Eat Clayton!

Session Activity- Commands

 Item Produced- List of commands given to children

Summary- list of verbal household commands, heretical foot issues

Linguistic Effective- commands followed previously exercised verb forms, so it was a good practice. More of the storytelling happened in the language, as I was able to ask more complex questions.

Linguistic Ineffective- it had been a while and I was out of practice

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Section Three was illuminated from the previous grammar stuff. I had no idea how much I had learned in those exercises. It ALMOST made them seem appropriate

Cultural Effective- Speaker enjoyed the lesson. Speaking of child command started stories on raising children, historic hurricanes, and heretical foot problems

Cultural Ineffective-

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  naming historical storms may be a better way to get tense grammar info.

Tomorrow-

Further Comments-

Herb Fest

Session Activity-  Do the chart on verb form changes

Item Produced- vision on grammar, medicinal herb information

Summary- pretty good grammar exercise

Linguistic Effective- just following the worksheet step by step was pretty effective. Even when it was uncomfortable I pressed forward and the results were better than expected

Linguistic Ineffective- I had some questions that came out of this that I was not able to follow through on because of speaker interest and my own mental limitations

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- sometimes you cannot see the larger value until the greater worksheet is complete. Make sure workbook language encourages people to press through even if the exercise seems frivolous at the time

Cultural Effective- asking for grammar and delving into grammar inquiries created some good idioms come out

Cultural Ineffective-

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  maybe pairing idiom exercises with grammar exercises would make idioms accessible and grammar less painful

Tomorrow-

Further Comments-

Feeling Swole

Session Activity- Get verbs for stop

Item Produced-  cool list of stoppage verbs.

Summary-  more grammar woes

Linguistic Effective- I latently understand more grammar. That is, I understand where more elements should be even if I am not able to implement them.

Linguistic Ineffective- I feel like I am wasting my time

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- I need to find out what made me feel like I know grammar, and build on that

Cultural Effective- My speaker is getting used to me trying to use grammar stuff. He is also a bit more aware of my ability and what I am interested in

Cultural Ineffective- he is bored and not feeling like this is a good time use

Cultural Provisional Improvements- try to make sure people know that latent grammar will start, and that even through it is shitty is may help your speaker to do grammar also

Tomorrow-

Further Comments-

I am naturally wanting to structure things with more grammar words. Today was the first time I felt it. Hearing is ok today but writing seems to be getting harder. Is it better to just understand or to write? Also I am learning to expect less from each day. The routine is to start with grammar, get a story, then get some history. Should I re-structure lesson plan to follow this natural flow?

The Great Sandwich Boat Wreck

Session Activity- Ask for different forms of known verbs

Item Produced- 2 verbs, Boating stories, the time the guy wrecked the boat eating a sandwich

Summary-Grammar just does not work 

Linguistic Effective- Having the worksheet of verbs to ask helped

Linguistic Ineffective- this whole grided out grammar testing method is too culturally vapid to be effective in this conversational language learning setting

Linguistic Provisional Improvements-  Maybe for challenge two just have 3 different days with 3 different charts that just need to be filled verbatim, without a big hoopla about learning different ways to do it

Cultural Effective-  boats run, boats ran, boats running

Cultural Ineffective- the grammar is alienating my speaker!

Cultural Provisional Improvements- more conversational

Tomorrow- 

Further Comments-

Grammar Failure

Duration-  00:37:00
 
Session Activity- Orally work through the second pronoun chart ( I say, he corrects, I write)
 
Item Produced- More Pronoun examples, better understanding of pronoun grammar
 
Summary-  I think this did not go as expected, was as difficult and frustrating as the other challenge exercises, but we got an unexpected breakthrough
 
Linguistic Effective- Saying and revising phrases is the most effective way for me to understand so far in Challenge Two. It also helped my speaker to witness the struggle I have with creating sentences because he was able to help me through the process. He even came up with a grammar rule that succinctly summarized pronoun grammar
 
Linguistic Ineffective- I am still having a hard time hearing and translating into writing
 
Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Encouragement and simplifying the grammar exercises to get that breakthrough with less pain- maybe re-write from straight chart to more of a live listening exercise
 
Cultural Effective- I think it helped my speaker to watch me where I struggled
 
Cultural Ineffective- Grammar is pretty brute and does not leave much room for cultural significance
 
Cultural Provisional Improvements-  Maybe rewrite some instructions for this section to include the fact that it is helpful for your speaker to see you struggle?
 
Tomorrow- No idea. I guess we need to start on verbs just to get out of this grammar thicket.
 
Further Comments- 22 years of education and grammar still sucks the life out of me.

Come to Jesus

Duration-  1:08:32
 
Session Activity- Compare bible Verse translations
 
Item Produced- Translation of Psalm 1:1, list of Biblical terms
 
Summary-  I prepared a bible verse we decided upon last session, He translated, and then we compared notes
 
Linguistic Effective- Writing the scripture before hand and then seeing his translation helped me better comprehend the grammatical errors I made
 
Linguistic Ineffective- I am finding it hard to understand when he is talking. He is talking relly fast and I feel like lately I am at a lost for the alphabet I created.
 
