Date/Time: March 31, 7:00-8:30pm
Location: Tutee’s home in Sienna Square Apartments
Topic/Skill: Action verbs in present progressive
I met with Damarce and her sisters for the fourth time on
Friday. I tried to make some last-minute changes to my lesson plan and ended up
being really late to meet with them. I know that “African time” is a thing, and
my tutee’s family seems very merciful, so I figured it wouldn’t be completely disastrous
that I was late, but I felt really awful anyway as I was driving there. When I
arrived at their apartment I knocked on the door several times, but no one
answered. I was about to leave feeling very discouraged that they had given up
on me and left when a van pulled up in the parking lot, and they all started
getting out carrying bags of groceries! They were glad to see me there; one of
the older girls apologized to me for being so late, to which I unsuccessfully
tried to explain that I had been super late too and had only been standing there
for a few minutes. Yay African time! I
definitely don’t want to pull a stunt like that again though.
My lesson was a third installation of the verb “To Be” in
the present tense, this time with 16 action verbs as vocabulary forming the
present progressive. I had found an explanation online of how their language represents
the present progressive and infinitives, so I tried to explain and compare how
English does this, but my examples didn’t seem to click for them. I tried
approaching it from a couple of different angles per what I had read online,
but maybe I got something wrong or it was an oversimplification. I tried
incorporating a game this time to make the vocabulary practice more fun and
engaging, but I think the rules of the game were a little unclear to them and
they didn’t really get into it. I have a couple of games in mind for my next session,
so I hope I can lead them better and they can have a fun time practicing
together.
One of the girls made a comment Friday night that I don’t
think I’ll ever forget. She said “America is good!” to which I replied “Thank
you! I agree.” Some of the other girls nodded in agreement and then one said “Africa
is bad!” I said, “No! Africa is good too! Africa is beautiful.” Then the first girl
asked her older sister for some translation help and replied, “Africa is
hungry.” I have absolutely no idea what these girls have experienced. Whatever
it is, I am humbled by their resilience and joy and I am grateful for the
chance to serve them as part of this course.
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