Unfiltered Story #410102

This was in 2002, when I was in the middle of a stint of teaching English in a small town in Japan through the JET Program.

On this day I was teaching second graders the phrases “He likes” and “She likes.” I drew two cartoon faces on opposite sides of the chalkboard, one boy, one girl.

I pointed to the boy’s face and said, “This is Jack. He likes fruit.” The idea was that if I named a fruit, the students would run to that side of the board.

I pointed to the girl’s face and said “This is Diane. She likes vegetables.” This confused the classroom teachers, who were expecting Jill.

The teachers I worked with would inevitably ask, “Who are Jack and Diane?” And I would inevitably answer, “Oh, just two American kids, growing up in. the heart. land.”

You have to make your own laughs sometimes… (One teacher got the joke, and was laughing so hard her students were concerned for her well being.)