Linguistic Provisional Improvements-  This isn't in the books, but religious recitations is a good exercise. I feel like this activity should belong in section three. Its like I want to hop to the section three activities without completing challenge two. Its difficult for my speaker and me to do the second challenge. We have been working at it for months. We are getting discouraged Maybe we should read the book again and stop making up exercises :P
 
Cultural Effective- Bringing up religious documents helped us get jargon for the religious terms. Pretty cool terms that  would never otherwise come up in conversation
 
Cultural Ineffective- It did rely a lot on religion, so the words were taught/ remembered not truly culturally relevant (I think)
 
Cultural Provisional Improvements-  None
 
Tomorrow- try and get back to the grammar to get ourselves out of this shitty challenge section
 
Further Comments- I got it all out in linguistic improvements

Group talk

Duration-  1:15:00
 
Session Activity- Chat as a group and swap stories of the week
 
Item Produced- Practice with a monologue, bible verse translation, semantic puzzle between two types of movement
 
Summary-  Another speaker and learner joined in this session. Always great for moral, and bad for progress. We swapped stories, translated a bible verse, and  had some interesting history of washing machines, and a good semantic puzzle between "Grouille" and "change"
 
Linguistic Effective- The conversation about the semantics of movement was super cool. Everyone seems interested to tolerant of the discussion. Translating bible verses went really well!
 
Linguistic Ineffective- This idea of semantic questioning needs to be put in! these were great. It should be discussed earlier how to add these in and test them when they come up
 
Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Add semantic test into section 1! Add bible verse exercise to chapter 2
 
Cultural Effective- Having the whole group together is great.. On occasion. It makes for a special session that is a surprise and always ends positive
 
Cultural Ineffective- One learner tried to google stuff. People were also not as used to being in the conversation because they are not in it a lot. They seemed a bit uncomfortable win the whole french, but more of an awe than a discomfort
 
Cultural Provisional Improvements-  There needs to be more concern given to guests.
 
Tomorrow- we came up with the homework of writing out a scripture in french and bringing it in next time we go
 
Further Comments- Great session. This is the time where I will start updating my notes again. Notes 26-17 began migration on this day.

Sick

Duration-  0:51:04

Session Activity- Shot the breeze

Item Produced- Recipe for cold remedy, Phrase translation, Whiskey cocktail recipes

Summary-  I was sick and not about it. It was a lame session

Linguistic Effective- The phrase was interesting, albeit short

Linguistic Ineffective- I came with the idea to play a word game between rhyming syllables to make words. Speaker totally was not about it

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- That game was not well explained because it was not well defined. It would need alto of structure to work, and I don’t think it is a fun game anyway. But….with the right speaker it could work…right?

Cultural Effective- Being generally miserably sick I did get a cool recipe for a cold remedy- figs, honey and lemon. Sounded delicious. I also got some good whiskey drink cocktail mixes

Cultural Ineffective- Totally wasn’t a good listener or anything today.

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  Asking for drink recipes was fruitful, maybe do that again?

Tomorrow- Not be sick. Plan an actual lesson instead of being lazy and trying to make a plan on the drive to his house

Further Comments- I am finding that it is not enough to just go once a week and do this. I feel like in order to make progress I will also need to do some of this on my own. I find just by listening to french music or doing something french during the week keeps me fresh and makes it easier to listen on Wednesday nights to my speaker. Ill make a playlist...

Pronouns!

Session Activity- Pronoun Chart
 
Item Produced- Pronoun Chart
 
Summary-  Went through the pronoun chart. Got every one of them wrong, I know why. Great eye-opening experience
 
Linguistic Effective- Doing the chart beforehand and then hearing his constructions,THEN writing his constructions totally re-wired the way I was thinking about things and helped me get to a point of understanding fairly quickly. He liked having the chart in front of him and collecting the phrases in his mind while I was writing.
 
Linguistic Ineffective- We got mixed up at some point and he started saying the same constructions for two of the pronouns. I tried to fish around and find the right one by trying to make sense of what he was saying, but it just fell apart. I accepted a brute force method of a long parade of similar questions in order to resolve the discrepancy. I still don't think I got a good answer
 
Linguistic Provisional Improvements- There needs to be a better method of what to do when a speaker says the same thing
 
Cultural Effective- Meh. It was grammar. He enjoyed the structure, and working together through the confusion did improve our communication skills
 
Cultural Ineffective- I think he got confused by the forms that did make sense. Maybe those should just go off. When we were complete he also asked for other questions. I think it was too dry and he was expecting something a little more worthwhile for his time
 
Cultural Provisional Improvements-  Warn my speaker before a lengthy grammar exercise
 
Tomorrow-
 
Further Comments- I learned alot.

Cooking

Duration-  0:57:08
 
Session Activity- Talk about food
 
Item Produced- List of Nouns and verbs for cooking, dimensions and structure of an oven
 
Summary-  This is a catch-up-summary and I can remember much beyond a fascinating build of a oven
 
Linguistic Effective- Cool words
 
Linguistic Ineffective- Not orderly or logical
 
Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Dunno if I would
 
Cultural Effective- He gave me his recipe for his fantastic rump roast, and how he used to make ovens
 
Cultural Ineffective- I should have written down more info
 
Cultural Provisional Improvements-  Put a section in on how it is really important that you summarize your notes often because it reminds you of how much you are NOT writing down
 
Tomorrow-
 
Further Comments-

The Feels

Session Activity- Go though emotions
 
Item Produced- List of emotion words, GREAT definition of anxiety
 
Summary-  I had just experienced and breakup, and decided to ask for words for my feelings. Overall, this was a good session because my speaker empathizes and recognizes my mood, and still stayed on track with our research
 
Linguistic Effective- We started with simple feelings, and then moved into those which were harder to describe. In this case having three people was helpful to diffuse the emotional overtones, and also double-check that the expression fully expressed the emotion we were all empathizing with
 
Linguistic Ineffective- I think this went as well as t could. Although I am still having issues understanding/ translating to writing what my speaker is saying
 
Linguistic Provisional Improvements- We need to address listening issues
 
Cultural Effective- On understanding my speaker, it was not very effective, but my speaker did get to know me better, which helps our understanding in general. Also, the definition for some of the emotions were very insightful on how emotions are handled culturally, and withing my speakers experience.
 
