Tutoring Week 1: Keith

I decided to do my tutoring through the public library because my older sister who lives in town volunteers with them and she told me it was a good program. After I gave Karen my application she saw my major at FSU is creative writing. "I have just the person for you!" she said and told me there was a student needing to practice essay writing for the LSAT. Karen felt that we just needed to get her to write and write until she was comfortable with the 35 min time limit imposed during the LSAT.

A few days later I met ShanShan at the library and we planned our attack. Her husband is a faculty member in Computer Sciences, and she herself is very smart. She brought me a writing sample and I was instantly impressed by the fluidity of her voice. I realized that it would be difficult to explain how to do something that has become second nature to me after writing so many papers. I told her I'd prefer to look over her paper to think about what to work on. I would then send her a LSAT essay prompt, found online, and she'd respond and we'd go over this our next meeting.

After I got to look at the essay in detail, without the pressure of her looking on, I was able to see a few things I could address. I am confident I can help her become a better writer by focusing on a few structural points. I think next class I'll help her construct an essay from ground up, using some LSAT practice information I found online.

Sabrina - Conversation Partner WK 3 - "Seoul for the Road"

Shin Hye is getting ready to take the driver's license exam. You're excited? Just imagine how she is feeling! She is excited but also a tad nervous. From what I gather of our conversation (which is improving by the way) in Korea you apparently take the written and the driving test in one visit. There is no learner's permit. You just test and drive.

She had intended to bring her study guide but forgot it. After thinking about it for awhile, I asked if she was studying the English guide, she said yes (great!). I told her that would really help since the test itself would be in English as well. I could tell she did not think she would pass the first time. I said that even if she did not score well, there is no limit to how many times she can take it.

We were outside Panchero's again since this is close to the CIES building where she has class before and after our sessions (can you imagine such English overload?). The metal mesh tables outside have metal mesh benches on all four sides. Shin was to my right and I had an idea. "We're going to take the driver's test right now." Her slightly panicked answer was "Oh! now?" I asked her to switch to my bench on the "driver's side" and that I would be the examiner. We began the exam with lots of giggling from her friend Lyl who had joined us as before. We laughed too as I asked her to "start the car". She really must have been studying because instead of going directly for the ignition she said, "first seat belt". So we belted up and then she turned on the car. We ran through what you should check before backing up or driving (trees, cars, and humans were her answers - very good!) and then we were off.

We didn't get far because laughter loves company and funny enough, there was a trio of guys who appeared to be construction workers sitting at the next table. They were having lunch and were listening in on our conversation. I know they were listening because one of them asked across the divide if we were talking about the drivers test. All it took was one question about how many times HE took the test before passing and he was at our table asking all kinds of questions about where Shin was from and what we were doing, etc. He was a flirt, that was obvious, he also seemed to think Shin was pretty cute, which she is. He told us that he spoke two languages as well, English and Ebonics. After a short interchange he returned to table and then was off back to work.

I asked Shin if she understood what we had said and could she tell me what the conversation was about. She did a so-so job on the explaining part but I could tell she does understand quite a bit more than she can say. However, when I put her in the position of speaking whatever topic we are on doesn't get very far because we have to stop and do a bit of tutoring. I don't mind this - she seems to need it - but I worry about keeping her focused (and myself) on one conversation topic all the way through.

We did make some headway though with speaking in complete sentences. I can tell she gets tongue tied and then only a few words come out. We practiced taking a deep breath as well as taking our time to answer or make a statement with a complete sentence, or even a broken sentence, but something more than just few words that the listener has to put together.

Near the end of our session, I asked her again about sewing lessons. I feel like it would be a way for us to have more conversation in a way that we can both enjoy and relax. She said she would like to try. When we tried to figure out a time to meet I had another idea. I gave her the simple task of calling my phone and leaving a message. I asked that she leave one complete sentence telling me what time and day she wanted to meet. I reassured her that the machine would wait for her to take a deep breath and say what she wanted to say - completely.

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.

CP Week 2 Catherine

fter last weeks less than stellar meeting with my conversation partner Seong Bong I was looking forward to hopefully connecting more with him and learning more about him, instead of our time together just consisting of me asking him a series of mundane questions. I invited Stephen and his partner to come to lunch with us, since the three of them had become such good friends and constantly hang out and I wanted to show Seong Bong that I was down to hang out with the guys. But sadly I don’t think that that is the vibe he got. The little conversation we had was awkward and short, I think the only question he asked me that scratched the surface of learning more about me other than why I was in TEFL or if I were interested in movies, was when he asked if American women liked Asian men. For most of the meal I felt like the third wheel, since the 3 of them had been hanging out all weekend and even rode over together. I wasn’t upset that they had formed a friendship or that they had been hanging out, I just wish I would have been invited to hang out with them once, so that my meeting with Seong Bong wouldn’t have felt so forced and scheduled. I felt like it was at least the polite thing to do to shoot a text my way. I feel the arrangement but that has formed, hanging out with the "boys" for fun and having to hang out with a girl for CIES made Seong Bong see me as an outsider since he had already made such a connection with Stephen. I didn’t think being paired with a male conversation partner would be a big deal, I pride myself on being able to find a common thread with anyone, but since Seong Bong and I really never got the chance to interact on the level that he and Stephen it greatly hindered any chance we had at having a positive relationship. After leaving our meal I decided that this situation was not working for me, I'm not going to waste my time trying to be a conversation partner when there is no chance of anything really positive coming from it. I went into CIES today and expressed my concerns and luckily they were able to set me up with a new CP, so I am very excited for this second opportunity to be a CP.

