Richard -- Tutoring #2

It's been a while since I've written one of these. Anyway, I had my second tutoring session with Kyung like 2.5 weeks ago (midterms are over, so I'm back to blogging). I remember everything about this experience. I remember it was extremely awkward.

The lesson was on the emergency response system, colloquially known as 911. Kyung knew nothing about it, so I thought it would have been helpful for him to know. When we walked into the little cubicle in which I was waiting for him, he had told me that his wife suffered a miscarriage.

Remember: my lesson was on 911. It was very awkward after this.

Anyway, we went over a few vocabulary terms in a picture dictionary. After that, we applied those terms by having a sort of mock-911 call. Then, I took him to the computer and we performed some listening exercises about a scenario in which a man thought he was having a heart attack.

It was way too easy for Kyung, and I could tell he was a bit unchallenged. I mean, it's 911 -- it should not be that challenging. We ended the lesson after he had given me his essay on the poem I had him read. His writing is well, I think, but he needs to know the difference between indefinite and definite articles. So that's what I'll cover at our next session. There was no session last week, for I was a little overwhelmed with midterms, but I'm fine now.

Monday shall be #3. Write to you then.

P.S. Ramin -- do you want me to pick up the certificate now or wait after I'm done tutoring my sessions? I'm already finished with the requirements for the CP program, but just so you know, I am still Ruiting's conversation partner until the end of the semester.

P.S.S. I apologize for being a drunken idiot. That's something I didn't want you see, but, oh well, I guess it's already happened. :-P

Stephen CP #6

John came over to my apartment with some Burger King this past Sunday afternoon.  It made for a good cultural lesson because he said that in Korea when your friend is eating food it isn't rude to just grab some of his food.  I utilized this lesson well and gobbled some of his french fries. :)

I was still hungry so I grabbed some kimchi and shared it with John, but he said that it was really bad compared to what they have in Korea.  Apparently kimchi flavor depends a lot on how long it's fermented.  John said his favorite was tomtom? kimchi I think.  That kind requires almost 3 whole months of fermentation.  The nice thing about kimchi is that it pretty much lasts forever in the fridge. Deliciousness!

After the kimchi episode, we went downstairs and watched the Cavaliers and Magic basketball game.  It was a really close game so it kept all of us on the edge of our seats.  I wanted to go play some basketball at the new courts with John because it was beautiful outside, but he forgot his FSU ID so we couldn't go there or go to the gym.  We were going to go play frisbee instead, which John had never heard of before, but instead I helped him figure out how to apply CUNY (City University of New York).  Sadly the deadline has already passed to apply for the fall, so I'm not sure what he's going to do next year.

Then John showed me some really awesome K-pop music videos.  2pm, BDSK?, and Girl's Generation have some pretty epic music videos.  I think music videos are even more popular in Korea than here in the US.  They have to spend a lot of money on the videos because of all the computer animation and special effects.

After I did the favor of looking up info for him on CUNY he showed me the Hangeul alphabet and taught me the basic sounds of Korean.  I noticed right away that there's no "ph" sound.  The alphabet seems so much more simple than Chinese so I'm pretty excited about that.  I better know some Korean before I arrive over there in July.

Well this ends my last blog entry with my CP! I will definitely continue to meet John despite this assignment being over.  One last recorded tutoring session to go until I'm done with the coursework! :)

Stephen Tutoring 4

I met John at CIES this past Wednesday and helped him work through one of his writing assignments.  One of the first big challenges we had was getting past the idea of why sometimes people add "the" before some nouns but not others.  The example I made was: "I like to go to the school" vs. "I like to go to school".  For some reason John thought that the second way was how British people would say the sentence.  I had no clue what he was talking about and so then I started to realize that there were nouns that we never said without the "the" in front of it. The sentences: "I go to gym" and "I go to the gym" was the instance I came up with.  I think that confused John even more, and he kept insisting that one version was the British way to say it.  So then I figured out that Ryan had taught him the concept so we found him and asked him about it.  He said that he had heard John say "I go to University" and that this was typical of British English.  Then all of a sudden everything clicked into place, so the choice of whether to use "the" in front of a noun or not is apparently not universal.  I explained to John that depending on where you live you will have to learn what is accepted in that region.  Maybe somewhere else it's okay to say "I go to gym" instead of "I go to the gym".  The next thing I helped John with was Direct and Indirect objects.  I felt so good to have learned this concept when I was learning Spanish.  I gave him an example sentence of "Bob made a pizza for his sister".  Then I explained that the DO was what was receiving the action, and also that the IO was for whom the action was direction towards.  Following my explanation I let John mark the subject, action, DO, and IO of the sentence.  He did a really good job with it and so then I asked him how this grammar structure was different in Korean.  He showed me that in Korean the verb is at end of the sentence so it's really different when compared to English.  Just that little example made me think just how differently Koreans and English speakers think about things.  Next tutoring session I will have a formal lesson plan, and a microphone so that I can record my lesson for the class.  I get nervous just thinking about it ahhh! Ciao.

