Tears over English

I did 3 self introductions today – only found 1 student out of the almost 90 who sort of liked the vegemite! None of the teachers liked it either! It is quite a nice school – the teachers speak a decent amount of English for elementary teachers, and the kids were nice.

However, I managed to make 1 student in the 5^th grade cry. Actually I don’t think I had anything to do with it. The teacher had prepared all the students to give mini self introductions – My name is, I like X and my favourite sport is Y. Well 1 kid, a boy, got through sentence 1 and 2 but then had a minor meltdown. He just could not say his favourite sport, and the teacher was harassing him in nihongo, and then finally I caved and said well done, sit down etc. He sat, but burst into silent tears.

This is my first experience of tears in English class. I maintain I did not cause the tears, but it was still an unsettling experience.