Tony - CP #4 - Teatime

I arrived today to tea time, but was unable to find either Hunwoo or Seongbong to talk with. However Ramin informed me that their were two women whom i might enjoy talking with and introduced me along with Claude to Erreie and Tubja. steeping from the breakroom i got to talk i was intrested to hear what they had to say since i had not spoken with any female international students yet. Tubja is from Turkey, brunette, softspoken and concervitivly dressed. Erreie, is Japanese, however she was dressed in a way that can only be described as funky and though quiet gave signs of being very outgoing. We talked for a while about different majors and interests. Claude asked Erreie several questions about japan while i tried to coax Tubja into telling me about more about herself. I got the vibe that it was a bit too interviewish and think they may have felt more comfortable in a more lively setting.

Chris - CP#3

I met up with Hunwoo today at the SLC to go see the Banksy movie. We met in the lobby and talked for a while about how cold it is tonight (way too cold to bike through, that's for sure), Thanksgiving, and plans for traveling. Hunwoo is going to New York tomorrow because he wants to see it before he goes back to Korea in 10 days. It's too bad he's going so soon.

The movie was called Enter through the Gift Shop, which is really just another one of British street artist Banksy's genius projects. It was a great movie, but the humor may have been tricky for Hunwoo to pick up on. Afterwards, he said he only understood about half. At least it was a cool visual movie.

Hunwoo gave me a Korean fan as a token of appreciation. I promised him a frisbee (a true American souvenir) when he gets back from New York. It was fun hanging out with him, as usual.

Lindsey CP #6

I met with Y last Saturday. She was a bit frazzled. The day before a friend had invited her to go shopping, so she went along. Little did she know that it was Black Friday. She had gone to the mall and it was absolutely packed. But she was still pleased because she'd gotten a good deal on some clothes for her daughter. Y had also celebrated Thanksgiving with some other Korean families - they made many traditional American dishes, as well as a few Korean ones. I was surprised, but pleased, that she had celebrated the holiday too. I asked her how she celebrated Christmas in Korea (she's Roman Catholic) and she said that it was a very Americanized holiday in Korea - complete with Santa Claus and a Christmas tree. I encouraged her to take her family to the Celebration of Lights this weekend, as she is always looking for fun things to do on a budget.

Kristen Braun CP#6&7

11/23/10- Tuba and I met in a CIES classroom and we talked about her test and the speaking section. We've met these last few times after her class and before mine so we say we will rush but ended getting caught up in some activity/convo.

11/30/10- Yesterday I went to Tuba's house for a few hours. She is doing so much better on her speaking sections that she works with day and night on her computer. She showed me the formula she had of answering/defining/ explaining/example/conclusion and she does stay right in the 45 sec limit. As she walked me out she said "I am happy!" And she did seem to less nervous than the week before.

I also got a chance to meet with Dephne last week. She is a grad student from Turkey with whom last year I went over some of her lectures to prepare for the classes she had to speak. She is now teaching Turkish to Lindsay in our class so I got the chance to reconnect with her and hear about hew family and dissertation (Western Representation of the East). She also is incredibly busy, like Tuba, keeping long hours studying and writing- trying to get her dissertation done! She said "I like working these hours. I spend all day alone studying, all night studying. It lets me know me. I am getting to know me better through working hard with myself."

C. Smith - CP No 8

Today I woke up at 4:00 AM to have a conversation in Japan with T-san. 

We mostly talked about work and our professional goals. T-san wants to take his English to the next level in order to clear TOEIC. I haven't been trained to teach that but it'll be another feather to add to my cap. Our conversation was mostly about working, looking for work, translation between languages, and converting between different currencies. Because his firm does a lot of business, we ended up talking about dollars and slang terms for them. 

Though this was a free conversation, I think it's a good idea to maximize my students' exposure to English, so  I introduced some expressions (couching it, coin of the realm, having something work in your favor, foot in the door, put it on the map, a bitter pill to swallow, a penny saved is a penny earned and busy as a one-armed paper hanger) as well as vocabulary words (strained, breakneck pace, work at your own pace, eyes glazing over, etc.) 

C. Smith - CP No. 7

Last Saturday I met with M___-san over the internet. 

We discussed some of our personal interests (retrogaming, Japanese animation, etc.) using English. Like other old schoolies, she feels that most of the games of the 80's were harder than what is available today. I completely agreed with her.

M__-san had recently spoken with her father about her upcoming trip around the world. He is opposed to the idea. I think that people in Japan may have a rather negative impression of the safety in other countries that has been formed and reinforced through exposure to muck-raking news organizations.  

I mentioned my own trip to South Carolina to visit my relatives and explained how Thanksgiving is for us what the New Years' Day family gatherings are in Japan: a chance to get together with friends and eat seasonal food. 

I taught how to make comparisons as well as lots of vocabulary words (strict, genres, eras of music, recruiting, recruit, tae bo, boot camp, easygoing, etc.) I also introduced her to Pixel Maritan, but explained that you should not say this kind of English. 

Chris - TP # 6

Hi everyone,

I met with Pete yet again today. It was lunch time at CIES. It was the last day of the semester for all the students, so there was a different feeling in the air today. So while everyone was having fun during their lunch hour, Pete had to deal with me--he's very dedicated.

We started off by talking about how to talk about media in the past and future and when to use different tenses. He wanted to say that a book was upsetting, but he wanted to emphasize that he's still unhappy about the ending all this time after. I gave him a few different examples. It was for his writing comprehension class, so he asked me to say what I would write on the topic of "What is a book that you love and why?"

Then, we got into talking about the typical college experience here. I told him that high school is a lot easier than college. He asked how we handle all the reading that we are assigned in our classes and I told him either time management, skimming, or being selective. We also talked about the application process and compared it with the process in Taiwan. He seemed intrigued by the fact that students here can spend some time as "undecided" majors because in Taiwan you have to pick one at the start and then you are basically locked in.

Pete is always prepared with questions before we meet, which makes the sessions easier. He will go back to Taiwan for winter break, so we may only meet once more and he might be able to help me film my recorded lesson.

'Till next time..