Cultural Ineffective- None
 
Cultural Provisional Improvements-  None
 
Tomorrow- Get over it.
 
Further Comments-

Net Gain

Session Activity- Ask for information on nets, and an old net maker in our family
 
Item Produced- List of net terms, net making knowledge, and a family tree
 
Summary-  WOW. Learned a lot about the family. Nets began a family discussion (aided by the third person) that dove into some family history in a serious but honest way that had never been approached with before.
 
Linguistic Effective- Coming in with one topic and asking for words on that topic seems to always harvest a good collection
 
Linguistic Ineffective- The family discussion got so serious and complex it switched to English. Our comfort level as a speaking group is rising faster than my speaking ability
Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Warn people about the English creep
 
Cultural Effective- Showing interest and asking questions about the family tree when the speaker showed a willingness to talk about it was the ticket. Having the third party that also knew the history spurned the story forward in parts where it may have been dropped with only one knowledgeable party
 
Cultural Ineffective- I need to provide the user with a more serious family tree structure, If I would have had a more robust diagram, I could have legibly captured much more information.
 
Cultural Provisional Improvements-  This third speaker is alright, I need to address this part of the third speaker issue. Up the game on genealogy diagrams!
 
Tomorrow-
 
Further Comments-

Family Circle

Session Activity- Sit around and talk because of the abnormally large group
 
Item Produced- Good conversation, skill test, vocab
 
Summary-  Four people showed up today, it was a large group with differing levels. We had a successful conversation in English intermixed with french (two learners, two speakers
 
Linguistic Effective- We got a few vocab words, but not more
 
Linguistic Ineffective- We didn’t achieve enough linguistically to even say there was something we sucked at
 
Linguistic Provisional Improvements- I don’t think this is a bad thing, this break was brought on by circumstances and necessary. Maybe highlight that
 
Cultural Effective- Hanging out with different levels of speakers/learners was very good for the confidence of both the speaker and learners. It became a moral check in point to show off what everyone had learned, but it also was a uniting force to see that there was a supporting community beyond the two regulars.
 
Cultural Ineffective- Because of the different speaker levels, there was not great cultural insight
 
Cultural Provisional Improvements-  Write a section on how to deal with when this happens- maybe thinking of topics to provide in situations like this that would help the conversation be linguistically productive even if there is a large unorganized mass of people
 
Tomorrow-
 
Further Comments-

Inefficient

Session Activity- Get vocab for You are my Sunshine, talk about stuff
 
Item Produced- missing words to begin composing the second verse of you are my sunshine
 
Summary-  I really cant remember, this is a make-up review, but this session does not look like it was really productive
 
Linguistic Effective- we got a few words
 
Linguistic Ineffective- not a lot
 
Linguistic Provisional Improvements- this seems like something I didn’t prepare for and just went hang out. Write a warning that this result happens when you do this
 
Cultural Effective- not much
 
Cultural Ineffective- not much
 
Cultural Provisional Improvements-  see linguistic Ineffective
 
Tomorrow- Be PREPARED!
 
Further Comments-

Song

Duration- 1:12:27

Session Activity- Review word list so far

Item Produced- Translation of "You are my Sunshine"

*revised 7/4/15* Summary-  Once again, the weather talk turned into the most useful part of the session. The prepared activity was eclipsed when I mentioned I had just received a bunch of records that day (in French). He seemed interested so I asked if he wanted any (in french). He started naming off singer's and bands that he enjoyed, that I should keep an eye out for. He liked Jimmy Davis, and began singing "You are my sunshine." we then decided to translate it into french. It was great! 

Linguistic Effective- In translating the song, I said the verse in English, then he came up with the exact translation in french, which I then wrote. This was a great way for me to hear a sentence in English, then observe grammatical differences when the same sentence is communicated in french. Another great outcome was how we tried to make it rhyme. We would look at the last word, and try to think if the there was another word that meant the same thing that had better rhyming consonants. For me, this was challenging and perfect for my level of vocabulary. At the end, I had a song translation that rhymed and meant the same thing. I looked over this alot in the following days, singing it, and slowly learning it in my free time. The impact of this repetition positively impacted my pronunciation and accessibility to the language. The rhythm and joy of the song made me want to sing it often. This made any passive moment a french learning moment as my brain made more connections to that language in different situations. the words used in the song, as it rhymed, carried alot of pronunciation anomalies. repeating these often helped with pronunciation as the rhythm helped carry me through these pronunciation difficulties until they became second nature.

Linguistic Ineffective- The list worked well, but was eclipsed by the success of the song.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Put this fantastic accident in the book! This song really helped me. Also, put a section on giving the words back to your speaker in the book

Cultural Effective- Even though the song was not "cultural" the song did bring us closer together as we problem solved and made art together.

Cultural Ineffective- When the second speaker showed up, there was that clamming up again. However, once we sang the song it seemed to melt a bit I enjoy having both of them there as they are both great people. I also find that I learn more listening skills, and more complex words and stories when they are around. However, the first speaker clams up and seems not to enjoy the lessons as much when they are around. is this a jealousy issue? a private information issue? a personality issue? Why does this happen? is there any way to make it better?

Cultural Provisional Improvements -  This second speaker thing needs to be rectified.

Tomorrow- I have put the song to a tune, and I hope to surprise my speaker with an accompanied version of the song in our next lesson. Also, we did not take enough time with the word list. I am going to reprint the word list (in a bigger font also as per speakers request) and go over it next time

Further Comments- This was a lot of fun. I feel like our translation, weather right or wrong, is still very special to us.

Shit my speaker says

Duration- 0:57:07

Session Activity-Brought a different Totem Story to session to try this activity again.

Item Produced- Mildly better story narrative, heaps of info on outhouses.

