Bill-Tutor-Number 1

Before I post, it seems I get the 100th post for this blog. Do I get a cookie? ^^;;

I am tutoring my girlfriend. She is at a low-intermediate level now, but I intend to change that. For our first session, I gave her homework to write a paper about her hometown, Changchun. Then I looked at the paper, made corrections and sent it back. We talked about the changes but I unfortantly robbed her the chance of correcting her own paper. Ramin suggested I mail her the rubric and do all our papers from that example from now on.

I don't think he mailed it out to us, so I had to make my own word document. ^^;; If you need an online copy, well, here it is:

Symbol	Meaning	Example
AG	Agreement between subject and verb	He have a big car. There are many different way to say something
VT	The wrong verb tense is used	She walk home yesterday
VF	There is an error in the form of the verb	She is write in her notebook now.
WF	Word form is incorrect	That is correctness
WO	Word order is incorrect	Her is name Sally
WW	Wrong word used	She came to Tallahassee already two years
SUBJ.	Subject is missing	_is raining
V	The verb is missing	I got up and _ some exercises
SP	Spelling is incorrect	She is here becus she wants to learn English
Inc.S	This is an incomplete sentence	When Mary came home
Art.	Wrong article used. Article is needed. Article is not needed	He has the headache. He is in _ bad mood. She went to the bed.
Prep	A preposition is needed. An incorrect preposition is used. No preposition is needed.	We went _ Miami. We talked with many things. We went to home.
Punc.	Punctuation is missing or incorrect	I am tall_I have blond hair.
Cap	A capital letter is needed	I am learning english.
CS (Comma Splice	Two ideas are incorrectly joined with a comma.	I am from Ecuador, my language is Spanish.
RO (run-on sentence)	Two complete idea’s without punctuation or conjunction.	I come back home then my oldest son goes to school.

Her next homework assignment is to correct what examples she can and to bring questions about the others that she cant. My plan is to have her understand this rubric so she will know how to correct her papers in the future. In the mean time, this is her paper and my corrections with the rubric.

My hometown Changchun

My hometown has a very beautiful name——Changchun, which means perennial spring.

It is located in the northeast of China. Changchun has a humid continental climate,[SK1] with hot, humid summers and cold, dry winters. The weather you can enjoy [SK2] different sceneries in different seasons. During summer[SK3] you can do[SK4] swimming, and[SK5] the winter time you can do[SK6] skating, [SK7] the temperature will go down to minus 30C[SK8] .It[SK9] is the capital of Jilin province, [SK10] and the political, economic, cultural center of the province also. [SK11] With a population of about 7.5 million and 20,532 km2 of land. Compare to Shanghai,Beijing or the other famous cities in[SK12] China, living here feeling[SK13] peaceful and natural just like Sendai[SK14] .

From the 1950s, Changchun was designated to become a center for China's automotive industry. Construction of the First Automobile Works began in 1953 and production of the “Jiefang” truck[SK15] which is the first car produced in China, [SK16] In 1958, FAW introduced the famous” Hongqi “(Red Flag) limousines.

So,[SK17] Changchun has long enjoyed the national reputation as "Film City", and "Automobile City". As a cultural city, it is proud to be the home of a number of noted universities and institutes of science and technology including Jilin University, which has national prominence.

I love my hometown very much,[SK18] I f[SK19] I have a good chance can work in there [SK20] , hope that I can make a greater contribution to my country and my hometown one day .[SK21]

This is a homepage of my university.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changchun_University_of_Science_and_Technology

---

[SK1]CS

[SK2]WO

[SK3]Art.

[SK4]WW

[SK5]WW

[SK6]AG

[SK7]Punc.

[SK8]RO

[SK9]WW (Changchun)

[SK10]CS

[SK11]CS

[SK12]WW

[SK13]VT

[SK14]Sendai, Japan

[SK15]CS

[SK16]CS

[SK17]CS

[SK18]Period

[SK19]Lower case

[SK20]Inc.S, V

[SK21]SUBJ.

Tutoring Session 3 Dwinetta Rozier

It seems like these are back to back but I just procrastinate and do them all at once :( I know I'm a bad person... Today was my first experience at the English Conversation Club! I met Catherine's conversation partner Seong-Pong and we talked for an hour. I asked him if he wanted to go over a specific area of English and he said he has trouble speaking and listening. So we spent the hour getting to know each other. Good news Catherine, he doesn't hate you!! He even thinks that his new CP is weird and that you are better. He did mention that he likes Steven alot! LOL! He is very interesting and he only has trouble with a few words but he has good control over his English and our conversation went smoothly. I had to correct him a few times. But overall it was a very interesting hour. He relayed a story to me about a cat-sitting experience he had in South Korea. I found it amazing that he is older in South Korea than he is in the US! SK=25 US=23, apparently depending on the month you are born in, you already have years on you. If you were born last month you would be two years old! Amazing right!? I learn something new everyday... He mixed up some of the verb tenses when he spoke, but I politely repeated it with a little intonation, and then he repeated it with the correct version. I look forward to ECC with him next week.

Tutor Session 2 Dwinetta Rozier

I know, I know it's only my second tutoring session! But since The English Conversation Club hasn't been working out the last few weeks. I teamed up with Venus again since she is having trouble with gerunds and the infinitive. I have to admit, sitting in front of the CIES book with the instructions to how I speak everyday is a little difficult. English for me didn't come with instructions, it just comes out of my mouth and it "sounds right" which is what I want to say when Venus asks me "Why is it like this?" So we perused the suggested web sites from her instructor and we embarked on this learning process together. After I read most of the websites, I was able to help Venus out. She was having trouble understanding the different verbs she needed to know that "triggered" infinitive or gerund usage. Venus will have to rely mostly on memorization for most verbs but we went through each section and I gave her different examples, then asked her to come up with her own. She ended up doing great and said she would practice more. We were even having regular conversation and she used an example of a verb followed by the gerund and she stopped and said "Oh look, I used the -ing form!" I was beaming with pride! Yayy Venus! Love her!
p.s. She falls back on spanish when her sister is around, and her sister speaks english on a high intermediate low advanced level...But I asked Venus why she doesn't speak English with her and she said "She gets frustrated and speaks Spanish"...I have to get them speaking English more around me...