Dwinetta Critical Incident

So I totally forgot to blog about this! I asked this question in one of my tutoring sessions. The student relayed a story about when he first flew into the US and his luggage was lost in all his transfer flights. He said that he did not know his permanent address within Tallahassee yet and had to stand in front of a random payphone for a couple hours to await a call from the airlines. He said had he known what to do and say he would not have had to wait so long in front of a pay phone. We talked about this situation and what he could have done differently, and also different reasons why and how his luggage got lost. That is all for now!

Dwinetta

Netta Tutor 5

Hello Class!

I know there is a new CIES-TEFL going on right now, but I deem us the coolest!! For my last tutoring session I went to English Conversation Club. There was no one there for the first 15 so Maria and I were going to leave, but I ran iinto someone who overheard me talking about Costa Rica and we talked. Long story short, some students showed up and wanted to converse. I came prepared with an activity to do. I picked up one of the many campus newsletters and decided to choose an article to read as a group and go over. This particular article was on Bobby Bowden. the students I worked with had very good control over their English and read very well. I told them to stop when they came across a word or phrase that they did not understand. They understood all of the article and even some of the witty jokes that went along with it. I feel very good about how that session went, because it was more than just talking about our lives and how our day went, though important, I feel like this activity will help these students in their reading while they are at home and studying. Thats all for now!

Dwinetta

Maria -- Tutoring 2 (Lu: day 1 TOEFL preparation)

Man, I am so behind with these! Alright, I finally got my tutoring straightened out: I will be helping my CP Lu prepare for her TOEFL exam. It is next Saturday, so we are meeting every day this week, two hours a day, for her to try to improve her score on the speaking section of the exam. I took the TOEFL many years ago myself and, back then, there wasn't a speaking section. However, it makes sense to have one since universities are relying ever more on graduate students teaching, and students complaining that they cannot understand a word of what their foreign TA is saying is, obviously, a no-no.

The speaking section of the TOEFL has six questions presented in increasing difficulty. Some of them integrate reading and listening with the speaking part. It is actually not an easy test. Today is day 1 and Lu is struggling. We've started with the first two questions. These are the easy ones. The first one asks the testee about something they like (a game, a special person in their life, a favorite holiday, etc.). The second question asks the testee to express their choice in a given every day situation (drive or take public transportation, for instance). The answer is timed and Lu rushes to say something making her loose concentration on what she wants to say. Her speaking trails off. We start again. I remind her that what is scored in this section of the test is how clearly and coherently she speaks rather than what she says (I tell her this to try to help her relax -- not because I am cynical :). She starts again and this time she does much better. Still, she is clearly worried about the score and this, I think, is keeping her from performing as well as she could. Because this is only one section of the TOEFL, I give her as homework to take one of the practice tests in the book in order to find out what her total score would be. This, I hope, will help her see where she is and how realistic her goal is (she wants to score 100). With that we call it for the day.

Party review

Alright you all.

I just wanted to tell you what a good time I had at our final party gathering. Music was awesome, all you talented folks! Food was great! I loved the salad with the flowers and the springroll sushi and of course all that good hummus. I hadn't played ping pong in years and thoroughly enjoyed it. This has been a wonderful class and I will miss all of you. So please don't become strangers and write back.
I am sending many greetings from Miami,. The weather is stormy but warm. Heading to the keys with lots of great art and hope to come back with full pockets.
I am still in touch with my correspondence partner with whom I e-mail regularly. And once I get back to Tallahassee my tutor partner wants me back to help him with pronunciation and everyday American lingo. I promised him that I will help him some more. So - I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the foreign students and look forward to teaching somewhere out there in some foreign country this coming fall or winter. Any great opportunities? Please keep me posted.