Summary-  This was a productive session. Finally found a map that worked. In the totem story there was a photo of an outhouse. This little part of the scene was successful in bringing my speaker back to memories of his outhouse in his childhood backyard. From there we mapped the movements of the outhouse the layout of the house, his family, and suddenly he was transported back. It was truly an adventurous moment.

Linguistic Effective- We got to a point in today's session where the speaker was in a memory place. His voice changed slightly and words seemed to have a thicker accent. Mapping out his house, mostly his outhouse, got us there. Looking back, it made a lot of sense to start with the place that he frequented the most- the bathroom

Linguistic Ineffective- The totem story was not of much use again today. The stories that my speaker sees are not the stories the flip book is trying to convey. With this, the resulting narratives are fragmented and lack continuity and interest. However, the pictures that are associated with the flip book did spur great memories

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Reconsider the concept of a map. Have a section where the speaker maps his house, hist toilet, and move on the speak about different locations in time and space associated with this memory of home

Cultural Effective- Outhouse conversation. I personally learned a lot of "shit." But also I think my speaker was able to understand how much I did not understand.

Cultural Ineffective- This would not have been possible with two speakers. Although I enjoy speaking with two speakers, I don’t know if my speaker enjoys sharing the wealth

Cultural Provisional Improvements-As this situation develops more, I need to add a section about how to (and not to) integrate new speakers (when is a good time, who to ask, safe words, privacy, intimacy, etc)

Tomorrow- I don’t know. I want to try the same activity with another speaker present. However, there were things he spoke about to me that were personal, family business. If the other speaker was present, we may never bring these visceral and landmark moments up

Further Comments- I'm going see what happens bringing the other speaker in anyway

Map 2.0

Duration- 70 min session, 00:04:32 recording :/

Session Activity- Bring map of WATER and a fellow speaker to have a conversation about space.

Item Produced- Notes on camping spots, fishing spots, and some outdoor tips.

Summary-  Sadly, even with the correct map, this activity seems like a bust. The speaker was simply not very interested in the map.

Linguistic Effective- Listening to the two speakers talk is a great way to understand cadence, conversation structure, and general phrasing.

Linguistic Ineffective- The map.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Maybe find a way to get some more structured two- speaker dialog

Cultural Effective- I find having two speakers helps me have more time to think of questions, and have better outcomes from questions.

Cultural Ineffective-  This map was a detailed navigation map of inland waterways in his home community. The fellow speaker (Speaker 2 from now on) was very interested int he map, and gave a lot of information about their spatial memories, but my speaker would not be enticed to share his own experiences. He did answer direct questions, but not with much detail. I am not sure if it is the map or the other speaker, or something else, but it didn't seem informative today.

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  Ask speaker if he wants to have just me and him, and if he thinks the time is too busy with multiple people. I like having the extra dialog, and finding much more meaningful, but I am unsure if he feels the same

Tomorrow- I think its time to revisit the totem stories. This time, I want to make sure they are in the correct order, and align them to have a better read through. I hope to produce a better story with the last attempt.

Words

Session Activity- Write words digitally

Item Produced- Digital spreadsheet of all words, pronunciation, and gloss from the last 13 days.

Summary-  I took each day and made it a sheet in an excel workbook. I then typed five columns (Day, date, word as it was in transcribed, orthographic transcription, and the descriptive meaning of the word or phrase as transcribed). I then took all of these individual day sheets and copied their info into an inclusive list of all days. This list was sorted alphabetically by the orthographic column to make a rudimentary dictionary. If I want to look for a word and only have the English, I can re-sort by the meaning (gloss) Column to get this information.

Linguistic Effective-  re-reading and typing the words in a few sittings was a chance to review the words and make connections I never saw before. This review produced a list of words I had not yet asked

Linguistic Ineffective- Penmanship, pronunciation changes, and incomplete inquisition all contributed to the large patches in the vocabulary list.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Penmanship

Cultural Effective- None of great impact

Cultural Ineffective- Not a cultural experience

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  None

Tomorrow- I should write the list of the words I want to ask and bring them back up with the speaker

Further Comments- I had procrastinated this for a while, but now that it is done, I feel much better and more prepared. I am eager to see my speaker's reaction when I present him with this list. I also and eager to get on with my next homework assignment of transcribing the story.

Not aBOAT It

Duration- 1:12:24

Session Activity- Bring a map and a fellow speaker and have a conversation

Item Produced- Welding terms, and boat knowledge

Summary-  More boat talk...

Linguistic Effective- Having the other speaker helped with dialog. It was interesting to follow the conversation

Linguistic Ineffective- The map did not spur memories. The speaker had a lot of difficulty seeing the map.  Our location did not help with this. Though the living room setting was good for two people discussing, three people and an object must gather around a table

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- If you have a map, bring a magnifying glass.

Cultural Effective- Having another person there was interesting on a dialog point, but also in semantics. It was interesting to see what another fluent speaker understood, and more importantly did not understand.

Cultural Ineffective- The map was totally useless. It was a map of the land. The speaker seemed very uninterested.

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  Add a section about bringing another person into the conversation

Tomorrow- Finish the orthography!

Further Comments- This is frustrating, no matter what happens, everything returns to boats. It is very difficult to get any information beyond this subject

Triple Loving Consonants

Duration- 1:07:46

Session Activity- get words for love, light conversation to catch up with speaker's life

Item Produced- scale of love to hate vocabulary, carpentry vocabulary and knowledge

Summary-   lively talk about love, carpentry, and work


Linguistic Effective- Asking questions about hate made it easier for my reserved speaker to talk about the sensitive topic of love.

