TP #12

This was the session in which Koo grasped a (seemingly) permanent mastery of the "r" sound. We've been working on it every session, and the sense of victory we both felt when she repeated it over and over again was pretty swell. 

We began with one of Koo's questions, which she has come to our sessions with more and more of. When I go to Korea, I'll think of her as an example of how to direct your curiosity in a foreign country. Koo was interested to know the differences between Tallahassee PD and Leon County Sheriffs. We discussed the idea of jurisdiction and the hierarchy of town-city-county-state-country. Koo had thought that Leon County was smaller than Tallahassee because it was not included in the formal address you use when you write out an envelope--which I thought was an astute observation and something I'd never questioned before. 

We discussed the contexts in which you would and would not use corpse, as it is a more technical term, which is less tactful or sensitive than body or person. 

After we finished going over the meanings of the new lesson's words, we began with pronunciation exercises. Frigid, peril, and shriek proved to be the more difficult items. 

We worked on pronouncing i's as "ih" sounds rather than "ee" sounds. For the word, peril, I told Koo to make sure her tongue wasn't touching any teeth or gums when she pronounced the R, but when she pronounced the L, to place her tongue behind her front teeth. Talking about the pronunciation physically broke through the wall we had so often hit. I'm really proud of her commitment and progress.