CP 10 John Vaught

I have begun to work on a project in order to create a particular online presence and to give myself the opportunity for experience. I was contacted by several prospective English speakers asking me to participate in conversation with them. I received a total of 7 requests. I immediately told them that I would begin hosting a class online concerning itself with simple speaking exercises. I began with a mass email to my new "ESL partners" circle and asked them to all friend request one another. So far four have joined in. I have gotten into contact with 1/4 on a one and one encounter. We used the Google talk function. I had assigned the students to write back to me with an email telling me why they want to learn English and what they would say their current level was. From all of them I was told about their difficulties in finding English speakers in their own country. The group's abilities of spelling/grammar varied greatly from email to email. The one with the strongest ability came from Poland. Out of the other three one came from Iran and the others from Saudi Arabia. I was able to correspond a little bit more with the one from Poland. Her name is Agnes Ines . I was not able to see her due to her not having a camera, I did not turn mine on because I do not like the idea of having someone see me and me not them. Her spoken English was significantly worse than her writing. In fact her writing was quite good which either meant she had little chance for speaking or that she had spent a lot of time editing. I had told her before that I wanted to talk about the Holiday season so that we could both learn about things culturally. I explained to her how Christmas worked in the United States concerning gift giving, feasting, and whatever else  She told me that in Poland one actually fasts for Christmas until the evening time. She told me that for dinner they eat some type of fish (she did not know the English word for it) and something called Uszka which is kinda like ravioli. I timed our meeting for 30 minutes and I wrapped it up by asking her if she would feel comfortable speaking with other non native speakers. She was unsure whether that was a good idea or not. I told her that any chance to practice would be a good one regardless of actual speaking level. 
It is a little difficult to speak to someone unknown to you for the sake of practice. Because of this I made sure to assign those in my ESL circle to think about their favorite holiday and to share with a partner. I have only heard back from Agnes on this so I hope that others would join as well. 

CP 9 Hussein and Sam (John Vaught)

I had the pleasure of meeting up with a new student at CIES named Hussein  I got his information from the sheet Ramin had posted on Google. I was very excited to meet him as soon as he told me he was from Egypt. This was suppose to be a tutoring session but considering it was our first we spent our first 30 minutes working on his goals and what kind of activities he was comfortable with but then spent 2 hours discussing culture, media, and news. So we sat on the breezeway right outside of CIES and spoke about our particular ambitions. I gave him the rap I had been giving everybody (TEFL, Korea, Graduating in December..Yadah, yadah, yadah). He then told me that he was a Masters graduate in Communication methods (Media studies). So we went about and started talking about the news coverage concerning Egypt. He told me that he did not trust sources such as Al-Jazeera, I was surprised. He told me that he preferred the BBC and that Al-Jazeera often gave pro-Morsi accounts of events and never reported (I knew this part) on the Arab spring in Qatar. I was surprised by this because, coming from the land of liberal blogs and news sources, thought Al-Jazeera was pretty good at covering these things. I often watch it online and have appreciated the perspective given and was very excited when there were talks about bringing it to the US. I did not say anything besides that I was surprised and let him tell me his opinion on it. which was interesting. He then asked me about the U.S elections and I filled him in with the candidate details, party platforms and the ultimate results of the election (controversies and such). We then went inside due to the cold and began talking about Egyptian history and eventually Islam. I asked him about the Koran and the role of Hadiths in Islam. I asked about the diversity of Islam and I learned a few things from him. We then met up with another student at CIES by the name of Samra. His English was better and he joined our conversation and answered some questions I was throwing his way. I would have stayed longer, I was enjoying myself, but I had to get back home to run some errands.