Linguistic Ineffective- After the long break, it was very difficult to understand my speaker's words. Breaks in our once a week cycle make me very rusty

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- add in the importance of covering hate

Cultural Effective- hearing his answers were valuable on two different levels. First, I was able to grasp his scale of affection from love to hate. Second, the manner in which he answered (reserved, and only divulging information after pregnant pauses) gave me a lot of insight into the mental workings of my speaker, and his preferred communication style

Cultural Ineffective- Nothing of note

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  changing seating position has impacted the content and style of our lessons. Activities have become more relaxed and the speaker is answering more candidly

Tomorrow- I want to try to bring up a conversation directly related to one of the vocabulary banks

Further Comments- It seems like I have a guilt for not having all of the orthography and data basing completed. It bothers me because I feel like it is difficult to move on without these steps. I am also feeling like my speaker is frustrated as we learn a lot of words one time, but they are never implemented in later lessons

Lizard Loop

Duration- 1:12:56

Session Activity- Go over lizard story, gather words for conditionals

Item Produced- lizard story narrative with English meanings, passive tense tools

Summary- the lizard story did not turn out like expected, the word gathering was useful

Linguistic Effective- the vocab exercises went well

Linguistic Ineffective- The story was difficult for my speaker, and difficult for me to decipher

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- something culturally went wrong with the story. Because of this, it is difficult to create linguistic information with the story materials. 

Cultural Effective- The story narrative was a thrilling look into the mind of my speaker. The speaker did not interpreterate the lizards on the page as anything I imagined. He perceived all of the lizards as their own entity, and not as occurrences of the same characters. Also, he perceived both pages to be connected into one large mural, and did not consider each page as a time lapse of the previous image.

Cultural Ineffective-although fascinating, I do not think the story activity was useful to the speaker

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  make sure in future issues the images are aligned succinctly

Tomorrow- I want to try and bring two guests and play cards with my speaker

Further Comments- during challenge one I moved position from sitting across the room from my speaker to sitting on the same couch. I will note the changes next session.

Database-ing

Duration- none 

Session Activity- transcribe notebook into digital database

Item Produced- word documents of lessons 0-9, beginnings of linguist database

Summary- Began to look into a flex data base, an IPA key board, and create a digital orthography key. 

Linguistic Effective- Rocking and rolling re writing  words. Before beginning I downloaded the IPA keyboard (I chose IPA Unicode 6.) and FLEx linguistic database software put out by SIL. I then listed my set  orthography, noting special characters. Reviewing the keyboard manual, i wrote the key sequence needed to make the character beside the character in a separate word document. When I began to transcribe from my notebook, I translated the dictated words into the orthography while transferring them into the digital realm

Linguistic Ineffective- I should not have digitized and translated in the same step. Doing this I lost pronunciation guides. I also should have began the project in excel to create a table instead of word. Later, I had to go back and redo much of my work to correct this mistake.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- explicitly lay out how this digitizing process should be done (See linguistic effect sections) instead of vague working instructions

Cultural Effective- Re reading and typing was good for memorization

Cultural Ineffective- More of a linguistic than cultural exercise

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  n/a

Tomorrow- finish this- it is taking longer than I imagined

Further Comments- I feel very responsible to complete this word list. In some way, I believe it will show my sincerity to my speaker.

Guest Visit

Duration- .0:56:10

Session Activity- Talk in a group with another french speaker

Item Produced- Follow-up data on pronunciation

Summary- This meeting was out of the regular lessons as another speaker joined us for conversation. I asked both for help repeating words to aid with orthography corrections. In all it was a pleasant evening, and I believe both speaker and guest enjoyed their time.


Linguistic Effective- Composing the list of known consonants, in order to make a list of unknown consonants and words in which the unknown appear greatly streamlined this process. Would highly recommend filling in the word charts

Linguistic Ineffective- Having two speakers, one entirely new to the established interview milleau, was difficult to make forward motion within the activity.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Stress the importance of following the steps in the orthography process

Cultural Effective- It was very cool to see my speaker interact with another fluent speaker.

Cultural Ineffective- I do not know if my speaker welcomed the opportunity as much as I did- it seemed like he felt the other speaker to be intrusive on our learning time

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  maybe I should ask the speaker less definitely before inviting the guest

Tomorrow- Nail down orthography and begin transcribing into a database

Further Comments- Although my speaker was hesitant, the guest was quite eager. In fact, the guest called me back to ask to attend the next session. I am in a strange situation where I do not know if the speaker would enjoy a constant third person. I also do not know how to tell the third that they may not always be welcomed though they were welcomed this time

Orthography

Duration- 1:02:00

Session Activity- Go through notes and make a consonant list

Item Produced- List of consonants and list of consonant issues

Linguistic Effective- Going through the notes is a great cognitive exercise.

Linguistic Ineffective-I feel like I had more notes than I actually had, that’s kind of a bummer to realize how little you have actually collected. It was a good reality check.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Make a better flow for this section. It is difficult. Acknowledge the gap between collected and perceived.

Cultural Effective- Reviewing the words will make me a better conversationalist at the next lesson

Cultural Ineffective-not much was added culturally as this lesson was more of a review

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  None really.

Tomorrow- Ask the speaker the words I have questions about, make a list of taboo words and phrases to ask

Further Comments- This lesson made me feel overwhelmed. It was the first time I read through the book and had no idea what to do. I felt (as the author!) the directions were not clear, and it was very difficult to set aim at  the objective with the information given. Once I figure out how to do this, I will have to re-write this section.

Uhhhh.....

Session Activity- Sit and talk- lost research notebook, which makes it difficult to move on to orthography. So today I just showed up without a plan.

Item Produced- Some personal narrative about boat work

Linguistic Effective- Listening to prose was a good review to point out the holes in the noun and verb collection of the past sessions.

Linguistic Ineffective- I should not have been doing this today. I desperately need to review notes and rewrite vocab in the orthography so I can cement what I have learned

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Maybe I need to let people know what to do if they forget something and cant move on

Cultural Effective-The story time was great. He gave me a massive increase in boat knowledge.