Best to all of you.
alles Gute,
bon chance,
Rita

Stephen CP #5

John came over to my apartment and we hung out until his Deacon called and I was invited to eat dinner with him at his house.  The food was really amazing, and I must say that I thought Korean food would be much spicier.  The kimchi was absolutely delicious, the red pepper makes the fermented cabbage taste great.  I must say I was freaked out at first by the idea of eating something that smelled so bad!  Next, I got to try another authentic Korean dish that had radishes seasoned with red peppers like the kimchi.  It was a little spicier and even more delicious, it tasted like it came from the ocean.  Finally, I had these seasoned almonds with seasoned sardines.  The sardines had a sweet explosion of flavor regardless of the unpleasant sound their backbones made as I munched on them.  That was definitely my favorite dish, but I don't know what it was called.  That night I learned that John had a cellphone that allowed him to call Korea so he called all his friends and family at around 8-9pm so that I could talk to them for a little bit.  For them it was the last day of New Year's Vacation.  It was really awkward talking to his family and friends on the phone, but I think it made everybody happy.  I did kind of feel like I was being used as a measure of John's success in the USA.  The last thing John and I talked about was the fact that in the USA guys usually don't listen to girl music like Korean guys do.  I told him that people might call you a homosexual if they saw you listening to Brittany Spears or Lady Gaga by yourself.  He thought that this was pretty strange, but I think he understood my point.  Also, John wants to continue to be conversation partners with me for another 7 weeks.  I think we have become pretty good friends over these first 7 weeks. :)

Elizabeth-Critical Incident

Hyeyoung and her husband Jungwon were invited to a bonfire party. She asked me what it was and I explained to her that it is where people gather around a fire, while eating roasted marshmallows or other foods.

She was very concerned as to what it was and felt nervous because she didn't know if she had to make food for it or not. I told her that usually, you don't have to cook anything because the host of the party will have had prepared everything already. However, if she wanted to she could always make something or take something to drink. It is all up to her. The host will not get mad or anything like that because they were the ones that made the invitation in the first place.
She was really concerned because they were invited to her husband's co-workers house and they wanted to make a good impression. Unlike, the U.S. in Korea people must keep that fine line between co-workers and friends even outside the office. I told her that in the U.S. when people are outside their work place it is ok to be friends, as long as you don't go around cursing the person or being a pain.
I hope this was a critical incident because even I was confused when I was trying to explain it to my friend.

Bill-CP-Critical Hit

I didn't even have to ask Young what his critical incident was on Thursday. He say my Subway cup and that started the whole conversation right there. He said the thing that was most surprising for him was how much choice we have here in America. He expected to order a sandwich, the people and subway to make it for him, pay and be done with it...Not that simple. They asked him what size, what kind of bread. What he wanted on it. Since it was his first time ordering it was really overwhelming, but he was able to get through it. Although it seems he prefers to avoid Subway since it is really taxing to just order. I can imagine.

I know in Japan and Korea, if I was stump, I could point at what I wanted and they understood....we don't have menus on the counter conveniently placed for people to just point at. I can imagine I would of been really lost of someone in Korea would ask me details on what I wanted in detail without considering that I don't understand Korean.

Also he went to Momo's, and the size of the pizza was not the topic of the conversation. It was the fact that he had to choose all his toppings for his pizza. He was used to just ordering a type of pizza, not having the freedom to put whatever he wants on it. For a foreigner, having choice can be taxing on the mind. You just want to eat but now you really have to think on what you want, how to say it, and say it quickly. I really feel for him. I told him there are some standard pizzas, like "Meat Lovers", "Vegetarian", "SUPREME", and others that are common for most pizza places. Try to use those key phrases and see what he gets. Although I think it's good to have practice, but unless your with other Americans to help you out, I can imagine ordering on your own here can be a painful experience.

Netta CP 5

Hello people! Yestaerday Venus invited me to the celebration of the chinese new year in the union. We hadn't spoken in a while so I had to repeat myself often in order for her to catch what I meant. She confessed that she was speaking a lot of Spanish this past week. (Her words were "my brain is dizzy) she's so cute! Anywho, we had a great time talking and catching up, we then went out for dessert to satisfy our sweet tooth. I told her about Costa Rica, and how she'll have to get a new CP (sniff,sniff) overall we had a good night kickin it.

