One thing that we've done for two years in a row and I hope becomes a tradition is going to the local mall's Christmas tree lighting ceremony. (it's okay, they're all LED!) This is hosted by PiPi-chan, a balloon performer who we have had the pleasure of seeing a few times now. She makes amazingly intricate balloons and sings and dances and gives and all-around amazing show.
Part of the show is to get audience participation, in songs or dances or ringing bells. She asked one quiz question only,"what is the red-nosed reindeer's name?". That doesn't seem hard but it isn't mentioned in the Japanese version of the song. Everybody put up their hands of course, and so did Spinky and Domba. Oh how they wanted the reindeer balloon she was giving away.
PiPi-chan chose Spinky, thinking he was likely to know the answer. I thought he knew too, seeing as though we had sung that song in the bathtub the night before (with Domba filling in the last word of every line).
But with the lovely PiPi-chan, who my son says he is going to marry when he grows up, right there asking him, he froze up! I was quite surprised, I've never known him to be afraid to talk or clam up! He doesn't get it from me either, I was always the keener in school.
I answered "Rudolph" when asked and we received the sought-after balloon. But I was left with a lot of questions.
I asked poor Spinky later why he couldn't answer. I was afraid that he was ashamed to give an English answer or was adopting one of those cool-boy attitudes that answering a question is the height of loserdom. Turns out he wasn't feeling the pressure, he was just overwhelmed that his crush was up so close. He said that "I was too busy looking because she is so pretty!". So I've lost my boy to girl fever already.
Do you or your kids get stage fright? How do you deal with this, especially in school?
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