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

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...

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.

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

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