Charlene TS #2 Adult No. 2

I met with Ileana at The Bay Leaf, a small store and Bay with free Wi-Fi, and Crawfordville, Florida. I especially wanted to meet here with my tutee because I know the owner and the general manager. They are not from Wakulla County and do not have southern accents. They are also very welcoming to everyone, and it might serve as local people that Ileana could speak with what her friend is not around. However, after we had ordered something to eat and drink at the counter, she informed me that she had some problems understanding the manager and the owner because they talk too fast. I suggested she could ask them to slow down for her. I reassured her that they would not take offense at this – – that there are other people in this community who don't speak English as their first language. Ileana looked a little dubious about this plan, so I decided to drop that subject and perhaps will revisit it later. This did not seem the best time to sit down with Ileana and my friends.

After we samples our refreshments, I asked Ileana if she would listen to The Giving Tree on my computer without subtitles. (The subtitles are incorrect.) She said that she would, and she did so. I asked if she thought she was able to understand the story. She said that she thought she was able to because the narrator spoke sufficiently slowly for her. The pictures also helped, and a few words of the text appeared on one of the pages in the video. She was able to retell the story to me accurately, stating that she liked it very much.

I then pulled up the Voice of America website for English learners on my laptop. I found a couple of different news stories and asked Ileana to listen to them. She said she had trouble understanding the information. So, I asked her to simply pull up the daily program of new stories. She did so and listen for a while. We discussed the stories. She, like a lot of people, is tired of hearing about Donald Trump. She was able to find a story of the daily program, however, for which she could follow the story. She said she did not understand every word. I assured her that it was not necessary to hear every word to understand the story. She consider this for a while. She had not thought about this. She admitted that she often does not hear every word of new stories in Spanish, her first language, but does understand these. She agreed to begin listening to the Voice of America website, at least one story, every day. We will discuss how this is going next week, and I promised to send her some links to other sites that she might find interesting. Evidently, she has been avoiding the news lately because she is tired of hearing about the American Presidential Election. I assured her that we all are, at this point.

Later that day I found and emailed Ileana links video of "Martha Stewart Bakes" and "Martha Stewart's Cooking School." Martha Stewart speaks slowly in these programs because she is working as she provides recipes and tips. Also, I am hopeful that Ileana might find this more interesting and less stressful than hearing about politics.