Stephen CP #2

On this past Saturday John met me at my apartment. It was my birthday this past Friday so John and Seong Bong bought me a gift. The first thing I noticed was that the gift was in a Sponge Bob gift bag. Inside was a really awesome smelling candle and birthday card. The card said "Happy Birthday Brother" and the two of them left me a nice message and they signed their names in English. Their take on their signatures was pretty funny because all they did was scribble a bunch of wavy lines. I was pretty psyched about their gifts and gave the two some hugs. That's one thing I definitely notice about these South Koreans, they are definitely more touchy feely with the same sex. In many ways it feels like they are family; two new brothers.

After opening presents we decided to go to the Leach Center and swim. It was fun because I got to show John some swimming strokes, that he obviously knew, but didn't know the English names for them. We had some races and I won on the breast stroke, and we tied on the freestyle. I also tried to teach Seong Bong how to swim. Right now he uses the kick board to stay afloat and we're training him to kick his legs. I can't believe that he doesn't know how to swim. I thought Korea was surrounded by water!?

Later, we went to Wendy's to find something fast and cheap to eat. I thought it was interesting how John ordered only a sandwich while Seong Bong got a large meal so that the two of them could share. Now that I think about it I'm sure that's cheaper, and in South Korea you usually don't order individually so it makes sense. Maybe I should try that option with my brother sometime. Then John asked me a really random question, do American women hate Asian men? I told him right away that I wouldn't say hate, but maybe not like. I told him that I didn't know that existed but maybe it came from the idea that American women are used to more freedom than traditional Asian women. Also, Seong Bong asked me about how the USA feels about Canada. I told him what the majority of America thinks about Canada... it's cold, not America, and socialist. Then I told him that I didn't agree and that you shouldn't make stereoypes about somebody's character because of where they are from.

On Sunday, Catherine and I met Seong Bong and John at Los Compadres. John wasn't hungry because he had just eaten, but Seong Bong wanted some really spicy food. In turn this meant dumping massive amounts of habenero hot sauce into some salsa and ordering the La Diabla super spicy shrimp. This time John asked Catherine if American women hate Asian men. I think she did a better job than I did and just told John that she had a friend who loved Asian men, and that the stereotype wasn't true. I think that made Seong Bong and John feel better... now I feel bad how I answered the question in the first place. As we prepared to leave we found out that in South Korea they usually don't tip in restaurants and that this was their first time tipping. I explained to them that you usually tip 15-20% and only when you have a waiter. They didn't like this concept at all. Seong Bong liked tipping in Korea because he worked at an Outback Steakhouse and Americans would accidentally tip him. :) One thing they struggled with was the concept of going up to the register and tipping with a credit card. They thought that they had to give their waiter cash, or the man at the register would receive the tip. The kind man at the register realized their confusion and told them that this indeed was not the case.

All in all, another great week with my CP. John will be taking the IBTOEFL exam in 2 months so I need to find him a book and start tutoring him for the test. I felt really good correcting his English this week, and I know he appreciated me helping him. I was pleased with myself because he randomly asked me what the difference was between "I had been" and "I have been". In turn I asked him for an example, and I used his example to explain the difference. He thanked me for helping him understand. This next weekend I will visit John at his home and eat some traditional Korean food. I am pretty stoked!

Sebastian-CP-Week 2

Today I had a very interesting conversation with Juseob. We talked about a lot of things. From what his major was (history), to how bad I am at playing golf. He loves to talk about history. We talked about US history, particularly Florida's, and how Spain controlled it until the 1890's. He was amazed to find out that my first language is not English, but Spanish. And I was amazed at how much he loves Starbucks' coffee. He drinks coffee at Starbucks every single day. I think I would destroy my nervous system if I started to drink coffee like that...you know me.

I also learned that his wife is a very good piano player. So, after drinking Starbucks coffee, we went to the parking lot (behind Boca Cafe) and our wives met there. My wife is also very good at playing the piano, and she has traveled to Korea before, so our wives were talking very enthusiastically. Juseob still wanted to get together to play some golf, but I think I will pass on that offer. Next time we plan to go to a restaurant together. That should bring some conversation to the table...

Elizabeth-CP/Tutoring-Week 2

Rama and I talked about meeting for tea time since it is the most convenient for both of us but the most unfortunate thing happened, when I went to CIES she wasn't there. I tried calling her but she wouldn't pick up her phone. I was so sad. It made me think that she didn't like me or something.

