Or The One Uppance episode.
Stickers are a big deal in my elementary English lessons. Big stickers and small stickers carry different values with the big sticker being the most prestigious to earn. Two boys volunteered themselves to answer questions near the end of the class. Usually, this boldness to speak in front of their peers earns them a small sticker, but correctly answering the question in perfect English warrants a big sticker.
This became the manliest battle of words … ever.
I asked J-kun, “What do you eat for breakfast?” to which he replied, “I eat rice and miso soup for breakfast.” That’s fine and expected since the whole class practiced answering the question with the sentence pattern, “I eat A and B for breakfast.”
I asked G-kun, “What do you eat for breakfast?” Before answering, he looked over at J-kun and smirked. “I eat bread and fruit …” — a dramatic pause — “and sausage for breakfast.”
Gasps of surprise from the class. G-kun broke the sentence pattern! Whispers of excitement. Not to be outdone, J-kun looked at me. “Ask me! Ana-sensei, ask me. One more time, please.”
“Er, what do you eat for breakfast?”
“I eat rice and miso soup and fried egg for breakfast!”
A quick rebuttal from G-kun. “I eat bread and fruit and sausage and … PIZZA for breakfast!!”
“I eat rice and miso soup and fried egg and sausage!”
“I eat bread and fruit and sausage and pizza and salad –!!”
” … and spaghetti and hamburger and parfait …”
“and hot dog and yogurt and cereal …”
“I drink tea …”
” and milk … and coffee … and green tea …”
“I drink orange juice and apple juice and lemon juice …”
They both received big stickers.
at 8:10 am
I eat beer for breakfast.
at 4:59 pm
Did this happen before or after Marc left for Japan?