CP 8 Mii & Woo-Joo (John Vaught)

After I had finished my tutoring session with Woo-Joo I was pleasantly surprised that they both invited me out to a Japanese restaurant. I had not had breakfast yet and jumped at this offer to have a wonderful meal and to enjoy good company. We arrived at the restaurant roughly 10 minutes after our tutoring session. I took this as an opportunity to learn a little bit more about Korean culture and segway into cuisine. We talked about how holidays work in Korea particularly Christmas. Woo-Joo claimed that the US and Korea celebrated Christmas almost identically while his mother, Mii, disagreed. She told me that instead of keeping it purely revolving around the family, it was common for people to spend the evening with friends, particularly younger generations. It is more common to go out than it is to make a meal at home, at least in Seoul which is from where she is from. I thought this to be kinda cool remembering the post Thanksgiving and Christmas messes that always await my labor. This tradition though reflects into prices, which are much higher on Christmas. I found this odd that prices at restaurants would go up at a particular time of the year. She also mentioned to me that restaurant tables in Korea have a little button to call your waiter and that it is very hard to get used not having this. 

Our food came promptly and was good. 

Upon leaving Woo-Joo and Mii thanked me for my tutoring time and gave me a Christmas present of a nice card and some great coffee. This really meant a lot to me considering it had been awhile since I have been recognized for something positive outside of school. That small gesture gave me pride. 

john v Tp 12

I just came back from my last official TP session with Woo-Joo. I was happy to see that he had completed his essay. However he did not seem to have put too much effort into it. We spent the first part of our session discussing what he had done this week in school. he told me that his final exams went very well and that he had received straight A's. so I understood why completing the essay wasn't his focus. I went ahead and graded that same essay in front of him while he played some grammar game on my tablet. on his essay I could see that he had problems concerning prepositions word choice and general fluidity. at this point I was upset at myself that I haven't really practiced that much grammar with him in the past. Our lessons had mostly consisted of listening exercises, reading exercises and general writing as a concept. I graded his paper by circleling problems and not necessarily correcting them. after I have done that I asked them for every part that needs correction what he thinks the correct answer is. through this method he was able to spend more time working on his mistakes and ultimately correct the answers himself. we then watched a TED talk video and nearly discussed it and I conducted a comprehension check on him. I think for next week it would be beneficial that we work more on grammar and less on reading writing and speaking. I will try to find some worksheets that help with the problems listed above and now I realize that our first meeting should have consisted of him writing an essay and me identifying find his problems.






Please excuse the lame grammar this was written on a phone.

Preston TP 6

TP 5

My second tutoring session with Mii.  This time we met a coffee shop again but we made sure to sit outside.  It was much better. Since our listening session didn't work out too well I decided to give it another shot. This time I decided to use a TED talk called Five Dangerous things that we should let our children do. This was actually a great choice. Mii has a son so I think the children angle hooked her a bit more, and we also had a chance to discuss many cultural differences. In particular the practice of giving children pocket knives was new to her. In South Korea, it seems that no such tradition exists. This session I focused on listening for overall understanding. The questions and exercises we all geared towards understanding the motivation/meaning of each of the 6 segments. I think my questions were a bit lacking in specificity, as I had to reword or restate some them a few times.  None the less I thought the basic set up of the lesson was successful and I may refine it and try it with another person later on. 

Preston T5

TP 5

My first tutoring session with Mii.  We decided to meet off campus at a Starbucks nearer to where we live. This in hind sight was a mistake it was too hard to hear each other and the video I used that day. I had not spoken much to her as of yet so I was unsure of what her skill set was but I knew she was at the same level as my other tutoring partner so I planned at that level. Today I gave a listening lesson. I used the Ted talks site as my reference. The video was “Patrick Awauh on educating leaders” the topic seems boring but it was an exciting speech to hear. I changed my strategy a bit this time, instead of watching the entire video all the way I stopped it every few minutes to ask questions, ask for a summary, etc.  . This is when picking your location better comes into play. The coffee shop was far too loud to hear the video properly, so it was slow going. Eventually the website became unresponsive. Thankfully we had already gone for 50 minutes at that point. We wrapped up by scheduling our next meeting.

Preston TP 4

It was my fourth tutoring session Li Su. I continued with the Rappacini’s Daughter based lesson as well. Today’s lesson was listening lesson. Instead of having her read the final portion of the story, I found a recording of it and played it.  This time since we would not be reading I wrote last lessons words and the new words in this lesson on the dry erase wall, and made sure she understood them all.  As usual we listened several times. After the first the questions were given, this time I added a few more questions that required a bit more analysis, like asking about character motivations etc. Those questions were a bit more difficult and she had a bit of trouble with them. Of the 3 I included only one was answered correctly without any review of the material. The lesson progressed faster than I had expected so I used my back up activity, “Guess the idiomatic phase” it’s a simple matching exercise with 4-6 idioms and their meanings. 