Since I was already at CIES, I decided to hang out and talk to some of the other students. I met SungSub (S.Korea) and he is taking Salsa classes. He is such a funny guy. We even had the pleasure to see some of his Salsa moves. I talked with JooHyun (S.Korea) and he used to be a student at CIES but now he is going back home. It made me realize how fast time goes by and how much he has learned since he first came to the U.S.. I also played games with Karis(NY) and HyeYoung (S.Korea) and it was so much fun because we couldn't figure out how to set up the game. We looked like the Three Stooges. It was really fun but I still felt bad about Rama, so I called again and nothing.

Once I was home, Rama and I chatted through facebook and she told me that she was sorry about missing our appointment. She says that she was sick, so decided to not go to tea time. But will try next week. I told her that I had researched some information about Bamako, Mali. She was really happy and invited me to visit her home and family. Also, after I read Ramin's comment about the different singers from Mali, I looked them up and listened to their songs. I especially liked Amadou and Mariam and their song Je Pense A Toi. I told Rama about it and she was so excited and gave me some background information about them. She said that they are a very famous, blind couple.


We talked about the famous Tour d'Afrique, a very famous bicycle race. After a while I asked her if she was feeling better, but only a bit. I told her to go to bed and to take some medicine so I could see her next time. She was very thankful and then she logged off. This made me realize how fortunate we are that we live in this era. Communicating with each other it is so easy but I still like our one on one meetings.

Tutoring:

Sabrina and I are supposed to tutor on Thursdays for the English Conversation Club but it was a total FAIL! So sad. I was looking forward to that day. Everything was ready to go and all we had to do was wait for Thursday. It was a horrible day. I thought the world was going to end, especially when you have FSU texting you every 5 seconds to tell students that FSU was flooded and to take cover in the nearest building. My final verdict: the weather's fault!
If this does not work next Thursday, I already had a backup plan. I asked my unni (older sister) HyeYoung if I could tutor her and she agreed. I have tutored HyeYoung before but now I have a better idea of how to teach her.

Until next time! o(^_^)o

Sebastian-Tutoring-Week 2

Hola! I have found that the time taken to tutor my student (wife) has been very helpful to her. This time we started the session by playing a game. I would say a word in English and she would have to answer with a synonym. I taught her other words and phrases that she did not know, and explained them to her. I also explained material that had been covered in her English class in more detail.

Teaching her has increased my desire for language learning, because I must know how to explain what I am teaching. One thing is knowing how to speak a language, and another is figuring out how to explain to the students why something is said in a certain way.

This is a learning experience for both of us. It helps me appreciate the "trials and tribulations" that my wife has gone through while learning English. And of course, it helps her to have a deeper knowledge of the English language. I will soon take some time to learn Japanese myself, but for now, I will concentrate in taking advantage of this beautiful opportunity.

Conversation partner week 2 Rita Schwab

Conversation partner week2 Rita Schwab I met with Eric Minoungou again on Wednesday afternoon. His life and culture is so very different and very interesting. We talked about family and had decided to bring pictures to share. I showed him my pictures of my daughter's wedding and the last Christmas with my family. He was very impressed and thought that I come from a happy family as everyone was always smiling in the pictures. He also thought that I come from a rich family, as the table was always set so nicely and colorfully. This is part of my german heritage and my love for color and fun at the table as I am an artist, but has nothing to do with money. He loved the wedding garments and was a bit overwhelmed. His pictures showed his father, who turns out to be 90 years old, dressed in a long colorful African robe. This was a pictures of him receiving a government award for community service in his town and his country. Eric's father has received a lot of respect from the Green Labor Union, politically a left wing organization. Eric's father is not connected to the state government as he does not believe in its authenticity. Eric says, the government is too conservative and right wing, although democratic, which does not mean much. We agreed that it is similiar in the US and his family supports President Obama. Eric's father came from a very poor family and decided to work as a business man in imports and exports all of his life, making him a lot of good money to earn his status in his country as well as his status with community members and his family. He believes in sharing his wealth freely and helps the poorer community members with housing, food, jobs and community support. This he does absolutely for free as he is kind hearted and a wise man, a leader in his community. He is against poverty, corruption and the misleading government. He receives visitors and respect from all over the world, especially from France as Burkina Faso used to be a french colony and has close ties to France. His stature earns him the right to have multiple wives, of which he has 3. All of them are at least half of his age. He did not conceive children until he was almost 60. His oldest son is 32, his youngest daughter is 16. Eric has lived with his entire family all of his life, which means he has one biological mother and 2 step mothers living in the same house. He has lived with his 9 brothers and sisters as long as he has lived. One of his brothers died last year at the age of 16, a very sad and unexpected death. Eric wants to go to medical school so he can be active in his community as a doctor to bring more knowledge about western medicine to his people. His family did not understand the cause of his brother's death. His father has built a new home fairly recently - I don't know how recent. Eric said everyone has his/her own room, which is unusual in his country. When I asked about the bathrooms he said that they have 2 outhouses. The houses are constructed of concrete block. I did not see a picture of his home. But he had some pictures of some of his brothers and sisters and 2 of his 3 moms and their sisters (his aunts) and a picture of the recent New Years Eve party in town at a local hotel, that seems to be a family tradition. We also talked a bit about religion and I am not sure whether I got a clear picture on this. Men only go to church, which is a christian church. Women only assist. And I did not get clarity on what Eric meant with assisting, but it seems that women are not allowed to go to church. He says only men celebrate and pray. His father also has the right to do sacrifices such as chickens and sheep. I asked him whether he is a shaman, but could not get the proper answer. His father does call on spirits. I asked Eric whether he was planning to marry more than one woman and he laughed. He said that the culture is rapidly changing. He comes from a very old cultural family. Eric thinks of himself as traditional, respectful and compassionate. He has another given name - Passoukwend, meaning 'Doing Good'. His birthday is on February 6th and I asked him what his horoscope was. He said he doesn't believe in that. I was sorry to hear that the people in his country and his family are prejudiced against whites. Apparently his mothers are calling him often to find out whether he is going to be o.k. and whether the white people are treating him kindly. It was quite a session - much to ask, much to find out and we didn't not want to part. Forward... inline text as attachment Move to... Trash Bills and payments Center for Intensive English Studies German mail Gmail Misc Mt Tremper Netflix Outdoor adventures Spiral Gardens More Actions... View Headers View Source --------------- Mark Unread Flag Message ‹ Previous | Next › | « Back to INBOX

