CP #10 Dana

    Our last meeting was at Black Dog Café. Hwa Won brought with her a topics sheet that she had shown me before, however we didn’t end up using. We perused through the topics and found a bunch of fun dating ones.

     We discussed how dating tends to work in the United States as opposed to South Korea. Hwa Won said that in college a lot of South Korean people go on blind dates with friends. After they meet up, the girls put their purses or an item of theirs on the table, and the boys all randomly choose one. Whoever is the owner of the item is their date for the event. It could get awkward though if you didn’t like the person who chose you and instead liked your friend’s date.

     I was amazed. I told Hwa Won that I have never gone on a blind date before and she was surprised. In South Korea they are so common. I said in the United States there are some people who do go on blind dates, but most dates happen after meeting someone who seems interesting.

     We discussed dating and love a bit more. We both agreed that a person and his or her partner should compliment one another. If the two people are too much alike they won’t get anything done. Hwa Won said that this is how she and her husband are. He always likes to be on the move, whereas she likes to stay at home and relax. Yet, her relaxation calms him down, while his activity brings her up. It works.

     After our talk of love I pulled out my set of tarot cards to show Hwa Won. Since it was so close to Halloween, I thought it would be a fun item to talk about and maybe even use. Hwa Wan thought they were beautiful and definitely wanted me to give her a reading. I’m not very skilled at using them, but I gave it a go. Luckily Hwa Won told me that they matched her question.

    It was an excellent note to end on. I very much enjoyed my conversation sessions with Hwa Won. And I hope that we will keep in touch. 

CP #9 Dana

      We were back at the library this time around. Hwa Won remembered a slight critical incident that she still falls into now and then. She told me how in South Korea you should act very humble when a person gives you a compliment. When, for example, someone compliments her children, her immediate reaction is to say, “No, no, he is not like that,” or something of that nature depending on the compliment. Even when a person insists, she still feels as though she should negate the compliment.

       I told Hwa Won that compliments are difficult. Because at times, you really do want the compliment that has just been given to you. She agreed, especially if a person compliments her children. She thinks that she should accept the compliment because she should be proud of her children even though saying so isn’t her first reaction. I said that she should accept them, people in America expect you to.

    It is however awkward when an individual compliments too much. At that point, I told Hwa Won, I start denying things. Being somewhat humble is a good thing.

    

     

CP #8 Dana

       The last time we were at Atomic I gave Hwa Won a list of what I thought were the best coffee shops in Tallahassee. Atomic of course was on there, and another that I think is pretty decent is Black Dog Café. Hwa Won was very interested in meeting there because it sits right next to Lake Ella.

    Each time I go to this particular coffee shop I ask the barista behind the bar to make me something of their choice. I enjoy the surprise! Hwa Won seems to enjoy it as well, because she asks for the same coffee as me, even when she doesn’t know what it’s going to taste like.

    Somehow our conversation turned to ice cream shops in South Korea, the United States, and Turkey. I told Hwa Won how my South Korean roommate worked at a famous Baskin Robbins in Seoul when he lived there. It was so famous that he even ended up serving ice cream to a few celebrities. She knew of the Baskin Robbins and said that they offered over 50 flavors.

     I was so surprised. It didn’t sound anything like the Baskin Robbins that I was used to in the United States. She told me that it was very different and was surprised as well when she went to a Baskin Robbins in the states for the first time. She was so excited to show her kids and was disappointed by the result. I told her if she wanted to get good ice cream she should try Lofty Pursuits in Tallahassee. They make their own ice cream along with fun sundaes and shakes. I hope she goes there with her kids. If she likes ice cream, she will love this place.

CP #7 Dana

    We were back at the library this time around, and Hwa Won wanted to talk about a critical incident that I may have experienced when I was in Turkey this summer. I was surprised actually at how well I acclimated to the culture when I was there, however there was one incident that stands out in my mind.

      I told Hwa Won how I was out at restaurant with a few American friends of mine. We were practicing Turkish words we knew, which were very limited and pretty harmless. The three of us were trying to integrate them into our normal speech just for fun. 

     Then one of my friends made a joke, and another responded with a Turkish word. This word in particular was taught to us by one of our mutual guy friends, and just so happened to be a curse word in Turkish. My friend, forgetting that everyone in the restaurant could understand this particular word, laughed and said the word in an extremely loud voice. Everyone at the restaurant stopped speaking for a moment, and the woman sitting behind her turned towards my friend and stared in disgust. It was beyond embarrassing.

      Hwa Won thought the story was amusing and informed me of some of the difficulties she went through when she first arrived in the United States. She said some of the most annoying and difficult instances were at restaurants. Servers in the United States are very friendly and want to make sure you are having an enjoyable meal.

    In this case, Hwa Won and her husband would be eating at restaurant and the server would keep coming back to speak to them. However, their English was very limited at the time and they had trouble communicating. All they wanted to do was eat without being bothered. In South Korea, she told me, servers leave you alone except to bring you food. I told her how I would sometimes prefer that. Some servers do talk too much.

CP #6 Dana

      Before we left the MOFA during our last meeting, I had told Hwa Won about one of my favorite coffee joints, Atomic Coffee. She hadn’t checked out the place yet, so we made an executive decision to meet up for coffee next time.

     I asked Hwa Won what type of coffee she usually drinks, and she said just the normal Americana. Personally, I don’t care for straight coffee, preferring to give my taste buds a change of tune, and I order the fun flavors Atomic offers. Hwa Won didn’t know you could do that at this shop, or what to choose, she asked me to order for her. I asked for two Medici lattes and picked a table. 

       I was so glad that she liked the taste of the coffee when she was able to try it, fearing that Hwa Won might find it too sweet. Luckily, orange, mocha, and cinnamon was perfect.

       We chatted about art for a bit and then jumped to amusement parks. Hwa Won told me how she takes turns with her husband whenever they go to Busch Gardens. One stays with their daughter and the other with their son. Their son loves rollercoasters and rides, as does Hwa Won and her husband. However, their daughter is extremely frightened.

