Is This a Date?

by Michael Camilleri

OK, well it appears I may have got myself a date with one of the students at school. Since I don’t speak very good English I’m not entirely sure what I agreed to do. All I know is that last week one of the students was asking the Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) about something in English. Being the know-it-all I am I came over to help out (in spite of my aforementioned lack of Japanese). It appeared that the student was writing a letter or a request of some kind about going shopping. Telling the JTE that I would handle this I got to work trying to write it out in a more conversational tone.

The gist of the letter was about shopping. The student asked me if I could go shopping and thinking that she wanted to know how to ask how to go shopping I told her and then when she repeated it, said that that was correct. The rest of it’s a blur but today the same student came to the staff room to check that since the 21st October was a Saturday it would be OK. I haven’t quite decided how I will explain this to Rui. I’m thinking something along the lines of school excursion. She’s at work that day so I don’t expect that will be a problem at least.

I could of course tell the student that I couldn’t go but she looked so happy. The only other weird thing is that she keeps referring to herself as ‘my friend’. Which I’m not sure is entirely a mistranslation. In summary, I have a shopping date with a student and/or her friend. I’ll keep you posted on more as it develops.