Class Observation #2

I thoroughly enjoyed the class with Ah-Young Kim. She is spunky, which livens up the class. The class I observed was IN-HI Grammar. I really wanted to see as many grammar classes as possible since this was most challenging to me. She greeted every student by name and ask them something personal only she would know b/c she took the time to know them. Ramin brought this up at the beginning and it really does set the foundation for how your students receive you as a teacher. She uses a lot of prompting and incorporates class discussion. She used a an activity where the students got into groups of three, picked a word from a box then had to give clues in a sentence form to the class using adj clauses & pronouns. Adjective Clauses and Relative Pronouns were the topic of the lesson. They had to keep coming up with new sentences until someone from another group got it. This was a great exercise because everyone really got into it, they laughed and shouted out answers, they would help each other. Also keep in mind they were more involved because they were more comfortable with the language than beginners. She made each group pick a name and gave them points for correct answers. Naturally, this really got people revved up. This is a great exercise to keep in mind b/c it's very engaging. She asked a few times for the class to tell her the purpose. The one thing that was a bit difficult was the speed but she got the whole lesson completed in 50 min, so something to consider.

Class Observation #1

I observed Ron's EL-HE Grammar class today. The first thing that struck me was how well he was received by his class. He had a great rapport and they obviously connected with him. He spoke very slowly and clearly. I noticed a few of the Saudi Arabian men were chattering while Ron was teaching. They were only speaking in Arabic. He said to the men " we aren't in the souk." I thought this was a bit courageous. However, I later met with Ron to ask him about his comment and he said he felt close enough to them to make that comment. It seemed those men did this type of thing a lot. In fact, one got up in the middle of class to go pray,which is part of the deal I assume. We need to be very considerate of others practices even if it interrupts the class and takes away from their learning. It is ultimately left to the student on what is most important as I now understand. I asked how he dealt with students who talk and interrupt a lot, he said he is just blunt honest with them. He tells them that others have paid a lot in time and money to be here to learn English and the need to respect that otherwise they can leave the room. I think I may have a more difficult time since I am a female and we are considered subordinate in their culture. It would be interesting viewing a female teacher with the same students. I guess I will need to wait to be in that situation to figure it out. I asked Ramin about this situation and how he would handle it, which I tended towards. His method was to be open and honest like Ron but on more of a peer to peer level. It is helpful to see different tactics and then mold your own. This was the first time I even thought about disciplinary issues, i guess I figured everyone would cooperate..duh dana. Just a few more good methods: he wrote objectives on board, he reiterated again and again to keep it simple and not think too much (I tend to do this,) he used cueing to help a bit with the quiz they took, he was focused and kept on track. He also told one student, who had a very laissez faire attitude, that he would no longer except his work b/c he now knew he was capable of writing a good sentence. He gained respect by being firm while simultaneously giving positive feedback.

Dana P.- CP #2

Nov 9. I met with my CP for the second time today on campus. I noticed she (my CP) lets me make all the decisions on where we go or what we do. This is humorous because I am just as clueless about what to do in Tallahassee as she. We walked to Pitaria while I explained what type of food they had. She didn't understand a "gyro" thus I explained and this conversation led into the topic of food. However, I did learn that gyro meat is a blend of meats not pure lamb as I once thought. For some reason, I believed ( ignorantly) that the Middle East was primarily vegetarian. In fact, it is completely the opposite. She said they eat a lot of meat especially lamb. I stated how I thought they ate very healthy in her country. From her point of view it is very fattening and has a lot of carbs, due to the fact, they eat beans, rice, heavy sauces and breads with every meal. Our conversations flow very easily there are rarely any pauses due to her English. It isn't very challenging since her English is so good,yet at the same time I feel like we got to know eachother quicker and connect. It is nice to talk about our cultures without dealing with the language barrier! Anyway, I discovered again we (women in general) aren't that much different, she talked about how she gained weight and needs to exercise for a fair amount of our time, though keep in mind this girl is very slender. I assume woman's desire of beauty & perfection transcends all cultures. I brought the book I mentioned in our first meeting titled, The Princess. I was curious to find out the accuracy of this biography I had read about a Saudi princess named, Sultana. I wasn't sure it was a good idea on our second meeting to show her this book. So I brought the book and kept it in my bag until I sensed it would be comfortable. She read the inside cover and remarked about a statement made by the Princess Sultana, " I live in a golden cage." She said this was ridiculous because a Saudi princess is allowed to do whatever she wants whenever. I went on to explain how the princess felt she was never free to be herself even though she had the freedom that money could give. Once I had explained this to her she started to agree with many of the things the princess said in the book . I felt even though my CP wasn't happy with things that went on in her country she wouldn't let anybody else know how she felt . It is similar to you making fun of your brother, but heaven forbid anyone else make fun of him! She tells me her country is wonderful, and she loves her culture if only the clergy would go away. She states the gov't isn't the problem , its the clergy who is so strict and if they were gone it would be wonderful.

Myrick, J. TP#4

As I am getting settled in, I was able to see a few of my family members. My grandfather happens to have a nurse from Africa who told me that she is needing help with her English. Of course, I happily obliged. I asked her what are the things that she needs help with, what are her goals, and how much time was she willing to dedicate to tutoring. She told me that she wanted to work on her Speaking and her Writing. We will meet two times a week for an hour each session. I'm excited because at the same time, she will be teaching me French!

Myrick, J. CP#3

Hello everyone! Apologies for the delay, I'm just getting acclimated to my new home in DC. Before the move, I observed a class at First Baptist Church downtown. The church has free classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights which has many people from all places. The class that I observed was a TOEFL class that had a student from Brazil who was taking the class to improve her English and test later in 2011. At the beginning of the class, the teacher started off with asking the student if she had any questions about anything in English that she saw throughout the week. The teacher also gave a quiz on Articles and reviewed previous passages. The student had a few problems with her articles and the teacher reviewed the problems and gave the student more examples of articles to work on which the student got them correct. The next assignment that was given was an essay written by previous students that had "connector words" otherwise known as transitions. Finally the teacher assigned a vocabulary quiz that broke the words into a list of regular everyday language that she could use. Finally, my favorite part of the classes, all the students had to come together and sung songs that encouraged vocabulary terms. I loved that the students were enthused and the setting was very informal which allowed students to take their time to create sentences and thoughts.

Dallas TP 13

Ibrahim and I met at Essence of India. I find more comfortable meeting outside around other English speakers. Ibrahim level is at a more advanced level than Sunny. He needs to just become more fluent in his speech.

He seemed to be more comfortable ordering his food. While their were a few minor moments that required redirecting, his ability to communicate overall went fairly well.

I think that Ibrahim's writing is something he should practice. I have to find something more appropriate for his level. I brought a the newspaper to listen to him read. The democrat seemed to have a simpler vocabulary for him to understand.

We review some of the vocabulary, and talked about the differences in the crime in Turkey and here in the states. How the newspaper is formatted in Turkey.

Ibrahim's reading is around a low level 4. I think next session we will focus more on proper pronunciation. We are planning to meet again in the new year.

Dallas TP12

Meet with Sunny today. This session I had reviewed some of the dialogue that we had at the restuarant. I wrote them down and reread the conversation, using the appropriate corrections for whenever she needed it.

I explained that how this would be how a casual conversation would go. I also pointed out moments that we interacted with the server. Letting her know how she would correctly order, request for food, beverages and other items.

After I let her listen to some off the dialogue I recorded, we then did a role play in which I was the server and she was the customer. I printed a menu from the Internet. We focused most of our time on that initial meet and greet, order the food and drinks. We covered a few terms like chili, chili cheese, and how to order a steak. We also talked about the different alcoholic beverages. The differences between the beers, wines, margaritas, and mixed drinks.

She said most Koreans drink only at night. We planned on continuing our sessions into the new year. I told her I'd forward a copy of the audio from my iphone, so she could practice her restaurant communicating skills.

Dallas TP 11

Sunny and I started a new reading today. It a book by the American author Terry McMillan, titled Mama. It was in her fiance's collection so figured she may have found it interesting. Mama is a story about an African American woman raising five children starting at a time period of the late 1950's.

To preface the reading we talk about the differences among culture in America. Sunghee often says that my dialect is often hard to understand at times. She says in Korea her husband is from Dageu I think,and he also has a different dialect from the town that she is from.

I read the first couple of paragraphs asking her to jot down any vocabulary she did not understand. We covered terms like lye (potash, caustic soda) and how it was used in the kitchen. Ax, mattress, frigging, crisscrossing, epson salt and raggedy. I found that the Internet is a great tool to use when needing find pictures.

I let her read a few paragraphs and then asked he some questions to test her comprehension. Her reading skills are a lot better than her writing and speaking skills. Which I know is normal. To test her listening and to touch up on our writing. I dictated to her a short letter. I read it aloud to her. Reading the lines about two times a piece. We where pressed for time but I think that dictation is something we can plan for our next meeting.

Dallas TP 10

Sunny and I met at the library at FAMU. I usually like going to new places myself. Sunny also express that she would like to experience new things as well. Last time we met at Applebees I told her to try and write me a email, or personal letter. Her emails are usually fragmented. They really don't follow a proper sentence structure either. I think that her writing is about a level one.