    I told Hwa Won about a friend of mine who waited in line with me for a full hour, and finally, when she was right about to get on Space Mountain, freaked out and left. She was fifteen years old at the time. Hwa Won said that’s how her daughter acts. I guess some people never grow out of that fear.

            

CP #5 Dana

     Hwa Won and I decided to venture away from our regular meeting spot, and this time went to an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts on the FSU campus. Since I graduated from FSU with a studio art degree, I was very familiar with the layout of the building. It felt like going back in time a bit. Hwa Won however had never been there. When I arrived, Hwa Won was listening in on a class that was observing the work on the walls. She asked me if that was all right to do and I told her it was fine. The art teachers enjoy when the public is interested in art.

       The exhibition was by a Chinese artist named Gabrielle Wu Lee. She received her MFA at FSU but had passed away a few years back. A number of friends and family had sent bouquets of flowers for the art show, to remember her by. Hwa Won and I discussed our artistic opinions concerning the pieces, and tried to figure out how Gabrielle had managed to blend the paint. The paintings were very large and abstract. However, the viewer was still able tell whether the painting was supposed to be a wave crashing down or the sunset.

      We both enjoyed the paintings, however I enjoyed the more chaotic ones with bright contrasting colors, while Hwa Won preferred the calmer pastel pieces. The pieces she liked reminded me of her own ceramic work that she had shown me. They were simplistic with beautiful curves and calm colors.  I told her I was amazed because I can’t make anything very successful out of clay. I stick to paint, paper, ink, and photography.

CP #4 Dana

      The library was once more, our destination for chatting this Monday, and we settled into our normal table. We began speaking about traveling again, mainly about the beauty of the national parks here in the states. I told Hwa Won about Yellowstone in particular because it’s my favorite park. 

       Yellowstone National Park unlike any other place I’ve been to. It’s as though it’s sitting on a gigantic volcano that’s too tired too burst. There are paint pots of scalding colorful water, sulfuric smelling and bubbling fountains, and geysers erupting out of the ground. I told Hwa Won that there is even one geyser that shoots water into the sky every 91 minutes. It is named Old Faithful because it’s so predictable. I showed her a few pictures so she could see exactly what I was talking about. Hopefully Hwa Won is able to visit at some point, because that’s one spot that is completely unique to America.

        Talk of America soon led to me asking about how Hwa Won’s children adjusted to the move from South Korea to the U.S. She said they were very comfortable with it because they had been so young. Her son for example loves amusement parks, and she doesn’t know what he’s going to do without them once they go back to South Korea. Lines for rides in South Korean amusement parks are apparently hours long. It’s not worth the trip. That’s why they go to Busch Gardens so regularly. Why not go as often as you want while you still can?

CP #3 Dana

     Hwa Won and I met up to chat at the library again. Before, we had spoken a bit about South Korea and how I’m interested in perhaps teaching over there. She had remembered and actually gave me some information on a Korean Hakwon. I was excited and placed the note she had given me in my notebook for further research.

     We then talked about college life and living with roommates. Hwa Won had never experienced roomie living, which allowed me to explain what it’s like in full detail. I told her how some people have horrible roommate luck, even if the roommate was already a good friend. For me, I have luckily been blessed with excellent roommates, especially the random ones.

     For example, I told her, right now I’m living with one of my best friends, and a random roommate. The random is actually from South Korea, and he is fantastic. We all get along very well, and know how to not step on one another’s toes. However, my sister is a freshman at FSU, and she got stuck with a girl she thinks is very strange. I told Hwa Won how my sister once came back to her dorm to find her roommate trying on my sister’s pointe shoes just because she thought they were pretty!

     Hwa Won was surprised and thought that living with a roommate could be a lot of fun depending on the person. I completely agreed with her.

CP #2 Dana

    Once again, Hwa Won and I met at that library. I was horribly sweaty from riding my bike and apologized for my appearance. Hwa Won said she didn’t think it was bad at all and understood because her husband is an avid bike rider.

    She told me that he rides the St. Mark’s Trail multiple times a week, sometimes even twice in a day! Hwa Won biked with him once on the new tricycle they bought. She went about halfway before she turned around and went back. I know what it’s like. The full round trip of the trail is 32 miles, and I’ve biked it before. The trail itself is beautiful, however it’s definitely a long ride.

     The conversation then transitioned into traveling, and I asked Hwa Won where she had been in the United States. She’s traveled to a number of different states as well as lived in a few them. However we mostly spent time talking about road trips. Hwa Won and her family often visit Busch Gardens and have even driven down to Key West. However, her most impressive road trip was to San Francisco with her family. They made a number of pit stops along the way, even seeing some national parks. I asked her if she had been to Yellowstone, but she said they skipped that portion of the trip because she was exhausted.

     Yellowstone reminded me of the trip my family took when I was 9 years. It lasted 3 months. We left the day school ended and came back the day before it started, driving and camping around the entire United States. It was a crazy trip, and Hwa Won could not believe that my mother could go on a road trip for so long with her sister and kids. I’m amazed too, thinking back. No wonder my mother and aunt didn’t want to talk to each other much for the next few months of that year.

      

            

CP #1 Dana

        Hwa Won and I met up for the first time at the Leon County Public Library. I’ve always loved the library. I like being surrounded by shelves and shelves of books. The library also makes for an excellent mutual meeting place.

        Hwa Won and I immediately just fell into conversation. We spoke of our families and discussed where we were from. I described to Hwa Won how different Tallahassee is from South Florida, where I mainly grew up.

        You have to go north to go south in Florida. Tallahassee, I told her, is more like “The South,” than South Florida will ever be. South Florida is extremely ethnic, with many people immigrating from South America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Eastern Europe. There are also many people from the Northeast, like New Yorkers, Ohioans, and Pennsylvanians. The cities tend to be urban sprawls of busy streets, strip-malls, and tons of people. Tallahassee on the other hand, still holds that southern charm and is not nearly as large of a city. Hwa Won was interested in seeing South Florida though, and I recommended her to make a trip down to Miami at some point.

        We also somehow journeyed onto the subject of art, and we found out that we both hold art degrees! Hwa Won however has a master’s, where I only have a bachelor’s. However, it was fantastic find out that we had so much in common artistically.

