If laughing is a universal language, then Ghadeer, Ayah and I
were all speaking the same language for our last session on Tuesday.
We were playing Scrabble when Ghadeer put down
the letters- T-A-N. I asked her to
pronounce the word and then tell Ayah what it means. She looked at me and said she didn't know. Ayah immediately looked over and asked, how she put that word
down and yet didn't know what it meant.
Then we all looked at each other and laughed hysterically. I explained what TAN meant and Ghadeer said,
yes, like sun cream which made me laugh inside.
But then I questioned myself, is this receptive or productive vocabulary. Does she know this word from seeing it on TV
or ads in papers so in context? Will I ever look at
the English language the same way again?
Have I been ruined for life to just speak with someone. It was a bittersweet way to end the session
but again a learning experience for me on how others learn our language.
Pam, so awesome that you play Scrabble with them! I want to try and play games like that with my tutees, but they are so young, it's hard to play productive learning games!
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