My adult tutee, Soon Gyu, had been unable to meet with me as we had tentatively planned on March 4, because she was sick. Therefore, this meeting was only our second, and we met at Starbucks again. This time, we met inside, rather than outside. Although it is very pleasant outside, we both noticed there have been a lot of noise and interference from people doing regular business in the area. We felt that inside would likely be quieter. Since Starbucks offers free WiFi Internet, I brought my laptop with me to help with the session. I plan to help my tutee review her pronunciation, and then, present her with a listening exercise to help her, I hoped, and hence both her listening and her reading skills. I had also prepared some information on metaphors, since the story that I was using, The Red Shoes, like most fairytales, was full of these. I hoped that this would be of interest to my tutee, since she has a social work background and metaphor is often used in counseling/therapy.
I spoke with my tutee about her trip over the Spring Break. She said that she had remained sick for most of the trip, but was feeling better now. She said they had gone camping and she was not certain that the pollen in the air had been very helpful. However, other than that, she had a very good time, she told me.
I spoke with my tutee about how her "La-La-ing" in the shower was coming along. She said that she was doing this every morning, and she thought it was helping. We went over some words that use the letter L a lot and, to me, she seemed to be saying them more clearly.
I presented her with a brief lesson on the concept of metaphor. She was able to relate to some of the figures of speech I use with her for examples, because apparently, there are some equivalents in the Korean language. For instance, she said she was familiar with the Korean saying that seem to parallel "more is up" and "more is less." Thus, the concept of figures of speech was not an issue for her. Metaphor was little bit more difficult but she did seem to understand that these amounted to comparing two different things to show that they have one thing in common.
I had previously downloaded a free version of The Red Shoes on my laptop, and I asked my tutee if she would be willing to listen to it. She was more than happy to do so. After she had finished the exercise, she commented that she was able to better understand the story because the voice that read the story was slow and clear. She did seem to get the just of what was going on in the story, but seemed a bit confused about why the shoes seem to be working on their own in against the young lady in the story. I noted to her that she had only heard the story one time, and it would take some reviewing to get all the details.
I had brought with me a printout of the story, in addition. I provided her with the printout. She identified a few words on the first page that she was unfamiliar with. We talked about those words. I asked her to take the story home with her and review only the first page before we got together again next week. I asked her not to worry about not understanding everything, because it was new material, and there were several new words to learn.
I noted that my tutee seemed to be struggling more with the concept of these out-of-control shoes, rather than the vocabulary. Therefore, I asked her as we would be reviewing the story in the future, just to keep in the back of her mind if she could find any metaphors and the story – but not to worry about that right away.
I showed my tutee where I had found the story to download for free on the Internet, and noted that there were likely several versions of it on YouTube. She said she would look for these.
We agreed to meet again next Wednesday at Strozier Library, providing I am able to get access to the library. We both agreed that the library would be a more appropriate setting for lessons together because of the distractions and noise of the restaurant in general.
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