CO #3 Dana

    My third and final classroom observation was spent with Vicky’s speaking class. The agenda was once again written on the board and listed 1) Finish talking about opinions 2) Pronunciation /th/ /f/ game. After a bit of housekeeping, the class split up into pairs and practiced timed speaking.

    They were to discuss their opinions concerning a list of items written in their books and focus on the act of conversation. Vicky described the discussion as a game of tennis. Person A should say something, and then Person B is supposed to listen, agree or disagree, and then give some input of their own at some point. Vicky also led a small discussion concerning the strength of an answer. For example, “Which sounds stronger? ‘I’m afraid I disagree,’ or ‘I’m not sure I agree.”  Conversation was held for five minutes, and then extended to ten because it was going so well. During all of this, Vicky took notes on their errors as she walked around the class.

      Vicky is extremely energetic and uses so much enthusiasm when she speaks, that she excites the class as a whole. Everyone wants to speak, answer, and participate. I have also found it interesting how the students are forced in a way to speak English in class due to the amount of various ethnicities in the class. If the students do not speak in English, they won’t be able to communicate with their classmates, make friends, or find answers to their questions.

      After the conversation, Vicky discussed the speaking errors she had heard while wandering the class, which led to the next activity. The class was having a particularly difficult time with /th/. They read a few sentences using /th/ and talked about how there are actually two ways of pronouncing /th/. Then the next activity was described to the class.

     Vicky had written out sets of minimal pairs and split the class into two teams. I was placed on one of the teams for good humor. Vicky would place the two minimal pairs next to each other on the table and, with a member from each team pitted against one another, she would say “The first word!” or “The second word!” And whoever was able to say that specific word correctly the quickest, followed a by the correct use of the word in a sentence, received a point for their team. The class loved the activity and became very competitive by the end. At this point I was removed from my team because of my obvious advantage over the other students. The activity though was a ton of fun and acted as an excellent evaluator for Vicky. 

CO #2 Dana

     This particular classroom observation was spent witnessing Ryan’s reading class. When I arrived, I was greeted warmly and told to take a seat at a small table by the computer. I noticed immediately how calm everyone in the class was. Each student seemed comfortable and ready to begin. Ryan had already written the agenda on the board and began the class by handing back vocabulary quizzes. He let them go over what they did wrong for a few minutes and then jumped into the main activity.

      The class was reading a modified book version of Apollo 13. Ryan had everyone opened up his or her books to the specified chapter and he began to read aloud. He spoke very clearly, enunciating each word. His sentences were animated and he even did voices, which I loved. 

        After the reading, he asked the class comprehension questions, especially ones that involve the five W’s, and guided discussion. When a student didn’t say something correctly, he stopped them and asked “What? Say that again?” or “Decide or decided?” until the student fixed his or her mistake.

         Following the discussion, they worked on an affixes and prefixes activity. Ryan explained the directions, assigned a time, and then modeled the activity. The students broke into partners and started to work. When there was one minute left Ryan asked, “ Are your answers the same as your partners?” The students checked and then they all went over the answers.

        The next portion of the class was spent on eight minutes of active reading. Ryan went over with the class what active reading was, and they started. He sets up the next activity as they work and walks around the room checking on the progress of his students. When they finished reading, he gave them four minutes to write a sentence that explained the main idea of the passage they had just read.

         Finally, at the very end of class, Ryan showed a snippet from the movie Apollo 13, so that the class could have a visual to the book they were reading. 

CO #1 Dana

     I held my first classroom observation with Candace Walters’ group 2A Listening class.  Candace welcomed me, gestured to a seat, and then began. I noticed right away that the class was very comfortable and attitudes were friendly. In order to ease the students into learning mode, she asked a few of them to help her pass out graded quizzes while she took attendance. Written on the board was the class agenda, starting with a detail race, then comprehension questions, and followed by dictation.

    After the housekeeping was taken care of, Candace split the class into two groups. Then, as a refresher, she asked the students to explain to me what exactly they were going over in class. They had recently listened to a segment about the Namibian tribe, the Himba. Candace focused on questioning the class on the main idea, and then described the activity the class was going to partake in.

     The teams were to choose one writer from their group while the others used their listening notes to answer questions Candace had written on the board. Each person had to help their team’s writer and whichever team answered the most questions correctly after five minutes, won. After Candace explained the game she asked, “Do you have any questions about what we’re doing?” Everyone understood.

    After the game, the class held an open discussion to discern the answers. All of the students participated while Candace had a chance to move around the class, correcting answers on the board. At times she even asked for my advice.

      Next, she has the students work individually. They answered a few reading questions and then passed their papers to the right to be peer corrected. Candace then wrote the answers on the board as well as said them out loud.

      For the post lesson, Candace went over the upcoming midterm, and split the class into groups. She placed a few critical thinking questions on the board and for the students to discuss. Candace traveled around the room as she listened to the answers and gave advice to finish up the class.

TP #12 Dana

   Since we had met so many times at Starbucks, I thought that Taku and I needed a change of scenery. So, I asked Takuya if he would like to be tutored at Atomic Coffee this session. He was excited by the idea because he loved their coffee.

    Taku had mentioned during our last tutoring session that he was going to take a practice TOEFL exam over the weekend. We discussed his weaknesses and the issues he had with the test. One of which was the timed speaking. He would get nervous and forget which words he needed to use in order to complete a thought.

   Therefore, this time I brought with me a series of TOEFL timed speaking questions. We went over the question’s structure and rubric then began working. I gave Taku the test’s allotted 15 seconds for planning, and 45 seconds for speaking. I was surprised by how little time students were given for their planning. I would have a very difficult time coming up with French answers if I had been in his position.

      I noticed right away that Taku got very flustered with the time restriction, especially if he wasn’t able to see the time ticking away. I bumped up the time in order for him to be comfortable with answering questions quickly. Then I placed my phone down so he could see the time. This seemed to help with his anxiety, and soon enough I was cutting down the time until we reached the normal 15 and 45 seconds. He was so much calmer and answered in a timely manner.

TP #11 Dana

    Jee-young and I met up at the Goldstein Library for our second tutoring session. Like before, I had her read through two chapters from her South Korean English book. If she had a question concerning a particular piece of the literature, I would lead her to the answer, mainly by asking her questions.