Preston TP 3

TP 3

It was my 3^rd tutoring session Li Su. I had noticed that interest was lagging in the last lesson so I decided to use something for the lesson that would be a bit more compelling. Instead of a dry listening, reading, or grammar exercise. I used the story Rappacini’s Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I went over most of the unfamiliar or unusual vocabulary before we started reading, but I left a few out so we could practice guessing the meaning of words via context later. I split the story into two parts and saved the resolution for the next session. I had her read 3 times, the first was for meaning, and the next two reading were looking for specific information. I prepared 10 comprehension questions to go along with the reading. After the third read she got 8 of the 10 questions correct. We went back over the sections of the text were she missed questions together and I showed her how to find the answers to the questions. I have to say the lesson went well, it was interesting and not too difficult but not easy either. I’m still working on gauging difficulty. 

Preston CP 6

My last conversation meet up with Plengchart we decided to change our normally scheduled meet up area and we meet on the balcony outside of CIES.  We spoke briefly about our plans during winter break again. He says he’s not sure if he’ll go home or not. It will depend on the price of the ticket he can get. I of course am still planning on being in town.  After that he asked me to help him do a few more exercises out of his book again.  We started on the six sequential pictures exercises again. His accuracy and fluency were suffering whenever we started the exercises. I had spoken to Ramin about that and he said that it was most likely anxiety. I suggested that he spend more time practicing with other people see if he improved. At the end of our session we spoke about what we each got from the conversation partner program. We both had more or less the same goals, to improve our skills in a low pressure casual environment. I definitely enjoyed our time together as conversation partners and wish Plengchart the best in the future. 

Preston CP 5

During my fifth conversation partner meeting with Plengchart we decided to change venues (Mostly because neither of us wanted to eat). So we went to the library instead, the library was surprisingly crowded; it seemed that the pre-final study rush was starting to begin. Today Plengchart brought a book of English exercises. It was the same book he was talking about during our last meeting. We spent most of our time talking about the various language tests that we will have to take. His accuracy is getting better, and I took a moment to say so to him. That lead into him asking me to help him with some of the practice exercises in his book. They are interesting exercises, they consist of six sequential pictures. You have to tell a 90 second story based on the six pictures. You have a limited time to view the pictures but we were not very concerned that. I’m a little concerned when he begins his exercises his accuracy drops a bit. 

Preston CO 3

November 18

My class observation was Composition with Felecia. Again the agenda is written on the board. Today the class did a timed writing assignment. The time limit for the composition was 30 minutes. There was not a lot active teaching to observe during this time so I took a moment to take a stealthy look at how the students were writing. I saw outlines and webs so I can only assume that planning had been part of the curriculum of this or a previous class.  The writing prompt selected also got my attention. The topic was “Does the media pay too much attention to personal lives?”; I thought this was a great selection as most people have some sort of opinion and reasoning behind it. A topic of that nature helps students spend time on planning and writing instead of picking a side of an issue that does not interest them.  After the writing assignment was over she used the rest of the class period to address common issues. The mood of the class was somewhat subdued after the assignment, so participation was probably a little lower than usual. 

Alex CP 10

   After our tutoring session Mubarak and I were joined by Jassem and we started playing zombies. First round, made an all time record high of level 25, which if you don’t know, is huge. I attribute it to excellent teamwork, a newly practiced skill level, and great communication. Unlike when we first began playing together, we were now speaking a similar language with the identical colloquial terms, such as “perks” “halfie” “make a run for it” or “tombstone”. We would also get to new locations, know what to do, where to go, and how to properly communicate it so that we would have the maximum level of organization in the least amount of time.
   After reaching the epic level 25 we all went to Moe’s where we joined Yusef and their friend Abdullah. After we ordered and were eating Mubarak raised the question of what they would do if they had only a few hours left to live. They had some ‘interesting’ ideas to say the least…That transitioned into a discussion about where we want to travel to in our lives and then into me explaining who Ernest Hemingway is and how I was personally inspired by his books to travel. We spoke more about stuff like that, cool states and cities in the U.S. and all over the world. Apparently New Zealand is prejudice against Arabs. Go Figure. After that we went back to Grand Marc for some more zombie killing.

