A few days ago, while teaching a class, one of the kids kicked her shoe off her foot and said, “Sunny!”. The other kids giggled and I stopped what I was doing and watched her, a little perplexed. She then preceded to put the shoe back on and kick it off again. This time she exclaimed “Cloudy”.
By now I was a little confused but I let it continue because she was actually saying this weather vocabulary in English, any English practise is good. Even if it is bizarre. So, she put the shoe back on again, for yet another kick. This time she said, “Rainy”. At this point I hit her over the head with a flashcard and continued with the lesson.
Upon recounting this story to a friend, I discovered that what she was doing was an old Japanese game played by kids to find out tomorrow’s weather.
Children kick off their shoe and say “Ashita tenki ni nare” (which I think means something along the lines of, what will the weather be tomorrow?). If it lands the correct side up that means the weather is going to be sunny, if it lands the wrong way round it means it will rain and if on it’s side, cloudy. Although traditionally it was done with a Geta, that old Japanese clog sandal thing.
This knowledge lead to an epiphany for me, this sketch, which I had seen years before, suddenly made a little more sense.
I always thought she threw off her shoe because she was a bit mental. Context is a wonderful thing.
