Nicknames

Everyone remembers making nicknames up for teachers when they were kids. Whether plays on their name or simply references to physical features or behaviors, I can recall many a time a nickname felt absolutely necessary. Here's some of the ones my kids have made up for me (remember, they're only in elementary school):

Shirotama-sensei - obviously just a lazy reversal of the 2 kanji of my name, but one they find amusing nevertheless

Kintama-sensei - kintama means testicles...they use the first part of my last name, obviously.

Tamago-sensei - tamago means egg

Kurotama sensei - depending on the characters used, "shiro" can mean a number of things. One of those is "white" and "kuro" means black.

And of course, the tons of variations on my given name:
Andy
Andoyu
Anjuu
Ando

They only use the term "sensei" (teacher) when making fun of my last name, sort of an ironic respectful diss. The funny thing about these nicknames is that they're used to my face and usually in an attempt to get me to chase them. I often oblige them with a light smack on the top of the head (as is customary in manzai) or a short chase. I really don't mind the nicknames, because at least they know my name well enough to make fun of it.

Also, I've been called by my predecessor's name many times (Kaneko), as well as odd combinations of the two (kaneshiro, kanetama, etc). One time, I even was labeled as "Gordon-sensei," who is the guy who was here BEFORE my predecessor. I find myself wanting to say the same thing my teachers used to say to us; "you only have one name to remember, I have to remember 500," but I don't care all that much :)