CP 4 Dwinetta Rozier

Hello All! Venus and I decided to link up another time for a night of debauchery, drinking and vandalizing Tallahassee. Haha just joshin ya! We decided to go to the movies! Venus asked me what movie I wanted to see but I told her to choose one, so after looking over trailers online, deeming "Dear John" boring and "To Paris with love" violent, we went with the Rom-Com (Romantic Comedy) for all you non-movie-critics, "When in Rome" I agreed even though it wasn't at the top of my Must See list. Before we went to the movies, we hung out at her apartment chatting it up. Venus is getting better at her preposition usage, from the last time I saw her! (I won't take all the credit) Venus and I vibe on a very comfortable level, we ended up talking about past relationships, her family, her friends at CIES...lol she even gave me som advice! Go figure. Her English is slow and steady but she can understand almost everything I say. We picked up her sister from the Civic Center and met some other CIES students at the movies. I was being very observant and noticed how much of an American I am around all the CIES students. I was trying to rush and but tickets and snacks in order to go into the movie at a decent hour, but Venus, her sister,and the other students were taking thier time, talking and laughing. It was interesting to see how their laid back nature was comapared to mine... Any who We had a great time and Venus understood the plot of the movie and we were all even making jokes about it afterword. I have to admit Venus and I are quite a pair! I enjoy hanging out with her and the other CIES students. We both learn from each other!

Richard -- Tutoring -- Week 1

After many attempts -- twice for those who were counting -- I am officially not student-less anymore. I don't know what happened with the Korean woman whom I was supposed to tutor -- I"ll assume she was scared away for my being a poet -- but I lucked out for the most part when I met Kyung Hyun.

Kyung Hyun is a research scholar at the Dedman School of Hospitality. He's 37 years young, has been in the country for six months, is married, and has one five-year-old son. He didn't seem shocked or befuddled when I told him I was only 21; in fact, he didn't even flinch! That made me quite comfortable, honestly. But still, this is my first time ever being a tutor, and I might've mistakenly told him this fact after I had gotten carried with myself. I hope I have it cut for me because he wants to be more conversational with his English and he too wants to learn about American culture. This isn't CP-type communication, but I'll do my best to shape those lesson plans accordingly.

Unfortunately, I talked a whole lot more than him, so I need to stop that. ESOL students can't learn a language if they're not able to speak it because I'm eating all the words here, right?!

But this is what I did learn in addition to the basics:

He doesn't know the concept of 911 in this country, so I gave him some information about when would be the appropriate time to contact either the police or ambulance, or even the fire department. I don't think he understood the concept in my hopeless explanation, so next week, I'll let him know for sure.

He loves seafood. I had gone down a row of items one might be able to find in a butcher shop, i.e. lobster, halibut, et cetera, and I had him say the word as I pointed to it. Pronunciation is pretty clear, so I moved forward!

His wife is in the hospital( >_< ), and it turns out that Kyung isn't comfortable asking the doctor questions. Normally, this is true of everyone, but I would like to focus my lesson for next week on what sort of information he and his doctor could share with one another, not entirely about his wife, but everything, really. Do you think this is a good idea, Ramin (and others)? I don't want to start with something like this if it is going to be emotionally draining for him, but if he's uncomfortable asking for doctor's advice, etc., then he has to know the basics, I think! This will also give me the opportunity to clarify about the 911 emergency system, which I definitely need to go over again.

We talked about other things of which I unfortunately cannot remember, but I assigned a reading for him to do -- he asked for one -- and, being me, I gave him a poem. It was the only I had at my disposal, I promise. I just told him to read for comprehension and to underline the words he didn't understand so we could talk about it next week briefly. If I at least have some grasp of his reading comprehension, I think I could form my lesson plans to fit his level more appropriately.

Basically, this is what I did with him today: (1) He read an email for me that was sent from one of my professors, (2) he pronounced a few words for me, and (3) I gave him a poem to read.

We'll be meeting next Monday, and that day, I shall have a more grounded lesson for him that's appropriate for his level, which, according to Karen, is a high beginner!

We'll see how that poem works out; after all, it might be too difficult for him to understand. Oops!

Catherine Tutoring Lesson 1

After being stood up last week by my tutoring partner Jane, I figured I had been black listed in the non-English speaking community or something. But on Friday Jane and I were finally able to meet up and figure out what she needed help with. I was so excited to work with her, she is from Nigeria and currently is taking classes at FAMU. I cant wait to pick her brain this semester on the differences of culture and everyday life here in America. She told me that she wanted to work on pronunciation and communication, which is great because i'm sure by now all of you have realized that I am always talking. Also she wants me to help her with her financial aid situation and help her make a profile on a job site like Monster or Career Builder. We chatted for about an hour, I was afraid to prepair a lesson for the first meeting in case it was to easy or hard for her. The only "educational" part of our eeting was when I taught her how to figure out the price of items when they are on clearence. Luckly I am my mothers daughter and she has a fool proof system that is perfect for the math haters of the world. Jane seemed really excited just to talk and is looking forward to just having conversations and hopefully finding a job.

Catherine CP

Sorry this is so long overdue, but I am excited to report that I met my new CP ad we clicked instantly. Maria Elena and I met at tea time last Wednesday and I joined her and her group of friends and played a charades type of game. She is from South America and enjoys a lot of the same activities I do, when she invited me to El Jalisco's for jumbo margaritas I knew we were the perfect conversation partners. While Maria was helping another boy with the game I met her friend Venus who doesn't have a CP. She is 20 years old and from Panama. All three of us instantly clicked, they were both outgoing and easy to have a conversation with. After tea time I walked to the bookstore with Venus and we chatted about everything from growing up in Panama to clubs in Tallahassee. We decided to meet up again this week but in a less formal setting than tea time.

Elizabeth-CP/Tutoring-Week 4

Well, this week was just plain awful. Aside from having an horrible cold this week neither my CP or tutoring worked out. I did get to talk to a few students on Wednesday while we played and learned by playing Guesstures. It was really fun since there were a lot of people trying to guess the answers. Even though my own CP wasn't there, it was nice talking to different students for a change.

Well, I hope this week gets better and myself, too, so I can get everything done next week.

Tutor session 3 Rita Schwab

My Korean student and I met at the library again this past Thursday night.

This time the session was on food. I had asked Yongheon to bring in some menues as he has been inhibited ordering foods.