       I have found that answering questions with more questions forces students to think outside the box for their answers. Or, it lets them analyze the question from a different angle. Perhaps they will use context clues to figure out their answer, or will break down the sentence structure. Usually the answer is fairly simple, and the student only needs to look a little harder at the sentence to be able to find it. Once they do however, they tend to remember it, as opposed to hearing the answer in one ear, and letting it float out of the other.

     After Jee-young read through the chapters, she pulled up a writing assignment she had been working on for class. It was a self-analysis and case study of her music therapy work. She had to follow a specific writing structure, which included certain abbreviations and acronyms. After I was explained the structure, I helped edit the piece by allowing her to figure out the corrections on her own. I would point out the mistakes and then ask her what was wrong as well how it should be corrected. The work was basic, and mainly consisted of article and generalization errors.

      

TP #10 Dana

      After a bit of a hiatus, I met up with Ivy and Ariel at Atomic coffee once again. This time they wanted to go over a couple papers they had been working on. They just received critiques from their teachers and wished to discuss why certain items were marked wrong, and how they could fix them.

       The first assignment we went over was Ivy’s paper. Since Ariel’s English is slightly more advanced, I had her help explain the reasons for Ivy’s mistakes when Ivy had difficulty figuring them out. By teaching Ivy, Ariel was able to review her English grammar by thinking of various ways to explain grammatical concepts. She showed Ivy how certain context clues would help her figure out which articles to use, when to make a word plural, and when an item should be general or specific.

       I of course guided the discussion and asked comprehension questions. When Ariel had a hard time explaining a particular portion of the writing, I used some scaffolding to let them decipher the answer. The technique seemed to work well. Both Ivy and Ariel had a number of “Aha!” moments.

TP #9 Dana

      I was back to meeting up with Taku again at our classic Starbucks location. This time Takuya had a quiz to study for and requested that we work on prefixes and suffixes. He had a list of those which were to be covered on the quiz the next day, so we spent the whole hour working specifically on them.

     Since Taku had been studying prefixes and suffixes in class, I took this as an opportunity to create an oral quiz of sorts. First I asked Taku what prefixes and suffixes were as well as a few examples. He answered correctly, so we moved on to the rest of the quiz.

      I began asking questions by giving him the prefix or suffix, and allowing him to give me their definition and example. He knew most of these, so I switched up my questioning. “Which prefix means both and what is an example word?” I asked. This style of questioning was more difficult for him, however I think it strengthened his understandings of the parts of speech. By the end of my “quiz,” I was flipping from both styles of questions and he was quickly getting them right.

      I marked down the prefixes and suffixes he had the most trouble with during our quiz. Therefore the end, we went over those words a few times over. I gave him example sentences, explanations, and had him come up with his own sentences as a way to remember the words. I hoped he did well on his quiz. 

TP #8 Dana

      I received a new tutee on this day. Her name is Jee-young and is a South Korean graduate student, studying Music Therapy at FSU. We were suggested to meet up at the Goldstein Library, however I thought it would be more comfortable to get to know each other in perhaps a more comfortable setting. So we met up at Atomic Coffee.

     We discussed her English background as well as what she believed she needed the most work on. In Jee-young’s case, she felt as if she needed help with her writing. She learned most of her English through conversations therefore she has strong understanding and speaking skills. However, she has difficulty coming up with new vocabulary while she writes.

       Ah-young had lent me a South Korean book she had written for students wishing to learn English that Jee-young also owned. To begin our tutoring, and for me to gain a grasp of Jee-youngs knowledge of English, I had Jee-young read through the first two chapters of the book on her own. If she had any questions, I encouraged her to ask me.

       She understood most of the content within the chapters, except for some particulars. When she came to a bump in her reading, she’d ask me why this sentence was phrased in this manner, or why this article was used in this instance and not in the other. I tended to answer her questions with more questions, forcing her to think through the answer herself first, then explaining if she couldn’t figure it out.

TP #7 Dana

      Ariel and Ivy weren’t able to meet up with me during this particular week. They went on a CIES trip to Wakulla Springs. However, Takuya was available, so once again we sat at a little table and drank coffee at Starbucks. The week before we had concentrated on word intonation, so I thought we could review the subject a bit before we moved on.

      I brought out a group of sentences with words underlined, and we repeated last week’s activity. When he was answering my questions without fault, I gave him a single sentence without anything underlined.

      “Ok, now, how would you say this sentence if you wanted to express that someone else bought the pizza?” I asked him. He said the sentence again, and flawlessly put stress on the correct word. I asked him another question. He answered correctly, again. After completing the whole series of this sentence without getting anything wrong, I told him I was impressed.

      “Have you worked on this before? In class, perhaps?” I asked. He said he hadn’t, only with me. It felt satisfactory to see that a tutee of mine was able pick up an entire subject of English solely from my teaching. And only in two tutoring sessions! I was so proud of Takuya. 

       Since he had gotten the hang of intonation, I moved onto minimal pairs for the duration of our session. He had seen these before of course, so it acted as a refresher in pronunciation. 

TP #6 Dana

     Starbucks was once again the location for our tutoring session. Takuya had apparently been partying it up over the weekend, but had decided to come out despite his hangover. I was impressed. I might have cancelled if I had been him.

      During this meeting we worked on intonation and word stress. I wrote out the same sentence a bunch of times, underlining one specific word in each new sentence. The first sentence lacked an underlined word. For example, “He isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow.” Takuya read the first sentence as it was written. It sounded flat and didn’t connotate anything other than what was stated. I asked him to read the second sentence, making sure to emphasize the underlined word. The second sentence read as, “He isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow.”

      “What’s different about the second sentence compared to the first?” I asked. He didn’t know. He couldn’t hear it. So I read the sentence to him so he could hear it from the point of native speaker.

      “You’re saying that he isn’t flying to Paris tomorrow. Maybe it’s someone else?” He got it.

      We went over the rest of the sentences, emphasizing the underlined words, and I asked comprehension questions. After completing the “Flying to Paris,” exercise, I had Taku work on two more sentences with varying underlined words. He did well, however by the time our hour was up, he was ready to head back home and rest his poor aching head. Hangovers will do that to you.

