The one really crappy thing about Interac is that we weren't supposed to speak any Japanese at school. I had to bend that rule sometimes. Some things simply aren't easy to explain with a language barrier. I needed some Japanese to fill the gaps. I had a very handy dictionary and it was an absolute lifesaver. It had a painting of a Geisha on the cover and they had both Japanese text and Romanji. Everyone thought it was way cool.

One principal was very enthusiastically "Speak English only!" and he'd occasionally observe the class. One time, I was writing the sentence we were supposed to be practicing on the chalkboard. He stops me mid-writing. For the record, I have terrible penmanship. I make my lowercase D's and B's and P's with one stroke.

He's like "Wait. I thought D was written like this?" And he proceeds to draw a perfect lowercase d. Like, straight out of a handwriting book. Ohhhh if there was a hole I would've crawled into it! Embarrassing as hell. I said "No, you're right. That's how you're supposed to write it. I just have messy handwriting."

Much like Americans getting random Kanji tattoos, Japanese clothing and other items have English text. Because it looks cool. Does not make a damned bit of sense in English. Anyhow, one day Mr English Only pointed out a girl's shirt was in English and asked what it meant. "Marbly Wordage" What the hell is that supposed to mean? I said something like, your voice and how you speak is smooth like marble. She was awestruck.

That just opened the floodgates. I have no idea why all the kids thought I was illiterate! I guess not being able to read Kanji, they thought I couldn't read anything. But that entire class period, reading every bit of English text right down to the copyright information

That wasn't the first time it happened either! In another class the teacher remarked that a girl's shirt was in English, she should ask me what it says. And once again the students realize I can read English. Every single English word on everything! A Mario pencilbox, “Copyright Nintendo, All Rights Reserved.” and his eyes just got huge.

One of the classrooms had pictures of Pokemon outside and some kids were quizzing me on who they are. So I'm reading the Katakana and they realize I'm reading it! So they started covering the names with their hands. They loved my Pikachu impression and from then on I'd hear some random kid down the hall shouting “Pikachuuuu!!!”