What is it with the mental block?

Its 14:56 on a Tuesday afternoon. I've had 5 solo classes today. 2 of them relatively successful- the others not so much. Its been draining like you can't imagine. The amount of energy you need to pour into a class to keep them active in this weather is also quite excessive.

Im happy I succeeded with that at least. Its been a long noted point in my brain that Japanese students suffer from an English mental block.

This expands beyond the classroom to business and daily life when you can approach a Japanese person and request something of them in flawless Japanese only to be told "Im sorry I dont speak English." I think it was this response that was responsible for Allied aggression in WW2 not the bombing of Pearl Harbour as they'd have us think. Ooh- random thought- if we spell harbour with a "u" but the yanks spell it without- what about the case of the PLACE name Pearl Harbor ?! Mmnnn. Random thought...as opposed to Pearl harbour.

So...anyways...the classroom example I can give today is in many classes where I asked students a question- I went up to them and asked them "how much is this?" picking up a random piece of their stationary.

So many of the kids just struggled forever with this concept. hey had no idea. First, most of them said "I cant remember". And I explained to them it was ok to imagine a price, to guess a price, to lie about a price...they didnt have to tell me the truth...do you think that a number could come out of their mouth in either Japanese or English.

Fuck me it was frustrating. The worst thing is when some kid eventually GETS it....and I move on - and the fracking kid sitting RIGHT NEXT TO THEM doesnt understand what to do.

*POP*

Maaaaaan....lateral thinking hey- not a strongsuit here.