TP #5 Dana

    Ivy and Ariel met up with me once more at Atomic Coffee. They love it there, which is quite all right by me. I love Atomic’s coffee. We grabbed a table and I started working on situational scenarios with the two of them.

    I had them go over the scenarios with the various characters and had them each listen to the other’s response. After every subject I asked them to discuss the differences they heard in each individual’s response. Quickly they noticed that the differences were brought on by how formal or informal you speak to a person.

     I guided conversation by asking questions like, “Would you tell your boss that you would buy him or her lunch next time?” They would laugh and exclaim, “No! No! Not our boss! That would be rude. I would say that to my friend.” We tried a couple more situations and soon it was time to end our session.

    Since there are two people to tutor at once as opposed to one, time seems to fly by much faster. Group tutoring is great when you want the students to work off of each other. However, if your goal is to cover as much material as possible, working one on one seems to be the best solution.

TP #4 Dana

    Takuya and I met up at Starbucks again for our next tutoring session. We found a table outside and began working. I brought out the tongue twisters Ariel and Ivy had so much fun with, and we went over them in a very similar manner. He loved them and was amazed when I attempted to recite a few as quickly as I possibly could, laughing if I stumbled over a word or few. He liked them so much he asked me to email him all of the ones we worked on together so he could practice.

     Once we went over the tongue twisters, I brought out something that had been discussed in the TEFL course, situational scenarios.

     I gave him a few prompts, including the example we used in class: “You were supposed to meet up with BLANK, but forgot. This was the second time in a row. BLANK calls you and says, ‘Where are you?! This is the second time! I waited for you for 20 minutes!’ What do you say?” I asked this question four times, and filled the blanks with a different subject each time. Taku had to think of how to respond to this situation depending on whether the subject was his very good friend, boss, girlfriend, or mother.

     This activity let him analyze and compare how he uses English in real life speaking situations. He spoke more casually to his friend, formally to his boss, extremely apologetic to his girlfriend, and promised to make it up to his mother by taking her out to lunch. He enjoyed this activity and asked a multitude of cultural questions, even asking about the body language involved.

      

TP #3 Dana

     I met up with Ivy and Ariel again, this time at Atomic Coffee. They were very excited to be there, having heard so much about the little coffee house. By the time I had arrived they had already ordered a couple of the very original breakfast sandwiches Atomic offers, and were waiting anxiously to try them. They could barely concentrate until they had scarfed down the food.

      After they had finished eating, we finally began work on tongue twisters. This time I had brought a whole list of twisters along. They included traditional ones such as “ Sally sold seashells by the seashore,” as well as some less known, such as, “The two- twenty-two train tore through the tunnel.”

     The latter in particular was a bit difficult for Ariel and Ivy. Mixing the “th-,” sound with the hard “t-,” was almost like a brainteaser and tongue twister all wrapped into one. However, after I showed them how to position their tongues, and described what the two sounds should feel like, they got it! They also didn’t understand what the sentence meant, so we had a good time picking it apart and putting the sentence back together again after they figured out the words.

      I’ve realized that I really enjoy allowing my students to figure out unknown words and sentences through context clues. They are given a great feeling of accomplishment and a practical way to figure out unknowns in the English language without jumping to their dictionaries. 

TP # 2 Dana

    Takuya is a Japanese CIES student, who, after I sent him an email explaining that I was to be his English tutor, immediately added me on Facebook. We met up at Starbucks, collected our coffee and began our session with small talk. I was able to get a handle on what he wanted to work on as well as his level of English.

     Like Ivy and Ariel, Taku thought that he needed to practice speaking the most, followed by reading. He believed his weaknesses in speaking relied heavily on pronunciation and situational instances. For reading, Taku told me that he wished to read quicker with the ability to understand at a quicker pace. 

     Since this was our first meeting and he was excited to work on pronunciation, I sifted through his textbook for the pages on pronunciation. Luckily, I discovered a page full of poems!

     We read a poem, stanza by stanza, with Taku reading it first so I could hear how he pronounced specific letters and words that he may have had difficulty with. After each stanza I would ask him what he thought he read. What did it mean? What was the main idea? Then, I read the stanza over again so he’d be able to hear how I read, as well as my inflections.

       After this, Taku would read the stanza once more. During this reading we corrected pronunciation as well as used context clues to gather meaning and figure out what difficult words meant. It was as though a light bulb went off. The first time he figured out a word through context clues, it was a great “Aha!” moment. He was so proud to have figured out the word and allowed me to feel as though I had truly given him a skill he’d always be able to use in language learning.

CP #14 Hwa Won Lee

I met Dana at Black Dog cafe again yesterday.
We talked about shopping for a while. I told her about Dong Dae Moon shopping center which is traditional old market in Korea, and my experience to the market's night time sale.

We talked about blind dates and dutch pay while we search good conversation topics on sheets.
We agreed on many situations in those topics even our cultures are different. I guess common sense always works in our life.

When I told her recycling procedure in Korea, and the critical incident one foreigner experienced when he dump his trash oneday in Korea which I found on website, Dana was surprised and found it funny.
She brought tarot cards to tell me my fortune for fun. I thanked Dana, and it was kind of makes sense. The weather in the deck of the cafe was really good, and we enjoyed our conversation sessions.

TP 12 pam

October 25 I met Renan for tutoring. We began tutoring session by talking about his break from school. He and some friends had went to Panama City for a few days. Renan said the weather was beautiful and that they had a really nice time. he said he had gotten lazy and that it was hard for him to go back to class. I asked did he have any new instructors. Debbie and Derrick is who he said. I told Re an he was in good hands , and tbat they were great teachers. We started off listening to some short news articles I found in the Awake! magazines and we discussed the articles. Thesr are great articles to use for tutoring because they are short, and you can read them in print, as well as listen to the audio at www.jw.org/Awake. After we worked on dictation skills. I would read several phrases and have Renan write tbem down and he would repeat some of them verbally. He asked if I could continue to tutor him, I said I could until November 15. Ironically, I have his friend Karoline as a conversation partner. We all will meet this Friday.

