More stories from teaching English

So on Saturday, I made a sarcastic remark to one of my junior high students, Ken, to touch his "boyfriend" otherwise known as his friend John, later. Usually remarks like this elicit a frantic denial. However in this case, a pretty undescribable look crossed his face, and he very deliberately put his arm back around John, and said, "He is my boyfriend." Later I forget why, but I referred to Ken as John's boyfriend, and he said, "No, he's my boyfriend. I'm his girlfriend." I said, "John, your girlfriend is very beautiful."and Ken said, "Thank you." All this from an eighth grader.