W00t

Craft Land has been blog-less for days now, so here comes a long one.
W00t is the name of my new puppet.
And, not to sidestep the everyday announcement of a new puppet, w00t is also a new word recently added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as either woot or w00t or w007. It seemed at first to me like a reference to James Bond with a little extra W left on the beginning. It turns out it`s an expression that can pretty much replace "cool" in any situation to express excitement. I thought, "w00t! I can`t get enough of those words." I mean, I can only use "sweet" and "rockin`" so much in a day.
As I was looking up the new word, I found Merriam-Webster`s Open Dictionary where anyone can submit words. Although they aren`t all going to be inducted into the official dictionary, I think the list is evidence of flexibility in language. I have been thinking about this flexibility a lot lately. As I am learning Japanese, and have multiple chances to use the little bit of other languages that I know, I realize that communication is so much more about what my vice-principal would call "heart speak." In a normal day, I may use worse Japanese and sometimes more ridiculous English than a toddler does, but I still find a way to communicate. When I finally get to spend time with a fluent English speaker, all of my dammed-up words come gushing out. Speaking any language seems more like a game now. I notice other people`s word choice all the time. Some of our new friends are from England and have strong accents. They use words like rubbish and wank, that we don`t normal use. Those words are more like new colors and textures rather than just funny differences that I might not otherwise notice.
Anyway, back to my puppet, W00t. He will help me teach my elementary school students about the ABCs tomorrow and forever after. I suppose they will also learn the word w00t... so much English in so little time!! I can`t post a photo of him today because I am at home on our broken computer. I will say that he does look a lot like Squidward on Sponge Bob, but not as grumpy, with more feathers on his head, and pink. I also made sweet ABC flash cards where each letter is a different glittery, colorful character with cool eyes. These kids haven`t learned the Roman alphabet yet-- they will next year in 4th grade-- so I want to make this a crazy ABC play-date. They will sing the ABCs, run around, make letters out of clay and find the letters in a worksheet, which is pretty much an embellished version of our Christmas card. They may not retain anything, but I hope they will at least feel like language and learning is fun. Whatever I teach, ever, that is what I want my students to learn.
Speaking of learning through fun, and not so much fun, Mikel and I learned very important information this week. The first week Mikel was in Japan with me he got very, very sick. We thought he had a 24 hour bug, but the fact that he swam in a new river the day before was suspicious. This week we learned that the river directly receives waste water from Iida City. A local recently caught a fish out of it and gutted it right on the shore due to its bulging belly. Indside was used hospital gauze. Enough said.
It is time to check the glittery stripes on W00t`s nose and eat some apple crisp made by my hubby. W00t w00t!
Just another day in Craft Land.