Sarah is very popular

With the other English teachers. They like her to come to their classes and answer questions from their students about popular culture in America. Sometimes she brings her i-pod and plays some of her favorite music for them. She and about two thirds of my class like to talk about some program called, "Prison Break" which I had never previously heard about. Apparently it is a series which can be downloaded from the internet.

Today she said the most interesting question she received was one asking if she met a Chinese boy and fell in love with him, would she stay in China. Sarah said that she was only 16 and she would have to go home, even though she was sure that she would want to stay. I was impressed with the diplomacy of her answer. My students, when they heard this, thought it was very funny that anyone would consider leaving their country to marry someone.

I told them that one of the English teachers with us was from Spain, and that she had met her American husband while at university in the U.K., and now she lived in Miami. I told them that one of the real perils of associating with foreigners is that you might fall in love with one and move far away and be very, very unpopular with your parents. They clearly found this to be a novel idea, but one worth considering. As a foreign teacher, I think it is my job to introduce novel ideas to them.