Alex TP 12

   I just came back from a tutoring session with Mubarak at Grand Marc. On Tuesday I had asked him to watch this you tube video, pertaining to this whole Mayan doomsday hysteria, sometime before our next meeting, which was planned for sometime today. He had watched it and the first thing we did today was speak about it.
   We both separately agreed that no one should put any significant amount of thought or emotional investment into the issue, that it was just the crazed sensation of the moment. However, I asked him to write 200 words about what he would do with the rest of his day if he knew he was going to perish into oblivion at midnight (this was around 2 o clock). It took him about ten minutes to scribble a plan. He had written, among other things, that he wanted to steal a car, drive to Las Vegas, buy all the best food and gamble away all his money. When I told him he’d probably die before arriving in Vegas, he said “wherever, as long as I can gamble a lot”, which was revealing.
   Regardless, his writing was strong, like last times plan for a zombie apocalypse, he used a lot of the right tenses and verb choices. He even did a lot better with punctuation. After I read it, I reviewed it with him and we shared ideas for how to spend your time before doomsday.

Alex CP 9

   After our tutoring session Mubarak and I walked from his apartment at Grand Marc over to Mr. Robotos restaurant. There we met with his friends Yusef, Jasem, and one other who’s name I don’t quite remember. We all got food and ate at a table outside, overlooking part of campus and the bustling traffic of Tennessee Street. I thought outside myself for a moment and thought how funny it’d be if I was driving by and saw a Jew eating Chinese food with four Middle Eastern guys in the deep south city of Tallahassee. These are truly marvelous times we live in.
   We shot the shit as per usual, talked about boredom video games, music, etc. Jasem mentioned that him Mubarak and one of their other friends will be traveling to Miami on Sunday for the following week, including Christmas. They admitted, which I had assumed, that they were going to treat December twenty-fifth just like any other day and probably go to the beach or a movie. We all agreed Django Unchained is probably going to the best movie in theatres.
    As we were about to go a homeless man rode up and asked if we could watch his bicycle and back pack for a moment. We agreed. Ten minutes went by and we were all done with our meals. Fifteen more went by and it was getting dark and the temperature was dropping. I went inside and told the cashier of the situation and she agreed to take over watch. When I told them it was all good and we could leave, Jasem and Yusef wanted to wait longer, despite being cold and bored, but because “if he loses that then he’s at zero”. Hearing this made my day. Probably my week. It was Christmas spirit if I’d ever seen it. Forget cultural gaps, economic gaps, geographic gaps; these were two young guys willing to sit out in the cold so that a random stranger could return safely to his only belongings was a spectacle of human kindness. You don’t need a tree to be in the spirit.

Alex TP 11

   I went back over to Mubarak’s apartment at Grand Marc yesterday. Having no school work, or just about anything to do, he didn't have much of a problem with the idea of homework. However, when I got there he said he had looked over the story and skimmed and whatnot. I took from this the fact that it was over twenty pages, he was given a day to read it, and the idea of doing so was either so daunting or uninteresting that he’d neglected to do so. When I realized this, rather than open up pointless communication about it, I asked him to read a short editorial by comedian Anthony Jeselnik about Christmas. As I sat there and he read I jotted down some potential talking points such as “what could he mean by financial spider web” and “what do you think he’s referencing when he’s saying “Sorry Dad. You fire up the model chain. I’m going to see Django Unchained”. Being a piece that relies heavily on understanding American culture, I wanted to evaluate his basic understandings.
   Turns out he understood more about Christmas and American culture than I thought. He caught on to some of Jeselnik‘s phrases such as “mistletoe is a botanical license to rape” and  how Christmas is “the first time your parents lied to you”. The few that he didn't catch I filled in and explained their cultural reference. Regardless, in the cultural understandings he did demonstrate, I recognized a lot of improvement from when I met him earlier in the semester. We wrapped the session up by watching some of Jeselnik’s stand-up, which after each 2-3 minute clip and righting down the topics of the jokes, I’d review them and check for, then provide cultural context.