I explained to her that although the correspondence between her and I is a little informal. She must know how to send a proper emails in case she needs to communicate with a teacher, or anyone regarding future employment. I looked at the letter that she wrote and made the necessary corrections.

She needs help forming simple sentences. I should her what a normal letter from friends usually looks like. I then drafted up some statements that would usually fall into a letter that you would send to a friend. They where out of order and I asked her to put them in order sentence by sentence.

I think she really enjoy this activity. She said that she found it very helpful. I asked her to draft up another letter for me for the next time we me.

Dallas TP 9

This time Sunny insisted that we go to Applebees. So as we sat down I wanted to trying to give her a few tips when communicating with the waiters. It never seems like there's enough time because the servers are so on top of it. I know last time we didn't really get to. So first we started out discussing terms. We talked about the differences from waiter, waiters, waitress, waitresses. I told her how I used to work at a resturant. Then we went on to discuss the tipping procedure. she said that she heard it was custom to tip 10%. I told her that the standard was around 18% and that the 10% deal was only for church. LOL Goodness 10% yeah maybe like 20 years ago.

We talked about how in S. Korea tipping was optional, because the servers get more of a flat rate from the owner. This conversation lead us to discussing more vocabulary such as franchise, corporations, manager, minimum wage, so that I could explain how a servers tips is pretty much how they pay their bills.

I broke down for her scale, I told it was just based on my opinion 10% bad service 15-18% decent to good service, and 20%-25% good to great service.

We then proceeded to review statements to use when ordering, I would like..., Could I please have a side of...
One thing I noticed was that she didnt look at the server much. I told her that it might be percevied as rude and to try to look at the server when ordering. She said that she only turns her head so she can hear better, but she would try.

Throughout the rest of the evening we covered vocabulary and some writing. I showed her samples of her emails to me and how she could rewrite them properly. Next time we are going to work on some writing samples.

Dallas TP 8

Met with Sunny. This time I aloud her to do some oral reading. We read from various different text. I gave her the opportunity to choose from various selections. First we began reading from the Wall Street Journal, which after a few paragraphs we stopped and review a few terms that was found in the text.

I didnt think that this type of reading was a good source for her level. She read through the basic words fine. I think that there were probably to many terms that we had to define, which made comprehension a little more difficult. After that we reading from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkanban!

Sunny initally insisted that we read from the newspaper. I was trying to explain to her that we should use this in hope that she knew a bit more of the vocabulary so that we could focus on our comprehension. She argeed and we proceeded to read. A side from the fictional English(UK) terms I was able to point out a more descriptive visual for her. I think next time I choose a difficult text with more of an American cultural setting.

Tony TP#13

So today is my last day tutoring and I hope Caglar will do well on his GRE exam. Vocabulary was the aim of today's lesson. Apparently there is a section of the GRE where one must match two words to a list of other word. The goal is to see the connection between the two words but this is not Caglar's cheif concern. The words on this portion are HARD. My vocabulary is pretty large and their were maybe three or four that totally escaped me. We went through all fifty questions so that I could not only explain all the definitions but also the correlation between them. He said on his practice exam he only got about half, and to be honest I'm impressed he got that many. It became apparent that he has only 17 days to expand his vocabulary. I recommended that he purchase a sizable dictionary and read through a letter a day so that even if he doesn't remember them all, he could at least recognize them if he saw them again. In addition i showed him the thesaurus and how it could help increase his vocabulary. We worked on another GRE section together, working on the vocabulary, phrases and gramatical corrections had been working on over the past three day, allthewhile sipping Turkish coffee. after an hour and a half I bid him farewell and good luck.

Tony TP#12

So today Caglar had prepared the list of words from his GRE studies that I asked him to assemble. I've found that slaving over a lesson plan that i pray is applicable to my tutee's need is significantly less effective than tailoring it to their particular needs. Hunwoo noticed I couldn't do this in Korea since the lesson are more of less prestructured, but I would make a great private tutor and would bring in some good money on the weekends. (I'm defiantly gonna give that a So today Caglar wanted to work on his writing since it is a significant portion of his GRE exam. He prepared two essays which i had him read aloud to me. I asked him to see if could point out any mistakes himself first, and he caught several. What he had difficulty was with when to use the articles "the", "a" and "an". After explaining them we found an online exercise which he could practice their use. He caught on very quickly.

Victoria TP 12

So today was my last tutoring session for TEFL. I will be continuing my work with Marjory over the break. So today we waited until my little brother was asleep and I had her read a book to me. She wanted to work on reading certain books so that she reads them correctly to my brother. He needs to hear English words spoken correctly because he needs to learn English and he's starting from a lower level than Marjory :) She read a few of his favorite books and I wrote down the words she had difficulty with and then wrote them down phonetically so that she could practice them. I had her say them out loud and practice them before I let her practice on her own.

Victoria TP 11

Yesterday, Marjory and I did some dictation so that she could work on distinguishing words from other words. I read an article from National Geographic about green tips. She understood a lot more than she was able to identify. She is good with smaller and more familiar words but gets jumbled up with the larger words. I read the article a few times and when she still had problems I had her read through and then try dictation again and then she was more familiar with the words and did a better job. I feel like I cheated a little but she needed a little help on some of the words that were in the article.

Taylor-CP #6

So after countless times trying to get in touch with my CP, I finally gave up. Last I heard from him, he was in Miami returning Sunday. I hope everything is ok with him, Miami can get a little rough if you don't know where not to go. Anyway, this week I filmed my class and was lucky enough to have 5 students. After filming, I ordered some pizza and chatted with Cherry from China and Paulina from Colombia. Paulina not only has an international drivers license (which is apparently easy to get in Colombia) but also a car! I thought this was really cool because I think it would be scary to drive in a foreign country. We also talked about how here in the United States people for the most part obey the driving rules/laws but, in Colombia most everyone does their own thing.

Cherry, Paulina, a CIES teacher (I didn't get her name), Edwin and I also had a long discussion of education. Paulina was a Philosophy teacher in Colombia. We talked about how the literature from ages ago was so advanced for children and now high school students can barely understand it. She told us that many times in high school her teachers would assign Cervantes and many students would give up because it was so difficult. I told her it is pretty common in the US too because in some literature classes in high school we had to read Moby Dick and the Sound and the Fury and these books could be pretty tricky with the language. We also discussed structure of schools. Cherry told us that China had a very structured school system, but Paulina said that mainly in elementary school there is structure but when you get to college, like in the US teachers are allowed to make their own classes and teacher whatever they want to teach. I thought this was pretty interesting that our two countries schooling techniques are pretty similar because "grades" and "subjects" are not the same. We did not go into detail about the grade levels and subjects but I do know it is different from the US.

Chris - TP # 12

After we ate lunch, Yasin was ready to sit down and continue on with our tutoring sessions, which surprised me a bit. I told him to write a descriptive paragraph of the meal we just ate, hoping that some articles and subject/verb agreement examples would come up. Sure enough, there were a few included in his writing and most of them were correctly written.

We read an article on NPR about the conflict between Turkey and Israel from over the summer. There was a recorded transcript that he could listen to as he read along. Also, he already knew all about the issue, so it was just a matter of him trying to find the meanings of the unknown words from context. We worked through it, looking for context clues, and if he really couldn't find the meanings, I would give him clues or the definitions.

After we did this, Yasin went into talking about the conflict and, inevitably, into a lecture on Turkish history and policies. I had heard all of this from him many times before, but at least it was good speaking practice for him.

Now that crunch time is over, Yasin is happy to call it quits. However, I am going to try to do sessions like this when I can get him to agree to them.

Chris - TP # 11

This morning, I sat down with Yasin again. He gets annoyed when he has to focus on his mistakes in English because he hates making them, but he also learns to fix them quite quickly.

I started off by pointing out some mistakes he commonly makes. Most had to do with putting articles in front of words that shouldn't have any, omitting articles where they should be, and subject/verb agreement.

So I found some exercises online for articles and subject/verb agreement and we worked through them. I'm pretty sure he's never done formal exercises, so they helped him a lot.

Chris - TP # 10

After our first session, Yasin went to work. When he returned, we had another session before dinner. This time we talked about food, since we were both hungry. I told him to write his favorite Turkish foods and describe each of them. This was a good exercise to expand his vocabulary on food and to improve his spelling. He often misspells words, so I'm trying to get him to write a lot.

We read some letters to the editor in the NY Times on the topic "Can a black President afford to act angry?" These were good because they were short and clearly opinionated. It also showed Yasin how to politely label people in conversation because he often uses words he shouldn't. I had him write his own letter to the editor. He had to ask for assistance a few times, but he got through it.

I think it's great that I've started these tutoring sessions with Yasin. For one, I'm close with him, so we can joke around and I can be more frank with him. Also, it gives me a chance to correct his English without coming off as rude or judgmental. We will do two more sessions tomorrow. He knows that I'm doing this for the course, but I hope we can keep them going in the future (maybe a bit more spread out though).

