Dominic Hoak TP 4

Last night I drove out to Killearn to meet Anna, the child that I will be tutoring set up through Ah Young. When I arrived to the house I was able to sit down with Anna and both of her parents for a little bit and we were able to talk to get to know each other. Anna seems very outgoing and excited, much like any other 4 year old but it appeared that she only spoke in Korean. Her little sister Yona was also in the room, and that sort of provided a distraction for her. I would ask her a couple questions and she would hide behind her mom just leaving one eye available to look at me. While I have limited experience with English children, the brief time that I spent with Anna was an introduction to the next few weeks I will have with her and her family, and it will be interesting. I think the first obstacle I will have is for her not to be so shy/scared around me. I am completely new to her so she is probably confused figuring out who I am.

Her parents are from Korea and are here while her dad is in graduate school. Once he graduates the whole family will move back to Korea where she will have extensively less English in her life. I asked her parents about her language level in English and Korean and they said she was about equal in both. I asked them what roll that they wanted me to play and they said that they wanted me to speak with her as much as possible. I also stressed to them the importance that they do their best to speak with Anna in English, because the best way for her to learn is having that full immersion feeling. The next visit will be interesting, because I highly doubt Anna will want to sit at a table. Most likely we will do a lot of learning with objects and probably working on her vocabulary with flashcards. Her parents seemed very adamant about the use of flash cards so I will most likely use some of the ones that they have at their house. I will also bring a couple children's books to read to her and If anyone has any other suggestions I'm open to them.