Dirrty Spelling

So today I had my 3nensei doing word finds (dude, Japanese kids LOVE English word finds…even the “cool kids” who usually don’t do anything in class!) while I graded other kids on their dialogues. One of the puzzles’ themes was careers, and so there were words like “lawyer,” “doctor,” “cook,” etc. All of a sudden one of my students turns to me and says “Jeff, how do you spell cook?” (in Japanese, the word for cook is Jengrish and is spelled “kokku,” and sounds a lot like something that you wouldn’t want to be when you grow up, if you know what I mean). Before I could answer, she asked, “Is it c-o-c-k?” Um. Hmmmm! Thank god I somehow could control myself and not give away that that was a real word, as well. I don’t know how I suddenly became mature but I was just like “Oh, no, actually it’s “c-o-o-k,” but good guess!” Hee hee. Oy, I am easily amused.