Comment c’est que vous arrivez ici a douze heures quand vous suivez six cours? (I showed 12 with fingures and translated hours)
Because I take 2 on line.
(I guessed en ligne but my two main dictionaries are so old one has a section on computers but no word for internet or on-line and the other one translates computer as one who calculates. Then Nyah asks me if I remember learning what the internet was.)
(there follows some self-talk on her part where she figures out the meaning of ‘vos’; it is good she talks out loud like that b/c when I listen to it it gives me a notion of how she processes material. I said Zero est votre chien mais il y a trois chiens chez vous donc ils sont vos chiens and then she got it)
Combien d’etudiants se trouvent dans vos classes?
Which ones? It depends. (she takes 7 courses incl. English, 2 on line!)
………… les affiches……..
What’s that? (showing she doesn’t just let things go. It was just a comment on the side, not a direct question to her but she still stopped me on it. In fact, she gets (01800 static stops) irritated when she doesn’t understand.
J’ai travaille a l’ecole Queen Creek mais je ne l’aimais pas.
(little smirky laugh showing she recognized my negative appraisal of the school)
Elle ne vous dit rien?
But I don’t know what she (friend Birdy) takes. (responding to my question about what her friend takes in school)
Quand j’etais un etudiant, j’etais oblige…. oblige???
Obligated? (showing good guessing on cognates)
(she describes her weight lifting class as ‘border-line abuse’. She is really funny)
……….. aimer mieux……..
What’s that?
Preferer.
Oh (we have not had preferer so this again show an ability to grasp cognates). It’s the same thing. Now what are you asking?
Quels sont les cours que vous aimez mieux?
Film studies (b/c I watch movies all day and I like the people in the class)
Oh, les gens dans la classe?
Yeah.
Qu’est-ce que c’est comme film que vous voyez?
We’re in the 90s now.
Les decades.
Oh, OK.
Vous avez vu Easy Rider?
What rating is it?
O. (there follows an embarrassing clarification of the name of one of the spots favored by teenagers but Ben Slavic says learning those is important for personalizing the PQA and the stories.)