The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

SteveBrickNJ

SteveBrickNJ

Well-Known Member
This afternoon I had the pleasure of playing trumpet in the graduation band at our local high school. I sat next to my former 5th grade trumpet student who just completed his junior year. The great thing about being in the band at graduation is that you are waaayyy closer to the students graduating than the people in the stadium bleachers.
Check out this photo I took......20210618_175219_HDR.jpg
 
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ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Our farm market opened mid-may but I haven't been yet. Hubs stopped last week and picked up some asparagus for himself. I was going to go today but then I read on FB that the fresh cheese curd people weren't going to be there today so I decided not to go either, with the trip coming up I don't need fresh veggies. But we have been in a drought here so the farmers are having a tough time right now.
 
John park hopper

John park hopper

Well-Known Member
The garden has been producing, Wife has processed 0ver 100lbs of tomatoes into ketchup and marinara sauce. She has another 60 albs to do today, cucumbers are more than we can eat. have been trading tomatoes for sweet corn buddy has corn and his tomatoes aren't ready yet. Onions are ready to pick and the blackened peas are staring to flower. Spaghetti squash did real well picked about 2 dozen. Green beans are finished, been picking eggplant.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
StarWarsGirl said:
Awesome! Congrats to her. I remember you once saying she has almost no accent either, which is amazing.
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No, she really doesn't have an accent anymore. A still does, but it's not as bad as it used to be, though he still can't do the "th" sound. E taught all of her friends how to do the "th" and they are pretty much the only non-native speakers who can do that. Even her teachers say "One, two, tree" or "One, two, free". That's probably the hardest sound for most non-native English speakers. A is harder to understand because he tries to speak too quickly and it kind of gets jumbled. I can't even understand him half the time in English. But E, unless she's in a mood, speaks really well. She really wasn't expecting to get Native speaker level, though I thought she could. I guess she had kind of a bet with one of her friends. Rhianna had said if someone got a 6, (the highest score) it would be E, and said if she got a 6, she'd buy her ice cream. E said "Yeah, like I stand a chance at getting a 6!" and just laughed. She figured she'd probably get around a 4.5-5. But her best friend got a 4.9, and two other friends got 4.1s. You had to get a 3.6 to pass and one friend just missed it. But they speak English in their friend group all the time and I think that's helped all of them....lots of practice and I've stomped grammar rules into her head since she was a toddler, so she knows all the mnemonic devices (called "donkey bridges" in Dutch, how funny is that??) and tricks for spelling and grammar rules. She corrects the TV shows as we're watching. "I don't feel good", she says "well". "Ugh, I'm nauseous!" she says "Nauseated." or she'll add a "ly" to the end of an adverb. I've always told her that her English is better than many Americans' English. Even native speakers don't know which version of there, their, or they're to use, or to, too, and two, its and it's. And those are things that I've taught her since she was little, and she helped her friends with those things, too, so she did have an advantage that some of the other kids didn't have. But I've always told her that anyone who needs help can feel free to call me and I'll make myself available to any of them.

E's going to be a tutor next year. I'm not sure which subjects, but I assume English will be one of them. Her mentor sent out a text saying anyone who does well in a subject can sign up to tutor for 5 euros an hour. She's really good at Math, Physics, Chemistry, and English, so she'll probably tutor several subjects. She's good at almost everything except sports, really, but I doubt they will have tutors for some subjects. It will probably be more the languages and the exact subjects than things like Culture and Religion. She tutored a neighbor girl a couple of years ago in English and helped her get her grade up. Her mom chased me down one day to ask if I'd tutor her daughter because she heard me speaking English with the kids and her daughter was doing well in everything except English. Her daughter stood there looking at the ground like she was mortified, and E knew her from elementary school, so I suggested E tutor her so it would feel more like friends hanging out, a little less embarrassing. I think she'll do a really good job with it, anyway.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
SteveBrickNJ said:
This afternoon I had the pleasure of playing trumpet in the graduation band at our local high school. I sat next to my former 5th grade trumpet student who just completed his junior year. The great thing about being in the band at graduation is that you are waaayyy closer to the students graduating than the people in the stadium bleachers.
Check out this photo I took......View attachment 564708
Click to expand...
Very nice! How big is the average graduating class there? Is it a pretty big school or small school? (my graduating class was 37, if you include the 5 foreign exchange students) I think about graduation ceremonies packed in our gymnasium and wondered how a bigger school would handle that with distancing.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
StarWarsGirl said:
I need to go to bed. B and I are going to Hershey tomorrow and we actually rope drop that. 😂
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Can you just sleep on the couch? We don't have cats, but E's room is like an oven. We have wall-to-wall windows (until we do the energy efficient renovations) and her room is the one that sits on the side where the sun shines through pretty much the whole day. It's not too bad in the winter when it just keeps her room warmer without needing the heat, but in the summer, it's unbearable. She'll go sleep on the couch where it's at least cooler than her room.
 
SteveBrickNJ

SteveBrickNJ

Well-Known Member
Songbird76 said:
Very nice! How big is the average graduating class there? Is it a pretty big school or small school? (my graduating class was 37, if you include the 5 foreign exchange students) I think about graduation ceremonies packed in our gymnasium and wondered how a bigger school would handle that with distancing.
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Yesterday one of the speakers referenced/quoted the number of graduates in their speech. I don't remember the exact number...but around 350.
The 9th - 12th grade student population in that high school exceeds 1,000.
We are not a city, but I do live in a large town. There is another high school on the other side of our town as well.
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It's a desired area because: 1) We are near the ocean, 2) We are halfway between NYC ( to our north) and Philadelphia ( to our west)
 

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