Kim Clauson_CP 10

                On December 7, 2012, I had a very memorable evening with my international friends that served as a closure to my incredible 8-week adventure in Tallahassee.  Like any other typical Tallahassee weekend evening, there is either nothing happening in town or too many options.  There were too many options on this night, yet I was determined to do them all.  I scrambled at New Leaf to pull together ingredients so that I could prepare a dish for the CIES holiday potluck that was happening later that night.  The first stop on the agenda was at the Globe Dining Hall for the last Coffee Hour.  I managed to hug all my new friends one last time and wish them well.  My tutoring partner Edgar met me there.  I also met up with Gozde, from Turkey, and Garth, from Grenada.  We met our good friend Steven as well.  I talked everyone into coming with me on an adventure.  We went to the CIES holiday potluck and we also went to First Friday.

                The drive to the potluck was interesting because I had to mix together a couple of items to make my cheese and pesto dip.  It was very strange and humorous for everyone to see me practically cooking in the car. (I had washed my hands, B.T.W.)  Once we arrived, we were presented with food from all over the world.  I was especially interested in trying the Middle Eastern food because that was something that I had never experienced.  The night was power-packed with amazing musical performances, including a dance rendition of the “Gondem Style” song.  Many of my Kuwaiti friends were involved in this so it was great to see them perform.  Everyone was laughing about their super sweet dance moves.  After the performances, students were awarded with their certificates if they were graduating.  This was so incredibly emotional for those involved.  They all truly loved CIES.  I was grateful to see how much they appreciated the experience. 

My crew and I took holiday photos and we ventured on.  Our final stop was the First Friday Gallery Hop.  As this was my stomping grounds, I was happy to share the ins and outs of Railroad Square with my friends.  We had a great time and it was a nice closure to the wonderful adventure that I experienced within Tallahassee!

Nickie - CP10

I'm changing roles a bit with my tutor partner YoonJoo. She's done with classes, but still wants to work on conversation. So we have agreed to continue meeting via Skype video chatting. It's working well with that platform along with emailing. We can work on correction with conversation verbally and I can help with conversation via email as well. Mainly we will be conversing via Skype and scheduling via email like we have been for our tutor sessions. I've really enjoyed working with her over the weeks, and think we will keep in contact in the future.
Thanks again to Ah-Young Kim for introducing us. :)

Nickie - CP9

My conversation partner Amr made it to Saudi Arabia safe and sound. :) before leaving he gave me his Skype name so we could keep in contact. Again, he mentioned being very excited to spend time with his family. He is getting married in February, and after our last couple conversations about it, I've learned not to mention it. I am excited to see photos after the ceremony though. We decided to keep in contact to work on  his conversation, especially since his best friend reminded him "if you don't use it, you lose it" :) So, we will be keeping in contact via Skype instant messaging and video calling. I know we both have family to visit over the next couple months, but we'll make time to talk.

Nickie - TP12

Chae Hyeong Park is my final tutor session for our blog. We are working on editing his paper still. Last session we worked on the 1st half of his paper, and this session we worked on the second half. He is very concerned with conversation still, so we will continue our sessions via Skype until he feels comfortable, or is unable to meet anymore.
I used the same techniques as last session. First letting him point out issues or questions, then I show general areas and let him discover his mistakes, and finally I point them out if he's unable to self correct. He's a very high level student, so mistakes are few and far between. A lot of discussion is regarding rephrasing for flow, and why. It's difficult to explain why something is correct, but sounds better rephrased. He's much better on paper than in conversation. So, I look forward to continued work together. :)

