I told him it wouldn't be accepted

We had to do an exercise in writing practice. It was an unusual one - we had to remove the non-essentials from a passage of Maupassant. (One does not usually rewrite French literary works! Next week we have to change his "hero" into a "heroine".)

Anyway my American friend had done it in pencil. I said "What's that?"

"Pencil"

"She won't accept it."

"It's all I have."

"I can lend you a pen"

"Pencil is erasable"

"So is pen with one of these effaceurs"

"I don't have one of those effaceurs"

"But they're in every supermarket"

"But I have lots and lots of pencils"

Anyway, she didn't accept it, but she did let him rewrite it and hand it in today. (After all, it's nearly spring!)

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