"I'm Sunny Tired"

At the beginning of every class I teach, I ask, "how are you?" to my students. This way, they get used to one of the most common questions used in everyday dialogues. Looking over the fact that they're twelve years old in a town where no one save l'assistant américaine would speak English with them, someday they may need to answer this question correctly.

It's one of the most boring parts of class, because mostly the students tell me that they're 'appy. Let's face it, sometimes happiness is boring. After a string of these, and me overexaggerating the aspirated 'h' in what looks like teacher having an asthma attack, the first five minutes of class have disappeared.

Yesterday, I got one of those answers that will forever be a gem of a response. It was one of the first hot days of the year and the kids looked winded. (Thank you heat for draining their energy) One girl responded, "I'm sunny tired" to my usual question. I asked her to repeat, not following. And when she told me in French, "je suis fatiguée à cause du soleil" I got it. Having retrieved the only word for "sun" that she knew from our daily weather reports "It's sunny, cloudy, blah blah blah..." she was able to tell me that she was tired from the heat.

I was proud of this girl, for even though my students don't know how to communicate very well in English, they try. And that makes me 'appy.