Difference: made.

So I just wrapped up a 2nd year junior high class. It wasn't the most exciting class, but I got to throw in a few comments and dispute the idea that Americans overfeed their homestay guests.

Here was the reading comp for the day:
Nana: Everyone in my host family is nice to me. But my host mother always gives me too much food. Do I have to eat everything? It's too much for me.
Teacher's Answer: You must tell your host mother. Say, "I'm sorry. It's very good, but I can't eat that much." She'll understand.

After we'd gone through the reading and made sure the kids understood it, my co-teacher turns and asks me, 'Jessie-sensei, is this how it is in your family?' To which I got to turn around and say 'No, not really. We have all the food on the table and we can choose how much to eat on our own.'

Stereotype: busted.

In this particular class, there are two other teachers besides me. While the kids were working on writing practice, the other teacher came over and asked me if it was common in America, or if the way presented in the reading sketch was more common. I taught him the term 'family style'.

Later, the kids were working on a worksheet. I walk around and see how the kids are doing, and one of the smart kids appears to be done, so I ask him 'Are you finished? Can I see?' and look over his sheet. He is done, except for two vocab words and he made a little plural mistake in another part. The vocab is in English, he's supposed to translate it into Japanese. He goes for his dictionary/glossary. But no, I have other plans. I first pick the word 'anywhere'. Me: "Ok, 'anywhere'. You know 'anything'?" He sort of sits there, mulling it over, so I prompt, "How about 'where'?"

"Ah...'doko'" he says. Then I say, "So, what's anywhere. any." "Ah! dokodemo?" "Yeah!"

Then the next one was 'compare', so I threw out some comparisons. "Today is warm. Yesterday was cold. He is tall. He is short." I also did a scales motion with my hands, like I was weighing the options. Quickly I was rewarded with him finding the proper Japanese word, "'kuraberu'?" "Correct!"

It was really fun to teach like that. Instead of just giving him the answer, I made him come to understand the meaning through critical thinking. It's a better way to learn than rote memorization, I would say.