Alex CP 8

   After our tutoring session, Mubarak and I joined his friends Yusef and Jasem and we played some Zombies at we’d had planned. Like last time, it was abundantly evident that I take this video game far too seriously. Maybe it was the research of strategy and vantage points I’d done the night before or the emotional investment that increased with every level, regardless, it’s a good thing I don’t own this game. Anyway, they seemed to feed off my energy and we all had a good time. We made it to level 18 in a game that took over 75 minutes. After that they introduced me to this game called “Rayman”. It looked and played like Sonic the Hedgehog meets Super Mario all the while in the animation of the Candy Land board. Just as when I was eleven, without racing or shooting, I didn’t understand the whole point of these kind of games. But they loved it so I partook. I was some green character who died too much so I passed up the sticks to Yusef after a game or two. When I realized that it was dark outside and over four hours had unknowingly passed, I decided to head home.

Alex TP10

   Yesterday I went to Mubarak’s apartment at Grand Marc for a tutoring session we had planned since our last meeting. Since we both have a significant interest and addiction to Zombie game on Call of Duty, I asked him to write out his game plan for the first twenty four hours after a zombie outbreak. To simply pretend that he was at home and saw, out his window, zombies eating people on the street and to write what he and his friends would do if this were to happen.
   He crafted a plan outlining how he and his friends would try to obtain food, rudimentary weapons, and bunker down in their apartments, because of the extensive security, to wait for it to be over. The paper which, despite being sloppily hand written, was written fairly well. He successfully accomplished the future tense using phases such as “we will then” and “after that we’ll”. The only problem I noted, which we’ve run into before, was punctuation, the existence of  sentences that were too long or too short and disruptive to the flow of the narrative. After mentioning the problem and giving it back to him to correct errors, he noted all but one. I had written seven sentences (about zombie killing) ahead of time which I gave to him so he could select which ones were right and sounded better. I’d told him four were right, the others wrong. He got three out of four.
   Personally, I feel that at his advanced stage that his biggest setback is his lack of reading, whether assigned or in general. He’s admitted not to liking it and I’m having a tough time pushing through this natural hesitation. I asked him to read another short story for the next time we’d meet up.

TP 11 Woo-Joo (John)

I met with Woo-Joo yesterday and had planned on finally reviewing the essay I had assigned to him the previous week so that I could gauge more specific essay writing needs. I was disappointed to find out that he had not finished it, I told him to make sure to have it complete by next week. We then spoke about the Hobbit for a little bit and I gave him a character chart and a map of Middle Earth so that he could follow the characters and locations a little better. I was going to resort to my back up lesson, a fun TED talk followed by writing a response to the speaker. He had brought some of his school work however. He had to complete an assignment concerning vocabulary for his social studies class. Our tutoring lesson then became one concerning study skills, memorization and word composition. So we began by working on some study cards for his exam. I then explained to him the concept of memes for memorization so we came up with a couple for the more difficult words. And then I explained to him about prefixes and suffixes and different compositions words can take having been derived from other words. It was not a substantial lesson and I had really hoped that we could have worked on his essay but at least I helped him with something in the immediate future.

Afterwards his mother, Mii, and Woojoo invited me to lunch.

Nickie -TP11

On December 15, I met my tutoring partner YoonJoo via Skype. She specifically wanted  to work on Phone and general conversation. We've also been emailing back and forth, and I went over some issues in email conversation grammar and phrasing as well. She's been busy attending Christmas parties, as have I. We discussed differences in traditions for Christmas time from south Korea and the US. We also talked about her plans to head to Miami for Christmas day. When there were issues in conversation, instead of outright correcting her, I rephrased her statement in a question so she'd respond, or just ask her to repeat herself.  We will also be meeting after the session is over to continue to work on conversation. She's been a pleasure to work with.

