Going round and round in circles (London)

Because of the Covid-19 lockdown, I’ve had to use Skype for teaching the students who normally have face-to-face lessons with me.  One of them is an elderly lady, Hélène, who is even less tech-savvy than I, and is by nature a bit timid in certain things as well.

The most recent Skype lesson, her second, was yesterday.  We were going to start off with feedback on her homework.  I’d set her more than one batch of homework over the last few weeks.

Lesson started.

Hélène: Can you see it?

Me: See what?

My practice during Skype lessons is to send over to students notes and provide prompts, as well as definitions of new vocabulary, in the dialogue box at the bottom of the Skype screen.  In our last Skype lesson a fortnight ago, Hélène had trouble seeing the sentences I was sending through in the dialogue box.  I had to guide her: “Look at the bottom of your screen.  There should be a speech bubble that you see in comic strips.  Click on it — that’s the dialogue box.”

So, when she said “Can you see it?”, I thought it might’ve been something she’d sent over to me.  It turned out to be the first sentence in one of the batches I’d sent her.

A bit later on in the lesson, I went back to that sentence.  This time, it was Hélène who asked, “See what?”, thinking it was something I’d sent over in the dialogue box.  This went on for a few more times, each time one of us misunderstanding the reference to “Can you see it?”.

This reminds me of a phone conversation I once had with the secretary of one of our film directors on The Heart of The Dragon (HOD).  HOD was made by a company specially set up for it, with each producer/director having their own company.  

Nigel’s own company was a corporate training filmmaking company, specialising in communications.  I took the call from the secretary.  Nigel wasn’t in, so she said she’d like to leave a message for him.

Secretary:  Tell Nigel I can do it and you know what I mean…

Me: Do what?  I don’t know what you mean.

Secretary:  No, those are the names of the training films:  “I can do it” and “You know what I mean”.

(London, 2020 and 1983)