Do you have a rubber?

Saturday is my birthday, so today in class I was shamelessly fishing for my students to sing me happy birthday or make me cards, so I made sure to tell all of my classes. I explained that I'm going to have a party and go out for pizza and drinks with my friends.

So just after that explanation, a sweet, shy, 13 year old boy asked me, "Do you have a rubber?"

I just about went into heart failure. I must have looked confused or shocked or something odd because a girl a few rows over held up an eraser.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! British English. Translation: "Do you have an eraser?" Gotcha.

He was drawing me a Birthday card and needed to erase something.

The English books that the students have here are all of the British English variety. It's been hard to train myself to say cinema and film instead of movies, football instead of soccer, etc, so that the kids will understand me.

I think they are starting to pick up on some of my Americanisms though. Already I've got a bunch of them mimicking my speech patterns (because I'm just so cool!).

By the end of the year I'll have an army of 900 Chinese teenagers speaking just like me.

I'm drunk with power.