Matthew TP # 1

This past Tuesday I met my tutoring partners. Their names are Fatwan and Nasser and they are both from Saudi Arabia. I learned that they have only been actively studying English here at CIES for roughly 8 months and I was astonished by how well they both communicated.

As we dived into our brief histories, I learned from them that Arabic speakers seem to be able to communicate in English rather quickly in comparison to other cultures. They both showed interest in being tutored in grammar as well as listening for different accents. I was having a good time with them; attempting to do different accents from around the country. Fatwan seems to have a good southern accent down and Nasser does an Australian accent to the T. Apparently in Saudi Arabia, Nasser does a lot of business with British and Australian people, so he emphasized that learning accents is a high priority to him. This is something we can work on with the right resources and I feel considerably equipped with the tools to help him comprehend more and more each session.

We exchanged personal information and I look forward to contributing to their education. We have decided that the next "real" lesson will consist of them bringing information on grammar that they are struggling with, their black book of words that I asked them to write down when they do not understand the meaning, as well as a short audio lesson on accents. I believe having a few different practice techniques will assist both Nasser and Fatwan to further develop their skills.