He brought in menus from Kentucky Fried Chicken, a Pizzeria and a fast food seafood place. I brought in menus of a steak house and a Mexican restaurant.

Stephen Tutoring 2

Sorry I am posting so many things in a row. I had these saved on my computer and I never put them up.... until now!

My second tutoring session took place at my apartment over the course of a couple days. This past Friday (Jan 29th) John came over and he showed me his new IBTOEFL book. I looked it over and decided that to get a good evaluation of where John is at with passing the test, he should take the sample model test. In order to pass the IBTOEFL test John will have to take speaking, listening, writing, and reading sections. I assigned him homework for the listening, reading, and writing. The next day John came to my place so that we could record him taking the speaking section on my computer. Sadly, we didn't have much time and the microphone wasn't cooperating. Instead I got out a piece of paper and took notes of his mistakes. I wrote down pronunciation errors and grammar errors. The major thing I noticed was that he had a problem with when to to use "has, had, or have". He also used "of" in the wrong places. For example he said, "the color of blue", instead of "the color blue." The next time we meet I will try to address these issues. I feel like this tutoring is forcing me to brush up on my basic grammar. Which is definitely a good thing. Overall, John has a long ways to go with the speaking section because he speaks too slowly. In 45 seconds he sometimes only had said a couple of sentences. We will have to practice more and more with speaking so that he can answer quicker. Two months until the test! *crosses fingers*

Stephen CP #3

On Friday (Jan 29th), John and Seong Bong came over and we went to Stevie B's pizza. They got to meet my friend Ryan, and he introduced them to the spiciest sauce that they have ever had in their lives. The Koreans kept telling me that Korean food was spicy and that they really like spicy food. So I tried to take them to a restaurant with really hot spicy food. Sadly, every restaurant we went to was mild for their taste buds. However, this all changed with Ryan's hot sauce. It is so hot it comes with an eye dropper to apply it to your food. Seong Bong and John had one drop on the tip of a fork and they instantly began sweating profusely. I got them something to drink right away while they tried to fan the flames coming out of their mouths. All of them agreed that this was the hottest food that they had ever eaten.

While we were sitting at the table Seong Bong showed us his military I.D.. He looked so much younger before he did his two year duty as an M.P. in the army. I also recognized that on the I.D. all the dates were backwards compared to the typical month/date/year format in the US. The year came first, then the date, and the month.

The next day John and I went to the Leach Center and worked out. John wanted to work on his chest and biceps so I walked him through a pretty good workout. I had just learned the previous day that John wouldn't have to join the army because his back had something wrong with it. Therefore I had to be careful with my exercise choices or I might hurt his back. We had a really good workout and then we hopped into the hot tub. That's when a really akward situation began with a young man that apparently thought that John and I were dating. We left a little bit sooner than I wanted to and I explained the situation to John. John told me that there are no gay people in South Korea and that this was a phenomena in America. I then told him that I believed that it happens in Korea, but people keep it a secret because it just isn't accepted like it is here in the USA. John asked me a few more questions like if I knew any men that were gay, and if they were my friends. The entire concept of having gay friends seemed strange to John. When we got to my apartment we finished up with a tutoring session, and then we waited outside to get picked up. I know John's full Korean name now: Han Sung Hyun! He said that when I say his full name it reminds him of when his mother yells at him. How funny is it that mom's yell at their kids in the same way in the US. Finally, after a half an hour his ride appeared. I met the woman that John stays with and I shook her hand. They drove off and there ends my third week of meeting with John.

Stephen Tutoring 1

On Wednesday I met with John at Strozier library to have our first tutoring session. I planned to teach him English pronunciation by using the website: http://www.soundsofenglish.org/index.html . I thought it would be a good starting point for our first session because I had heard him make some obvious pronunciation errors the past few weeks. To my surprise John had very little issues with mimicking what I said. I remember that before he had tried to talk with me about the Greek god Zeus, but I couldn't understand him because he had pronounced it as "Jeus". I tested him by asking him to say the word "zip". To my surprise he said it perfectly. Then he told me that he knew that he had trouble with his "L's" and "R's". I then asked him to pronounce several words with L's and R's like lake and rake. He said them with no problem so at this point I was beginning to think that this session had been a failure. I think John has no problem producing the sounds of English, but when he is reading or has to speak quickly he has trouble telling the difference between his L's and R's and he confuses sounds like Z with J. I need to do some research on Korean in order to understand why he is having problems with these sounds, and then I will be able to teach him better. My next tutoring session will be to figure out what he needs to study in order to succeed on the IBTOEFL. Stay tuned!

Richard -- CP -- Week 4.2

So my fifth CP-session was tonight (does this mean I'm finished?). Ruiting and I did wind up going to First Friday, which I enjoyed. I met friends there -- my co-editor and an artist who's on staff with us for the Kudzu Review -- and they were very welcoming toward Ruiting, so I was expecting the night to be exciting and especially culturally informative for him. But, in my opinion, it was very much the opposite.

I think Ruiting experienced culture shock by a factor of 10 million! No, 10 kajillion! We walked around the various warehouses looking at all the art, which I thought looked awesome. Then again, I hadn't taken into consideration the extreme differences between Chinese art and American art (if there are any), and I didn't think I had to, be truthful. This is Ruiting, after all, the one who uses Skype in, I suppose you could say, an artful way.

My co-editor asked him what he thought of some of the paintings and he said that he didn't like paintings, any of them. "I have a simple mind," he said, and I myself found this to be quite shocking. Did I do something wrong? I mean, we are very different in many ways. He likes basketball and working out, and I walking through art galleries and drinking Pinot Noir (and writing poetry), but I thought we sort of respected each other for our different interests. For the most part, we do, but if he didn't want to come, don't you think he would've said No thanks?!

Anyway, of the art, this is what we saw: nudity, corpses, scenic Bob Ross stuff, abstract things, but most of all, nudity and corpses. Well, it was a little out there, I guess, a little extreme. But that's nothing I can't handle!

I could tell Ruiting was bored. He kept putting his hood onI just offered him to let me know when he wanted to go home. 10 minutes later, he said it: I want to home. So we left. It was extremely awkward walking back because we hardly even talked. I spoke first and said, "Well, now you know what American art is like, huh, Ruiting? What does Chinese art look like?" He dodged the question and said he didn't show up for class today. Maybe he's stressed out. We talked about his TOEFL exam, which he's taking in April. He needs a minimum of 70 to enter the university, apparently. I tried to encourage him, told him I understood his English, and that I thought he communicated very well. I think he disagreed with me. Anyway, it was all awkward.

