Thursday, November 01, 2007

Happy Halloween!

Just finished with a class this morning. As par usual for this time of year, I did a unit on Halloween. It is becoming bigger every year here in Japan, an obvious way for a variety of merchants to market their wares, so I decided a long time ago that it would be an interesting look at American culture at least to talk about it and learn some of the vocabulary associated with it. I usually make a jack-o-lantern with a domestic pumpkin and some sweets for the class, and we have a good time talking about various related themes. Today we talked about how to make a jack-o-lantern and superstitions.

Today was special, though! Today for the first time in 16 years that I have been doing this unit on Halloween, students brought costumes and sweets--UNSOLICITED! I didn't say anything about it ahead of time, and three students showed up wearing witch hats, and four students brought sweets to give to the members of class. I was very surprised, and very very happy. We had a great time.

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