TP 11 Video Culture Class

Octvocabuldn at 12:30 the video class was set to proceed. I think Tom & I were both nervous. There were no classes but to our amazement there was an influx of new students registering for the next session. I knew I could count on one conversation partner and 2 of my tutees to attend the class, but with 2 students it would be slim. Fortunately for us there was an influx of students, just off tbe airplane,testing and registering for the next session. we had 2 from Taiwan! 1 student from China, 1 South Korean student, 1 student from Cameroon Africa, 1 Russian student, 1 student from France, and a student from Columbia South America. I was thrilled! Prayer is no joke, because thats what I was doing. before class Tom had wrote the vocabulary words on the board and I hadput the agenda up. We made sufe the videos for the lesson were loaded, got our level appropriate worksheets out, and pens for everyone. we follow the agenda and we took turns teaching so I think everything went pretty smoothly. Only regrt, I wish we would have anticipated having newer students. The activity I planned should have incorporated more group and pair discussion. I think all in all the class went well. We had execelldnt participation, and the students indicated on their feedback forms that they really enjoted the class. For 6 out of 8 students it was their first CIES class!!!

TP 10 pam

onteachinlistiday September 27th I was supossed to meet Renan and Taku for anoth tutoring session. However Taku was a no show. I had prepared a script for the class I was teaching on Thor, and I had intended for Taku and me to read out the scenes and for Renan to listen and see how much he could comprehend. I wanted Renan to concentrate on 'chunking' whole phrase, instead of just trying to hear single words. It still worked out. I read the script and had Renan listen, and then I played the Thor video of the script. I repeated the video a few times. Yhings turned out relatuvely well, because he was able to understand what was being said. Renan did not understand several of the vocabulary words, such as diner, disrepect, etc. So I explained and modeled those words. unfortunately he said he will be out of town what I taught my class but it was still good practice for his listening skills and for my teaching skills.

TP9 pam

I met with Jane on September 26, for what would be our last, official tutoring session. Jane was leaving to go back to Taiwan in less than a month so she want to spend some time traveling before she returned home. so really for the first half hour we just kinda talked about her plans and what she would do when she got back home to Taiwan. Jane said when she goes home she would resume her degree program begin in medical billing and coding. She told me to forget about Mexico and come teach in Taiwan. She was happy to have an opportunity to come study here in the United States, and she look forward to possibly visiting here again. But, she really can't wait to see her family and her pet cats. last weekend she told me that her and her boyfriend Michael had saw the movie Thor and they really liked the movie. She said she could relate to how Thor felt coming to a new world, because that's how she felt coming to America. I took the opportunity to test out my class project and we reviewed the two video clips that showed Thor adjusting to his new environment. We watched the first video clip and then we discussed what Thor may have been feeling when he broke the glass and then I realized that it wasn't custom in this world to do that. We then saw the second video clip and how he was adjusting to culture and daily life, I asked Jason questions about how she had to adjust coming from Taiwan to America. Afterwards, we did a sample worksheet that I had prepared for the class on cultures and customs. Lastly, I had Jane to fill out the feedback form for tutoring and that basically wasit, We talked a little about how we enjoyed meeting each other and we said we would keep in touch on Facebook and through email.

TP 8 pam

I met with Renan and Taku at the library on Friday, September 20th, at 2:00 in the afternoon. I decided to do at least one group tutoring session, and since Renan was level 1 /level 2 and Taku was level 2/ level3 I thought it would be a nice balance for the two of them. Taku was working more on pronunciation and minimal pairs and Renan was working more on his listening skills. I decided to combined the two activities, so that each could benefit from it. At first, I had Taku work on a minamal pairs, as we were working on pronunciation, This is a cool activity from www.tinyteflteacher.co/uk. Idea 1: Number dictation1cutcatbutbatuncleanklefunfan Write the minimal pairs on the board, or paper, in a table, Drill the pronunciation around the class. Then, dictate four of the words, but tell the students they only need to write the number, not the word. So, if you say "cut, but, ankle, fun" the students should write "1,1,2,1". Then the students work in pairs - one dictates the words, the other says which number.

TP 7

September 24 I met with Jane after her class ended at 2:50. As usual, I opened the tutoring session and I asked her how her class was today and how her week was going, after we discussed speaking and listening activities she was doing in her classes. I told Jane about my upcoming class I would be teaching. I asked if she would please come and I explained that it was going to be on customs and culture. Jane said she would love to and she looked forward to it. I asked her had she ever seen the American movie Thor, she hadn't. I took the opportunity to show some YouTube clips of the movie. With Jane I tendvto do more intensive reading exercises. last week I had shown Jane websites she could practice listening to English. She had visited the websites and listened to several articles being read and that it really helped her with her listening skills.We then read short magazines articles, as I read them she took dictation of the articles. She was able to briefly give an explanation of the different articles I read. Keep in mind, that these were short articles that I had found in Newsweek for kids magazines so they were easy for James to follow along and be able to comprehend what the articles were about.

TP 6 pam

on September 17 I met Jane after her class, 3 o'clock, in the CIES break room. we usually start our tutoring session of by discussing jane's week, what she did, how her day going? In Jane's speaking class she had been working on how to order from a restaurant. Her instructor had given the students' menus, and they had to roleplay ordering as customers. She asked if we could reveiw some of the vocabulary words that they were going over in class. customer order server tip receipt We took a few minutes to discuss some of the vocabulary and I drew a makeshift menu and we did role play again in a restaurant. Using the vocabulary, Jane practiced ordering from the menu, employing etiquette common in the English language. One on one was easier for her to grasp the understanding then just having it in a classroom. After we finish reviewing class assignments we worked on are listening skills and I read for a worksheet that I had printed out on daily routines. After reading the article a few times I would have her read it to me. At the end I asked her to write down a paragraph to see how much she had remembered

TP 5 Pam

Sept 11 at 4 o'clock this afternoon I met up with Taku and we went over minamal pairs.These are some pairs we did. very berry van ban vest best vet bet burn barn heard hard hurt heart firm farm purse pass light right play pray pilot pirate born bone Taku said this exercise was something that he knew he needed more practice on. I encouraged him towrite down minamal pairs for next week. I suggested this cool website, www.pronuncian.com, he could check out. the website features pot test that uses minimal pairs for learn a foreign language.        

