Charlene TS #1 Adult No. 2

I met with Ileana for the first time today and the CIES conference room. We can completed an initial diagnostic. Ileana complains that she can on understand the spoken English word except for her one friend and her teachers at CIES. And discussing her situation, she told me that she is from the country of Columbia. She decided to come to the United States to study English to improve her job skills so that she can get a better paying job when she returns to Columbia. She says that she was laid off from her last job, but felt if she could improve her English speaking skills, she would be much more employable. She said that there appears to her to be a real preference in Columbia for young employees. Ileana does not want to advertise her age, because she feels that part of the reason she was laid off from her last job was because of her age. She is very health conscious and reports that she eats well and exercises for her health. She is living with friends and Crawfordville, Florida, which is in an adjoining county. She said that her friend who is older than her, married a man from Crawfordville 10 years ago. The friend is from Columbia, and somehow she met this gentleman who is from Wakulla County. Unfortunately, he is 81 years old and apparently speaks with a very strong southern accent. She stated she cannot understand what he says. She is concerned because her friend will soon have to travel, and she will be alone in the house with this gentleman with whom she is not able to verbally communicate. We discussed of the strategy of writing down questions and answers to the gentleman while her friend is traveling. She said she could do this because her writing and her reading skills are in fact much higher than her ability to understand the spoken word. At this point, Ileana think she will be returning to Columbia sometime in August. She has a son who is living in Columbia with her parents. She is not intending, she said, to try to work in the United States. However, she said that her son spent six months in the United States finishing high school in North Carolina. She said he lived with her cousins who are residents there. She said her son would be thrilled if she decided to try to immigrate to the United States permanently.

Ileana shared the following placement scores that she was provided one she finished her initial testing at CIES: grammar 3, speaking 3, composition 3, reading 2, and listening 2.

Ileana stated that she has been working with the conversation partner weekly. She is also apparently has taken some initiative to get out and see the sights in the community. She has been to the old and the new capital buildings, she has walked all around the FSU campus, she has been to the Governor's Mansion, she has gone to the Tallahassee Nursery with her conversation partner to look at plants, and she has visited missions Saint-Luis. She likes photography and the music of the 1980s. She said that she finds grammar difficult, but not as difficult as trying to make out English words spoken by other people. She noted today that she did not have any trouble understanding me, for which I am thankful.We made an appointment to meet next week in Crawfordville, since CIES will not be having classes.