Quick notes

We are fine and have not dropped off the face of the earth, believe it or not. Just been busy with a teething baby and my new career as English conversation teacher par mediocre.

That has gone surprisingly well (at least from my perspective). The student—I’ll call him T—reads English far above his grade level. It’s a bit disconcerting to meet an 8-year-old who reads and understands words like ‘forcibly’ and ‘migratory’ in his school-assigned reading material, especially given that neither of his parents read or speak English.

I’ve focused on getting him to practice hearing spoken English and working on some grammar concepts and pronunciation. To keep it fun, we’ve been watching some English videos, with me typing out some questions for him to answer afterward. I’ve found some really good ones on Kidvideos.com.

I definitely recommend this adorable one on making homemade ice cream. We watched it one day and he answered questions. The next lesson, I had him read the recipe, which I had typed out, and follow the directions. (Note to anyone trying at home: Be sure that your ziploc baggies are tightly closed or you will end up with some salty ice cream. You will see what I mean.)

The production values on many of the videos are shockingly high (some kids have their own Web TV series), which makes me feel a little inadequate as a parent. Apparently, I need to seriously work on my Quicktime editing skills before Susana hits kindergarten. Then, we have the budding scriptwriters and actors making mini independent movies like this (also a big hit with T).

Watching them, I am also reminded of the excellent movies ZemKimchi made with his students. (Joe, I can’t find the link. If you send it to me, I will update.) One drawback of Kidvideos.com is that little kids aren’t the clearest of enunciators. I try to be careful that I select videos and ask him questions about things he has a reasonable chance of understanding.

Posting will be light again in the next few days as we are headed to Hong Kong, tagging along, yet again, on another of David’s business trips.

Everyone stay well!