Cultural Ineffective- None

Cultural Provisional Improvements-None

Tomorrow- Get the book and trace out orthography, try to make headway in digitizing notes

Verb

Duration- 0:56:42 

Session Activity-we went over the recommended verb list, trying to isolate the form when possible, and using in a sentence as needed.

Item Produced- list of verbs categorized by verb type

Linguistic Effective- the verb list really helped us stay on track and get a good overview of the different forms. The systematic approach helped me later when reviewing my notes to compare different verbs and contrast their actions

Linguistic Ineffective- I could feel that I was missing some particles. This is the first exercise where I felt like the interaction would have improved by being mediated (book, dictionary, teacher, etc)  I could tell there was a helping verb in the diatransitive and copular forms, but I could not get to it. It was a bit scary to look over a cliff like that and see there is something beyond our grasp

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- I think I should have slowed down and taken the list a little slower, but then again, this exercise is just a first survey, and not a verb study. I do need to add some information on how to deal with this feeling though

Cultural Effective-  A song! Recanting verb made him remember a song that was sung to him as a child. It was not an "unknown" song, but it was the first time the speaker had ever sung in a session. It was very special.

Cultural Ineffective- I feel like the repetition is grueling. Then again, maybe it was the repetition that put our speaker in the mindset to access the song.

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  The book is designed to keep things from becoming too repetitive, but I wonder what would happen if there were some repetitive parts? What could be unlocked by accessing the mundane recanting part of the brain?

Tomorrow- I am looking forward to challenge one! Next week we will begin with the orthography

Boat and Prose

Duration- 00:50:48

Session Activity- Go over a boat diagram

Item Produced- list of nautical terms

Linguistic Effective- The speaker has worked most of his life on boats. The terms he uses are centered on this lifestyle. Getting more boat terms helped me better understand what my speaker was talking about

Linguistic Ineffective- Though effective, it was not very organized. I am afraid I jumped ahead of myself on this exercise. The boat terms were not as useful as they could have been as we have not gone through verbs. Most of the terms could not be implemented as I am still missing critical verbs

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Let this be a lesson to myself and everyone else using the system that the challenges should be taken seriously. Don’t skip ahead until you get past the first part!!

Cultural Effective- my speaker lives and breathes boats. Knowing boating terms helps with the Ola! weather talk and also general conversation. I am finding I am learning new niche terms in English also

Cultural Ineffective- the third member of our group came for a lesson and I feel as though we didn’t take them into account enough. They had missed quite a few sessions and had difficulty keeping up. We should have slowed down and allowed them to ask more questions

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  make sure the pace is always even to include all learners

Tomorrow- VERBS VERBS VERBS! This has to happen before we take on anymore cultural activities!

Further Comments- My speaker seems to be gaining ease a fluency also. I told him this, and he mentioned that he re-reads the book at night using the charts to strengthen his vocabulary and memory of the language. I never envisioned the book also helping speakers improve themselves, but this is a welcomed outcome!

Tax day

Speaker cancelled as we both scrambled to do our taxes last minute- no session this week...

...But we did present OLA! at a booth for the Houma Language Project at Cultural Connection, a conference for Louisiana cultural stakeholders at the capitol in Baton Rouge.

I Want it Now!

Ola! making it to the community!

Duration- 00:58:47

Session Activity- Began to look at syntax through the modification charts, skimmed possession, plurality, and modifiers.

Item Produced- basic theory on modifier and possession syntax, questions about plurality

Linguistic Effective- the charts kept us on track. Although they did not follow them directly, using different words than those in the examples, the charts helped to keep track of our progress, and keep us on the right track.

Linguistic Ineffective- the time was ineffective when we jumped around. A lot of the jumping happened because of guilt of wasting the speaker's time. I felt today he was so eager to work that I did not want to make these exercises a drudgery and dampen his perception for further session. we covered alot of different areas this way, and I have a strong instinct about how things are working within these rules. But I cant say I could make any grammatical conclusions.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- I need to reconcile the balance of speaker interest and learner value. One thing I noticed in the Ola Weather talk is the speaker talks a lot about boats (he has worked on ships since the age of 14). Understandably, the breadth of ship terms was not covered in Ola. Maybe look into butting a "roll your own" chart in this section to encourage users to gather the vocab in the genre they detect the speaker using often in the weather talk

Cultural Effective-  Also effective is the "homework terms" the speaker researches. When we cannot find a word in our sessions, the speaker will ask the french speaking men at work the next day. This outside support group has so far been able to answer all of our outside questions. They have also invited me to visit the shipyard.

Cultural Ineffective- Although my speaker was not keen on his family terms, he was keen on explaining his boss' family structure, and the history of the boats.

Cultural Provisional Improvements- If we are stumbling on context, try and put things in boating terms

Tomorrow- I want to bring a diagram of a ship to our session and get fundamental terms for things. I also want to base our verb inquiry on ships.

Further Comments- I assumed I understood which culture I was gaining access in with the study. I guess I misjudged my speaker, his experiences, and his ship-based lifestyle

We Are Family

Packing and Shipping, check your mailbox soon!

Duration- 46:00.00 

Session Activity- Go through kinship list, Swadesh Vocab, Greeting Phrases

Item Produced- Greeting Phrases, Kinship list, Geneology information

Linguistic Effective- Greeting phrases effortlessly merged into use. The kinship chart did work

Linguistic Ineffective- I did not take my own advice and copy a version of the chart in my notes before starting. The result was the chart was very hard to follow.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Write charts in notebook before going to the session.

Cultural Effective- the chart made it easy to ask sticky questions. A "how do you say," is very easily turned into a "Who is your".

