Maria Tutor 1

Reading this blog is fascinating and very instructive! Case in point, looking at Stephen's latest entry I found out that my tutor student's name is spelled Seong Bong (I actually had it as San Bon) and that he is Catherine's famous CP. I had written my tutoring comment ahead of reading the blog, so I'll leave it as I had it, because my experience with this student is a third version of how things can go (or be seen). You be the judge, although mine is definitely the more boring one :)

"I am tutoring at the English Conversation Club run by the International Student Center. I had my first tutor session on Monday. I was nervous on my way there as I was not sure what to expect. I had planned to bring a picture book from my old language-school teaching days, just to have as a prop if need be -- but couldn't find it (of course). So, off I went, empty handed and hoping for the best. In the event, only a student showed up and we ended up having a nice conversation. His name is Seong Bong and he is a law student from South Korea. This is his first time abroad. He is taking classes at CIES but has very little opportunity to practice his English outside of class, so he has been participating quite actively in the Conversation Club. I would place his level at (low?) intermediate. He is definitely keen on improving his spoken English, especially his fluency. His pronunciation is good for his level and so is his grammar. When he speaks it is obvious that he is constructing his sentences paying attention to grammatical correctness (for instance, he corrects himself mid-sentence if his verb tense is wrong). All in all he wanted to talk, which made the tutoring very easy. For next time I will prepare some possible conversation topics and make a list of relevant vocabulary for each".