Dennis

Message: 8482 From: djn@dennisnewson.de Received: Di Apr 26, 2005 9:52 Subject: Re: Sergei --- ticking off vs. ticking over

Again, Rob, thanks for the comments. They help. As my answer to Scott revealed, the remark about ticking off was a bit of a red herring, but it's no bad thing to be reminded by both of you to recycle, recycle, recycle - albeit with other stuff in between. What's a bit eerie about teaching one-to-one with a total beginner is that there is (in S's case, at least) no other source for the language than me. He can't learn from his classmates, because there aren't any. He can't, at least yet, learn from radio, TV, songs, because he can only tell the time, tell you the day of the week and say. 'bee'. You made a comment in your previous message I think it was about writing. I'll admit something. Writing individual words down is one thing, but any kind of writing exercise I don't fancy any more than I fancy translation. The trouble with writing, of course, is that it slows things down, and I think S and I need to keep up the pace, at least for the first few meetings. Dennis