Workin' on the week- I mean, Wednesday.

Today I tutored two Russian-French students in Nice. I took the TAM ligne 200 bus to the Gambetta stop, two blocks North of Promenade des Anglais, and walked down to the sea. I had about 30 minutes to kill before my appointment at 13:00, so I stood on the Promenade listening to my Ipod. The sunshine was clear and beautiful, very much like it was when I first arrived in France in October, though not so hot. After several weeks of bittersweet days living in Cote d'Azur sans the heat, the sun, and the azur, this was a wonderful surprise. From now on I will bring short sleeves and something to sit on so I can enjoy the rock beaches of Nice before and after I give these lessons on Wednesday afternoons.

Today was my second time seeing my 3eme student and my first time seeing her little brother, who is in 6eme. Both lessons went well. I covered a range of topics for the 3eme student including literature, helping with homework and introducing some fixed expressions, specifically with correct use of "to do" versus "to make." In the past three months I have discovered that there is a linguistic plague throughout Europe misusing the verb "to make," which is used much more widely in European languages than in English. In fact, most Latin-based languages do not have separate verbs for "to do" and "to make," it's all about usage, meanwhile in English the difference is immense.

Using this ESL webpage for description I found a great, simple description of correct use of both verbs:

"Use 'do' when speaking about vague, or indefinite activities. These include speaking in general using '-thing' words such as something, anything, nothing, etc. ...

Generally, use 'make' when actually constructing or creating something (in other words, NOT for activities)."

So basically always use "to do" unless you are literally creating something, then use "to make." I think this is the simplest explanation of any English verb usage ever.

I reviewed homework and notes with the 6eme student, who is a bright little boy but very shy and I got the sense very quickly that he never actually has to speak English in class. We also reviewed about 10 different verbs in present simple and past tenses. I think I will make lesson plans for him to learn a lot of new vocabulary, how to give directions, discuss movies, etc over the next few weeks. He has great potential and a very cute Russian accent to work with!

Tomorrow I have lessons at the CIV, but my morning class (double English at prepa level) was cancelled, so I don't have to be at the CIV until 16:00. Hopefully I won't be so lazy tomorrow and can make some serious progress on lesson plans, errands, and some new personal projects that have been tumbling around in my head for a few weeks now.