I got this question from Ray: Hey Ben, I had to bail on a story yesterday.  When bailing, do you find it wise to choose a very boring activity to put in perspective for them how much better stories are than other possible activities?  Do you also let them know that you stopped the story […]

Here is one of Anne’s from Jim: Perezoso Jeremy trabaja en McDonald’s y prepara las hamburguesas. El jefe le grita porque Jeremy es muy perezoso. Le dice, “¡Trabaja, Jeremy! ¡Qué perezoso eres!” Jeremy no trabaja. Come papas fritas. El jefe le grita, “¡Vete!” La próxima semana Jeremy trabaja en DollWorld. Jeremy lava las muñecas. El

Another One from Brigitte: Report Card Day zeigt (shows) findet es lustig (finds it funny) das Zeugnis (the report card) Zeugnistag Es ist mitten im Februar und heute ist Zeugnistag.  Wolfgang hat sein Zeugnis bekommen.  Sein Zeugnis ist sehr schlecht, er hat eine „5“ in einhundertein Fächern und eine „6“ in Diskotanzen.  Wolfgang findet das

Important important (wichtig) needs (braucht) has to pay (muss bezahlen) Eine wichtige Geschichte Christoph ist ein sehr wichtiger Astronaut.  Er möchte zum Mond fliegen und braucht eine wichtige Rakete.  Es gibt wichtige Raketen bei der NASA.  Christoph geht zur NASA in Cape Canaveral.  Dort arbeitet Louie der Pinguin. Christoph  geht zu Louie und sagt:  “Ich

Santa Claus needs to (tiene que) wait (espera/esperar) receive (recibe/recibirá[s]) Herman es un muchacho que está muy emocionado para la Navidad. No puede esperar para el día que él recibe regalos. Herman quiere recibir muchas cosas como videojuegos y un perro. Para que él reciba tantos regalos, necesita hablar con Santa Claus para decirle que

Michele forwarded a letter from the editor of “The Language Educator” to me. She asked if anyone on the blog might want to “volunteer” to contribute to the article. As you can see in her request, she is looking for teachers like us, since we represent what is coming down the pike for this century. Here is

I got this email from Ralph Wolfe, who directs a native language program in Yakutat, Alaska. I got it on December 6 and just now opened it up, so Ralph please accept my apologies. I know your program started in January and we should have gotten you some answers by now. But it’s never too late. Let’s start the

We got on a roll sending in readings from Matava and Jim Tripp stories before Christmas break. I am wondering if they are actually helpful. I think they might be cluttering up the category list. I asked Jim and Brigitte what they thought, too. The question to answer is if people actually go and use

Besides the search function on this site, which looks for blogs only, comments can be searched. Just google ben slavic and then some words for whatever you are looking for – the comment will come up. Thanks to Carla for that idea.

This is from last summer. I want to republish it here: There are two buildings next to each other. One has been there for 75 years. It is made out of wood. The other is just being built, it doesn’t even look like a building yet. It is made out of state of the art

Martin Anders in Germany has graciously sent us the French version of Drew’s list: 1. TIME after, afterward = après already = déjà always = toujours as soon as = dès que at first = d’abord, premièrement at last = enfin at the beginning = au début at the same time = en même temps

Chanting certain expressions in class is a powerful way to acquisition. Meaning is simply hammered in deeper with chants. However, when we are told in workshops about chanting, we walk away feeling funny about actually doing it and then we rarely do them in our classes. We feel funny because our perception of chanting is one of