“May you go to the library?”

Exchange with Nakamura-sensei:  

Him:   May you go to the library? 

Me:     Why? 

Him:   Because it has laptop and TV screen. 

Me:     So does the English Room. (It has four larger-screen TVs and three laptops, to be exact, since the room is used as a catchall storage place.) 

Him:  Children might get injured walking from library to English Room. 

Me:     Yesterday Takahashi-sensei and I walked them to the English Room without any incident.  [Ridiculous.  They’ve walked all over this large school unattended all year.] 

Him:  The teachers are working on the class list for the new school year.  It’s a secret.  Students might walk by and see them.  [They’re being done with little slips of paper, not on chalkboards.  Besides, these are grade 1-3 students who can only read simple kanji.]  

Me:     Okay, whatever, man. 

I prefer to teach my classes in the English Room because all my materials are there, but I ended up having to carry them back and forth to the library.  Whenever I forgot something, I didn’t feel bad about it.  I simply excused myself and went upstairs to retrieve it.

March 2020