Nickie - CP8

On our last day of class, I was able to meet up with my conversation partner Amr. We are both out of town now. He went to Saudi Arabia for a couple months the day after class ended. Though I would never pick Chili's as a dinner venue, that's what he wanted. So, as an awesome conversation partner, yet disappointed food lover, I agreed. :)  He brought his best friend and we enjoyed some great conversation over dinner. It was a fun evening, yet melancholy, as we knew we would be parting ways and possibly not see each other again. But, as agreed, we've already connected via Skype. We both talked about food that we enjoy cooking, so we'll be sharing recipes and cooking on Skype. I'm excited to see photos of his wedding in February, though he seems less than enthused about his arranged marriage. He's more looking forward to time with his family.
Amr is the conversation partner I spent the most time with. We've shared awkward moments, disagreements, food, laughs, and serious deep conversations. I'm thankful for the time we've spent together, and I think we'll remain in contact in the future. :)

Tyler CP 10

Karen gave me two surveys to give to Annie. One asked her to rate her experience with me, and the other asked her some personal questions about living in America. Because I was so focused on her naturalization test, I wasn't aware of her other struggles. I wish I would have used a survey like this when we first met, it helped me see alot. I asked Annie how many hours she practices English, she said that she only spoke English with me! This is a characteristic I think I can expect to see in many of my classes abroad.

Therefore, making sure we have conversations outside of the testing materials is beneficial for Annie. Not only does it help develop her comfort with English, which is needed for her test, but It helps develop her ear, or comprehension. From going outside of tutoring with Annie and using the survey questions to help guide my questions, I learned that Annie has trouble following what she is watching on television, ordering food, or going to the doctor. In our conversations I learned how difficult her daily activities are. I wished I would have used this survey in the beginning, it could have been very helpful.

Tyler CO 3

Observing Alex's class was great! That day her students were scheduled to do class presentations. Alex allowed them to volunteer to present their information. I could see that those who were more comfortable speaking English would be willing to go, whereas those who were at lower levels tried to avoid going at all. The students presentations went very well. Their presentations were based off of their home country. I really enjoyed the student who spoke about Mexico. He chose to speak about the Day of the Dead, completely different then what I had envisioned.

I really like the way Alex encouraged her students who were less confident in their speaking ability. She didn't stop them when they made speaking errors, she just allowed them to complete their presentation and asked them questions on the things they had trouble explaining. I can see how stopping them could have made them more nervous. Alex seems to be very patient and kind with her students. I hope to be this way with my own.

Tyler CP 9

It was wonderful having lunch with Mary Young. She is from South America and has been in the states since she has finished her schooling. She now works as an educational psychologist After dinner she told me that it was the day for Lady Guadeloupe! She said that her church would be adorned with flowers that day. She also said that they would be serving a Spanish dinner after. I told her I would be delighted to go.

Shortly after her invitation, I had many questions to ask her about the Catholic Mass. All the 'facts' I knew about the Catholic Mass came from television, MTV specifically. She laughed at all my questions. I had told her that I loved the windows in the Cathedrals. The only time I've been to a Catholic church was when I had to use the bathroom. She laughed about this as well, but I told her that I remembered the windows. I asked her about some of the reasons for the rituals. It turns out that many of these rituals are based on ancient traditions. I was excited to go to Mass later that night.

Tyler CP 8

Imagine needing to solicit a service but you didn't know how to ask. For Annie this unfortunately describes her experience. She was considerably distraught about it. Her experience was frightening. She explained that her reasons for going to the DMV was to get some paper work updated. Her only other experience there was with her husband, whom she always describes as a 'good' English speaker. She approached the situation timidly because the process seemed intimidating.

She felt like the people weren't nice to her. Unfortunately, it sounded like she encountered an employee who wasn't patient with Annies abilities. She said that they basically told her that she had to come back with a translator. Annie was so embarrassed and frustrated. She left the DMV only to head home in tears. Our conversation allowed me to imagine how challenging learning a foreign language in another country is. Her whole experience only feed the intimidation she felt from the beginning. I offered to help her update her documents online, but she didn't want this. She said that she would wait for her husband to take her. Overall I want Annie to feel confident, this has pushed me to examines Annies speaking more closely.