Chris - TP # 9

I met with Yasin today, which is not an uncommon occurrence. Yasin is my sister's boyfriend and he's from Turkey (go figure!). I see him all the time, but this was the first time that I considered actually sitting him down and tutoring him in English. By some crazy coincidence, he is actually good friends with Baha's uncle, who lives in Jacksonville. So Baha has met my sister and successfully drawn a connection between my life in Tallahassee and my life in Jacksonville. Therefore, I thought it would be perfectly fitting to tutor him for this course.

Yasin has been in the States for about 5 years now. He came here and began to find work wherever he could. Now, he has a moving company with his brother and they make decent money. Yasin always tells me how important it is to make money, usually after he talks to me about college. The thing is, he's very smart and if he dedicates some time to learning more proper English (he's very good at spoken English), I think he would do great in a university.

It took some convincing to get him to agree to this proposition. I think he may feel weird about someone younger teaching him. I told him just to think of it as an exchange of knowledge. I suggested that maybe he could teach me and my sister some Turkish at the same time.

We started with a simple reading from Time for Kids. I had him read it out loud then one more time silently. Afterward, I told him to write a summary of 2 or 3 sentences. I am trying to get him to focus on reading and writing in these sessions because those are his weak points.

Chris - CP # 10

Before I left from Tallahassee, I met with Marsha again. We got bubble tea and talked about various popular drinks in Thailand. We talked about how we did on our final exams and our grades. Marsha said she didn't pass one of her math classes, but there's only a 40% passing rate for it. She also did very well in Lit class, which continues to amaze me. We talked about some of the novels we read a bit. I asked her if she would take another Lit class and she was sure that she never will.

We talked about our plans for the holidays. Marsha plans to relax at home during the break after a tough semester. I told her about my plan to go to North Carolina and then we started talking about snow. Marsha has only seen snow a few times. I told her I would rather go to Thailand because I prefer warmer weather but I also enjoy snowboarding.

I told her about a girl in Tallahassee who is going to be an exchange student in Thailand next year. We both agreed that we should meet with her and talk to her about Thai language and culture. We said our goodbyes (sawatdee, choke-dee, and all that good stuff) and I was off.

Tony TP#11

Today I began my tutoring session with Caglar. He's a turkish student who majored in engineering and is currently studying for the GRE. That must be a task akin to studying for the LSAT in Arabic. I'm really impressed. I entered his appartment and after asking me to take my shoes off offered me Turkish tea and cookies. When we sat down we decided that writing and speaking were going to be are areas of focus for the day. For the speaking poriton I divided it into two parts. First to tell me about Turkey and his GRE studies, then to read an article in the NewYork times. He paused to show me a funny clip, The famous "I would like to buy a hamburger" skit from the Pink Panther. He had a large list of phrases he asked me to explain and when i had done so, I asked him to write each in a sentence, applying the corrections from the speaking lesson plans. I noticed 4 key flaws in his English. First he had problems pronouncing the "th" sounds. Second his verbs did not always match the tense of his subjects. Third, the article "the" needed to be placed before his nouns and finally he needed practice in conjugating and when to use the various forms of "to be." I'll be going back tomorrow for another lesson.

Victoria TP 10

On Wednesday she asked me for the English words that are around the house. She wanted to know how to say things like crib, turtle, sauce pan, dishwasher, oven, swing and many more. She wrote down these words as I told her what they were and tried her best to spell them correctly. She got most of them correct but a few were misspelled. After I corrected the spelling of her vocabulary terms she wrote sentences with them and drew pictures for some of them so that she would remember them later. They were very simple sentences but correct.

Chris - TP # 8

After tutoring Mecit, I got a quick lunch with some friends at Voodoo Dog, then I had to rush off to another tutoring appointment. Another Turkish student had responded to my tutoring offer. His name is Caglar and he seems to be an advanced-level learner. He was studying for the GRE, so this session was a more technical one.

We started by looking through the GRE study book. I was amazed at the difficulty of the vocabulary and just about everything else in there. I respect that Caglar does not let himself get discouraged with the material. There was too much material in that book and it was just a matter of memorizing, so we switched over to a TOEFL book and did some exercises out of there. We did a reading exercise and a couple listening exercises. I was really just checking Caglar's answers to the questions. He already passed the TOEFL exam in Turkey, but he thinks he may take it again for a better score sometime.

I suggested that we read a current article online because the TOEFL readings can often be cookie-cutter. Then I explained what the phrase "cookie-cutter" means. While we were on the topic of phrases, Caglar asked me what "to track down" means. After mentioning a few more phrases, we found an article on NPR. Caglar told me that he is a Geology major, so I chose an article about volcanoes on Titan (a moon of Jupiter). There were no articles on Earthling geology, so I found the next best thing.

He read out loud, so I could listen for mispronounced words. After we read we went over the article in summary. Then we talked about astronomy and the cosmos a bit. I am always interested in seeing how other cultures view the cosmos and how they name the Moon, the Sun, etc.

I told Caglar that I would be back in town in a few weeks and that he should feel free to call me if he wants to meet up for tutoring or just to talk next semester.

Victoria TP 9

On Tuesday we started reading books so that she can start working on her pronunciation and new words. We started with a few of my brother's favorite English books like Are you My Mother? These are very easy and so I thought it would help her start being able to complete full sentences and work on expanding her vocabulary. She got through that book with only minor problems. We started on another book from the Berenstain Bear collection. I really like using these books because there is a lot of repetition and a mixture of easy, medium and hard words. I also like that these books use phrases that people use all the time in conversation and rhymes that are sometimes really tricky. She stumbles through these books but she seems to enjoy them after she takes a moment to understand what she just read.

Victoria TP 8

So I am back in the Motherland of Miami and I have set up tutoring sessions with my little brother's nanny. She has been wanting to be tutored for a while. Her name is Marjory and she is from Colombia. On Monday I started our session while my brother was at "school" (three hours of toddler socialization). She has pretty good understanding of when people talk but needs more help. Her speaking skills are pretty low. In the past we have just spoken Spanish to each other. So the first day we spoke about what she needs help with.Good thing we are in high supply of baby books to read from.

Chris - TP # 7

In my last days in Tallahassee, I was scrambling for tutoring opportunities. After realizing that none of the TCC students were going to contact me to set up a session, I didn't know what to do. Luckily, Ramin sent me a list of CIES students who were still in town.

I met up with Mecit, who I had met when he helped Tony and I out with our recorded lessons. Mecit is a very friendly guy from Turkey. I met him in an empty Strozier Library in the morning after traversing the ever-changing maze that the construction workers outside constructed.

Since this was the first time that I met with Mecit for tutoring, we were a little hesitant and didn't know where to start at first. Mecit told me that he feels he needs to work on reading and listening. I suggested that we read an article online. He told me that he doesn't like to read, even in Turkish, but he knows that it's important. I chose an article on the WikiLeaks controversy. Mecit read it aloud as I followed along. We would stop after each paragraph and talk about the definition of unknown words and pronunciation of some words. This exercise took a long time, with all the defining words and explaining the meanings of each paragraph. He told me that he usually understands individual paragraphs, but has a hard time getting the big picture. So, when we finished, we reviewed and summarized the whole article.

Mecit told me that he is taking the TOEFL exam for the third time, in a few days. I told him to call or email me if he needs help with anything. We will probably continue meeting up after I return form winter vacations.

Victoria TP 7

Bushra and I had time for one more tutoring session before my final and so we worked on reading new words again. I had her read a few articles from time for kids. She still reads in a monotone way with very little intonation. She is getting better at sounding out words but English has so many false letters in words. Whenever we come across a word that she has difficulty with she writes it down and the meaning of the word and we say it out loud a few times. Later on, after we're done reading the article, I have her write sentences with her new words.

Victoria CP 10

I went to the mall with Latifah and three of her children. There are four in all. One boy and three girls. The girls came with Latifah and I and they were absolutely lovely. We started having a cup of coffee. We spoke about her children and what they were going to do over this holiday break. They are going to Orlando to go to Disney World. This is their first time going so I asked them what parks they were going to and I wrote out some phrases for Latifah to use. These phrases included "Can you please take our picture?". I told her oldest daughter to speak with her mother in English and have her ask people questions. I also suggested different ways to keep on learning English while she doesn't have class. I suggested that she watch children movies and read books.

Victoria CP 9

I went to dinner at Sahara with Bushra and Hanan and it was a delightful experience. I let them pick food for me and tried a kind of steak I hadn't tried before. We went over the pronunciation of the English names on the menu and some of the names I couldn't pronounce. I learned how to say words like "kabob" correctly. We ate and they let me try their food and everything was delicious. Afterward Bushra and I tried Turkish coffee for the first time. Hanan is already a big fan of Turkish coffee. We also had pecan baklava. I am not a huge fan of baklava but I don't really like sweets. They enjoyed my bad pronunciation of words that are unfamiliar to me.

Victoria TP 6

I met up with Edda last week before her TOEFL exam and we went over some issues she was having. She wanted to work on her reading comprehension so I printed out some articles from national geographic and asked her questions about them. I remembered from one class that I observed that one article is read and the other is listened to and then the questions are answered. I also found two contrasting articles and had her read one and then listen to one and then answer questions. She had a few other concerns with her pronunciation but those were problems that I told her not to worry about because they were part of her accent and not a problem.