Cultural Ineffective- my speaker isn't too keen on talking about the family tree.

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  try and work in more family questions.

Tomorrow- We seemed to be done with most of the noun vocabulary for now, start moving to modifiers and verb vocab.

Further Comments- I didn’t realize this while writing but the speaker seems more attached to using the book than I am. I am not sure why the speaker is hesitant about cultural family tree questions- is it a personal hesitance, wrong approach, or a disinterest in the process. The speaker seems to be able to get into the french roll faster than when we first began these lessons. I think he enjoys speaking, and is frustrated by the slowness of the process.

Describing the Sounds

The books have arrived!

Duration- 45 min 

Session Activity- Make a consonant list of the past few days

Item Produced- consonant list

Linguistic Effective- Went through the words I had gathered through the sessions and made a list of all the letters or symbols I used to describe the sounds. I then went through again and tallied how many times each letter had been used. With this, I made a list of sounds and letter I will try to use when explaining that sound

Linguistic Ineffective- I was kind of fever-y in a doctor's office. If I want a professional consonant list, this cannot be the final attempt at this product.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Maybe try and do this again in a few sessions.

Cultural Effective- n/a

Cultural Ineffective- n/a

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  n/a

Tomorrow- In my next session, I will try and observe if any new sounds appear beyond what I described in this list

Further Comments- In my next session, I will try and observe if any new sounds appear beyond what I described in this list

Get Vocab

Duration- 1:07:48

Session Activity- Go through Swadesh List

Item Produced- vocabulary, Conversation, Story

Linguistic Effective- Although I was interested in straight listing, we were not able to accomplish much of this. What we did get was quite helpful in understanding phonemes and their interactions.

Linguistic Ineffective- The speaker seemed bored of the Swadesh list- and I wouldn't hold it against him. After three sessions, the Swadesh words are getting pretty old. So instead of plain Swadesh, we tried to get related words, build scenes and recall memories and tell stories as a way to get words. We did not get many words, well, we got ample words, but we really didn’t get to many structured lists. Most of what we got was not what was needed to communicate, but what was said in the session.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- I think instead of the Swadesh list, maybe we need to come up with a communication list. Like a list of words most often used in communicating, not just words used in general

Cultural Effective- using vocab to tell stories was extremely rich. With just a few related words we were able to transport into the speaker's memories. Through this we saw many vocabulary we would have never thought to ask (breadbox?). The story format was easy and enjoyable for the speaker. It seemed he was easily able to channel thoughts in the language when given a few vocabulary words.

Cultural Ineffective- The speaker would switch in and out of the language. Curiously, it was very controlled. Many of his narratives were recalling work processes. These were very linear tales. When I asked for language vocabulary, he would provide, then begin the story in french; however, if I asked a question about the story in English, he would provide the answer in English, then continue speaking in English until I asked another question about the french vocabulary. I do not know if it was voluntary or involuntary, but I tried this several times during our session with the same results. With a french question, he would narrate in french. With an English question, he would narrate in English.

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  Try and tell more stories

Tomorrow- We are going to move on from Swadesh in the next lesson. I am not ready, but I think my speaker wants to move, and I believe I can get much of the vocabulary through story questioning

Further Comments- I feel very comfortable listening in the language. I have taken a lot of french in my life (4 high school, 3 college courses) but was never able to understand Louisiana french. Through the past few lessons, I am now able to pick apart what he is saying and see how his fast, compacted pronunciation is related to the french I studied. I still feel awkward speaking,  and I do not think he understands much when I try.

Day Two.Two

Publishers Proof arrived today!

Duration- 1:08:28

Session Activity- Go through Swadesh List

Item Produced- Words for Swadesh list, The origin of Cut Off, 3 idioms, and a history story

Linguistic Effective- Because of earlier jaunt with nouns, I was able to spot and not a few different consonants I did not note in the first session. The list system went well, and the speaker was comfortable with questions and able to provide 95% of answers. After the session, I summarized what I thought was happening to the sounds. He didn't seem too interested in the content, but he seemed relieved that what he was doing was helping someone

Linguistic Ineffective- Sandwiches are still not possible. Connection words are difficult to grab as the speaker cannot isolate them (i.e. at, in, and on were not answerable questions.). The speaker was sleepy, and at times seemed lulled. He was also disappointed when I did not answer the greeting phrases in french

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Step my game up when It comes to the greeting phrases. My speaker wants to see me implement the words used into our Ola Weather Talk. On the way to the next lesson, I will try and construct answers to the weather talk to share. Also, encourage users to make a list of words their speaker does not know. Encourage users to let their speaker in on what is happening.

Cultural Effective- When the speaker was not able to isolate the word in question, he would give me the word used in two or three phrases. These phrases were usually culutrally idioms, 80% of these I had never heard before. There were three words my speaker could not think of vocabulary for (Rug, zero, and Pie Crust). After the session, he approached his wife to ask for these words. With this four cool things happened all at once:

1. She tried to think of the answered, and involuntarily switched into talking french. 
2. Both her and the speaker began to tell me stories of french memories. 
3. They brought me to a painting and began to describe the cultural significance, their experience with it, and locational history associated with the piece. 
4. Both began to form lists on who they knew who spoke french, and they could ask for help finding these words for me. 

I am going to say that this is Jan Vansina's theory in action! This makes a strong case for linguistic memory designing cognitive architecture.  I still don't know how to say pie crust, but this linguistic gap is ok. Culturally, trying to think of these missing words brought so much into their minds that spilled out. Much of what they told me I could have never  elicited. Most exciting is the ripple effect this will create as three to four french speakers who they will ask these words to will hopefully share similar oral memory experiences.

