- Nickname(translation)-who gave it to me-Translator's (ie me)/Special notes.
- やせてる豚(skinny pig)-Kitasho's 3rd graders-I was doing animal impressions and they really liked my pig one. But, they said I was too skinny to be a normal pig. And thus skinny pig was born! Using her ultra super powers...(kuddos if you get the PPG reference)
- 高鼻先生(big nose sensei (teacher))-Kitasho's 3rd graders-Compared to Japanese people, my nose is quite big. All the students are quite intrigued by it.
- Pinocchio-4th graders (both schools)-Yeah, same reason as above.
- Menchi(minced)-5th graders-See Ch. 4 of my adventures
- ステッちゃん (Sute-chan)-5th grade girls-The Japanese like to shorten every word. If you have studied Japanese before you are thinking "No kidding!" right now. So they asked me if I had any nicknames. I told them "Steph", but they said "that's not cute." So I told them that while I studied abroad some people called me "Suteko" or "Sute-chan". Apparently, Sute-chan is cute enough for them.
- キク(ticklish)-Leader of my team at Kiddy Cat Camp-The kids in my group (the Panicking Punching Pandas) learned fairly quickly that I'm ticklish. The leader actually changed the last name on my name tag to say Kiku. That is what I was called for 2 whole days.
- Ba-ba(old lady)-everyone-Ok since the Japanese don't have a "v" sound I have to use the "b" sound when putting my last name into the Japanese. So it should read like this: Saabaa. If you change the Sa to a Ba you get old lady in Japanese. Guess how long it took them to do that. Yeah...seconds. This is the reason I only introduce myself as "Stephanie". Why did they put my last name on my name tag?!
- Sushi-6th graders-The 6th graders started calling me Sushi-tephanie just to tease me, but their homeroom teachers found out, and they had to apologize (I didn't really care, but whatever). So now they call me just Sushi, which for some reason is just fine. I now have a slew of nicknames involving food I don't like. Like this next one
- Sushi-tephanie Saba Juice(Sushi Stephanie mackerel juice)-5th graders who know my middle name-It originally started when someone thought Joyce was Juice and called me "Stephanie Juice" which of course made me say "Sounds gross." They then heard the 6th graders calling me "Sushi-tephanie". To put icing on the cake they put my last name (Saba) before my middle and came up with this.
- Sushi-tepha-nattou Saba Juice- This is pretty much the same as above except they learned I hate nattou (fermented soybeans).
- Sushi-tephanie Nattou-nasu-baba (Sushi-tephanie-fermented soybeans-eggplant-old lady)- A 6th grade girl that reminds me a lot of Ilise-She kept asking me "Do you like *insert random food here*?". She was "offended" that I did not like her beloved nattou and eggplant. So while we were cleaning the teacher's lounge (Japanese schools have cleaning time everyday for 20-25 minutes. All the kids have to clean a certain part of the school. 6th grade class 1 has to send 6-7 students to help clean the staff room.), she stops sweeping suddenly and tells me she knows my "real" name. Of course I had to ask what my real name was. Oh H-chan...she's lots of fun sometimes. She even told the Vice-principal that was my real name. He got stuck on the "baba" part though because he is 20 years older than I am. "She's not an old lady! If she's an old lady, what am I?!" H-chan's reply "A very old man."
Me: Really?
H-chan: Yeah. It would be so fun to see their faces all red and dripping
Me: *laughing probably too loudly*
Pause
H-chan being quite serious: I'm going to ring your door bell this summer and throw nattou in your face.
Me completely horrified: WHAT?!
H-chan: It will be the start of the Nattou festival!
Hope you are all having fun! You know I am =D