TP#10

I heard my phone ringing from the shower and found that Hunwoo was calling me from outside my apartment. I quickly dressed and let him in although my Afro was still as wet as a sponge. I was ready to sit down and prepare my final lesson but he stopped me and said that he was short on time so we'll just talk for the evening. To my surprise he brought from his bag a gift for me. Is was a billfold shaped card with the history of his school on one side and a 1000 (or 1$) note with the depiction of his school on it along with it founder. He explained to me as i read that the school was unique in that it had existed for over 600 years. As he said this i was seized by the realization that i had not gift to offer him instead. I noticed his had was a bit old so idecided that in the Tony spirit he needed a very stylish had. So I gave him my Kangol Beret. He really seemed to like it. We took a couple picture for his photo album and he also took a few of my boa. He promised me that if i came to Seoul he would show me around. I said good bye at the door and i hope that i will see him again.

TP#9

Hunwoo really surprises me with how self motivated he is. A few lessons back I showed him my Kindle and explained all that it could do and why i purchased it. Lo and behold he purchased one as well(along with a classy leather billfold case) He said that he wants to keep up on his English by reading and decided that this was the best way. When i looked on his screen i noticed that he has already got several magazines, along with the NewYork times and a few other kids books. Today I prepared from him a listening lesson plan. We put on an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-air (the episode where they are lost on the camping trip and find a bag filled with cash) and we sit and watched about fifteen minutes of it. Before hand i asked him to jot down any word or phrases he didn't understand. after watching i answered all his questions as usual and went through the episode slowly so that he could hear both again with greater clarity.

TP#8

Previously i had asked him where he had been generating some to the phrases he had been asking my for clarification. Among tv and general conversation he told me that he was reading A Diary of A Wimpy Kid to help him improve his English. So I asked him to bring the book with him to Stroizer. The two tasks i had in store for him were pretty simple. First he was to read me a chapter(roughly 5 medium sized font pages) and i would jot down notes on his reading. Reading the chapter took about 10 minutes and i got a good sense for what his problems speaking were. In the past I only corrected his grammatical and pronunciation errors, but there are a few problems with the way he speaks. I explained to him that he was speaking loudly enough but needed to take time to remember to enunciate his words so that they could come out less choppily. I asked him to reread a several passages that i noted were a but unclear when he read them initially and asked him to go back and reread them with the change. After that we read together an article that I picked from the Korean Times about K-pop stars exploitation. I made sure that it would push his vocabulary a bit and asked him to try to put the correct inflections in when he was speaking. The inflections were a bit more troublesome than the annunciation but i think he got it down pretty well.

Chris - CP # 9

I went to play pool with Baha and Erie after we all agreed that we like to play. On the way over, Baha showed me his car and told me how he loves American cars (he drives a Camaro). He also told me about the Turkish/Ottoman Slap. Ottoman warriors used to train by slapping marble over and over again until their hands were just weapons. They could take someone out with one slap. Baha acted out the slap and we all laughed because it looks funny.

Erie let me and Baha play first. He beat me pretty easily; he's really good at pool. He told me that once he had a two hour winning streak in Miami. Erie was very good too; she beat Baha--by default, but it was a close game anyhow. We played about 5 games in this manner, with the winner staying on the table. I taught Erie and Baha the words and phrases used in pool, like "scratch", "rack 'em up", and "break". I asked them if they had ever heard of snooker (which is a different game altogether, even though the pool hall was called "Snookers"). They hadn't heard of it, but that's OK because it's not as fun as pool.

While we were playing we talked about TV shows, Japan, and a whole range of topics that I can't recall at the moment. Erie didn't talk as much as Baha, but she's fun to hang out with. I dropped them off at their homes and made plans to meet up with Baha when he goes to Jacksonville this month.

Tony CP#12

After completing our video presentation Chris and I invited out the CIES student over to La Pitaria, our treat. Only Ermit, Erie and Baja could join us but it was pretty fun hanging out with all of them at once. It had to be about forty degrees outside and Baja and I were only wearing long sleeve shirts so we had fun giving Erie,who was bundled like a kitten, a hard time when she said she was cold. With Baja he began telling me about Turkish women, their fashions and their oddities. In Turkey, he said, the women are fashionable at all time; breakfast, lunch and dinner...they probably sleep in heels. In the restaurant I helped Erie order and asked her a few questions about the Japanese perception of facial hair. Like Hunwoo, she agreed that most formal places shun it but tend to overlook it on foreigners. She asked if i was planning on growing dreadlocks and I replied that I was. She said the she had once attempted to put a few dreads in her hair but it had disastrous results. We all ate and started walking back and Chris and I still haven't found a good way to sent our videos to Ramin yet as they exceed email capacity. Hopefully we will figure that out soon.

Tony CP#11

It took some effort but I finally met up with Bamba to chat. We met at Stroizer and he brought his younger brother along. Turns out he's from the Ivory Coast. I was expecting to hear maybe Arabic or some African language when he interpreted what I was saying to his brother but to my surprise I realized that he was speaking French. He's not here to learn English he told me but rather to study finance. None of us were expecting it to be as cold as it was and was the topic of conversation as we walked quickly back towards my warm apartment. When we got back we went to the living room and began to chat after I offered them tea. He told me that he has difficulty meeting American friends and wanted to know how he should go about doing so. Also he was interested in campus jobs and where I could go work out. I tried to explain all of this a best as I could giving him websites and directions and so forth. As were about to part I asked him if he could help me with my video presentation tomorrow, to which he replied that he will see.

Tony CP#10

In the wake of finals I didn't plan of attending the International dinner but i figured, hey, there's free food and it will probably be the last time I see Seongbong before he leaves so I should go. I'm glad i did. I didn't take long to find Seongbong, and he seemed in particularly high spirits, leaning over to tell me joke after joke as we sat at the dinner table. "Tonight", he told me,"I must be up at 5:45 to make my flight. But my friends tell me that I must go drinking with them, and I will drink very much." Laughing he finish by saying "They are trying to kill me!" Ha, I thought this was hilarious and wished him luck on catching his flight. My table was filled with other Korean students whom he introduced me too and they were all very pleasant. Each told me a little advice for going over to Korea and a bit about themselves. The food was delicious and, as requested, we all roared with applause when he went to get his certificate. Unfortunately I couldn't stay the whole time as I had work at 10:30.

Tony CP#9

I invited Seongbong over to chat and eat some lunch. He's going to Washington DC soon and he seems pretty excited. Although he tells me that he has purchased a ticket for his flight he hasn't made any definite plans. He asked if I had been to which I replied I had. This sparked a long conversation about the places I've been too in D.C. and what i think he should visit. Naturally we talked about the different museums and what not but really ticked him were my stories of some of the crazy people i met while walking through queens and near the capital. His email is still the same he tells me, and if i find my way over to Seoul in the near future he promised to show me a good time.

Chris - CP # 8

After filming our lessons, Tony and I treated our "students" to some dinner at Pitaria. Mecid didn't have time to go with us, so it was Tony, Eri, Baha, and Emin. We all walked down there and I talked to Emin about the weather where he is from, in Eastern Turkey. As we ate, we talked about a range of topics, from anime to fines for expired license plates (Baha wants to drive his car, but the plates are expired).

It was a really nice group, which surprised me a bit because the only person I knew was Baha and the rest were sort of blind recruits. It was awesome that they were so willing to help us out. Eri seemed to have more trouble with the activities in our respective lessons, but she does fine in conversation. Baha is always very outgoing in conversation and can talk about almost anything. Emin spoke very quietly, but his skills are high and he can talk about a wide range of topics. Baha and Emin would speak English rather than Turkish, to one another during dinner. This was good for keeping a group conversation going. Tony told us all about the novel he was writing, but I don't want to give it away...you'll have to ask him about it.

All in all it was a good dinner. Tony and I were in high spirits because we were relieved to have finished our lessons.

Myrick, J. CP#7

For our next trip, Onur and I decided to see a movie. His roommate came along for the ride as well. We went to see Inception which is an amazing movie. This was my third time seeing it, and it was Onur's second time. Onur saw it in Turkey and said that he did not think it was that good or as interesting as Americans make it seem. His roommate has never seen it either, and didn't even hear about it prior to that night. At the end of the movie, I explained to both of them why everyone was so intrigued by the movie, the plot, and just the idea as a whole and they didn't think it was worth the praise. His roommate felt the same way that Onur did, and concluded that the movie was worth a 5 out of 10 for our review.

Myrick, J. CP#6

Hello beautiful people!

It has been awhile, I have just been busy with graduation and life afterwards. Anyhow, I met with Onur twice two weeks ago due to our hectic schedule with him taking the TOEFL and my graduation. But, the first time we met, Onur decided to help with finding employment in Turkey with different schools and programs. He recommended teaching at his university which he said as a very good program and is always looking for people to help with English. This helped me out greatly as it is hard to find employment in Turkey if you dont know where to look. Luckily, Onur is familiar with the cost of living, prices, and etc. which made me understand how much of a salary I should be looking for when applying to these jobs.

