Erika CP #4

I met with Abdullah again for lunch on Wednesday and we went to a Burger Joint on Tennessee street. We talked about how he loves American food but does not like American breakfast. He really wishes that I could try Saudi breakfast, but there is no place for that in Tallahassee. We talked about different 'burger joints' in Tallahassee and he said that he like Monks as well. I asked if he ever had the "Panhandle Burger" and he hadn't. This was interesting because he thought that a panhandle burger was made with the handle of a pan. Conveniently enough, there was a map of Florida on the wall of the restaurant and I showed him what the Florida panhandle really is. We then talked about teas and his roommates and we made plans to watch a movie and make Arabian tea.

Erika TS#6 Child

I tutored Astin on Sunday and had him do reading comprehension exercises as well as go over his weekly vocabulary that he had done poorly on in school. The reading comprehension exercises consisted of pictures of animals in their habitats and he had to color the animals that were in their homes. Another one was of a picture of the moon and the stars for which he had to color the stars to the left of the moon yellow and the stars to the right of the moon orange. He then had to match pictures of clothes that would make an outfit (shirt + pants + shoes). The last exercise was him writing down all the phone numbers he knows by memory and dialing them on a pretend phone.

As for vocabulary, I had Astin read the list of vocab and for each one he got wrong we created 3 sentences using the word. We also had to go through most of the words by sounding them out because he would say another word that starts with the same letter. We went through all of the vocab (as I marked the words that repeatedly troubled him) until he could recall all of the words in different orders.

Erika TS#5 Adult

I tutored In-Hwa this morning and we practiced more speaking. I came prepared with a list of  idiomatic phrases and was chose speaking topics for which I could use them. The first topic was "Have you ever done something silly that you wish you had not done?" She said yes and told me about how she did not know how to ask for a ride in someone's car, so she would ask "Can I ride you?" She knew this was wrong but she thought it still conveyed her message. Here, I explained to her that she had put her 'foot in her mouth'. I corrected her and told her my own story so that she could practice listening at a normal pace as well.

The next topic was if she had ever dated anyone of a different age, race, or religion. She said that she is currently dating someone older that her and explained Korean views on dating and how she has not been able to tell her mother that she has a (Korean) boyfriend in the US. She explained that he is from her same neighborhood in Seoul! So, I taught her that it must be a 'very small world' and that he must feel like 'a little piece of home'.

Mitch TS #9

Today was my last session with Isik. It went very well and I think it was a good way to close out the adult tutoring sessions. We went over another cover letter she wrote, and this time the changes were evident. I can see that she has learned a lot through this tutoring because the mistakes that I saw before in her writing are not there anymore. It was very cool seeing how I have helped a person improve like this and I think that I will really like teaching. I was genuinely sad that this was my last session! I can't wait to actually teach more when I go abroad. The teaching experience I gained with Isik throughout this course is great, and I really couldn't thank her or this program enough. 

Mitch TS#8 Child

Today I had my fourth meeting with Astin. Every time I meet Astin he seems to become more attentive. Today we worked on his homework together and then worked on some worksheets together that I had printed and brought with me. I think I have found a perfect balance between fun and work with Astin. I have showed him that as long as he gives me some attention and work, that I will be fun and play his little games with him. Today I pretended that my erasers were X-wings and that his sloppy letters were on the "dark side." I have continued to follow the theme of Star Wars to boost his intrinsic motivation and to add fun to the exercise. He is a very fast learner. All of the new words that I taught him in our first session he still remembers. Today he learned what a hot air balloon is and also what a crane is. I have four more sessions with him, and hopefully next time he will be just as responsive. 

Mitch CP #5

Today was another great day with Abdullah! Erika and I took him to "The Joint" for lunch. My goal with this was to show him what a "real" American hamburger tasted like! There were a bunch of fun casual teaching moments.

First of all, it was difficult finding something on the menu that did not have bacon on it, but we eventually helped him "make his own" burger from the choices on the menu. While we were waiting for our food, we had to reassure Abdullah that redbull did not have alcohol in it. He was worried that he had accidentally drank some when he had it last week. Apparently his friends thought that it was alcoholic! I told him that it wasn't, but that it is probably best not to drink it anyway.

During lunch, we had a lot of fun talking about what we could do with each other next time. I think for our next meeting we will do a sort of intercultural movie night where we watch a movie and he shows us some of his traditional foods from Saudi Arabia.

One funny thing that we had to teach him was the word "panhandle" in regards to Florida. We were talking about another burger Joint in town and he knew which one we were talking about. He told us his favorite burger there is called the "Panhandle." I said yes! that was my favorite too. He asked me what Panhandle means, "did they make it by hand in a pan?" I then explained to him how this part of Florida is called the Panhandle and he was so shocked! I told him not to worry and that when I moved to Florida I did not know what that meant either.

All in all, these sessions with Abdullah are very fun and I will most likely meet him again even after my mandatory 6 sessions are up. He is probably the most open minded person that I have ever met, who is genuinely interested in everything!

Mitch TS #7

Today I had another session with Isik. Today was a very productive day. From the beginning, Isik has told me she wants to improve upon her writing skills, so we have been doing many style and grammar exercises. Today Isik brought me a formal cover letter that she had written and we corrected it together with regards to style, organization and some grammar. It was very helpful for her I think, and this kind of exercise helps show writing in use, and is far better than examples from a worksheet. I hope that Isik will continue to bring in material so that we can have sessions as useful as this one.