When we went in our different destinations, I told him next time that we'll play Scrabble so he could focus on his vocabulary for the TOEFL exam. That seemed to agree with this.

Maybe tonight -- First Friday -- was a bad idea!

Tutoring Week #3-- Keith

The past lesson with Shanshan went kind of roughly. After going over one of her previous essays I told her we were going to try to go through the organizing stage together. It was difficult to do as the prompt was a more tricky than some of the others. We had trouble narrowing our argument down to a few simple points that would fit an essay structure we were trying out. I stayed a half hour afterwords.

As I said before, we were focusing on not simply copying the wording of the essay prompt but try to paraphrase the information or use it as a launching point to make a new point. From some reason I found my ability to do this was hampered somehow. Maybe I'm still figuring out how to fit into the tutor role? Maybe I'm putting too much pressure on myself to have the answers instead of relaxing and helping her out the best I can?

In the end, the lesson didn't go the way I'd visualized, but after Shanshan expressed extreme thankfulness. She then asked me if I was getting paid to help her. When I told her I was volunteering she said that she was interested in doing the same so as to help someone else out as I was helping her. I was really flattered and made some comment about how I guessed that's how these kinds of things work. You help someone out and they are filled with the desire to pass on the kindness... Kind of like one of those corny commercials where one person starts a chain of good deeds. Things don't work quite that way in reality, and my motivations for tutoring are admittedly not altruistic, but it still felt good to hear this. In the office upstairs Karen told Shanshan that there were some lessons she could translate for Chinese ESL students.

This feeling is all explained in-depth here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=futxIzHLcuM&feature=related

Maria CP Week 3 -- Dating?

Yesterday was my third meeting with my CP, Lu. She started by telling me that she is homesick; she misses her parents, her friends, the things she does back home, and most of all: she misses Chinese food. When you are abroad there always comes a time when you miss home and all those things and people you are familiar with. It happened to me one summer I spent in Finland teaching Italian and Spanish at a couple of summer schools. I liked it, but at a certain point it just felt that there was too much of "Finland" all around me, and I longed to get away and have a break. I understand Lu's feelings. So, we chatted for a while about her favorite pastimes with her friends back in China. She told me they go to K-TVs (???) all the time. From her description I gathered these to be places where you and your friends can go to sing karaoke. However, they are not bars, or restaurants, or night-clubs. So I am not entirely clear of what they are, other than a public space to sing in.

At this point we started to compare going out in the States versus going out in China. It turned out that Lu was going to go on a date with an American guy (who speaks Chinese, though) that same evening. Here the conversation got tricky because to me the rules of American dating are something of a mystery, and I don't really know the language clues, but it definitely seems that Chinese dating is way more traditional and Lu was somewhat worried. However, since this young man knew Chinese very well, we agreed that any misunderstanding could be cleared. She promised she'd tell me all about it, and with a last giggle and a hug I left her in front of Strozier library.

Sabrina to everyone - "The End is Near"

All,

This has nothing to do with tutoring or conversing in partners. I was talking with Sebastian after class about spring time activities and realized that in just two short weeks, we will all go our separate ways to find multi-lingual fun and adventure.

I for one will be a little blue at this departure because I have enjoyed getting to know each of you -it is always reassuring to broaden one's scope of quality folks.

What I am wondering is if we can find some way of having a festive closure when all the presentations have come and gone. Perhaps one big pot luck in the lounge. I am not sure. Suggestions? Thoughts?

"Speaking in the Flow" - tutoring sesh 3

I saw my tutoree last night. Sometimes it's hard to just go with the flow. It's as if I wanted to arrive and my tutoree say, "this is what I want to work on" It doesn't work like that. Maybe he has no idea what he wants. Maybe he does but can't talk about it or find the words. So I can't really prepare anything. Or at least, I can but it takes some time to determine who he is and what will best serve him. For me, that means being in the flow with him. It's difficult though because I want to know immediately what would benefit him the most. But I can't. I mean, I asked him, but he didn't have a clear answer so I'm just trying to find it. I'm like a surfer out on the waves waiting to find the right one to ride.

Maybe I should swim toward a wave. But it's difficult. Sometimes I have a board. Sometimes I ride to the ocean. No really, we seem to be finding our groove in a little exercise based on some of the homework he has from his previous tutor. In this exercise, there are several words he has to make a sentence from. There'll be an article, a subject, a verb and an object. It's practically like the sentence is there for him already but it is still a little difficult for him and takes some time. I noticed he likes to write the sentences out and this works for me too. It forces me to slow down and support him as he's doing it which is always good for me. Slowing down that is. He enjoys doing this. It makes him a little calmer and his breath flows evenly. So I know it's like a yoga for him

I innovated the lesson by tying to draw it out a little. That is, I could see the calming effect it was having on him AND me and it IS writing so I decided to ask him how to use the verbs in the "pasado". You see they are in "presente", so this is a no mean feat. Also I remember that in foreign language class thaty would be like lesson 9 so I figured we're making some progress.

He also wants to know "el futuro" so we worked on that too. So I get him to write some sentence and write it again and again in el pasado y el futuro. The only thing that changes is the verb tense but I think it places an important linguistic, cognitive structure in his topographic learning arc (tla). It puts a sense of time there and I think this is inspiring further movement in the forward momentum of his learning arc.

CP #3-- Keith and Faisal play Spades!

So after the grand confusion (obscure movie reference) was cleared up by Abdullah last weekend and I found out Faisal did not work at Cafe Shisha, but instead went there all the time, Faisal invited me to join him there last Friday evening.

I've smoked Hookah before, but it was awhile ago and so at first I thought I was doing something wrong cause nothing was coming out. A friend of Faisal's (Salim, I believe) tried to explain the problem to me but I was oblivious! ---You have to get the charcoal going at first through a lot of long drags. Faisal and I ordered Double Apple, and let me tell you, it was quite fine--- not as sickly sweet as some of the other flavors I had tried in the past.

We also got Turkish coffee which was served in itty-bitty cups. The grounds settle to the very bottom so you have to be careful when your cup starts to run out. All the smoke and coffee made my heart race!