Cultural Ineffective- Daylight.Savings.Time. My speaker goes to sleep at 8pm each night. I arrive for lesson at 6pm for an hour of conversation. Daylight savings time made it so our lesson was not as dynamic as it could have been. He was groggy. Also ineffective was the monotony of the Swadesh list. I could tell he was uninterested in material with so little "use."

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  watch personal clocks, and not federal ones

Tomorrow- Ask if they found the words they were missing, and get my weather talk together. I also need to compile the words I do have together to start a consonant/vowel list.

Further Comments- The speaker seemed proud of what he was doing. He told me that he told his friends what he was doing, and that they thought it was a very good thing. At another point he mentioned that maybe he will start giving french lessons to other people. The process of me learning from him seems to be showing him that his language skill is valuable

The Call

Duration- 00:04.32 

Session Activity- called speaker to let him know I could not come

Item Produced- trust in schedule, speaker read Ola!

Linguistic Effective- Speaker read the book that day instead of having a lesson. This was IMMENSELY helpful. He described over the phone that he had a better idea of what I was trying to do, and how he could help me. In the next session he was prepared and understanding to my method of asking questions.

Linguistic Ineffective- still no luck with understanding sandwiches

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Encourage user to let the speaker read the book

Cultural Effective- In the next session, the speaker seemed more in tune with why language is important.

Cultural Ineffective- Skipping on the second lesson degraded trust with the speaker.

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  Things to consider changing in hopes to increase cultural communication in this activity.

Tomorrow- Make sure to increase trust and stick the schedule

Day One!

First day of Ola! being beta test by the Houma Language Project

Duration- 0:23.25

Session Activity- Met for the first session, asked for a few nouns.

Item Produced- Established form with speaker, established form with learner, list of 20 nouns, better understanding of speaker/learner communication issues, and language sound issues.

Linguistic Effective-Using the Swadesh list help the new learner ask and receive simple words. There was not one word we asked the speaker did not know. It also reduced the anxiety of the speaker, as they seemed validated in their language knowledge with each question answered. 

Linguistic Ineffective- in a cultural situation, some of the things the speaker says will be things that you have heard before. In this session, I had a hard time breaking out of what I knew of the language and writing only EXACTLY what the speaker said. For example, Houma French is based off french. I know in french, the article is gendered, and often learned with the noun. For the first set of words, I would instinctively drop the article and only write the noun stem in my notes. I did not even notice I was doing this until 10 or 12 words in. Because the language is familiar, I assumed comprehension and missed opportunities to learn the language nuances.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Unlike a school environment, there needs to be a section on clearing your mind of previous knowledge to truly listen to the dialect difference. I need to add a section on assumptions.

Cultural Effective- The speaker was eager (maybe over eager) and was delighted to be asked questions. The weather talk in the beginning of the session made both the speaker and the learner more comfortable, and did a great job on eliminating conversational distractions. The speaker steered learning into areas he was comfortable by teaching us words associated with his lifestyle (boat, horn, deer, legs). These conversations steered off track, and we were able to get some family names and history no one ever spoke of before. I learned the names of three generations above the speaker, along with a little information about each. To me, it seemed like the speaker was introducing us to the characters of his language memories. Exciting stuff!!!

Cultural Ineffective-The speaker was totally not able to make a sandwich. they were also not on board with saying things slow and repeating them. I think because I knew him, he expected a higher amount of understanding when he spoke. This was untrue, Being a new language, I had much difficulty understanding what he was saying. He seemed disheartened and unwilling to repeat words.

Cultural Provisional Improvements- There has to be a diagram or a better way to get the concept of a sandwich across to the speaker.

Tomorrow- Next session, I will try and do a clearer job on communicating how we need to hear words (i.e. slowly, space between them, loudly, and maybe sandwiches).

Further Comments- This is was an exciting moment for me. This book is an architectural plan for an interaction. It seems I have spent 4 years researching, and the last 9 months drafting the plans for this interaction. Today was the grand opening, and I was able to watch people move through the conversation space I designed. It was kind of surreal to watch them flow, in their own way, through the path. It was a relief to watch them flow through with such ease. The boundaries prevented the dangers, the accessways led to information, and the experience left all sides with a type of memory I set out to create. It was a great day.

Post Format

Ola! a Guide to Oral Language Acquisition is constructed to increase cultural interaction and language communication in community settings. This blog aims to track the book's effectiveness in reaching these goals. It is detail linguistic and cultural observations during sessions.

To keep order, all my experiences in sessions will be recorded in the following format:

Title- a Witty phrase that summarizes the experience.

Labels- Titles of any parts of the book referenced in this session. Can be used for current users to review experiences before implementation

Duration- Length of the session. 

Session Activity- Summarize the steps taken in the session to work on the activity

Item Produced- The tangible and intangible products of the session

*revised 7/4/15* Summary-  Overview of events that happened in the session

Linguistic Effective- Actions that were effective to oral language acquisition

Linguistic Ineffective- Actions that were found ineffective to oral language acquisition

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Things to consider changing in hopes to increase language and cultural acquisition in this activity.

Cultural Effective- Actions that were effective to cultural communication.

Cultural Ineffective- Actions that were found ineffective to cultural communication.

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  Things to consider changing in hopes to increase cultural communication in this activity.

Tomorrow- Leftover things that need to be addressed in the next session.

Further Comments- Like a bat invasion or serious knowledge bomb.

Convincing a Speaker to Work with You

He sat for a while investigating the book. He flipped through it for about 5 minutes. I asked what he thought of me trying to learn french from him. "Didnt you take it in school?" He asked. I explained I did, but I wanted to know how he said things. He smiled. I explained I wanted to come down to his house every week and try to do some of the exercises in the book with him. He smiled bigger. I don't think it connected until then that the book was to help us work together. He said he would be excited, and his wife chimed in that she would love to join too.