TP 4 pamela

Sept 11 I met with the Renan at 2 o'clock. Renan is working on listing skills. I had printed out this articleon patients on patients and so I started the exercise by reading the article and having him listen. After listening to the article twice I asked him short questions to see if he understood what the article was saying. He seemed to grasp the general idea of the article and so I repeated exercise several times. At the end of the exercise I asked Renan to write a short paragraph to see if he understood what the article on patience was all about. He said that he wanted more rxercises like this one, because this was his weakest area in learning English. I told him about several websites that he could go on to help them improve English listening skills so he can listen to modified English speakers, he said he would check it out. I was glad that everything was working out and that he was benefiting from his tutoring session.

CP # 10 pamela Weiji Chen

w.Iober 25 I received an email from Weijia on Wedday. We scheduled to meet on Friday after her class ended at 1 o'clock, at Starbucks on Tennessee Street. Weijia had arrived from China a fee weeks ago. She wants to pursue her Masters in the fieldvof communications. I asked her if she planned on working in America after she graduated and she said her goal is to work in Japan as communications specialist for for a major corporation. She said there is a high demand for communications specialist in China! but jobs are few. In Japan she can make just as much income and that tgere are more opportunities for employment. She also said that even though she is in America for education the chances ofvjer getting good employment here was slim. WeijiI asked her what was her interest in what she wanted to learn about American culture; and what kind of experiences she wanted to take back with her to China. Weijia said that she wanted to make a few American friends and maybe just talk. She has little free time, because she is trying to complete her assignments and focus on Grad school. I suggested that we could go to the North Florida fair, coming up in a few days. I explained that it is a custom in America for traveling carnivals and farming shows to come once a year. Weijia said they had similar festivals in China. She said she would let me know what her schedule was like in the upcoming weeks and we can discuss it later.

Cp#9 Pamela The Traveling Man

September 30th hH has been several weeks since I've talked with Hameed, I had only met him once. he's been a very busy person. I was happy to hear that he wanted to meet again. He was nervous about taking the TOEFL, because he plans to pursue the doctorate program starting in the spring semester in the area of topography Hameed said he had been traveling around the country visiting family and friends in California, Texas, and Alabama. He asked if I could teach him some common American phrases to say when he meets his friends. I'm assuming that he means his American friends. he want to learn how to properly include words like 'cool', 'I got this', ' no problem ', common words we as Americans may take for granted. We use such phrases so freely that we fail to think that it may not be understood by people outside our culture. We discussed a dozen expressions that he could use in his converdation with his friends and collegues. I also included some common idioms in one of my lesson plan that I had written for tje TEFL class. Yes, the lesson plan came in handy and we were able to role-play several conversational situations in which idioms were used.

CP#8 Pamela Saturday with friends

Tingandnd s 21, My friend Susie has been learning Chinese for the past 3 years and recently had spent almost a year in China. I told Ting ting about her and she wanted to meet her. I thought it'd be cool if they met because they had the culture in common plus Susie being American had a unique perspective into both cultures. I had texted Ting ting earlier that week aand we had arranged to meet up at a local cafe. We talkdd over coffee while we waited for Susie. Ting ting said since she's been in this country she really doesn't hang around anyone but her friends at the Chinese church she attends. It surprised me to hear that she attended church, knowing China does not encourage the practice of religion. I asked had she always had religious beliefs before she came to this country? She didn't, but she was curious and nwanted to learn about the Bible. She thought the Bible was a book of myth and stories, nbut admits that she only attends the Chinese church for friendship and to meet new people. she she asked what I thought about the Bible and had I ever read it. I said I had read it a few times. I thought the Bible was more than just stories but was actual facts and that the book was practical for our day. Ting said that a lot of the Proverbs in the Bible are very similar to what Confucius taught and the similarities between what Western culture believes and what Eastern culture teaches are amazing. Susie showed up and Ting ting was delighted to meet her. They shared a lot a of similar experiences Susie having lived in Beijing China for a year and Ting ting having lived there most of her life. I must admit I felt kinda left out of the loop but it was interesting to see Ting ting and Susie speaking Chinese. She said she speaks and hears English all day long and it was nice to meet an American that actually could speak Chinese well. I'm glad they were able to meet each other and we arranged to meet again in another week.

CP #7 Pamela Questions Young People Ask..........

destinjust Later that afternoon I met Judy again out on the green. I asked her if she was enjoying the book. She said she was enjoying reading the book very much, even though it started off sad she said that it funny the things that happened to the children as they went to different homes.she said the words in the book were easy for her to follow and understand. we discussed family and how she felt being so far away from her family and she asked me the same question. She said that she had to laugh when the the children came to live with their uncle. Because, she admits, she does all the cooking and cleaning and her brother sleeps all day until class, I gave her another book that was more practical and also easy to read but it talked about questions that she may have wondered about as far as family, friendship, and planning for the future. I told her the name of the book was questions young people ask and answers that work and that the book was more than just for reading but it also had a section in the back where she could write answers to comprehensive questions. judy was trying to decide where to go for her break off from school. She didn't know whether she wanted to go to Atlanta, Georgia or Orlando, Florida. We looked up some information about both cities. ice cream that both cities have their pros and cons but no matter which destination she chose just be safe. She said thatshe knows America is not a safe place and she never walks anywhere by herself. suggested that we meet for Downtown Gettdown. We could walk around listen to music, look in some shops etc. She said she would let me know by Wednesday and see if she would be able to make it.