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CP Part Deux

Heiku conquers her fear of ordering at restaurants

Heiku & I walk to the Loop for lunch and on the way she tells me how she only eats hamburgers. I ask her "Why"? She responds " I am scared to try something I don't know. I know I like hamburger and that's all I eat".

Oh no, I am thinking, this is not good!

I tell her that she has to try something new. She agrees and is so excited she's almost skipping on the way to the restaurant. It was really cute and made me smile.

We sit and carefully go over all the items on the menu together. Soups, salads, sandwiches, she seems to know what they all are, but it's the detailed descriptions of each item that bog her down and lead her to wanting to order a hamburger.

Finally she decides she wants the chicken ceasar salad. I have to help her with the pronunciation of "ceasar". She pronounced it "Seh-Zar".

Heiku walks up to the register to order and...... she gets stage fright! She points to the menu item and just says " I want that".

That's ok Heiku, we'll try it again next week, I think to myself. The conversation at lunch was fun, we covered many topics and then she asked me to help her with a newspaper she was reading. She had many words underlined that she did not understand. I went over each word with her and did my best to explain them. I really enjoyed helping her, but I also struggled with wondering if I was explaining it clearly.

Any suggestions on cheap, american food spots, walking distance to campus, that don't have hamburgers? And have Menus? (emphasis on Cheap)

Maria CP Week 1

My CP is from China, from a big city near Beijing. She is very young and sweet, and, as all Chinese her age, an only child. I was aware of the one-child policy implemented by the Chinese government, but actually getting to know someone who is part of it made it so much more real: no siblings. An entire generation (if not more), millions of people who have grown up without a little brother or big sister; nobody between you and your parents, no little version of you to protect (or make fun of). And in school, classroom after classroom full of only-children. That has got to affect society somehow.

But returning to my CP. She is very keen on learning English and told me that when she first arrived to the States she could not utter a single sentence. That was five weeks ago. She had to spend sometime at the airport in Detroit, waiting for her connecting flight to Tallahassee, and was unable to make the people working at the airport understand that she wanted to make a phone call home to China, to tell her parents that she (their only child) had made it safe and sound to America. She could not make the call and felt frustrated and worried. Now, a little over a month later, she is quite capable of communicating in a fairly eager and articulate way. Sometimes her pronunciation makes it difficult to understand her and, at times, she does say something utterly incomprehensible, but it goes by so fast that I barely have the time to register it. However, from my own language-learning experience, I know it can be very irritating to be constantly interrupted and corrected when you are seriously trying to say something, so I've been doing it sparingly, practicing instead my extensive-listening skill (?) and butting in a comprehension question here and there (If I catch it in time, that is). So far so good.

Richard -- CP -- Week 2.2 (that means we conversed twice this week, slackers!)

I visited Ruiting at his apartment today, so it goes without saying that I was quite anxious since I'm not familiar with Chinese etiquette. Nor am I exactly aware of these sorts of things in my own country -- even I lack Southern hospitality! Still, I kept thinking about how I could express gratitude for his inviting me. Should I bring a gift? Maybe I should've combed my hair? Put on a business suit?Anything, to be truthful! This became overwhelming.

And so I did nothing. Sorry, Ruiting.

Anyway, we met near the swimming pool. Because it was such a nice day outside, lots of people were basking in the carcinogenic sun. I was in a (light) jacket. What? The sun's dangerous to my skin, so I choose to remain pale.

