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I love this paragraph:

"It was both the most relaxing and the most animated interview I’ve ever done. Hands flying, multiple conversational threads weaving seamlessly and simultaneously, loud, laughing, open-hearted. It felt like exhaling a breath I didn’t know I’d held. What a relief."

I can feel the interview--I love the descriptions. I love the motions and the emotions.

Thank you!

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Thanks, Dee!

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May 12Liked by Ann G. Forcier

I love this! Sister Marie-Jean Baptiste was ahead of her time. The TPR method has been integrated in many foreign language classrooms here in CT. It is an unsurpassed method to get kids thinking (and moving) in another language.

There is so much body language that is culturally specific. And how easily it is transmitted to anyone immersed in that culture. My Irish Canadian father grew up in the predominantly Jewish Montreal neighborhood of Mile End (his family were the only Irish people on the block). As an old man, his body seemed most comfortable in the mannerisms and movements of the people he had been surrounded by growing up. My Jewish husband would always ask me: "Are you sure your dad's Irish? Look at how he sits!"

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Fascinating, isn't it? That your dad picked up some of the non-verbals from the neighborhood rather than his family of origin. And that your husband recognized some of his own culture in his father-in-law. How cool is that?!

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Daughters of the Holy Spirit. Her convent was in Putnam, Connecticut.

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May 12Liked by Ann G. Forcier

One of my dearest friends was a French-speaking high school nun. Sister Judith used to promise an end-of-the-week story to the girls in her history class if they behaved. That seemed to.motivate them despite the fact she was legally blind, and they could have taken a different path. Too bad SHE wasn't your teacher!

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Do you remember what order she was in?

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I wish I'd grown up with some French learning, and definitely from Sister Marie Jean-Baptiste. She sounds like fun!

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I suppose she must have been looking at it from this stage. But, boy, did those nuns terrify us just because...they were "married" to God for crying out loud!

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