Ouch! Tom, didn't Charley warn you about the negative side of R&G? We seem to have that effect on places. I had hoped it only applied to R&G but it seems to have attached itself to me!

Yesterday I had to admit to a failure. It was one of my tourist students, a fouteen year old girl. Marin's mother brought her in because Marin has not been succesful in school English classes. I was supposed to give her a leg up. I failed. The kid KNOWS English. She has a very good vocabulary. She can construct sentences. Her pronunciation is good. But she refuses to use it. She would not speak to me unless I dragged the words out of her. Our "conversation" became a string of questions from me, mostly centered around the "What is it?" variety. Yesterday I worked with her for two hours, walking around Paseo Park showing her the sights to be seen there. We stopped at the Jamaican Grill for some of their delicious iced tea. We saw a fishing boat bring in a seven foot long marlin. We watched Manny carve on the paddling canoe and Anthony carve on a paddle. Yet, at the end of the time we worked together she still refused to speak unless forced. It was the classic young-girl-not-wanting-to-talk-with-the-old-man story.

Sigh.