Pat’s Polemics

Today I texted Nyah about when we were going to meet. She answered with ‘oui’. So I texted back Ah! Vous parlez francais and she (Continue Reading)

As our students create their stories in the story-asking feature of tprs, we might see their productions as a kind of Rorschach test. What do (Continue Reading)

Today I tried to survey blogs on tprs again. One in particular I wanted to join in on and it is via Word Press, the (Continue Reading)

We continued today with the mermaids or sirens who can transform themselves and eat men. (???) I will continue with this post, transcribing parts of (Continue Reading)

My problem has been in asking the story, getting her to come up with “cute answers.” Today finally she did. I structured the story as (Continue Reading)

Interesting how it hit her that the ‘a’ and ‘avait’ of ‘il y a’ and ‘il y avait’ is not ‘is’ and ‘was’, like in (Continue Reading)

Qu’est-ce que c’est que les animaux disent aux princesses? She’s ugly. Before I set the recorder up I’d asked the same question and she replied, (Continue Reading)

Feel free, as always, to correct the French. Un etudiant habitait a l’universite ou il etudiait l’informatique. L’universite se trouvait aux Etats-Unis et l’etudiant s’appelait (Continue Reading)

Today I tried to use our newer words and so I started a “simple” story that wound up going on for over a page and (Continue Reading)

Vous pouvez lire et ecrire. Zero (her dog) ne peut pas ni lire ni ecrire (new words) Oh, oh, it’s like the Spanish leer (I (Continue Reading)

First TPRS French lesson. Ou est Flower? (my dog) Chez vous (she answered in French. That was pretty much the last time. By October she (Continue Reading)

This lesson took place on Oct. 2, 2018 at Nyah’s house without the vocab posters. Il y a un animal chez nous. l’animal est un (Continue Reading)

This is the first post of transcripts of my lessons in French with my granddaughter using purely tprs. The sessions last strictly 30 minutes, so (Continue Reading)

Recapping a character in her story: Il est seul. Yeah. Il n’a pas des amis. Yeah. Well, his roommate. Oh, c’est un ami. Yeah. Ils (Continue Reading)

First recorded lesson after the initial lesson in June. La groupe (rock) ne joue pas a l’eglise. Why would they play in a church? _________________________________________ (Continue Reading)

Look at other entries in this category and recall we began July 2 or so. My concern has been that I feel I am not (Continue Reading)

We had to miss a lesson today (she was dog sitting) and Monday (we had an appt over in Phoenix), and yesterday we were talking (Continue Reading)

One great advantage to TPRS is that anyone who speaks a language can teach that language with no more training than TPRS requires. So if (Continue Reading)

June 19 I’ve read Ben Slavic’s TPRS in a Year and am prepared as much as I can be to teach my granddaughter French via (Continue Reading)

We’re at only lesson 9, 10 meetings total, of my granddaughter’s French lessons. She has total comprehension of sentences like Le pirate dirige le bateau (Continue Reading)

The events since Wednesday night have rocked the country. Let me first just recount them and then muse on the speed of change we’re seeing. (Continue Reading)

I’ve hit upon another way to make sure I post daily: just copy my posts into the blog under whatever category seems appropriate. The problem (Continue Reading)

Finally, for the fifth time, I’m starting regular postings. It’s still going to take me time to organize the blog. I want to start with (Continue Reading)