"The incompetent with nothing to do can still make a mess of it." - Laurence J. Peter
***
Quotes:
[On 'teaching' and reading to each other] After your teacher finishes you will have a nice chance to take your revenge. Because she has to read to you now.
[On disputes] "C'est télé de ma mère!" Today, for the first time, we are promoting conflict.
Gabriel et Gabriel et Gabriel, the 3 Gs. The father's name is Gabriel, the director's name is Gabriel, the future son's name is also Gabriel.
There's no lift in the apartment... C'est bon pour la santé. It's good for health.
[On practicing French by talking to yourself] If you don't want to do it with a robot, you do it with a plant.
You all are English speakers. There is a French speaker, which is a little weaker. Be careful, don't develop a double personality... if you see some people at Orchard Road doing that, you know they are also students at Alliance... I want you to train your robot for next week. (who, split)
The best thing, about French is you see how it works when you are tired... When your system is giving up, how does your language hold up?... Conversation avec un homme fatigué... Conversation with a tired man, sometimes we want to talk to tired people.
Conversation avec une fille énergique. Salut! [Male student: Do I have to be a girl too?]
X... Xylophone. [Student: It's not in the book] When he said 'une fille publique', you didn't object... 'Give more'
Z [Student: Zebra] *All laugh* In French, we say Zèbre.
U. [Me: Une fille publique]... Une fille publique... 17th century term... We know where he gets his sources from. He's not happy with Taxi [the textbook]
[On à vélo] We also accept "en vélo". Because some people's bicycles are bigger.
[Student: Je vais à L'Alliance Française en voiture à Mama]... The Italian Big Mamma.
[Me: Je vais à la fac en ski] Which university is this? [Me: En Suisse] [Other student: Je vais à la cafeteria en roller] The dynamic team.
[On j'y but elle y] There's no contraction. It makes the language more interesting.
[On La Francophonie] Deux cent million... Even though there are: un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six. 6 of you are very important in the community of 200 million people.
French is popular in Asia, useful in America and important in Europe.
There's a joke in French. 'Bonjour. Je m'appelle Jacques'... 'It's not your fault'
J'habite à Grand Château
Le principal is the English system... In France it's le proviseur. They won't understand le principal in France.
L'armoire. We have to be careful. Le morte is the dead. La mort is death. L'amour is love. All of these can be related to a cupboard.
Deuxième, troisième, quatrième. [Student 1: cinquième] Next. [Student 2: sixième] Next. [Student 3: septième] Then. [Student 4: huitième] [Student 5: neuvième] [Student 6: Vingtième]
[On sentence matching] 'I'm looking for a hotel in Bordeaux.' 'Go to Montmartre'... What do I know? Maybe there's a very good hotel agent in Paris.
There's no air-conditioning in your room. Maybe you want to take a taxi.
[On directions and confidence] If you're a travel agent, you cannot sound like you yourself are looking for the way.
After the test, you have one week of holidays. We have prepared a set of activities for you, so you don't forget French. [Student: Watch movie?] No, that's something you do with your Belgian girlfriend (reference to his earlier sentence making). We do not want to interfere.
[On the test] We don't want any SMS support. Our school system checks the toilets for secret devices... Make an IDD call to France for answers.
The conversation between X and Y did not sound like 2 people talking about the cinema and talking about Juliette Binoche. It sounded like 2 persons talking at the ICU... 'Next week they will remove all my bandages'