Possessives 2

Tonight, one of my classes began on a one-point that was excitedly blurted out in the lounge by a student that I hadn’t seen in a while. “Long time no see!” She exclaimed as I was on the verge of offering her a drink. Her friend quickly echoed the sentiment and was very pleased that I hadn’t forgotten them or their names.

We started off the lesson reminiscing over the last time we’d met, which was three months ago (the first lady informed me because she’d been keeping track of the time), and the stories that we’d exchanged at the time. These two women always attend classes together because they’ve been best friends from high school so I can remember both them and their unique tales quite well. Seeing as how they regularly come on a Monday I’m not able to see them unless they take a make-up lesson on an alternative day. Today was such an occasion.

After a healthy amount of chatter, we moved onto the item that would take up most of the lesson time. I chose to do [Possessives 2] and focus on the flash cards that were broken up into two parts – describing the relationship from one family member to the next, and listing actual family member titles. So the first task would be to match up the cards. They worked exceptionally well as a team, helping each other get through the easier ones like “Your Mother’s Daughter” = “Sister”. When it came to the more difficult ones, drawing a family tree showing the relationship to the unknown relative made things a lot clearer for them.

Once all of the cards had been matched up, I double checked to make sure that everything was clear and that they had taken down good notes on the matchups. We had to clarify that nephew and niece could be either your brother or sister’s children before moving on to the role play. All of the students really enjoy this part because they can ask and answer questions about their family as well as their partner’s. This also helps to fortify the family member titles in the students’ heads because they are now identifying them with actual people that they know. This part of the lesson was definitely the liveliest with one friend trying desperately to remember what her aunt’s name was and what kind of hobbies she had.

Having ample time remaining after finishing up with the item, we did some practice with the questions from Routine 1. This past Tuesday had been a national holiday and a day off for both of them so we took turns asking about that day using the past tense. The first lady told me that she’d been window shopping on Tuesday and agreed with me that the crowds had been comparable to a Sunday afternoon – meaning, very crowded indeed. When her friend was called upon to share what she’d been up to on Tuesday, she looked at us rather sheepishly and admitted that she’d stayed home watching TV all day. So long as it was relaxing, it was a day well spent.

The one point was pretty much open to the imagination, “I believe~.” I gave them several examples of what I believe, jokingly telling them that, “I believe in Santa Claus.” They took it from there, making up several examples that were excellent after a bit of grammatical tweaking. At the end of the lesson, they promised me that they’d take another of my lessons very soon and left quite cheerfully.