Sebastian - CP - Week 5

This time I am writing about the meeting I had with Juseob last Sunday. This Sunday we did not make arrangements to meet since we had a misunderstanding regarding our sessions. I have not had a chance to ask him about the "Critical Incident", but I believe he just experienced one with me.

Anyway, the last meeting we had was very interesting. He brought his wife's friend, whose name was Han-Ah (That's how you are supposed to say it, anyway). I think she told me she was 22 and her major was in music (she had a very beautiful voice, I told Juseob to get her autograph while he still could). We talked about how in Korea they have a different way of telling someone's age. For example, Juseob told me that in Korea, he is around 36 years old, and Han-Ah is 24. I would be 26. I was trying to understand why (they spent a while explaining), but the point did not seem to cross the language bridge.

So we changed the conversation.

We talked about how the people here in America are generally less healthy than in Asia, and how people seem to grow older more rapidly in the United States. I shared my experience about how when I went to Japan, everyone looked healthier. All three of us agreed that one of the main reasons for people being so unhealthy in the United States was the food. And, talking about food, Han-Ah ate her first push-pop during our session. Just wanted that out there for the record.

We had a good time talking about our differences in cultures and habits. I hope the next meeting will bring more good laughs (as opposed to embarrassing laughs).

Heather - CP - Critical Incident

I asked Xin if she had ever come across the term 'critical incident' before and she said no, so I explained it to her and then she basically asked if this was something I had to do for class. She's one smart cookie. I answered in the affirmative and the following is what she chose as her critical incident to share.

Background: Xin has become quite familiar with my life and and people in it over the last few weeks. As we now live together we interact a lot more and are around each most of the time. I was on the phone with a friend she's met via phone conversation. He was asking what her name really is because she likes to introduce herself as Cecilia and use that as her name on FB rather than her given name. As that issue was clarified she decided to ask him if his name was his first name or not. When the reply was negative she asked why he used his middle name instead of his first and his respone was, "Because to use my first name means death." Or something very similar so that Xin understood what he said to to mean that his first name means death. She was very taken aback by this, of course! I asked her what she thought he meant and that's what she told me so I helped her to understand that wasn't the meaning he was trying to convey, but that he meant using his first name means death for the person who used it. Which is a crock because his mom calls him by his first name and she's still around. The misunderstanding here consists of analogy use, talking over a cell phone and a friend who, though a native English speaker, is not a very clear communicator. Once she understood what he was really saying she understood the mistake on her end and all is well. ^_^

Stephen Tutoring 3

Hyun Sung and I met last Wednesday last week and we went over some specific topics that he has been struggling with.  First we met outside the library, but he had left his FSU card behind so we practiced outside.  We went over using the past, and present perfect tenses.  He has especially been struggling with these tenses, many times he will say "I has a question", or "you has a question" so I thought it would be really good to work on and improve those skills.  However, when we did the exercises that I had found on the internet, I found that the most difficult part for him was not remembering whether to say has or had, or have or has, but it was the conjugating of the verbs that gave him the most trouble (and sometimes even me).  The really tricky part of the exercise was when to say "I had been waiting" or "I had waited". Mmmm.... the Past Perfect Continuous Tense anyone?  I feel like I did a better job of confusing him than making him feel more comfortable with the tense, because I even messed up some of the exercises myself.  I don't feel like I'm making much of a difference with my lessons. :(  When I answer his questions about vocab, and grammar, I feel like I'm helping, but when I actually make a lesson it feels like I'm being reduntant.  Maybe that's just a part of teaching... being repetitive to the point of slightly annoying students, but making them better because that's how you really learn..... to be continued...