I found out Faisal has two daughters, 2 and 3 years old, named Razan and Rawan (Hey, I said, I know a Rawan). He told me that he talks to his family every day on Skype.

I asked Faisal what english sounds he had difficulty with and he said it was hard to distinguish between f's and v's as well as between b's and p's. Abdullah (who showed up along with about seven other guys, including the CIES student who winked at the camera and made us all laugh) told me this was a common problem for Arabic speakers.

After this Abdullah and I had an interesting discussion. I asked Faisal if he could write better than he could speak and Abdullah mentioned that usually it was Asain speakers who had this distinction. The point he made was that arabic employs sounds that are closer to english than the sounds used in Asiatic languages. He also told me the name of a guitar looking instrument-Oud- and I had fun pronouncing it.

So as not to advertise falsely, we played spades. I made a few bonehead mistakes (it's been awhile!) and my partner was obviously awestruck at my lack of strategic understanding.

At the end Faisal payed for me! It was completely unexpected but I was very thankful (don't got a lot of dough to roll around in) I think I'll see if he wants to check out First Friday...

Tutoring Katherine 3

Yes! Yesterday's session was a success!

I had Katherine's full attention for almost 45 minutes before she had to rush off. I found using the grammar codes we were given in class extremely helpful. I was concerned she was looking for a quick fix to her homework assignments, so with the use of these codes she is forced to learn as opposed to just giving her the answer. We went through only 1/4 of her paper in our time together. Every sentence had numerous corrections with structure, punctuation, pronouns, verb tenses, wrong words, you name the mistake and it was there. My hardest challenge was she kept asking "why"? I would explain "why" as best as I could, and she said she understood, but I am not sure if she really grasped it. It's easy to give someone the correct answer and point out what they are doing wrong, but the challenging part is explaining Why it is correct, especially when there are so many exceptions in the English language with every rule.

I noticed something interesting as we were working together. All of her notes where written in Mandarin. Here's a woman, who although has lived in the US for over twenty years, has still not fully adopted the English language. I'm sure she still dreams and thinks in Mandarin and I know it's all she speaks with family and friends. I find this very interesting.

Overall, I really enjoyed our time together. When she had to leave early I was so bummed, I wanted to sit with her longer. I had brought some fun exercises on pronouns and articles I wanted to work on with her. (Uhm, so weird for me to think that's fun, but I am really enjoying re-learning all of this grammar. I haven't gone over this since highschool.) I also gave her some hand outs on pronouns and articles because that was something she consistently made errors with. She is going to re-write her paper and email me the revised. I am looking forward to seeing the progression.

Maria CP Week 2 -- On Rude People and Mandarin Chinese

The second time I met with Lu she was very distressed. Immediately upon seeing me she took me to one of the classrooms, sat me down, and announced that she was very upset. It turned out that one of her classmates had been very rude to her during morning class. He had yelled at her for moving his laptop and continued to do so despite her numerous contrite apologies. She could not understand -- Lu said, with tears welling up to her eyes -- why he would not stop; she had apologized most sincerely, what more did he want? In China people did not treat each other like that! Lu was angry for not being able to defend herself from the unwarranted torrent of abuse this guy had heaped on her. What to do? After assuring her that he had indeed been overly rude, I thought this might be a good opportunity to learn how to deal with this kind of situation the "American way". While I have seen this only on TV and at the airport, the way American women deal with rude people has always fascinated me, mostly because I have never yet been able to emulate it. When a (polite) American woman is being treated rudely, she looks at the culprit in the eye and says with a firm voice: "Please, stop yelling at me" or "There is no need to yell". And she will repeat it unwaveringly until the rude behavior stops; and it does stop. So, Lu and I practiced for a while how to say politely but firmly, "please, stop yelling at me." She felt better after that. Then we got into talking about traveling in China and the different varieties of spoken Chinese. I asked her if she spoke Mandarin Chinese. Not at all, she said, I speak official Chinese. But I thought official Chinese was called Mandarin Chinese. No, no, she said, official Chinese is called "official Chinese" (and she repeated it in official Chinese).

So, that day, Lu learned how to say "please, stop yelling at me" and I learned that Mandarin Chinese is a Western concept. Live and learn.

Heather - Tutoring - Week 4

So, this week Chomy and I met with success in getting together for a tutoring session. It required my going to her apartment and learning how to juggle teaching her and the demands on her attention by her two year old son! All in all it was quite a successful session, even with Sanghoen's interruptions. (He is a bright, energetic and outgoing boy.)

I decided that we would approach things differently this week, so with Scrabble, a dictionary and a Scrabble word finder book in hand I set off to my tutoree's residence. I decided to use Scrabble so we could work on vocabulary and so I could get an idea of what she knew. Turns out Scrabble is not necessarily the best game to use when trying to determine someone's receptive/productive vocabulary level. As she used her pocket translator/dictionary I was having flashbacks on games I had played with my family and the heavy dictionary use of even my veteran Scrabble player Grandma. In a stroke of genius I realized all was not lost due to having determined early on to keep track of the words we used so we could review them together. When we were setting up to play her some came over wanted in on the action too. She asked if he could have some of the pieces to play and I agreed. He watched us and set his pieces up the same way as us! Fantastic! Soon, though, he lost interest and returned to entertaining himself. I kept us playing long enough for her to get a few points ahead of me and declare her the victor. I wanted her to walk away from this encouraged and with a certain sense of accomplishment. Chomy is quite bright, she caught on quickly though there were a couple points we had to go over a few times. And no, we did not strictly play by the rules. I wanted her more focused on producing words than understanding the ins and outs of a new game.

The list of vocabulary we developed through game play became the object of our homework assignment for this week. This is so she could spend time working with the words by putting them into sentences using the different meanings and tenses all in the hopes of making the words both receptive and productive. Of course our list was a little lengthy so I only selected a few words for her to do this with suggesting if she felt up to it she could do it with other words from the list. I picked what I felt were the hardest words from our list. We also worked on grammar correction by using the e-mail she sent me, which was almost flawless.