We played ping pong. He won. End of that story.

No, I'm kidding. We actually played pocket billiards (also known as "pool," but we were next to a pool, so I refused to confuse). Isn't the English language awesome?! But I did decide to teach him a few things about the nomenclature regarding the sport. For example, there are two kinds of balls -- don't you dare laugh! -- which are equally divided into Solids and Stripes. Still with me? Then he asked me what the pockets were called. I said pockets. Other words included chalk, cue ball, and triangle (Seriously, what is the triangular thing called?).

So after every 10 minutes or so, I would quiz him on the vocabulary. I point to the pocket. "What is this?" I ask. "Poetry!" Ruiting replied.

For the first time in my life, I had to say, "Poetry is incorrect." How do you think this makes me feel?! I corrected him, of course. "Nope, that's a pocket." 10 minutes later: "What is this?" (pointing to the pocket). "Poetry!" He made me do it again. For the second time in my life, I had to say, "Poetry is incorrect." I hope I never say this combination of words again!

Again, as we were playing pocket billiards, Ruiting would occasionally focus his vision toward the ladies in their two-pieces. Then he said something about stripping. And, well, you can tell where this is going. So perceptions of women in America and China are pretty similar, I learned. Put a group of guys together and what do they talk about? The View (and I'm not talking about Barbara Walters).

After pocket billiards, he showed me the fitness center. We worked out (more like He worked out). I hated it. He told me he does it to protect his girlfriend. That's cool. I just sat down on some Bowflex-looking contraption and listened to Maria Sharapova's grunts. You guessed it! Apparently, this guy right here -- and I'm being reflexive -- is no protector whatsoever. I mean, I'm a poet (hence the rhyme), not Ah-nuld.

Still, I had a good time. By the way, Ruiting gave me a gift. It was in a red pouch ( I'll show you what it is on Tuesday, okay?). Now I feel very, very guilty. Just as I'm typing this, I'm perusing the Internet and researching this.

I now know that I need to stay away from the number 4. If you have no idea, what I'm talking about, you need to click the link. See you Tuesday (or Saturday for some of y'all).

Bill-CP-Week 2

I met with Young Song yesterday for an hour. We talked a bit about his life in Seoul. He said drinking, pool, and movies was popular at his university...a universal trait world wide! Since I visited Seoul, I talked about my experiences there with him. I told him I didn't do much traveling there but that I ate a lot of Korean food, especially kimchi! He was surprised a foreigner would like it. He said his mom mails him kimchi from home. I can understand why. If you never ate kimchi made from Korea, you do not know the true tastiness of kimchi!

But I digress...I also talked about some culture differences that I noticed in Korea. Like lots of women hold hands there, and the men kind of put their arms around their guy friends neck when walking. I read about it before I went so I wasn't too surprised, but it was amusing to see. He said it was normal, but you would never see a guy holding hands with another guy (unless they were gay).

It seems like there is a lot of interesting things I can talk with Young. His English is pretty good in my opinion. I do not know what his reading comprehension level is, but he talks at a decent speed and his English makes sense. Although there are some odd uses of words, such as "There is many snow in Seoul" instead of "There is a lot of snow in Seoul now". But these are mistakes that can be corrected with time and practice.

"14 Hour School Days" - cp session 2

I think that's what he said. My CP said in Korea, they go to school from 8 am to 10 pm. I found this terribly hard to believe. They don't even make people work that hard in Mexican Maquiladoras! I kept repeating the question. I kept trying to get him to elaborate. I'd ask it different ways with different inflections to determine if he was really understanding me. I felt like one of those stupid tests they give you in big chain corporate restaurants. You know, like when they ask you what would you do if a twenty dollar bill was hanging out of the register. And then two questions later they ask, what would you do if you found a twenty dollar bill hanging out of the register. This was how it was like with this kid.
I'm like, "Whoa. Stop. Wait. You're saying in Korea, you go to school from 8 am to 10 pm?"
He says, "yes."
I say, "So, like what are you doing at 8 am?"
He says, "We're starting school."
Me, "And like what are you doing at 10 pm?"
He says, "Uh, finishing school."
"Lunch?"
This went on for some time. It is just hard for me to believe anyone can study that long. I lose attention quicker than squirrel on methamphetamine. But he says it's true. Then he said something about 2 am. Like that's when he finishes homework for the day. I changed the subject because I didn't believe it.

Sabrina - Tutoring (attempt) - Week I " Torrential Emptiness"

Today should have been my first day of tutoring at the Center for Global Engagement along with Elizabeth. We had our one hour session well planned and ready to put into action. However, when I arrived at the tutoring room, there was no one there. I am used to being perpetually early to appointments and other obligations so I did not find arriving to an empty space unusual. I flipped on the lights and looked at what was in the room. Soon after, Elizabeth arrived and we went about setting up the sign-in sheet and I prepared what we needed for our planned activities. When there was nothing left to prepare or straighten, nothing to go over "one last time", nothing more to do but wait for our eager international students to file in, Elizabeth and I sat down and chatted.

