Student Stories Part Trois
Round 3 is screeching to an awkward halt today in front of your eyes! I thought I might continue this posting series that I started waaay back in early 2007. It’s only 2 posts long thus far, and rather than rewrite, I’ll copy some intro text from the previous installments - I had far less traffic back then, so people may have missed them. Then I’ll move into the stories. I’ve culled 17 primo stories this time, so I’ll post half now and half later this week. Enjoy! 
The following stories were written by students at one of my schools during a chain writing activity. I won’t put their names or year in this post. I purposefully left all of the original mistakes in the text - so these are copied verbatim, incorrect capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar included. I have been correcting these for about 2 days, and thought I’d share some of the ones that struck me as particularly interesting. This is not to make fun of their English (though I excuse native speakers who giggle at the funny stuff), but to show what kind of weird stuff comes out when you tell them to write with a time limit and nearly zero direction. It also shows you the level of English that I tend to deal with in high schools. Each story was written by a group of 4 in 5 minute shifts without any outside ideas. I hope you enjoy it.
- Student Stories, 20 February 2007
Ready for round 2? Come and get some love. (Or a suspicious box of bananas, depending on which story you read first.)
- Student Stories Part Deux, 23 February 2007
Alright, on to the good stuff. This time I’ve got images up with the students’ actual handwriting. Because they wrote in pencil, sometimes it can be hard to read. I checked them though, and I feel like most of them are legible. Also - please view them on a screen with an appropriate resolution, or the pop-up will automatically resize them to fit. If you need to read them on a smaller screen, I recommend clicking with your mouse wheel on the links to open the images in tabs.
Which story was your favorite? Let me know in the comments. Ha ha. Fun stuff. Also, if you found these really difficult to read, I’ll put up a plain text copy of the stories. Just let me know!
on November 19th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
love your students’ creativity. ^^
ks last blog post was: Hokkaido Markets
on November 19th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Definite sad tinge to them. My favourite student is probably the one who turned the two cats into complex people who decide to “break off relations” The one I got the best giggle from was the fight for the protagonist and plot: here is superman, nah he’s dead, no no he’s not dead he’s alive cause he’s so uber, well yeah okay but I don’t know what happened next cause he’s boring - LOL
But the question I’m dying to ask is:
Who is poor Hisashi and why is he so hated??? lol
Danielles last blog post was: Moving to Japan Tips: The Language Question
on November 20th, 2008 at 1:07 am
No. 9
Japanese government (I think empirically it is most true and most multiplicerbart)
And Chinese morality
No. 9 (war is horrible as the Pope says, lose its soul as metaphor from the vatican says)
But an empire which does not extend to (expand with some countries)
on November 20th, 2008 at 9:33 am
k - thanks. I get a kick out of it, too. On the other hand, you’d be shocked at how many old men and women live by rivers or find something in rivers, anyway. (Definitely channeling Peach Boy Momotaro.) I guess you stick with what you know and embellish. Works for me!
Danielle - it must be an inside joke. Since there are 4 students in a group, they create 4 stories together. Hisashi appeared in all of them for that group. And he was dumped on every time. I’m just hoping its not classroom politics popping up - sometimes as an English teacher and a friendly foreign person you do get handed odd moments of honesty, though. Hmmm… I also really enjoy the students’ ability to completely rewrite what happened when it doesn’t suit their fancy. Ha ha. That’s why I called it “excellent mistake.”
Bjorn - I can’t tell if you’re a spammer or not. It’s weird. See, I have 9 stories posted - but the 9th is about a super man. So, either you’ve totally lost me (and really overestimated my kids’ English) by pointing out a subtext for the story….or you are a new form of couch-potato activist (you have an activist.com email address) up in arms about Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which has nothing to do with this entry…at all. So, if you are a spammer, please don’t spam me. I’ve got no say about Article 9, anyway. If you want to make relevant comments, you’re welcome to. Cheers.
on November 21st, 2008 at 9:31 am
brilliant stuff. money moving. the hungry caterpillar with a twist and profanity. fun fun.
i think this is one of the things i miss the most. Thanks for posting em.
Nics last blog post was: Free Ride Karma
on November 25th, 2008 at 1:06 am
I’ve got to say that I laughed, and had a confused face for #9. Superman’s dead!! Wait…no he’s not, it’s someone else. Hooray!
I’m in class, ignoring lecture, but that story gave me a good wake-up!
on November 25th, 2008 at 7:47 am
He had a secret face?? Does that mean secret identity?
on November 29th, 2008 at 10:44 am
You know, I never thought about this before, but the meaning of the phrase “after all” in English is really fairly idiomatic.
Jonadab the Unsightly Ones last blog post was: Hepburn Must Stop
on December 5th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
thank you for removing the names of your students but openly blaming ME for the fact that one of them swears. get over it! at least he’s being creative
on December 8th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Nic - wish you were still here!
Alfred - yeah, the revisionist nature of the storyline is hilarious - and sometimes it lends insights about classroom politics. Ha ha.
Mom - more like a hidden personality / characteristic / side.
Jonadab - there are simply loads of quasi-idiomatic expressions in English. I love it!
Aileen - it’s not the first time I’ve openly blamed you for his swearing. Ha ha. And we both know that it is definitely your fault.
He can still be creative without swearing.
on December 12th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
yup. and he can be creative WITH swearing too.
not that im encouraging it.
just saying, though we are both fully aware it is my fault he uses that word, really no need to repeatedly put it on your blog
on December 12th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
ps. just be grateful i didn’t teach him anything worse than that
on December 12th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Aileen - but…not mentioning it would ruin my plans to beat this dead horse… Don’t you see? It’s all part of the plan. To harangue you endlessly. In jest. Unless you do teach him anything worse.
on December 13th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I vote for traffic accidents!
Traffic accidents for everyone!
I can’t wait for the illustrated version.
nearlyasians last blog post was: Melancholic Tokyo
on December 16th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Nearlyasian - a sentiment that my students would surely agree with. Ha ha ha.