Taylor- CP #5

Well it has been awhile since I last updated, my computer conveniently caught a virus the week before finals and the computer store finally returned it to me yesterday evening! Also my car broke down after Thanksgiving, and the price is too great to fix right now (I just have to put oil in my car when I want to drive it). Please don't think I am complaining, I just want to explain my lack of seeing Jose Miguel and updating the blog.

Anyway, I was finally able to meet up with Jose Miguel last week before he took off to go to Miami. He decided not to take the big exam. He told me his goals were to speak casual English, nothing too perfect, just enough to understand his clients when he works for his family business. My friends from the crew team decided to have a game night at their house, and I thought this would be a great activity to take Jose Miguel to, especially since we really only have been to bars. We played apples-to-apples which was funny but I don't think he understood the humor until towards the end of the game because he kept putting the literal relation to the word at first (I guess Americans are very sarcastic after all). Also, I hate to say it but, the Helen Keller and George Bush cards are automatic winners and I don't think he understood the humor until I explained that Americans can be pretty cruel (dark humor). Eventually we all got bored of the game and talked. I tried to get a few conversations in with Jose but he was also talking to some of my team members who were practicing their Spanish (cheaters!) I told them they have to speak English, and we discussed Venezuela and how in the US if you own land the government usually has to pay you for it if they want the land but in Venezuela, Chavez just takes the land and claims it his. Before I knew it, it was pretty late so we decided to call it a night. But first, I had to put oil in my car which Jose thought was pretty funny.

Tony TP#7

Hunwoo is leaving to go visit New York in a few week he's told me. He seems pretty excited and im a bit jealous. Finals are murdering and I've been living beneath two rocks I've named school and work. There will probably be only one more lesson after this one so i planned to do a mega review of all that i had helped him with over the past couple of weeks. Once we compiled all the notes on phrases and vocabulary i went down the line asking him to give a brief explanation of its meaning and to use it in a sentence. This took about an hour but its evident from how little errors he made that either he has either been studying tremendously or has a natural knack for remembering them. I'm inclined to think that it is a little bit of both. We planned our last meeting and ill be sad to see him leave. Ive undoubtedly learned as much from him as he has from me.

Kristen Braun CP # 8&9 Tuba 12/9 &12/11

This week I went over to Tuba's for dinner on Thursday and then again to do my video taped teaching for her and her roommates. Thursday we sat and talked a lot about our different views of the world through our religion and then talked about all the things she has done from undergrad to now. She has been resting and relaxing since the TOEFL exam (which she feels "so-so" about, uncertain about the listening part) but is gearing up along with her roommates to get into study mode again for the GRE and possible second time around for the TOEFL.

On Saturday, I came round to their house with pizza in hopes to make the "class" more relaxed. Which it was. Tuba and her roommates were so helpful in making the class go by smoothly they participated and had fun with the game at the end. Afterwards they let me know that they really enjoyed it.

We sat for an hour or so talking about their plans for the future. One of Tuba's roommates (whose name has escaped me right now) said "We are working so hard but it is only for now and soon it will be done and we will be glad that we did." Another example of the diligence I find so admirable in my tutees and convo partners.

Tuba and I will be continuing our meet ups through the winter as she will still be attending CIES and preparing for tests and needing more practice with English.

Kristen Braun TP #13 BJ 12/08

For this session, I prepared a simple grammar lesson on articles and the whys and hows for using the/a/an/ or no article. I had a chart and different exercises from a book Fundamentals of English Grammar (provided by the library) and we went over the different exercises. It wasn't so much to teach him but to remind or reinforce the need for articles before most nouns.

When asked if he would like more grammar exercises to work on he said "It's okay." Meaning "No." Maybe it's too boring. But we did talk a lot about his trip to Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

I suppose I will stick with convo based lessons and reading exercises.

Kristen Braun- TP#10,11 & 12 -Kim 12/4,12/6 &12/9

Kim and I have continued to meet at the library twice a week. She is so talkative and comes with her homework every meeting and ready to explain and discuss her VOA articles. On the sixth she told me about her and her husbands relationship and we listened to an online conversation and discussed her article.


The sixth I am sad to say was a day almost entirely devoted to discussing Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's relationship and finding out whether or not they are married (they are not). We read and discussed different articles on the couples personal goings on and finally ended up watching a video of Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah's couch. We did read and talk a lot and did some listening exercises but... it was mostly looking at Entertainment tonight's gossip column.

On the 9th, she and I looked over her homework and then spent time on a VOA broadcast featuring the word break. We would listen and then listen again and then listen a third time after going over some comprehensive questions and reviewing/ discussing the different words. We then looked for a book to read together. She didn't want to read even a simpler book if it looked too thick so she picked out Call of the Wild , a book she was already familiar with from school in Korea, but she chose a level four English version. I said I would read along in the normal version. For the next lesson I will have a printed out copy of chapter one and will read excerpts in the regular English and go over vocab.

Daniel Fletcher TP #3

Yesterday I met with my tutor partner, Merve at the library. She had taken the TOEFL on Saturday and was upset because she didn't do well on the exam. As a result of this displeasure with English, she didn't want to study or learn any thing. I could tell that she was really frustrated with English, and she even told me that she might hate English if I forced her to study.
I breifly discussed my lesson, but soon discovered that she was not interested. On a normal day, she would have been interested, but not after failing the TOELF. Instead of discussing my lesson like I wanted to do, we just chatted.
We talked about Turkey and how I like ancient civilizations. We talked about her knowledge in foreign languages, how she is studying English and Mongolian. How she doesn't like English because she is forced to study, ect. We talked about how she is learning Mongolian because of her boy-friend from Mongolia. We talked about her boy-friend and her plans for marriage.
After out conversation, Merve thanked me for not forcing her study from the lesson I had made.



She is frustrated right now with English, but with time, this frustration will pass.

Tony TP#6

After saying farewell to Seongbong, Hunwoo and I moved to the living room to proceed with the evenings lesson. Phrases seem to be what he has most difficulty with, since even the denotations of the words do not help him understand. So we first went through two more articles in the Korean Times (him giving me an explanation of each paragraph) to work on his comprehension all the while I continued giving him definitions of foreign words and phrases. Afterwards I asked him to bring out once again his list of words and phrases and write a short page long paragraph using 10 of the learned words and 5 of the phrases, mimicking what I had seen in one of the classroom observations. He had naturally forgotten the meaning of some of them and the exercise served as good reinforcement.

Tony CP#8

I invited Seongbong over to my apartment an hour before i planned to have Hunwoo over for his lessor so naturally when I opened my front door to find Hunwoo with him as well, I was a bit taken aback. Apparently they hadn't noticed my massive(and expensive) stack of the complete Dragon Ball Z manga sitting on my desk. Next to that was my DeathNote manga collection which I belive to be the greatest literary work since the Bible. We talked about some animes until Seongbong asked me if i had seen any korean movies. He explained that the Korean movies that are liked in the US are not the most popular in Korea. The dramas are king there from what i gather. Hunwoo noticed my kindle on my nightstand and asked if i liked it. I said yes and when Seongbong asked if it was better than books i explain why i thought so. Seongbong seems to be the more lively of the two and also the most money oriented. After about an hour and a half Seongbong left and I invited Hunwoo to the living room to begin the tutoring lesson.

Tony CP#7

I asked Hunwoo and Seongbong if they wanted to go see a movie. They both enthusiastically said yes. Seongbong said that he had been to see several American movies but that the English had been a bit too had in all of them to follow. I however had good fortune, that the Pixar movie Megamind had just came out and seemed not too much above their level. On they way to the movies I Seongbong mentioned his girlfriend and i asked how long they had been together. At this he replied 2 years. I congratulated him and asked Hunwoo the same question. 326 Days he said. Seongbong seemed at ease with this response but I was flabbergasted. How in the world can you possibly remember how many days its been, I asked him. Apparently in Korea they celebrate Anniversaries every 100 day. Seongbong jokingly said that Korean women are 3 and a half times more expensive than American women. Also Seongbong explained to me that in Korea movie seating is assigned. We chatted for the next 4o minutes as the we waited for the movie to start, and when it did I asked them to feel free to ask me anything they didn't understand. I only got a few questions. After I was finished I asked how much they understood, 70 to 80 percent was their response.

Tony TP#5

Hunwoo and i met in Storizer again but I decided that he needed something more challenging. Instead of reading articles noor correcting grammer i decided to engage him in a variety of issues which were complex and would require him to streach his English skills. We first talked about what he thought of the politics between North and South Korea, particularly if he thought the North had nuclear weapons and the different views on reunification. As he spoke i created another list of his errors and words which did not match the complexity of the ideas he was trying to convey. When he was finished i explained how they enhanced his abilty to communicate along with their definitions and the subtle differences between those on the list and the words he had used. Secondly i asked him about Korean dating culture since it had supplied some humorous stories in the past. Before he began to speak i asked him to take out his list of phrases and try to apply at least half of them in the conversation and to check off the ones that he had used. Indeed he managed to do that and with not much difficulty actually.

