This morning one of my students, Alvin, brought milk with him to school. Another student, Estelle, came to inform me that Alvin's milk was all over the floor. I was sitting at my desk and I could see a small puddle of milk so I asked Alvin to clean it up. Alvin says "no, not I, not I"; which I translated to "It's not my milk". So I try to explain to him, "Alvin, you are the only kid who brought milk, so it has to be yours". But he kept insisting "not I, not I, not I". So I had Eric, my only student who speaks English, explain to him in Chinese, what I just said. Still Alvin insisted. During this time I am walking around my classroom, and out the door down the hall and I see this trail of milk EVERYWHERE! Even his backpack and jacket had huge milk stains, and his water bottle only had a tiny bit of milk in the bottom. I was trying to imagine how this kid can keep claiming that this is not his milk when there is SOO much evidence against him.
Finally my TA arrived and he explained to her that his Grandpa packed his milk, so it's not his fault that it spilled. It's his Grandpa's fault. So "not I, not I, not I" really means "It's not my fault".

Our school has snacks for the kids every morning. Guess what we have today? MILK. Alvin took one look at it and sighed. I smiled at him and asked if he wanted any, and he said "no thank you". I love Alvin . He makes me laugh just about every single day. Teaching with a language barrier is a huge challenge. But it's always an adventure.