Peter CP # 5

            On Thursday 27 April, Raul and I drove to St. George’s State Park at St. George’s Island for a day at the beach. Raul arrived at my house around 9:30 A.M. I made coffee, picked up food at Publix, filled the car with gas, and then departed. The drive lasted an hour and a half; we listened to music and talked. The sand at the beach is white and fine. The ocean was somewhat rough, but we swam in it anyway. There were little creatures everywhere; right under Raul’s towel was a crab. I culled it out of the sand with a sandal and tossed it in the water. Away from us another crab was fighting off a group of seabirds. I fended them off and observed that the crab was pregnant; she guarded a cluster of orange eggs that stuck to her abdomen. I left it alone and swam some more. Raul seemed to be enjoying himself. He described the beaches at Cancun. They resemble St. George's, but in the Yucatan, the sand is much whiter. 

Jacqueline CP #4

4/30 10-11pm

Tonight I video chatted with my old conversation partner, Xin Min. We spoke about what's new in our lives and future possible plans. She's living in Shanghai now and seems to really like it! We discussed dating (or the lack thereof) and it's interesting how often Asians speak about being married. She told me her friends recommended she marry a German man, since they "will take care of the house" and "get things done". When I told her how I thought that was funny and how my mom's side is German, she quickly asked, "Well maybe your mom or your family in Germany will know someone who you can marry!" I just think it's interesting how much of an emphasis they place on this.

We also talked about potential teaching jobs in China. I told her how I'm scared to move to a new country without knowing anyone first and she's like, "You should just come here!" We shall see what happens...anyone else have that fear??!

Jacqueline TS #13 child

4/29 10-11am

Yesterday was my last session with Alex. I had some worksheets with coloring and sounds of letters, but instead, I asked if he had any homework assignments he needed to work on. He was quick to go get his worksheets, so we spent the hour doing them. We started on one side of it, circling the subjunctive clause, but I felt this was way over his head and he didn't have a clue when I was trying to explain it. It must be extremely difficult for teachers to cater to each students level, and I'm not sure how they will be grading him, since he's still very new to learning English. After some time trying to do that side, I flipped it over and I taught him about homophones: words that sound the same, but are spelled different. 

Some examples on the worksheet: 

Beat, beet

Peace, piece

Road, rode

They're, their

It's, its

You're, your

I used my phone to show him some pictures of examples of the words. Another part of the worksheet was identifying contractions, so we spoke about those as well.

It was bittersweet leaving yesterday morning. His family is so sweet and I spoke to his dad about what he left behind in the Congo. It's very war-torn and heartbreaking to hear the stories of life there. I'm glad they're safe here and doing well!

Jacqueline TS #12 adult

4/29 8-9am

Yesterday I tutored So-Young. I had her read this article:

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-05-19/politically-correct-culture-doesnt-let-college-students-learn-from-pain

We spoke about PC- political correctness on college campuses. Some vocab from the article: unequivocally, stifling, coddling, superficial, and cultural appropriation. She seemed to enjoy the article and the discussion. 

One way that she was able to relate in Korea was instead of saying "handicapped" or "disabled people", they coined the term "disabled friends". She said this wasn't the best term though, since not all disabled people are your friends. I thought it was interesting and wonder how they feel being referred to as such. 

Chloe TS #8 (adult)

For our second session, Dojun and I continued to work on his listening skills. Before the session, I looked up a list of intermediate-level EFL/ESL books and picked one out for us to try- Holes. I’ve never read the book, but I’ve seen the movie so I know the basic plot. It’s a well-loved book, and the story is very interesting and unique so I thought it was a good choice. Dojun can also watch the movie as a schema-building activity/listening exercise. I used the same strategy as the last session- I read a few pages or a chapter, then reread the key passages 1-2 times, and lastly asked Dojun some comprehension questions. His comprehension after the 2^nd listening was very good for the most part! I also talked about the idea of “summer camp” with him since it’s mentioned a lot in the book- how American kids often go to summer camp, but only if their families can afford it. So, poorer families may not be able to send their children. We went over some new vocabulary as well- warden, “putting a curse on” someone, scorpion, lizard, etc.

Chloe TS #7 (adult)

Dojun told me before our first session that he wanted to work on his listening specifically, so I picked out some books to read aloud. First I tried The Great Gatsby, but I could tell right away that it was way too difficult for him. Next, we tried The Old Man and the Sea, which I had downloaded on my tablet. This was much better! I read a few pages to him to check his comprehension, and he was able to express the main idea of the story but did not pick up many details. After that, I read the beginning paragraph to him twice and asked him some questions about it- for example, why did the boy’s parents not want him to fish with the old man? I did this with a few key passages in the book, reading them 2 times and then checking Dojun’s comprehension. This seemed to be a good strategy- Dojun had very good comprehension after the 2^nd listening! Despite not knowing some of the vocabulary, he was able to ascertain the main ideas- for example, he knew from the description of the old man’s house that he was poor. We talked about some of the new vocabulary, for example the word “shack”.

Chloe TS #6 (adult)

For our sixth session, Haiqiong and I worked on a paper she wrote about the traditional Chinese instrument the qin, its historical development, and its relationship to Chinese culture and philosophy. It was an 11-page paper so it took me quite a while to get through! I understand now what we learned about writing classes- it’s so much work to grade papers! And it requires a high level of concentration and attention to detail if you want to give good, constructive feedback, especially at Haiqiong’s level (she’s a PhD candidate so I nitpick at everything). She made improvement on her use of “the” and “a”, which I was happy about. Many of her mistakes were related to verb conjugation or preposition choice (or lack of preposition/lack of article- for example “in 1950s” rather than “in the 1950s”). I think the edits we made really improved her paper, and she is so thankful for my help. I know her writing will only get better with time.