English Lunch and the Talking Sandwich

One of the reasons that we're busier than some ALTs at Yamasho is "English Lunch." Every day at lunch time, we go to room and eat lunch with students, who try to speak to us in English, thus earning signatures on "passports" used to collect points in English class.

Our contracts say our lunch period is our free time, but we don't mind doing this because really it's pretty fun to talk to the students outside of class, where they're not always interested in the course material (I wouldn't be either, in many cases).

Today, one student, after trying to figure out what to ask me, inquired about what I'd eaten for breakfast. I told her about my sandwich, which featured ham, lettuce and cucumber. After a couple of quick exchanges in Japanese, two students were overwhelmed with laughter. Apparently, cucumber in English just like the Japanese word for parrot.

"It was delicious," I said after learning that I had eaten a parrot sandwich.

Parrot, I'd guess, probably isn't too bad a snack. Frankly, I'd bet it tastes just a bit like chicken.