I was a bit surprised yesterday when I saw one of my junior high students -- the 5-foot-tall basketball stud -- wearing not one but THREE W.W.J.D. bracelets. Doubting that he knew anything about the American Christian religious campaign of "What Would Jesus Do?" and positive that he had not even had the grammar lesson to understand anything with the word "would" in it, I giggled knowing that this little macho man had absoloutely no idea what he was so proudly wearing.

So, being the good English teacher that I am, I decided to have a little comprehension check. The conversation went as follows:

"Hello [Mr. Macho Basketball Boy wearing "What would Jesus do?" bracelets]."
"Haro Jinifa sensei!"
"Wow! You have three bracelets!" (pointing at the bracelets, since bracelet is a difficult vocab word)
"Hai. Yes. Three." (obviously very very proud of his three bracelets)
"Do you know what this means: WWJD?"
"Hai. Yes. It is from Japan!"
"Oh, REALLY?? What does it say?"
"It is Jordan."
"Jordan??"
"Hai! Michael Jordan!! It is from Japan."
"Well, what does it say?"
"W...W...J...D... Wee... Wee... Jor Dan. "

One evangelical attempt gone bad. BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE LANGUAGE BARRIER.