Dominic CP 4

Yesterday I met with Ricardo from Chile outside of Stroizer and we sat and talked for a while. I messaged a few people on the list to see if they were available to knock out some of the hours and he was very eager. He is very well traveled having lived in a few countries throughout the world, one in particular, Argentina. I did my report on teaching in Argentina and he seemed to shy me away from teaching there. He said it was a beautiful country but was not the best time to start teaching there currently. In my report I remember talking about the close relationship the president and the people share and when I asked him about her, his response was "Oh, Cristina!" with a big smile on his face. Ricardo was very eager to speak English with me and said that his largest concern he has in regards to learning English, is listening. He seemed to voice his opinions very well and complimented me on my speaking level because it made it easy for him to understand. The next time we hang out I plan on speaking a bit faster to replicate interacting with an average English native.

Alex CP 7

On Thursday, after we had our tutoring session, Mubarak and I went to his friend’s room where a bunch of Middle Eastern CIES students were playing Call of Duty. They knew I’ve played as we’ve all talked about it before so I hopped right in with a game of Zombies. We had two people on one screen and two on another. The thing about these Zombie games is their entirely consuming, because of the drastic nature of “going down” (being attacked and having to wait to be revived by another player or die) and the fact that the levels move higher and higher with no save button or form of redemption. Some games can last hours. I know with my friends at home it gets very intense; there’s cursing, screaming, pleading, constant verbal strategizing and communication; it’s a pretty interesting thing to observe. Like any cultural gap, it’s funny because rather than curse or yell, Mubarak and his friends were much more reserved and less invested in the game. They would have similar levels of consumption and concentration, but not nearly as much thought out strategy or emotional release when they‘d “go down”. It’s always fun to see how other people do something that you’ve become so adjusted to in such a specific way

Alex TP 9

Yesterday I met up with Mubarak at his place at Grand Marc. When we met earlier in the week I had asked him if it’d be okay to give him some light reading and perhaps some writing exercises over the break to both fill my quota and keep him from watching Movies/Television and playing video games all day/night. He said it’d be okay so I told him I’d text him a cool article to read once I saw one. I texted him Thursday morning one entitled “121212 Is a Joke” that I read on Twitter from The Atlantic. The article spoke about how a relief concert called 121212 for the victims of Hurricane Sandy and how the cause is disproportionate to places of human suffering around the world.

When we met up Thursday night and I asked him about it he said he liked it and agreed (he’s usually gives up pretty short answers). Consequently I pressed him about it and to give me details. He explained how “the other disasters sounded pretty bad” leading me to believe he either hadn’t heard of some, like the earthquake in Haiti or tsunami in Southeast Asia, or just didn’t understand how serious they were. The story points out how a lot of the damage to the tri-state area comes from it being a very wealthy area to start. I asked if he could compare that with Haiti or any other third world country. Here he seemed to link it together, how one place where there’s extreme poverty could be absolutely devastated by a natural disaster whereas an affluent area may just be shaken up.

Jordan TP7

Yesterday I met with John and his son Jason at the library. I gave John a few simple worksheets on verb tenses and some "find and correct the error" exercises. He appreciated looking at these with my help, and although I think they are a bit above Jason's level, John and his daughter will probably be able to benefit from looking at them together at home. Jason worked on reading some more, and we tried a few new materials but had to put them aside until later as some of the vocabulary was a bit too difficult. After working on a few conversational skills, and some "Fly Guy" and "Henry and Mudge" books, I agreed to meet John and Jason on Tuesday.

Next time I will bring more easy worksheets, perhaps something that will help Jason, as well as a few short articles that I can ask them comprehension questions on; in addition to being good reading practice, I will try to use these as conversation-provoking topics to further develop their speaking skills.

Dominic CP 3

About a week ago I spent time with my conversation partner Muhammad. We met up outside of CIES and decided to just walk around campus and talk some. His English is really great and each time we hang out I get to teach him more. I feel like I teach him these weird little things that people don't really think about. Like the first time we hung out I taught him to respond when someone asks him "What's up?". Yesterday we were talking and he told me that he went to the mall on Black Friday, and he bought perfume. After he said this he looked at me with a puzzled look. He then said that while shopping he told someone that and they started laughing at him. They tried to explain the difference between cologne and perfume and he was floored that this was the first time he had heard of this difference because his whole life he has called cologne, perfume. He thought it was funny but also embarrassing that he had been making the mistake since his English learning began.