will probably know it, then we both learned something new. if not, we have a dictionary.

cheers, jhabra