Out of Egypt: Session 3

Last night's tutoring session with my Egyptian couple went better (less pressure) than last week. Thanks Ramin, for your suggestion! We wrote several full sentences together (instead of asking them to SAY sentences). They learned some new vocabulary, like "stroller" and "sign." Overall, writing was effective, and I think they were more eager and responsive.

After the lesson, I spoke with Karen about my frustrations the week before. She advised that I take a few steps back, and I think she's right. It's important to know some simple vocab first: What is this? A trash can. More than to know "the trash can is next to the sink" when they don't know what a sink is, it can be difficult to say 'next to'.....fundamentally, it hadn't occured to me that they can't just absorb the words in thin air. Let's just say, I won't be going back to that method.

My plan for next week is to take a few steps back, and take a walk around the library naming things that we see. Anything. Computer, pencil, table, whatever. I need them to know the basics...and I think we can move back to prepositions with a little more time. They need more vocabulary. I am going to turn it down a notch, and hopefully that'll be more fun and useful to them at this stage.