if you were a fish....

yesterday morning i asked my japanese students some random "what if" questions as part of an esl drill... one of my favorite responses was to the question:

if you were a fish what kind would you be and why?
emi (without much thinking): if i were a fish, i would like to be a salmon.
14 other j-students: oooooohhhhh & ahhhhhhhh
emi (continuing): i like to eat salmon. so i would like to be a salmon so that people would enjoy eating me......

hmmmm.... never really thought about that "self-less" approach.... i wonder what it would be like to live purely knowing that you exist to please someone's taste palette.... that your end is dependent on someone's sushi cravings...

here are some other questions i asked:
*if you were stranded on an island, what 5 things would you want with you and why?
*if you could be born in any country, which would you choose and why?
*if you could tell someone one thing, what would it be and whom would you tell? (interesting sidenote: the j-group assigned, said they would tell brittney spears to stop singing....)
*if you could change 5 things about japan, what would it be?
*if you could be famous for one thing, what would you choose and why?
AND (of course!) *If you had one million dollars what would you do with it and why?