We continued to chat for several minutes and then several minutes more. It was wonderful. A bit of Spanglish thrown in here and there; I was enjoying listening to her. She talked about her work with the Amnesty International group on campus and I talked about Peruvian food. We both would glance quickly at the door now and again to see if anyone was arriving. No. No one. How about now? No. Not now. Not one. Aaaaand now? Uh-uh.

Did I mention that this was just about 30 mins after the deluge of rain had flooded the parking lot at University Center A sending staff, faculty, and students alike swimming to their cars to save them from the rising waterline? Or that this was a new time slot that Aleks from CGE was trying out? Or that it was lunch time? Did I tell you that my stomach was well aware of the time of day and its necessities? Well, all of these things are, were, did, and did not.

With just 20 mins left to tutor ourselves on how to get essential elements for Papas a la Huancaina transported at a discount from Miami, Elizabeth and I called it a wrap and we headed out.

I think we will give it another whirl on next Thursday but in the meantime I will get with the Leon County Public Library and find out more about tutoring there one on one.

Out of Egypt: Session 2

Last night I met up with my Egyptian tutoring partners at the library. I decided to focus the lesson on prepositions: The book is on the table, the book is under the table. Where is my cell phone? The cell phone is in the bag. I also used a picture book. But I had some difficulties keeping my thoughts from showing on my face, because what I was thinking was this: "I've repeated the same sentence for you to say 25 times and you're still not getting it. Why?"

I was thinking back to the 7-time repetition rule, and asking them to repeat what they said was important to jog their memory. I just NEEDED them to respond to my questions in full sentences, but 9 times out of 10, that simply wasn't working. I would praise them when they responded correctly, clap my hands, and they'd smile.....but mostly they got it TOTALLY wrong. I think I had to keep myself from showing my disappointment when I asked them to describe the location of the toilet in a bathroom-picture: "Where is the toilet?" only to recieve "Ugh, toilet in next, in the sink?"

You have no idea how many times I told them both to repeat: "The toilet is next to the sink." They had some MAJOR difficulties saying "Next"....it sounded more like "nek-ist," which was good enough, but without the "to" right after it's incorrect.

Last night was a difficult session even though we were using a picture book. If only I could get this couple, though they have resided in America for 2.5 yrs, to know how to fully respond to a simple question: Where is the girl sitting?

"ugh, sitting?....the girl in nek-ist. No. The girl is in the sofa?"

You get what I'm saying, right?

CP1

Guess who loves her new convo partner?!? This girl! I finally got to meet my CP today, her name is Venus and she is awesome! She is a 20 year old student from Panama studying law. She decided to take a break from school to come work on her english. She is in the beginner classes at CIES, and has only been here two weeks, but she seems to have a good circle of friends from CIES already. We decided to meet at starbucks and suprisingly I wasn't nervous! At first she seemed a little nervous but we quickly got passed it once we started talking. Her english is minimal but if I speak slowly and enunciate she says she can understand the main words. We ended up talking in a group with some other CIES students Daniel and ali. After that we all went to cafe shisha for a little hookah. I found out that Venus has a blackberry and we promised to bbm (blackberry message) each other! Its great cuz I love my blackberry! I enjoyed hanging out with Venus and the other students, I was learning as well as them. We actually got into a discussion about history and religion, its different trying to explain basic words for me, because they are difficult for english learners. But until next time!

Netta

Heather - Tutoring - Week 2

Yes, I met with both my CP and the woman I tutor, Chomy, today. I had a break between both the sessions, of course. I find the tutoring challenging and somewhat nervewracking. I feel inadequate in my role as tutor. I'm really learning just as much as she is, or hopefully is anyway. And I do share that with her too. 'We're both learning!'

Last week, I e-mailed Chomy a link to an article that she could both listen to and read. I asked her to write down the main points of the article and anything she had trouble with for us to go over together this week. The article was about the nicknames of New York. I didn't want to throw too much at her, but it turned out that article only had two things in it she didn't understand so she asked me to pick one a little harder for this week. Instead of just writing down the main ideas she did a short summary. For the most part I understood what she wrote, but a couple sentences did cause me trouble. Upon reading her e-mails I decided we had our work cut out for us! Her English isn't as good as Xin's. She does pause a lot while talking, but she is fairly good at communicating her ideas anyway, at least I think so. However, her writing needs work too. She tends to have trouble conveying what she really means to say. I'd ask her what she was trying to say with this sentence or that sentence and when she explained it to me I understood it perfectly. She really has some great thought processes going on! I would then tell her that this is the meaning I got out of it and we would (painfully) work our way through correcting things together.

I have discovered that asking leading questions is sometimes harder than one would think. This made it problematic to always get her to think of the right answers. I know I ended up doing way too much helping and talking tonight, which I inwardly cringed at. We worked together for two hours and as time passed it got a little better, but there's definitely room for improvement.