Our time together was mixture of studying and socializing. When I arrived she was happy to see me and had cooked food! She was also very happy to share Korean teas and coffees with me. I'm beginning to get the idea that Asian cultures are hospitable...? This has certainly been my experience with Xin and Chomy. The Korean she made me was a tea made from corn. She showed me the Korean characters on the bag, said the word and told me what it meant (corn). Thus I learned my second word in Korean. Roughly, its pronounced ohsusu. Throughout our time together and interaction with her some as well I managed to learn a few words in Korean with, what Chomy says, good pronunciation. ^_^ We are set to repeat our tutoring session next week and I am also invited to supper afterwards for home-cooked Korean food. We ended our time together talking about her frustrations with somethings that are going on in her life, especially since the car accident, and playing with Sanghoen. It was good time, a good day and I was tired by the time I left, even with having slept late. I walked away from this tutoring session feeling good, feeling like we both did well. Maybe I am finally getting my feet under me, building both comfort and confidence. Maybe the pieces are starting to fall into place, which makes me happy/satisfied.

CP-Meeting 4

I met Heike, Jamie, and a new Taiwanese friend of theirs, Karen, for pizza. My good friend Michelle also joined us. Michelle is Taiwanese-American and has been excited to meet my gals and have a chance to practice her Mandarin. We lead the entire conversation over dinner in English. Only when the girls struggled with finding the correct word, my friend Michelle would jump in and help. I know Michelle wanted to talk more in Mandarin, so we'll have to find a good balance. Maybe next time we can have the gals respond in English when Michelle speaks in Mandarin? Have some "Maninglish" action like "Spangish".

It was interesting when I asked them if they had plans to watch the Super Bowl and they had no idea what it was. Well, Heike knew about it, but the other two had no idea. They also had no idea what the Grammy's were and said they have never watched Oprah. Now that Really shocked me. I thought the whole world worshiped Oprah like I do! I'm joking, but seriously, doesn't everyone know who Oprah is? She's like Michael Jackson global stardom, I thought.

Next Wednesday we've decided to do something a little different and fun. Michelle is quite the gourmet chef, so we are going to host a cooking lesson/dinner party and will feature some american cuisine. Heike has said on a number of occasions how she doesn't know how to cook, so hopefully she'll learn how to use her kitchen a little bit! Oh, and Mellow Mushroom pizza is - Meh. I miss my Grimaldi's back in Jersey.

Richard -- CP -- Week 4

So this week, Ruiting remembered about Tea Time and his headache went away, too. This is good. I walked in about the same time Ryan was cruising through the lounge and showing off some CIES student-friendly board games such as Scrabble: ESOL Edition and Guess Who?

Ruiting and I played both -- and you know what? -- Guess Who? was probably the easiest thing I've ever played. I remember playing this as a 10 year old and it wasn't this simple. Anyway, Ruiting and I would win our respective rounds about 2 tries into it. For example, I would say something like, "Is your person a female who wears glasses?" And I'm not lying when I tell that narrowed it down to two people. Easiest. Game. Ever.

Ruiting begged for something more challenging. "Okay," I said. So we played Scrabble. I won. Haha!

I must say, I found it a bit difficult to describe the game's rules, especially when he tried to use the tiles to make, say, 5 words or so. AF, IE & LW are not words in our language and I tried to explain this to him. He would sort of fight back and say, "It's in my dictionary! FAIL is a word!" Yeah, although he had put FAIL on the board, he would connect them to other letters. After I had explained it to him this couldn't be done unless they were actual words in English, he asked me, "It's illegal?"

Of course I said it was illegal! Yes, Ruiting, the Scrabble Police will throw you in Scrabble Jail and then proceed to execute you via firing squad with bullets made of Scrabble Tiles! You mustn't break the The Ten Commandments of Scrabble Play! You got that, Ruiting?!

No, I actually told him the move was unacceptable and for the most part, he understood, although I kind of wish I had stuck with the Scrabble Police story. That would have no doubt made him question our justice system, which is inefficient in this country anyway. Okay, now I'm getting political...

So we only played for about an hour until Ruiting had to do some stuff at SunTrust. We parted ways, but I informed him about something going on this weekend. This Friday is First Friday at Railroad Square! It's basically an outdoor art show with lots of drunk people. He said he would think about it. First Friday? Or one of his Skype sessions with his fiance? If you know the extent of his Skype sessions, i.e. they most likely involve nudity, then I'm sure he won't come.

Sabrina - Tutoring Week 3- "Aaahhhhhh..."

And relaaaaaax. It is oh so nice to finally have a tutoring partner, and one so wonderfully sweet and kind as Serap.

Serap is from Turkey. She is 23 years old and has been in the U.S for just a few months. Her husband is also Turkish but he has acquired his U.S. citizenship and is the Vice Principal at a local school. Her English is extremely basic but she is very eager to learn it; and that as quickly as she can! If she could acquire English by sure will of desire, she would be fluent already.

She has her B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology with a concentration in Cellular Immunology and Virology. She wants to get her masters and then Ph.D. in the same.

I ask you to contemplate this: This is a young woman who wants to cure cancer and other terrible diseases, who knows how DNA works, how our cells function, she has worked in a hospital and participated in research, but she cannot hold a simple conversation with the people that surround her. She has built up a good basic vocabulary but her way of speaking is at the poking and jabbing stage. Her deep brown eyes carry her intelligence and also show her frustration.

All her intelligence and experience is trapped behind this puzzle of words and no knowledge (yet) of how to put them together. To say she must feel clogged is putting it lightly, but she is so incredibly eager. She does not seem fearful or particularly shy but she has a quiet sweetness about her that puts me at ease. She is young but she knows what she wants and I found myself wanting it for her, wanting to give her English in a golden box.

I think I just met a life long friend tonight.

Heather - CP - Week 4

Where to begin? So, on Friday Xin and I actually spent most of the day together. A very good friend of mine picked me up and we went out to FSU to pick Xin up after her class and take her to lunch. At first I had thought of going to Momo's, but as we talked, it all of a sudden clicked that we should go for Cuban food! So off we went to the Black Bean. ^_^ Delish, though not as great as what can be had in Miami. It was a huge success with Xin! Friday ended up being a day full of a lot of firsts and new things for her. We went to my friend's house after lunch just so Xin could see it and meet my friend's dog. We ended up talking about Christmas ornaments and holidays, food and the Chinese Lunar New Year which happens to be February 14th. We are planning a small party to celebrate! ^_^

Afterwards, my friend dropped us off at my house where Xin proceeded to meet my zoo of animals. I think it was a little overwhelming for her at first, but we taught her the ropes of how to handle over friendly animals. She got to meet my family and be in an American home with an American family for the first time. When I think about that it really has this hard to explain emotional impact. I am so glad to have been able to offer her this experience. My friend said that most foreigners don't get to visit an American home and I was floored by that. Anyway, our day consisted of talking, making jewelry, going for a walk at the Greenway, and playing Wii. We talked about teas and raided my mom's tea cabinet to send all kinds of different teas home with her. We must have spent 10-11 hours together and neither of us was tired of the other! It was great. We talked about the future a little bit, like how she wants me to go home with her and see her country. I am extremely excited about that. We also discussed her current living arrangements which segues into this week's meeting.