Tony TP#4

I called Hunwoo to schedule our appointment in Stroizer and he said that he was bringing materials that he wanted help on. We arrived and found the same spot on the second floor of Stroizer. He had prepared again a list of phrases that he had either read or heard througout the week and we took about twenty minutes to explain them all. I gave him a list of vocabulary words, had his practice pronunciation followed by an explanation of the words. When we had completed both, I quizzed him on the meaning of both the words and phrases and asked him to use them in a sentence. I corrected and gave him feed back on all the errors that were made along with the notes of them I had taken down. I feel like I have been a bit spoiled with receiving Hunwoo as a partner as he is extremely self-motivated.

Tony TP#3

I finally got a meeting with Hunwoo. We met on the first floor of Stroizer in the Starbucks. He seemed like a starbucks pretty nice guy. Finding no seating on the first floor we went up to the second flood to begin the lesson. I had prepared several articles that I thought were interesting at different reading levels which I intended to have him read and explain back to me so I could gauge his reading, speaking and comprehension level. But before that I asked him several questions about himself and his interests so that I could later mold my lessons around them. He's from a city near Seoul and is a junior at the University of Korea. Jokingly he told me that when he was young he wanted to be a famous guitarist but realized sadly that he has no musical talent. However he does have a passion for soccer and I think I recall having seen him near Eppes once.

Dallas TP7

Met with Sunny and she brought her textbooks for me to checkout. We went to a restaurant to expound on the American experience. I provided prompts for her to use when ordering a communicating with the waiter. She didn't seem to comfortable talking to the waiter. I would say that her speaking is around a level one low level two. She can get her point across but I spent a good time correcting and redirecting her. I trying to have her repeat the correct versus just having her acknowledge the statements. we reviewed several vocabulary terms. One in particular was "cuddle". Apparently someone sent her a text about cuddling and she got offending because she did not know what the term meant. After I explained what it was she was somewhat relieved but still not happy with the comment. We exchange information about our customs when it came to going out to eat with friends. I think it was a good session because she would repeat some of the things that I said and write them down. I was told that I have a dialect, because she had some difficulty understanding me at times. We talked about possible homework assignments and reviewed some reading assignment in her book. We flipped through some vocabulary cards to close out our sessions. WE discussed different terms for the food on the menu, such as the difference between ribs and prime rib. Beef and bison (buffalo). Our next meeting will be in the library. I going to try to find some beginner reading lessons share.

Dallas-TP6

I met with a new tutee Sunghee Jang. She says her nickname is Sunny becuase thats how you pronounce her name. Sunny is from South Korea. Is has been in the states for five months and is planning on teaching English when she returns. This first session we just got to know eachother and exchanged information to setup a schedule that we could meet. She is around a level 1-2 stage. She is taking classes language classes at TCC. Next year she plans on enrolling at CIES. Her husband also is attending FSU pursuing his Masters in Public Administration. He works for the government in South Korea. Although she has taken English in Korea since third grade she has not had many conversation partners to practice communicating with. She wants to focus on reading, speaking, and vocabulary skills. Today she brought in the school newspaper and review some on the things vocabulary within the text. She keeps a really organized notebook for all of the new vocabulary words she comes across. I find her diligence extremely admirable. Today we discuss terms like nosey, the pronunciation of squeaky, packed, etc. We also talked about the difference and similar uses for 'F' and "Ph" as the Fuh sound. She appears to be really eager and excited and so am I.

Dallas TP5

I recieved a new tutoring partner Ibrahim Dere. He is from Turkey. On our first meeting we discuss the some of the challenges he felt he wanted to work on. He mostly is concerned with his listening and speaking. After listening to him speak. He appears to be around a high level three or low four. The only thing I really noticed was his fluency. He is currently attending FSU he is preparing for the Master of Public Administration. Back in Turkey he works as a government energy expert. He is here on a grant from his government. Ibrahim said his name means father of society. His last name Dere, means creek. He told me that his country just recently began using surnames. It was a legislation passed by the government that enforced that. Prior to this new legislation he was known as Ibrahim son of Elijah. Elijah of course is his fathers named. His father chose the surname Dere because of the town they live in. Hmm I wonder what I would have my last name be if I had to choose one. LOLSoon we will be preparing for his final, he says that most of the difficultly in paper writing is the translating online is so time consuming.

DallasTP 4

Saleem and I met at Applebees. We talked about the various types of food he liked. saleem is interested in learning through conversation. He wants to practice his speaking. I've already observed him in his grammar and reading class and he appears to be doing well. At dinner we discussed all the different things he has done in tallahassee. I dont think that he is that confident about his listening skills. He told me that he usually walks out of movies that are not action films. I can only imagine that that is because he has difficultly following the dialogue. Its either that or maybe he just only likes action movies. I notice that with some foreign films they usually dont have as much background music. I think the soundtracks really make the films. Next time I plan to provide Saleem with some ordering prompts to get him accustomed to communicating effectively.

Chris - CP # 7

I finally made it back to the ESL class at TCC this morning (after a cold bike ride over there!). Last time I went, I blogged it as a tutoring hour. However, today was their last class of the semester and all we did was munch on some delicious food some students brought in and talked. This was great because last time I went, the students were focused on their work and I didn't really get to know them. I now know, at the very least, everyone's name and their respective home countries.

I spent a lot of time talking to Jeff, the only guy in the class. He is from Haiti and speaks Creole, French, English, and Spanish. He sits in the back of the class with headphones on, but he's always smiling and happy. I asked him what he was listening to and he played some "Compa" (Haitian music) for me. He also listens to a lot of Dominican music. He explained that Creole is the language of "our parents." French is the language used in schools, so if a kid doesn't go to school, he/she may understand French, but can't speak it. Jeff says that Haitians like to learn numerous languages. Jeff's going to try to get his GED next semester at TCC and hopes to study Engineering after that.

I also talked to Juana, from Ecuador, for a while. She's fun to talk to because she ends up speaking in Spanglish when she gets excited. We talked about her plans, my plans, Ecuador, among other topics. The Spanish-speakers tend to cluster together in this class, but Juana usually keeps her distance. In fact, I haven't heard her speak in Spanish once, even though the teacher often speaks to half the class in Spanish. She's a very dedicated learner.

This class is great, but it's no CIES. It makes me realize how lucky the CIES students are to be in that program. Students at CIES get an intensive head-start on higher learning in English. On the other hand, the students at TCC are slowly working their way up, most starting with this class then getting their GED. The thing is, without a GED, it's hard to get a job and without a job, it's hard to do just about anything.

At the end of class, I was talking to Ms. Pereira (the instructor) about private tutoring because I still need a good amount of hours. She announced it to the class and, to my surprise, almost the whole class was interested. So, I'm no longer worried about fulfilling my tutoring requirement. This weekend, I'm going back to Jacksonville, but I'll come back next week for a tutoring marathon. If anyone still needs tutoring hours, get in touch with me because I think I'll have more than my share with this ESL class and I'm sure they would appreciate meeting some more of us!

CP #5 - Matthew

This past Saturday evening I had the pleasure to hangout with Jeffrey and a few other friends to watch the FSU football game. We gathered later in the day to eat and "tailgate". As the night went on, I got into a few interesting conversations about how Football can be very confusing and how it is odd to play a sport for 8 seconds at a time; only to stop and do it all again, roughly 120 times a game. I was informed that even though each play is different, the stopping of plays does not allow the players to be creative or create plays of their own, like a soccer player might be able to do with free time and space. It was an interesting comparison, and being a soccer player myself, I had to agree. I guess it is all relative to where one grows up and what culture they are acquainted to.

Also, I had the chance to schedule a meeting time in two weeks for a teaching lesson. At the moment I am studying hard for the GRE that I take Thursday, therefore the lesson will have to wait another week. All in all, I am enjoying my time with my conversation partners, but I am sad that they will be absent next semester for they are returning to their homes to continue their careers. :(

CP #4 - Matthew

Last week I had a chance to meet up with Jeffrey and Nasser during Fridays festivities in the stadium. They were happy that the session was over and that they did well on their exams. Jeffrey was teaching me how to sing a Korean song that he would perform later in the evening. He is a rather great singer. We talked about how some of the lyrics don't translate too well so explaining in English was even more difficult.

I had the opportunity to meet all of Nasser's family and they were quite polite but definitely reserved. He brought a rice dish with chicken and vegetables mixed in for the potluck. It was delish. I also saw Fatwan, whom I have not seen in a while.

After dinner and awards I had previous responsibilities to attend to, therefore, I had to depart from the party. Although, before leaving, I asked Jeffrey to meet up Saturday to watch the FSU football game. This shall be an interesting topic of discussion in the next blog.

Chris - CP # 6

Now that finals are almost over, I'm finding a lot of time opening up to meet with TPs and CPs. I'm glad I have this next week just to focus on TEFL. That's what I've wanted to do the whole time, but other classes kept distracting me.