Stephen CP #4

Sorry this is really old, but yes it did indeed happen ;).  Hyung Sung and Seong Bong came over to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday.  They were both really hungry and I had been drinking a little bit so I decided to make them all some homemade nachos!  Wow!  They were delicious... just put some Velveeta, chili, jalapenos, and some pepperoni in a pot and warmed it up.  I think my Korean friends enjoyed it a lot too which made me pretty happy.  While we were watching the game, Seong Bong and I had a conversation about how to meet a girl at a bar or a club.  He said in Korea you'd walk up to a girl and tell her that she was very beautiful, and then have some small talk.  Apparently humor is as necessary there as it is here when it comes to picking up chicas as well.  I told him that in the USA that it probably wouldn't be a wise decision to start off your icebreaker with "You are beautiful".  He asked me why, and so I told him that I think that here its more about being spontaneous and being exciting then being bluntly honest as to what your intentions are when you first meet a random woman at a bar.  Keep'em guessing and you'll make a better impression.  I'm curious if all the women here think that I've destroyed his chance of meeting women now.... oh well.  The Saints won the Super Bowl, and I was jumping up and down cursing at the ceiling because I was so happy.  The Koreans just chuckled at me and I realized that it would take a lot of teaching for them to truly understand American Football.

Heather - Tutoring - Week 6

Chomy and I successfully met at the library on Wednesday evening. We had a new element to our sessions this week, the addition of Xin. Knowing that Xin would be us made me revise my approach to our session. My thoughts on what to do cleared when Xin mentioned that she still has trouble when she goes to restaurants and also lacks comfort. A little lightbulb went bing! and I knew I could use my speaking lesson plan with them and also record the session. Chomy had called earlier and requested help with registering for an online driving school. Unfortunately we didn't get that done because we didn't know which class she should be signing up for and that really was her biggest problem. You know, for the things which are confusing for us native born Americans or long term residents I can't begin to imagine just how much more confusing they are for people from other countries and cultures. If I don't like something like dealing with paperwork for insurance companies, I'm pretty sure someone who has even less fluency in English doesn't enjoy it much either.

Anyway, after discussing the class registration stuff we started in our speaking lesson! I will say that I learned a lot as a teacher from this scenario. One thing I learned is that a lesson plan can quickly become virtually useless except for the conception of the idea you had. I was scrambling to complete a short powerpoint listing the vocab, showing pictures and then the next slide had vocab and definitions. I decided to do this because I realized I didn't have any other way to really share the vocabulary with them. I also wrote the directions and separate roles on different slides. These I used while explaining things out loud. Our lesson was on going to a restaurant or ordering out. The ladies did a fab job with the definitions! We said the words out loud together and worked on defining them. I was very pleased. Of course, as our lesson progressed into the pair work there was one or two more words that I discovered I should have added to our list to go over.

It turns out that Chomy has more comfort and familiarity with eating out in restaurants, which I hope served to encourage Xin. This made her a little stronger in the pair work and a little more creative. As they worked, I sat back and wouldn't let them use me for questions, that worked during the first round of the activity at least. The second round, ordering out, was a bit more unfamiliar and they were unsure of somethings so they had questions to ask and I let them. As I sat back watching and recording, I learned about the things they have trouble with, what they didn't really understand and saw just who true the blind leading the blind is. At the end of round 1 we reviewed some of the problem areas and moved on to the next round where they switched menus. I feel like the lesson was maybe the most beneficial for me because I walked away from it with a better understanding of how teaching works, of how you have to be able to keep up a flow even when things catch you off guard, be flexible, adjustable and understanding. Though I was really proud of my ladies' performances. Perhaps, the lesson was at the right challenge level for Xin and a little below an appropriate challenge level for Chomy. We closed with reviewing, and using a presentation grading rubric to discuss performance and work on self-evaluation as well as getting feedback from me on their performance. We would read the descriptions, I would ask how they thought they did, where they thought they fell in those categories and then tell them where I thought they feel. Our session was cut a little abruptly due to Chomy having to leave, but we got all the bases covered.

Sabrina - Tutoring Week 5 - "Moving on."

I will make this short and sweet, just like my student Serap.

My latest session went very well, though Serap forgot part of her homework! We chatted for a bit about how her week went. She shared that she had bought a cute pink bra. We had a nice laugh over the words for various underwear.

We stuck with our session division of first part language structure and second part application or practice.

Our structure focused on revisiting last week's homework for constructing past and present tense. I created a worksheet for us to complete together for one last review before moving on to another part of speech.

We also covered question words. I have noticed that I will ask a question and she will have the face of someone who understood as if I were making a statement, not that I was waiting for an answer.

Throughout the session, Serap, ever eager, would push me along faster when she felt like she had got it and wanted to move on. She does this thing with her pen that fascinates me. When she is thinking, she holds her pen in her right hand and spins it clock wise and counter clocks wise with a simple flick of her forefinger. When she has what she is trying to comprehend figured out, she flips it into position and writes her answer out.