Since I took her home Friday night I now know where she lives. And since we gave her so many different teas to try and welcome her into our home I guess she wanted to reciprocate because she contacted me via Facebook and asked what time I would be at CIES today. She had teas for my mom, my friend and I. As it turned out the timing didn't work so I told her I would go over to her place after class. We did a lot of talking about a lot of things. We're really building a friendship and trust. She started to open up to me about the hardships she's dealing with and her feelings. She's struggling with loneliness, helplessness, disappointment, etc. She got her TOEFL scores back and she didn't get what she needed. This is hard on her, but she says she took it calmly. Her lowest scoring was in listening and I've offered to help her because I want to see her succeed. I know this means a lot to her and therefore it has become meaningful to me too. Her living situation is currently in upheaval as well. Her roommate just moved out and she needs to be out of the apartment next Thursday. She hasn't found a place to live yet and this is all on top of spending as much time studying as possible since she's retaking the TOEFL on the 13th. She has a place to stay for the first couple nights with friends who will drive her to the testing center, but after that she hadn't made any arrangements yet.

Our time hanging out tonight evolved into a tutoring session via discussion of the TOEFL. The best one I have had so far! Can that count for this week's tutoring blog? (If so I'll write it up.) Working with Xin was easier than with Chomy. I don't really know why. Xin has trouble with word order and some grammatical stuff. We worked on that. If she said a sentence wrong I would write down what she said and we worked on figuring out how to fix it. She would also ask me about things she didn't understand and we'd work on those. I've had a hard time bringing myself to correct her a whole lot even though she's asked because I don't want to mess with the fluency of her speaking. She does a great job of communicating her ideas, at least I understand her well and my friend and family did too. Her mistakes aren't huge, but still need to be weeded out. So this really gave me the opportunity to take her at her word and fulfill this request. At one point she was like, but I never get to speak! Because we'd stop to work on the last sentence she said, and I told her that was why I hadn't been correcting her all the time. On Friday we got pronunciation instead of pronounce down, and I'm happy to say she's been using it well ever since! We must've spent an hour or better doing this, but then it was back to chatting.

We talked more about living arrangements and future plans. As of right now I'm slated to spend the night at her place Thursday and then she'll be spending Saturday night with me because she wants to go to church with me on Sunday. From what she's told me I gather that one of her early experiences in this country was going to a church where she was given a Bible. She wants to try going to church again to get a better understanding this time around. I think she's really getting some great cultural experiences here. We also talked about trying to go to Disney World next month!! And a little more about my going to China with her. Its all so very exciting and things I had never dreamed of!

I suppose I shouldn't be, but I am amazed because I never dreamed I'd really walk away from the CP experience with a new friend. We can really talk and have fun and understand each other even with a language barrier. There is so much that transcends language, which I knew, but am relearning again through this experience. I feel like doors have been opened and may continue to open that I wasn't looking for, which is exciting. Xin even suggested I teach in China. She thinks I'm good at it. (I think she's crazy for thinking so. lol) Actually, she explained to me that I could do a speaking class, that that is what they really use native speakers for. The thought intrigues me. We decided that I would just visit the country with her first and see what I thought before actually seeking employment there. She's really a bright and thoughtful woman. I am extremely appreciative of the opportunity to make friends with her and have my life enriched so.

Sabrina - Conversation Partner Wk 4 - "My ESL ninja gal"

Wow, what a difference a week makes. Or maybe it was the rain, but Shin was on point today. She was using many more complete sentences than I have heard so far.

Since it was not so sweet weather outside we chose to stay inside and grabbed some tea before settling in on the long yellow mini couches that line the exit hall next to the TOEFL classroom.

I am here to say that my girl did not take the driver's test as she had planned. She had too much homework. She plans to try next Friday. This gives her plenty of time to study however so that's a positive.

This time I tried to keep on one conversation theme without breaking down into explanation overkill, which always gets us off topic. I started with the simple question, "So what did you do this week?" She told me about some of her class work and weekend activities. I kept edging her on with, "And then what?" and "What about the next day?"

The one point where we did a little breaking it down was on talking about time. We created a time line with the word "today" in the middle (obvious really) and then to the left of that we wrote yesterday, the day before yesterday, 2 days ago, 3 days, ago, etc... and to the right, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, 2 days from now, 3 days from now, etc. We used this as a reference for her account of what her week had been filled with and some future plans (such as this pending test which she will take "three days from now"). Her sentences were not complete but for a few lucid moments. I let it go and just filed in a few verb tense corrections in passing.

What I did do however was write, "Today, Yesterday, Sunday, and Saturday" on notebook paper and jotted down what she was telling me of her activities next to each: "woke up, washing face, checking email, practice cello, etc." Then I let it drop and we moved on to something else. We talked about where we had both traveled to while sitting next to the giant map. Also, the places we wanted to travel to. This was basically - everywhere.

Shin-hye picked up on one part of our talk that she said she had heard a lot since coming to Tallahassee just a month ago, that being the use of the word "crazy" to mean a lot or to an extreme degree. I told her it was "crazy hot in India". She liked this bit of slang and I am pretty sure I will hear it come back in a later session.

In winding down with just a few minutes left, I pulled out the notebook sheet with the activities jotted down as she had said them earlier and rewrote each activity on a single line on a separate piece of paper. Then I asked her to tell me the same things but in complete sentences. All I had to do was ask her the question words - who? when? where? why? and she filled in the rest. She got so good at this that she started to work towards compound sentences. What was " I checked my email." became "I checked my email and surfed the net." Then even bigger to "I checked my email and surfed the net for three hours." She was visibly pleased with her progress.