Anyways, today I met with Jia Moon again. We met up at Starbucks and went in to order. I think the atmosphere of that Starbucks would scare even advanced speakers. Jia told me she always orders the same thing because she knows she'll get it right. We sat outside and talked for a while. We talked about final exams, winter plans, music, birds, etc. Jia is planning to go to New York soon with her brother, so I told her some places she might enjoy going to. I told her about my finals and all of my classes. She had a hard time understanding me when I told her about some classes because of the terminology. She played a Korean song for me and told me she has been playing piano for a very long time.

Then we were on the move. We went to Strozier, but it was packed so we went to Goldstein (the children's books library) and I studied for my Spanish exam later that day. Jia found a few children's books to read while she waited for her brother. I was able to help her out with some words and phrases when she got stuck.

Victoria CP 8

Today I went to a party with Bushra and several other women from CIES. They happen to live in my apartment complex and right across the street. They made the most delicious food and I had a blast. I know I can't spell any of these names so I won't disgrace them with my spelling. There was a lady from Turkey, one from Japan, and three from Saudi Arabia. Not to mention Cati and me :). It was really interesting to see these women outside of CIES because they were not covered up like they usually are. I had a wonderful time with all of them. We spoke about several different topics and this went on for hours. I hope I get invited again because it was one of the best outings I've had all semester. We had stories from all over the world with everyone at the table. Of course I had to roll myself home because of how much I ate but my love handles are worth it! That's for you Tony.

Victoria TP 5

I met with Latifah today and we worked on her vocabulary. Since we had decided to meet at the Starbucks in the mall we went around and I would name things for her and she would ask for the name of other things. After walking around for a while we sat down and she made sentences with the vocabulary terms. They were simple sentences like " I bought the purple dress for my daughter". We spoke about the different types of pets since there were birds inside the mall. She told me about the ritual they have if you touch a pig or dog. You have to wash your hands six times with dirt and once with water. Latifah is learning a lot but she is still in the beginning phase of learning. She makes a real effort to communicate and understand the conversation. I can see her understanding a lot more than before and attempting to speak in more complete sentences.

Victoria TP 4

I met with Bushra on Wednesday and since she had mentioned to me that she had problems with pronouncing new words I decided to bring a book for her to read out loud. I brought The Berenstain Bears - Trouble with Friends. I thought that it would be easy and entertaining for her. She would stop and ask me the meaning of words she did not know. When she had a problem with a word she would ask me for help and I would have her try first. She sounded it out quietly and then gave it her best shot. Most of the time she was right if not very close to it. The book has little rhymes for when the girls get mad at each other and I was able to explain these to her. There was a good amount of new vocabulary terms and wrote them down for later use. One thing she needs to work on is her intonation when she reads. She read the story in a very monotone way and that can sometimes be confusing.

C. Smith - CP No. 12

This discussion happened last Saturday. I've been helping Mihoko by acting as her conversation partner. Our talk happened on Skype. The first part of our talk covered what songs we like to sing at Karaoke. I don't have a dedicated Karaoke machine or a PA system to use, so I just use an analog mike and use WinXP's mixer to include it in the stereo stream going out of my computer. I typically do the el-cheapo sing along to youtube thing. She was surprised to see the setup I used and even more surprised to see the lyrics in romanji for lots of Japanese songs. 

I have to admit that I'm not good enough at reading Japanese to be able to read it quickly enough to sing, so this is an effective solution not only for me but for some of my other friends who can not read Japanese at all. It turns out that Mihoko-san also likes to sing anisongs (songs from Japanese animation) and we talked about our mutual love for the medium as well as what songs we like to sing. 

She was interested in the anime convention scene in the States, so I discussed how different it was from Comiket and other venues in Japan. 

After that we discussed our plans for the New Year. I'd prepped a list of vocabulary for herr:
year end postcards (年賀状 nengajou
kotoshi mo yoroshiku o-negai-shimasu (今年もよろしくお願いします) (I hope for your favor again in the coming year) 
(shinnen)
akemashite o-medetou-gozaimasu ((新年)あけましておめでとうございます?) (Happiness to you on the dawn [of a New Year])
kinga shinnen (謹賀新年?) (Happy New Year)
shoshun (初春) (literally "early spring")

C. Smith - CP No. 11

For those of you keeping track, this meeting with my CP happened before my meeting with K- today. On the day of the CIES graduation, I moseyed over to the party. I said hello to Sam, Matthew, Anthony, and Katalina at the party while I greeted a lot of my friends (including Kei) at the event. It was good to have this moment to relax and chill, or chillax if I may be allowed to create a portmanteau. 

Our conversation mostly followed what we've done, what remains to be done, and our ability to get everything done by the deadline. Kei seemed to be standing up to it quite well from what I could tell. I also met Yamamura at the event and did not recognize her because her hairstyle and outfit were totally different from what I saw before. I unfortunately had to leave early that evening because I was starting to get very tired - I'd been up all night because I had to teach my lesson that day and I don't get much sleep before tests. As a result, I did not see Ramin's awesome performance. 

C. Smith - CP No. 10

Although I often have a Teaching Partner type arrangement with K- at the library in Tallahassee, today we just did a free conversation. Part of it was that I was still fried from a very busy weekend, and the other part was that I had given a TOEIC lesson in the morning where a lot of things did not go as planned. I chalk that up to Youtube giving me problems. 

Sometimes a low tech approach is better, and for the remainder of that class I simply read the text instead of using youtube to deliver the material. For K-'s lesson at the library we talked about Florida wildlife. We also talked about what K- wants to do back home and her intention to work as a travel agent. Some discussion of how her experience as a teacher carries over to this new career path. I gave her vocabulary and showed her a few grammar patterns to use to make comparisons, but this as this was a lesson where we just talked that wasn't the focus of the discussion. 

I agreed to continue tutoring K- over skype after she returns to her home country. 

Catalina CP #10

Thursday was the last conversation meeting between Ania and I. I went to her house and took some food that I’d made that morning for her to take a brake from her studying. She was in intense TOEFL mood, but managed to relax a little and told me about her family… I showed her some pictures of the awesomenest nephew in the world (mine, of course!) and she showed me some of her brother, mom and dad. She also told me about where she studies in Turkey, which is about fifteen hours away driving from where her parents live. We ended up going over some more speaking practice and she asked me about some writing stuff, but we finished the session talking about the similarities between Turkish and Spanish! We decided we should both learn each other languages! Hopefully we’ll meet up next week, she told me she has to show me some places to get cheap massages around town… ha! If they are good, I’ll let you know!

Catalina - CP #9

When Ania and I met on Wednesday it was more like a conversation that we’d ever had. She unwounded with me and told me a little bit about Turkey and how nervous she is about the TOEFL exam. We were laughing a lot in the small Circle K booth where I ran into some friends that ended up joining part of our conversation. The theme shifted towards relationships since one of my friend was having boy friend issues and it was interesting to see Ania’s mixed reactions. She seems like a really strong person, very brave and set forward yet she also has a classic upbringing and it seems complicated to put both things together. After about an hour we actually did some speaking practice for the TOEFL and she did a lot better than the previous days. I think ‘warming up’ really works for her. She no longer forgot as many verbs and was able to actually build many sentences instead of just placing the words together. Too bad we can’t do an hour of warming up during the exam!

Chris - CP # 5

I met with Marsha last night. She is from Thailand, but has lived in the states for over 5 years now. She has an extensive vocabulary, but she says she still struggles with pronunciation sometimes. She wants to tweak her accent so that she sounds American. She said it's OK to correct her when she pronounces something wrong, so I do that and offer her synonymous words occasionally so that she can further expand her vocabulary. I can explain a lot of it in Thai, but for the sake of this conversation partner assignment, I explain everything in English. It's tough to pass up a chance to speak Thai, but I'll just have to find my own conversation partner for that.

Marsha is actually in my American Lit class, which impresses me. I can't imagine having to read that many novels in another language in such a short time. She doesn't like that class, but it's required for her major.

We walked to the SLC to see Inception. The football game was going on, so every restaurant we passed was loud with cheer and hope. We talked a little about football, but neither of us like it too much. Final exams, sororities, and the weather were all topics that came up. We went into the movie and found two seats in the packed theater. Coincidentally, Baha sat right in front of us (I see him everywhere!). We didn't talk much during the movie since it's so intense and complex.

On the walk back, we talked about the movie and dreams. Marsha told me about one of her reoccurring dreams and I told her about one of mine. She told me she was able to control one of her dreams once, and I was jealous. We took the Nite Nole back towards our homes, which was a display of another side of FSU student life.

Chris - CP # 4 (Int'l Dinner)

On Friday night, everyone got all dressed and brought in some food for a great dinner in the stadium. I went arrived with Catalina and we went around and said hello to all of my CIES friends that I could find. It was cool to see all of the students in the same room. Before then, I could only guess how many students made up CIES from recognizing familiar faces going in and out of classrooms. I saw many people had brought their kid(s) and that made me realize that a lot of these students had put everything on hold back home to come here and better their English.