I noticed that she tends to reword exactly what she reads without fixing tenses, article, pronouns, prepositions, etc. (Think I know my grammar? She taught me a lot of the terms! lol Its amazing the things she does know, but then the things she struggles with.) She also has trouble dividing up ideas, or points, and developing them separately and clearly so that what she's trying to say is understood. For instance, she wrote 'The Big Apple became known for good fruit like original meanings.' When she explained that sentence to me I discovered she actually has a couple ideas crammed into that one sentence. The first is that the Big Apple became known-because of the name being used by a night club in Harlam and in a famous song. The second idea is roughly along the lines of using fruit as an analogy for why the nickname The Big Apple helps to reform the city's image into a good one.

We talked about taking ideas and developing them with the details that inspire them and not needing to stick rigidly to the words in the text. I devised and exercise on the spot to try and help her understand and practice this concept. I wrote down three different but similar ideas, in incomplete sentences and asked her to use them to write 5 sentences. After that we went over the sentences and looked at any errors and then I asked her to write a very short story using some of what she developed in those sentences. She did a good job, but we did need to make corrections. We'll work on it some more next week for sure. I made a point of praising her ideas and the direction she was coming from in her work, but also pointing out how we could improve these things. One of the hardest challenges we face is using the language at home because her husband doesn't want to really practice with her. Also her two year old son requires a lot of her time and energy, which makes it difficult for her to be able to sit down and focus on working on her English homework.

I really want to help her get the hang of really developing her ideas, separating them out when need be and conveying what she really means. Of course, I also want to help her with the grammar errors and comprehension, etc. We talked about something she could do to help her with listening comprehension. She actually asked me if subtitles were bad when watching tv/movies. I answered yes and no, saying that it does help her in understanding, but that it also distracts her from listening. Because she's focused on reading what is being said rather than listening to it she's not building her listening skills as well as one might think. She hears what's being said, but she's not listening to it. Instead of the visual text reinforcing what she's listening to, what she's hearing is reinforcing what she's reading. I suggested she could watch the first few minutes of a movie without subtitles then go back and watch it again with subtitles to see how much she understood.

We've got our work cut out for us, but I know we can do it. I decided to ask her to rewrite the summary for this article and she also requested that I send her another article on top of that! I know I'm going to need to do more prepping for these sessions! I'm also going to work on more exercises similar to the one I devised on the spot tonight. Hooray for challenge!

Heather - CP - Week 2

So today was a bit of an adventure with Xin. She was a little surprised to see me, saying I was early and I was. I had walked over from the Main Library a couple blocks away, so I had time to kill while waiting for her, but that's ok. Last week she said she would like to see some of my art so I made of point of bringing sketch books this week. She wanted to see them, but she said the first thing she needed to do was go to UPS to mail some documents to another university in Maryland. She said we could look at the sketches first and then go to UPS on campus. She kept saying she had a folder with papers and then she showed it to me and asked me what it was called. It was an (DHL) envelope. At first, when I answered with 'envelope' she was puzzled, so she asked me to spell it. I didn't have to get very far into spelling the word before she went 'Ah, yes.' (I really do love those moments.) Anyway, we took a few minutes to look at my drawings and then packed our stuff up and headed for the stairs. I told her I was following her because I wasn't entirely sure where we were going.

Walking over to the student union gave us ample time to talk. I learned that she is going to be teaching piano to two little boys of another Chinese family that lives near her. She's from a part of China that's an hour away from Seoul, Korea by plane and two hours away from Tokyo. I asked if she had been to Tokyo and she said no, but that she will go there, then corrected it to she hopes she'll go there. I got to ask her about the TOEFL and how she did. She's nervous, still, and thinks she'll get her results soon. Over the course of our time together we talked about her English. She doesn't feel confident in her abilities and she thinks that sometimes people are just humoring her and telling her she's doing fine. I told her that I quite honestly think she's very good at communicating her ideas and I only rarely have trouble understanding her. We discussed being shy and the role that plays in language use as well. She asked me to help her with her English by correcting her grammar and so on. Now that I think about it, maybe its easier for me to understand her than it is for others because I grew up in Miami with Hispanic neighbors, friends, family, etc. Therefore I grew up with people who had all kinds of abilities/levels in speaking English and speaking it with accents. I'm also willing to be patient and listen, I guess others aren't?

I'm glad I went with her to UPS because the guy, though not out and out a jerk, wasn't helpful or compassionate either. (He also had a black-eye so he just might not have been in a good mood.) We successfully got her papers mailed off, which I felt was a small victory for us, especially her. She successfully handled his questions and asked her own in return and nothing needed to be repeated. I helped only a little here and there. She had wanted me to go with her because sometimes she has trouble understanding people and sometimes people have trouble understanding her. Chomy (the woman I tutor) has the same problems.

