Mr. B. (the same from my first post) doesn’t say things; he exclaims them. This man was born with a politician’s voice, and he often interrupts class to give brief presidential speeches. I think he could have been a congressman except that he was busy getting married at 15, and supporting a family before most Americans finish high school. Once he told me that Hyderabad, India, reaches 50 degrees Celsius and I believed him until I went home and did a quick Google search. When I asked him to describe his house, he took the chalk from my hand and drew a blueprint on the board–down to the location of each doorway. There is charisma behind his words.

Therefore, when the class ganged up and set off on a disparaging complaint about one of the other teachers, Mr. B.’s silence was noticeable.

One student explained that “All teachers very good, but she is–she is…eh.”

The others nodded, and another said, “She’s voice very loud.”

Salma said, “She is not smiling. Never smiling…”

Then finally, Mr. B. spoke up and exclaimed, “Smiling is very healthy!”

That settled the matter. We all agreed, and smoothly transitioned to non-count nouns.