There was a plethora of delicious food, which kept growing as more people showed up. After eating, awards were given out and some of the CIES teachers spoke. Then, the real fun started. There were dance performances, poetry readings, and instrumental jams. My personal favorite was a song which featured everyone on their respective instruments (including Ramin on the bongos!) and a bunch of people playing different kinds of percussion instruments. The singing, playing and dancing lasted until 11. I kept wondering how much preparation had gone into these performances.

I made my rounds and as I said goodbye to everyone I knew, I asked if they'd be back in the spring semester. Luckily, most of the students I've become friends with will be back. So I went home feeling happy to be a part of all of this. I'll definitely keep hanging around CIES next semester, until Ramin kicks me out :p

Myrick, J. #CO2

Instead of class observation, I participated in the CIES Olympics which was a day filled with games for the students. I thought this was a great experience for the students as it helped them with their English skills. We got into groups and I was with people from Dubai, Colombia, and China, all of various levels. We communicated well, even though it took me some time to understand what some of my members were saying. We played pictionary, taboo, and even had scattergories. I took a step back and let my team members do most of the talking as I thought it would benefit them to communicate more. But, they all were very adamant about winning which surprised me because they all seemed so peaceful. When it came time to go against the other teams, my members were ruthless. When we played pictionary, we had difficult words that the team worked well at explaining, and they understood some of the drawings quicker than I did. One particular thing that surpised me was when in taboo, I said one word, my teammate picked answered it because it was almost spelled the same in his native language. It was a great time to interact with more international students.

Myrick, J. TP#3

For our most recent meeting, Ali and I jumped right into our writing exercises. I had Ali work on another prompt, and I gave him a 30 minute time limit. As he wrote, he seemed more confident in his outlining and his ideas. I did not bother him during the limit, but I just sat and watched. After the 30 minutes was up, we went over the essay, and I must say I was thoroughly impressed by his progress in a span of a few sessions. He had less grammatical, spelling, and noun/verb errors which I was happy about. His composition seemed to be more organizaed than the few that we did, and Ali noticed himself. The introduction essay stated his thesis and his main points, and everything flowed well. From start to finish, he really improved. When I asked ALi to reread it, he said the same thing. We did a practice TOEFL test that he had and worked on the reading portion which he said was making him nervous. Answering a few questions, I gave him some tips to help him pick out the main ideas in the essays, such as reading the first three sentences as it usually states the thesis. He said that he felt more confident about taking the test and would use the tips I gave him.

Myrick, J. TP#2

For our second meeting, we decided to come up with a plan to help Ali with his writing. I researched some prompts that could be shown on the TOEFL and we did an actual practice writing assessment. I gave him a prompt and 30 minutes to complete the essay. After he finished, he reviewed it and told me some of the things he felt he did wrong. I helped him to understand what his thoughts were and I critiqued his work as well. Again, I noticed that he was having problems with organization. So we went over how to utilize the first five minutes for his outline and we discussed how to decipher from the main points and supporting details. Before we left for the day, I gave him another prompt to work on overnight and we would review at our next meeting.

Myrick, J. TP#1

After a brief time of miscommunication, I finally met with my tutoring partner, Ali who is from Saui Arabia. Since this was our first meeting together, we decided to take things slow and try to get to know one another as well as his needs as far as learning English. He told me that he wanted to improve on his writing skills especially before taking his TOEFL exam. We reviewed a composition that he wrote, and I saw that he had some problems with noun-verb agreements, and mostly organizing his thoughts. I gave him a few tips with improving the organization of his thoughts, and we created a few outlines to help him.

Class Observation

Ross Kolozinski listening class is the last i will have the pleasure of observing. The assignment of the day is a listening activity. He played on the projection screen a clip from a the Cosby Show and explained the basic premise of the clip before showing it. Afterwards he went through the video a second time, pausing and highlighting and explaining phrases said by the characters. After it seemed that most of the students had a basic understanding of the phrase meanings, he divided them into groups of two and employed in the task of creating their own dialogue. They would need to incorporated most of them into their skit but also use them correctly. He walked around and explained the phrases and usage questions the students had and checked that they were staying on task. I noticed that he several times stopped the Turks from speaking Turkish amongst themselves and made them converse in English. There was not enough time to present the skits to the class however and would have to be continued another day.

The second Class Observation I was able to observe was held by Ramin. Apparently the class was thin because the Muslim students were observing a religious holiday and only its Asian students remained. The class was a carry over from a previous assignement about an article on the history of the Marlboro cigarette company. The assignements for the students wast to but the turning points of the company on a time line. As they did, Ramin gave the historical examinations for some of the more ambiguous parts of American history and iconography. I also noticed that he gave them the most tactile examinations for concepts because they seemed to be the most easily understood. Throughout the lecture he also asked his students if they understood the meanings of some of the more complex words or phrases in the article, and if they did not, clarified them. At the end of the lecture he encouraged the students to re-read the article with the clarity they had obtained from the review.

Class Observation 11/9

After initial difficulties I had the pleasure of observing Ryan Flemings intermediate class. He started off with a review of what had been learned and cleverly related it in terms of the TOFL exam to stress its its importance. I noticed that he takes the time to talk slower than normal and annunciate his words. Throughout the class he continually asked the students to answer both his questions and other questions prompted by other students so that they spoke as much as possible and participated in the class. Later in the class he gave a dialogue crafting assignment, and divided the students into small groups of two or three to work on them. However, he first provided brief examples of how to go about the assignment. When he called time, each small group stood and gave their dialogue in front of the class, and Ryan gave feedback to the individual groups after each presentation.

Daniel Fletcher TP#2

Last Sunday I met with my tutor partner at the library. I am glad it was nice outside and not too cold.
Upon starting our conversation, my partner complained that CIES doesn't use enough TOEFL vocabulary; which led into a discussion on how she wanted to improve her TOEFL vocabulary (earlier today, I completed a new lesson that focuses on potential words she may encounter taking the exam).
I started with some model based dialogue. I gave her some different questions asked from different people, and asked her to refuse based on the question and the person asking the question. Upon doing the lesson, we reviewed words that she didn't know such as: refuse, assertive, entertainment, compromise, pretend, threat, hire, and disguise. I provided the definitions from my head and told her to write these new words down and verify my definitions in a dictionary, so that she will not easily forget.
We then discussed some of the different verb tenses in English and how they are used. My partner did surprisingly well, but also mentioned that English verb tenses are difficult because many do not exist in Turkish. My partner then asked me to prepare another lesson using verb tenses for our next meeting (which I did today).
To end the lesson I gave her a children book to read out-loud to test pronunciation and vocabulary knowledge, but this turned out to be a little bit too easy. I will provide a more difficult reading assignment for our next meeting.

Tony - CP#6 - Teatime

Ryan asked me to bring my Xbox to Tea time and so I did. Once I had set it up and instructed several of the Korean and Chinese guys who were intrested in playing Halo Reach (and who wouldn't) I deemed it best to abdicate both controllers to avoide being "that guy" and go find someone who looked interesting to talk too. The week before I observed Ryan's class. However other than the boysterous personality of one Turk named Haken, I enjoyed a very concervitivly dressed young muslim woman poking with her pencil a sleepy Japanese girl in short shorts. The cultural contrast made me laugh a bit and increased my "view of humanity" meter five health points. As soon as I exited, I ran into the Japanese girl and decided to chat. i introduced myself and she said she remembered my name from class. Alas, she asked (with that apparently universal) knowing woman's grin if I remembered here. I did not. So she reintroduced herself as Lisa. She's 18, Japanese and has no concrete idea of what she wants to do with herself and had been in the stated for eight months. I'd been wondering how other cultures stacked up to my fathers in how long it took them to learn English. She like the other replied about 8 months to be able to hold steady conversation. I find this extremely impressive. Not long into conversation were joined by an African stuent named Eric who was extremely entertaining and lively. He, when i asked, said proudly that he was studying English to be a doctor. There was a certain compulsion in this decision I feel but decieded only to ask his motives I saw him again. He asked where i want to teach and I said Korea or Hong Kong. Hilarious he asked "why is every going to Korea!" They pay well I replied. At this he gave me a long but fascinating sermon of his view of my American materialism. To he honest, he was one of the most likeable and sincere people ive ever had the pleasure of meeting that I actually gave heavy thought to his words.

Tony - CP#5 - Teatime

I searched around the International center looking for SeongBong who had apparently tried to call me unsuccessfully due to my recently deceased cell phone. (rest is soul) A fairly assuring looking guy named Ryan and another woman who I don't recall having introduced herself helped me find my stand in CP Baja. Any hesitations about talking to a random forigner were banished instantly by Baja. The guy is a Turk from the city of Istanbul. I asked him what his intrests were, to which he replied, women, partying drinking, sleep. HAZZA! It's great to know that those things are also appreciated by the college males of the world (or at least Turkey) However attempting not to go speeding down that layman's four lane superhighway, i decided to ask him about Istanbul since I only know the history of the city and not its present culture. At this he enhusiatically whipped out his 4th Gen Iphone (jealousy) and showed me street view of google earth downtown Istanbul. He explained that is is both in Europe and in Asia and the various local of the city. From his brief annecdotes I think i've just added another city to my "places to visit while I simultanously attempt to become both rich and cultured" list.