She did not call me over the weekend as I had asked. She said she was scared. I asked her to try it again. I did not care what she said as long as she said it in a complete sentence. I think this time she can do it. I'll let you know.

Sebastian-CP-Week 3

I met again with Juseob on Sunday afternoon. We were not able to go to a restaurant this time, but next time we will try to go to Masa, a Japanese restaurant located on N. Monroe.

I learned that Juseob has traveled extensively across the world. He has been in Europe, and all over Asia. I believe he told me that he had traveled to the Maldives for his honeymoon. He says that it is the most beautiful place on Earth.

We talked about my homeland as well. I was telling him how beautiful the beaches are in Puerto Rico. He asked me for advice on where to go if he visited the island. I told him to visit El Viejo San Juan, of course. I even drew a picture of the island of Puerto Rico and showed him where I was born. We really had fun, and I am looking forward to our next meeting...With FOOD...(thanks for the advice Ramin, but I had already thought it up)

Dwinetta CP 3

Hello all! This week in conversing! Venus BBMed me (thats blackberry messaged me for all you Blackberry unsavvy people) about going to the circus although she called it a "cyrus" at first. Having never been to the circus before I accepted! I brought along a friend of mine and we all prepared to go. Venus and I chatted it up on the way there, catching up on what we had done since last seeing each other at Starbucks. She tried to explain to me what was going on with her sister's car, but the mechanical vocabulary was too much for her in English so she just said "car problems" instead. Upon arrival to the civic center, we had to purchase tickets. It is out of Venus' comfort zone to speak for herself in English, so she asked me questions to ask the teller. She asked me in perfect english the questions she wanted answers to but I think she was just a little nervous. She ended up asking the teller the questions and did great. We sat through the first half of the show, whispering in between about the differences between this circus and the ones she has been to in Panama. We saw a bunch of kids, some of whom were dressed alike, she relayed to me that her mother used to dress her and her little sister alike as well. I told her my mother did the same thing with me and my older sister (a little annoying if you ask me, I like my own style). When intermission rolled around, Venus said she was hungry, so we went to the concessions to see what kinds of salty, sugary goodness they had to offer. Once again Venus was nervous to use her English, so I told her I would walk with her if she needed help, she ended up doing perfectly, even though the concession lady seemed a little impatient with her...

Overall, this session went great because Venus was able to talk with me and my friend, and she was forced to communicate on her own. We're taking baby steps people!! Until next time. Netta Out!!

Sebastian-Tutoring-Week 3

Hello everybody! On Saturday I tutored my wife on the stress rule for two-syllable verbs. I would say a noun or a verb and she would tell me which it was depending on where I placed the stress. We did the same with two word verbs.

We also did some reading. We used a sheet that was given to her in class about what to do after a car accident. I helped her with her pronunciation, as well as the meaning of some of the text.

The proverbs were the best. We read proverbs like "don't burn your bridges behind you" and "beggars can't be choosers". I explained some of these, and we had some laughs.

Lastly, I helped her with her homework, which was to write down new words that she learned out of class. She learned the word "etiquette".

Well, that's all folks! Until next time...

CP with Heiku-Meeting 3

Spotted: Sickly Gringa in sweatpants with two Taiwanese gals, one Sporty and one Spice.

I've officially adopted Heiku's roommate Jamie as a 2nd conversation partner. Yay! My little international family is growing! Jamie's English is at a Group 4, however she expresses her insecurities with speaking English because she doesn't have many opportunities to talk with Americans. She says it’s hard for her to meet other students and spends most of her time with her Taiwanese friends.

Jamie, Heiku & I sat and drank tea & coffee at Starbucks. Although I was feeling drowsy, since I am all doped-up on cold medicine, the conversation was fun and went smoothly. Heiku is definitely much more confident in her speaking from our first meeting. I can tell she is now very comfortable with me. When we reach an obstacle in our dialogue, I try to move past that point as quick as possible and continue on with the conversation. She can take longer pauses and focus on the details in her classes at CIES. I feel that I best serve her by providing a fun & motivating environment for her to practice, practice, practice.

The girls shared with me that they are fans of the CW show Gossip Girl, which they said is very popular in Taiwan. Jamie loves to see what new trends the girls are wearing then shops online for the discounted version. Apparently, she's a real shop-oholic. Heiku told me she has a crush on Blair. I was curious if this meant she “liked” girls or she just admires Blair like how I admire the Dixie Chicks. This was a moment when the translation could have been interpreted wrong and I could have asked her to explain what she meant by “crush”, but I chose to let this one slide. Looks like I may have my own Gossip Girl episode unvailing as I get to know these two more. Lol.

Teach in Asia

If you log onto Seminole Link, there are jobs for Korea and Japan. You get a free ride with both although the Korea company appears to offer free housing. They're both for the Spring so I wanted to let those who are interested in going to Asia.

Korea: http://www.eslrg.com/
Japan: www.amityteachers.com

Tutoring Week 2: Keith

Last Wednesday Shanshan and I met in the library again and we went over an essay she had given me before and a few suggested structures for LSAT essays I had found online. I was surprised by how quickly the time went, we were supposed to meet for an hour, from five to six, but at 6:15 when I suggested we look at another thing (I was worried about not filling out hour) she pointed out to me the time.

The main thing we worked on was the organization. I was really glad I'd seen that video in class about the different cultures' writing styles. I was able to use the visual illustrations from it to help her understand the straight forward, "First I tells 'em what I'm gonna tell 'em, then I tells 'em, then I done tell 'em what I told 'em," form of the American essay.

I explained the necessity of paraphrasing the information in the prompt instead of directly parroting it. One way to get around this was to refer to the information with the insight that the person already knows the details and her job was to interpret, expand on it them. This helped in another way because she wont have to write as much, wasting her time repeating every detail before making a point.

We also looked over a sample essay someone else wrote and she asked me if it was okay to be as pushy as the writer. I then told her how important confidence was to writing and highlighted some of the rhetorical tricks the writer used ("While this option is not bad..." for example)

We talked about a number of things after that (it was so weird to see someone taking notes of what I was saying!) As I signed my time sheet in Karen's office I felt relieved. I can do this, I thought. There was a spot where it asked how much prep time was put into the lesson and I told Karen, "I think I spent two hours preparing," thinking that was a lot. "That's about how much most people prepare," she said. I'm excited about this week!