However, I think it shows that Xin has put effort and practice into speaking English even before she came to this country. I haven't had a chance to tell her yet, but I think she's courageous in coming to this country where she will have to rely on a language she is not adept in, leave her family and friends, be confronted with a new culture and on top of those things, choose to study law here. I think law and law jargon is complicated enough to grasp in one's own language, let alone one's second language! I think this is telling of her efforts, but it may also just be part of Chinese culture and the work ethic that drives them. She told me that in her class she was top in English, but here she doesn't feel like it. She holds her own in a conversation with me well and I've heard on her cell phone, she handles that well too. She does, sometimes, use words that we wouldn't, being native speakers, but I still understand what she means. Since she's asked me to help with things like that though, I now feel lovingly obligated to tell her things like, 'Well, I understand what you mean, but maybe someone else might have trouble understanding because they would use this word instead.' We talked a lot today! It was exciting. I'm really enjoying time with my CP. I like the freedom of just talking about anything and everything and helping with points that Xin asks me about. She has a drive to learn the language, which is great.

Richard Böhm(e) & Ruiting Han: FarmTown, Poetry & English Teachers -- Week 2

Before I get to the feature presentation, I would like to share some news with everyone. This Saturday -- January 23 -- the Leon County Public Library is offering a tutoring tutorial at 10am for those who decided to tutor with the Literacy Program. The event lasts till 3pm but there's an hour-break for lunch. You should probably consider it (because I'm going) and how could you resist that face anyway! In fact, that regal hick demands your presence.

Now for what really matters:

Ruiting and I are bonding. This is good. I let him do most of the talking this time, so I allowed him to show me his QQ, which is somewhat equivalent to our Facebook (FYI: Facebook is banned in China). And speaking of that, I told him I was aware of it being banned there. He did not want to discuss it, and he did this by interrupting me halfway through my spiel by asking me if I wanted some tea. Basically, I understood it as something I should not discuss with him any further. Facebook is banned in China. This will from now on be the extent of my understanding.

Anyway, he showed me some pictures from his QQ account. Of one picture, Ruiting said, "This is my girlfriend."

My response: All of them?!

No, Ruiting only has one girlfriend, and he shows me specifically to whom he was referring. The other girl in this picture was his mother. WoW! Suffice to say I was way off, huh?

He then showed me this FarmTown application that's accessible through his QQ. As soon as he showed me his virtual pasture, he told me that somebody stole his goat... and his fruit. I'm not familiar with FarmTown, so I showed contempt for the person who stole his goods. Apparently, it was his best friend. And I thought it was some random hacker. I absolutely showed contempt, too, and it turned out to be a prank. Let me tell you, if it was my pasture...

Ruiting also showed me some pictures from his high school years. He expressed how bad his English teacher was. To quote him, "She was the baddest teacher I had." To me, this could mean either two things: (1) she was intense, but an excellent teacher, or (2) she really was the most evil human being to walk on the face of this earth. I asked him to tell me more about his English teacher, and I learned that she is the reason he came to the USA to learn English. So what kind of teacher was she? The Baddest One, but also, the one who inspired Ruiting. So choice (1) describes his teacher perfectly.

That's something we have in common, too. After all, I'm pursuing an English degree because of a most positive experience I had with my English teacher. It's refreshing to hear a similar story. Ruiting told me he was a bad student, but his English teacher changed his life. Again, to me, I'll assume he was bad in the sense that he was on the verge of failing his English class. Then again, he could have been a vigilante. Though I strongly doubt this. I wish I had asked him in what sense he was bad. It doesn't matter either way, but now I'm curious. I continue to suspect it was an issue with his education rather than a social problem. I mean, you have to look at the guy. There is no way he could have been a vigilante! But it's interesting how I interpreted this compared to what others might have interpreted it. What do you guys think? Is it a fair assumption?

In our talk about inspirational English teachers, I segued into my favorite topic: POETRY! He had no idea what I was talking about, although he had his pocket translator handy. He typed 'poetry' into his little device, pressed 'enter,' and the light-bulb turned on.

I swear, if pocket translators did more than that, I don't think we'd have jobs! Pocket translators are taking away those "click" moments from us. I say we go after the company and boycott pocket translators!

So back to poetry. Ruiting recited a Chinese poem to me from memory and I was very inspired by his reading. I also didn't know what he or the poem was saying, but I heard music, and I was dancing. So I returned the favor by reciting one of my favorite poems, one of which I myself forced to memory. I gave him a reading of Sylvia Plath's "Daddy."

You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Apparently, I forgot her poem has a few German words and phrases in there, i.e. "Ach, du" and "Luftwaffe" ... and there's more. Thankfully, he understood nothing, and I didn't have to tell him the poem had German elements. That could have been confusing for him. But we ended our discussion on another poem, a short one by William Carlos Williams called "The Red Wheelbarrow:"

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens


That's the poem. He understood some words, and I helped him understand the poem's meaning altogether -- that we have to pay attention to our surroundings and understand that everything we see has some degree of beauty in it.

And we left it at that! I'll be meeting with him again on Friday. We had a good talk this time around. I think we're playing ping pong. Take a stab at who you think is going to win. I'll let you know on the next post.