Today I went across the street and visited a neighbor who was stacking firewood. I realized that I didn’t know how to describe what she was doing. So I set up a TPR drill to learn new vocabulary. In a matter of 15 minutes I learned 7 new words to describe what she was doing (see photo).
TPR stands for Total Physical Response, which is a language learning technique that I use to master words, sentence patterns and paragraphs. It involves a series of steps in which the learner goes from listening and pointing (while the speaker says the word repeatedly), to doing (if verbs are used), to mimicry and then to creative production. It is a proven method that helps in memory retention as well as developing relationships with native speakers in a live language setting.
Today my good friend Praphan and I were driving together doing errands in town. While we were chatting, Praphan suddenly jerked the steering wheel to the center of the road. “What happened?” I asked. “Just wait and see,” Praphan chuckled softly. He then pulled over and ran back to pick up the injured snake that he intentionally ran over.