For The Sake Of The Lesson

(We are learning how to express sequential events in Japanese.)

Professor: “Okay, complete the sentence.” *in Japanese* “In the morning, I get up, then—”

Student #1: *in Japanese* “—drink milk.”

Professor: “Okay, that’s good! Anyone else?”

Student #2: *in Japanese* “I get up, then drink water.”

Professor: “That’s correct, but let’s try something different now.”

Student #3: *in Japanese* “I get up, then drink tea?”

Professor: “Okay, that’s not what I meant by ‘different’. Come on! Enough with the ‘I drink milk’ and ‘water’ and ‘tea’ stuff, give me something exciting!”

Student #4: *in Japanese* “I get up, then drink sake.”

(We all burst out laughing while my professor just stares.)

Student #4: “Hey, you said exciting. Sake is exciting.”

Professor: “That’s not what I meant. At all. No. No! Stop it!”