The practice part of our session was focused on speaking. I had a simple story passage printed out and asked her to read it out loud. Her speed is impressive even if she is not comprehending what she is reading. Her intonation is pretty good as well. She just needs a bit of tightening up here and there.

I ended the session as always, we set our next meeting time and date, then we went over her English experiences from the last week and set and english challenge for the next. Since I want to work a little more on listening, I asked her to watch a movie in English with no subtitles just to see how much she can pick out. She picked UP.

Dating in Columbia vs USA

Critical incident on dating in America

My CP has been sick all week so I've turned to my friend Maria's cousin, Diana, for some cultural incidences she's faced.

Diana, who is from Barranquilla, Columbia, moved to Palm Beach Gardens, FL this year. She is in her twenties and came here to go to school. She has been confused with the dating methods of Americans. She likes this guy and she thinks he's asked her out on a date, however he wants to meet her out at social events. She is confused with why he won't pick her up at the house. So he finally does pick her up at her house, and he was surprised he had to meet her aunt, uncle and all of her cousins. He likes her, but didn't think they were "at that point in the relationship".

In America, typically when we are dating, we don't introduce our significant other to our family until it is a serious relationship. In Columbia, and all Latin countries, it's customary to meet the family early on. One of the main reasons is daughters will live with their parents until they are married. So if a guy wants to take a girl out on a date, he has to go to the girl's parent's house to pick her up and will have to meet her family.

She understands now that dating in the states is different, but because she lives with family, she's sticking to the rules of dating that she is accustomed to and comfortable with.

linda_tutoring wk5

Katherine and I have been working on an essay for one of her classes.

Today she brought an essay a classmate of hers had written for the same class. She pointed out to me phrases and words he wrote and she asked me "How can I learn to write like this"? She wants to learn to write more descriptively. The trouble with this, is her current attempts to write more complex sentences end up not making any sense. She mixes up the structure completely, leaves out pronouns and puts adjectives where nouns should be, etc. SO I really get what she's struggling with, but there's no easy solution. My advice to her was that she needs to read more literature in English on a daily basis and always carry a small dictionary in her bag. She needs to make reading a part of her daily routine, and the words will start to come more naturally when she has to write. I also advised her that for now, she should keep her answers simple and to the point for her classes. She is able to give me the straight forward answer when we talk. The trouble comes when she writes the answer and tries to lengthen it to sound more articulate. She's trying to compete with her classmates who are native English speakers with a MUCH larger vocabulary to pull from. No wonder she is frustrated.

She didn't seem thrilled when I told her to keep her answers simple. So I told her to write the first draft simple and straight forward, then her and I could work on adding to the answers to make them more descriptive. But honestly, I can't do that for her. She has to come up with it on her own. Maybe I can give her a vocabulary list of adjectives and have her write a fictional essay using those new vocabulary words? Hmmmm, I'll have to think of an activity that will be helpful. Although, I gave her some exercises to help her with pronouns and articles and she didn't do them : (

Now I know how teachers felt when I didn't do my homework!

"Let's Bump Noses" - CP sesh 4

That's what my new CP told me they do in Dubai when they say, "hi". They bump noses. For real. I thought that interesting. I also learned that in Saudi Arabia the man give each other a little cheek bump on each side. I learned that the Sheesha in Tallahassee is worth less than Camel's piss (my words). However, there's great Sheesha in Orlando.

My new CP is a nice fellow. He's a police officer in Dubai and his job sent him here to learn better English. We talked a little about religion. He asked me if I believe in God. I always feel at a loss in conversations like that. Spirituality is very important to me but I never know how to communicate in a way that makes sense and that I feel truly expresses what I believer (or even do). He does not drink as part of his religion. He seemed kind of sad to find out that I do. That bothers me not at all.

All in all, he's a very nice young fellow and he taught me a lot about respect in Dubai. Maybe I will go to his country. I know that if I do and they serve me camel it will be a sign of respect. Chicken or fish the first time would be disrespectful. The customs are specific and change from place to place but generally I feel it's respectful if you give someone your full attention and try to meet them where they are. I told him I strive to be conscious and have conscious relationships. I don't do it all the time but it is my intention. I think the world will be a better place if it's inhabitants are conscious.