CP #6 Pamela Ting ting

theytheir 17 Ting ting and I met outside nin r the Wesscosaidbetcoulf ettercoulding. She is a Chinese student, from Beijing. she is hoping to enter the graduate program at FSU in the area of statistics.we talked a little about our family life and our areas of interest. Ting ting said that she is the only daughter and when she returns home in two years she hopes to work in Hong Kong. I asked would she consider taking a job in America, she said she could make a better living in China, and she wanted to help her parents. Hong Kong offers more opportunities, and her parents worked hard for her to achieve in her education so she wanted to make sure they were taken care of as they get older. American culture today is usually the reverse. Parents work hard to take care of their children and then their children leave home and only come home when they need their parents to take care of them. I told Ting ting there is still so much we can learn from Chinese customs and culture. Her English was exceptionally well. She said the hardest part of English for her is communication, not knowing exactly the right words to say. She was nervous about taking the TOEFL test because that was going to be difficult part of the test for her, the speaking and listening. But she said she had several years of intensive English language learning, grammar and reading so that was not going to be a problem.

CP #5 pamela ( A Serious of Unfortunate Events)

September 17th I was excited to share with Judy a book I had in my personal library. Since niether of us wasnt crazy about the Harry Potter I chose another series, equally as popular, but focused less on magic, demons, and witchcraft. The first book from The children's novel series, Lemony Snickett's, A Series of Unfortunate Events, was comparitive to level 3 reading. Judy said that was good because she wanted a book that was a little more difficult for her to read. The book dealt with being apart from family. I thought it would be a story that she could relate to being so far away from home and her parents. Although, the book was about orphaned children, I thought she could relate to adapting to a new situation or new place might bring some unfortunate changes and adjustments. I asked Judy did she have to make some unexpected changes to adapt to her enviroment here, in America. she said that when she came to America her brother, who is also a FSU student, helped her; so it wasn't as difficult. She said the hardest thing in American culture is people tend not to want to talk, or to you or help you when you need directions or information. She asked if I could bring more books like this so she could practice her reading.

CP #13 Hwa Won Lee

I met Dana last Friday at the library in the morning.
We talked about cultural differences between our countries.
I remembered the situations that Korean usually very humber at compliment, so would say "no, I am not that good..or my daughter is not pretty.."something like that.
I told that happens all the time in my country, and some parts I wanted to change myself especially compliment on my children because I should be the one who praise and encourage my own children.  Dana agreed, and told American also dose the similar reaction if someone compliments too much.

She told me fun of the Renaissance Festival, and we searched interesting pictures of it through Internet.
We talked more about halloween and cultural traditions before we left the place.

Cp 4 Pam

I metJudy for tea time on Tuesday September 10. We talked about our past weekend. Judy said her weekend was not as exciting as her weekend before.Mostly, she watched TV, and and hung out with her friends at her apartment. She said she was interested in reading more American novels, she asked me if I would mind bringing her a book about love, family, or friendship. We discussed what sort of books she would be interested in reading. Non-fiction or fiction? Did she like suspenseful stories or fantasy? Imust admit I was relieved when she said no horror or scary stories, because I have never been into the whole Harry Potter series. We discussed our musical interest, the kind of bands we liked.There was common ground found with Coldplay I asked Judy what was her favorite band? She told me it was Coldplay, because she really enjoyed watching their videos. We went YouTube and watched several videos, and searched for concert locations.

Christina CP#6 shopping

The other day I met up at the sweet shop to take my conversation partner Angel with me shopping. We went to plato's closet by Publix since the shuttle goes there and I'm all about getting a good deal! ^_^ I told her about how I have a couple musical performances coming up on stage and I need some some stylish outfits to wear. I told her what I was sort of looking for and we started looking through the racks. There was so much that it liked so it was really hard to choose. I ended up sending pictures to my group members to get their opinion on which outfits were the best since Angel was never sure. I even found heels on sale in my size which almost never happens! Only $7 and I almost couldn't believe it. She helped me choose between two pair and I ended up getting the all black ones because they would match with more outfits. I helped her pick out clothes to try on as well and we had a fun time. I was glad I had a shopping buddy to come along with me and make sure I didn't buy anything too crazy. Hopefully we'll get to do something again soon even though our schedules seem to conflict a lot.

Christina TP #4 (child) animals

This lesson was completely dedicated to animals and the names of their body parts. I found a great lower level reading book that covered the animals that I wanted to focus on and we started with that. At times I would have him read and at times I would read to him and point to the animal parts and ask if he knew the names of them. If he didn't I would go over it a couple times with him since I know how much children need repetition. This led up to the card game I played with him. I got it from this website: http://bogglesworldesl.com/animal_body_parts.htm

We played go fish where the cards had an animal with a certain body part you had to ask about such as "Do you have an animal with spots? No? Go fish." and so on. He gets pretty competitive with games as I'm sure most little boys do. Once he fully understood the rules he made sure to point out every time he had more card matches than I did haha It was pretty funny. I'm just glad he was learning at the same time.

Christina TP CIES #5 Idioms

I found a great website that's helpful for teaching a few idioms:

http://www.stickyball.net/idioms.html

I used a couple of their worksheet to explain some phrases that we use that don't always translate literally. We went through all of the meanings and then I gave her different scenarios and asked her when idiom would fit with which. A few examples that they had were:

Back to square one

-      start over; back to the beginning

Bark up the wrong tree

-      Looking for information in the wrong place; asking the wrong person

Be careful what you wish for

-  When you wish (or hope) for something, it may not be as good as you think – there may be negative consequences that you hadn’t thought of.
  

Break a leg!

-      This is a (funny) way to say “Good luck” – we usually say it to someone before a performance or contest

 

Christina TP #6 (child) advice board game

Since I meet with my child tutee every monday, I always start of the lesson by asking him to tell me about his weekend. He likes to make things up but at least he's creative. If I don't stop him he will go on and on so I usually have to cut him off and get the lesson started :)

I starting off with some listening practice by reading him a story and then asking him comprehension questions. His father said he really wanted Jeffrey to be able to retain information more and pay attention.

After that, we played an ESL board game that focuses on giving advice in different situations. after you roll you would land on a question like "What should I do if my mom wants me to stop going to school." and He would have to answer my question with "You should do..." or "I think its best if you.." or one of the other options. I was impressed with his well thought out responses. He didn't just say anything, he really tried to give me good advice haha it was adorable. Often he would even ask me follow-up questions just to make sure he could give the best answer to the questions. He got really into it and wanted to finish so we spent the rest of the time playing that game.

http://www.esl-galaxy.com/boardgames/givingadvice.pdf