don't compare yourself to others

In the last few weeks, the kids have been focusing on comparing and contrasting in their writing classes; the prompts have included compare Halloween and Christmas, you and your mom, and Anna and Elsa from Frozen. (What is funny about that last one, I had a kid refer to Elsa as a "mature lady" and Anna as the "frisky sister". I guess they got the director's cut of the movie?) Anyway, one the homework prompts was to compare and contrast your English teacher and your Chinese teacher. I admit, I wasn't too thrilled. Why? Not only are children deadly honest about everything (except when they are in trouble), these are Chinese kids: they have their own way of saying things and they aren't shy about it, no siree.

When the grade leader sent out the prompt for us to assign as homework, my first response was "well, this is going to be great for my self-esteem". When I gave the prompt to my kids for their homework, many of them started to manically giggle and I wasn't too confident in what I would get in my inbox the next day.

Here are some samples of what was turned in:

"Ms. Mary is fater than Ms. Cai."

"My English teacher is Miss Mary. She is from America. She has a sweet smile and a high nose. She likes perfume and lipstick, so she always smells nicely. No matter what seasons it is, she always wears dress. She encourages competition. We compete to get stars and stamps to win the gifts."

(What I love about this is she interprets my use of essential oils as perfume and my chapstick as lipstick! At least I smell nicely! And it is true that I wear a skirt everyday...no matter what the weather is.)

Notice in the Venn diagram that Dove lists the English teacher as "very fat" and her Chinese teacher as "not very fat". 

"Ms. Mary is a British." 

"Ms. Mary eats one apple every lunch."

(It is a little disconcerting that the kids have noticed my eating habits. I've switched to pears in the last two weeks to mix things up a bit."

I personally like this representation of me, even though I have no belly shirts with stars on them.

"Ms. Mary is very good because we can play in the playground. Ms. Mary play with we so I said Ms. Mary is very good. Ms. Cai is very good but Ms. Cai is very angry. Ms. Mary has a good face to smile so Ms. Mary is very good. Ms. Cai is very angry because Ms. Cai wants we learning very good so I thing Ms. Cai is all so very good. Ms. Mary all so very good because Ms. Mary is very friemdly so I said Ms. Mary."

(What is funny about this one, this little boy came up and asked me how to spell angry and my first thought was "oh crap". I was so surprised when I got this!)

"They are both dazzling beautiful." 

(I need Amy to write me a dating profile!)

"Both are beautiful. I love them both."

(Yes!!!! Ms. Sophie and I for the win!)

"My english teacher is funny. My chinese teacher is no funny."

(Disclaimer: Ms. Sophie is hilarious!)

I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome of this homework assignment. I guess I should have had more faith in the kids, even though I had two write that I had blue eyes....