I had previously told Yuki that I would love to take him and a girl he liked (I am sworn to secrecy, here) on a double-date with me and Jon- but I hadn't seen Yuki in about two weeks and needed to explain to him, that I hadn't been a flake, I just didn't have a fella no more, and I had been hurting for a bit. As it turns out, Yuki had expressed his feelings to his secret romance, and off in to the distance she had scampered. We both gave each other big fat "Oh well" looks. I also told Yuki about my house flooding during Debby, and starting a new job. I think he got the picture that I'd been busy.
In talking to him, I could see that he spent less time formulating his thoughts, and even caught himself in his pronunciations. For instance, when I couldn't understand his pronunciation of "water" he took a moment and worked his face around the word, really pronouncing the 'w' and the 'r'. I told him how impressed I was, and he smiled knowingly and told me he'd moved up a level in all his classes.
We worked on a few tongue-twisters together, and I told him that practicing mouth movements everyday would surely help him. I told him I'd observed that he didn't move his mouth very much in speaking, and that in English with the sounds he has more difficulty with- the 'b's' and 'e's' and 'v's' that there was a specific way of moving your mouth to make those sounds.
I also brought Yuki some figs to try from a tree that grows by my house, and he loved those.
We had bubble bread and Yuki ordered a lasagna. He commented on how big American portions are, but how all of his friends back home called him a food vacuum. He said that Japanese really didn't give you boxes for leftovers. Sure enough, I got a box but Yuki cleaned his plate.
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