Nic CO-1

Yesterday, I observed Ah Young Kim's Speaking Class at CIES. Today, she had the students create a script from an excerpt of an episode of Friends (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =QAnIKtcs8Cs) and then perform it.

The clip is only a minute long and will give you a better picture of what he did in class. Ah Young Kim assigned them to do a dictocomp exercise where they obtained the main idea and then acted out the script as close as they could remember.

Hilarity ensued as I watched an all-male class all shy away from playing Phoebe's female role. It’s not ever day you get to watch a middle-aged Muslim man play the role of a New York yuppie.

The students were split into 3 tables of 3 apiece (there were 8 in the class, plus me, so I played a role). Ah Young Kim was very fluid in her approach. She wasn’t overloading or pushy, but I could tell that the students respected her. I think the respect came in because they knew she wouldn’t tolerate nonsense and they knew she had a plan.

She was clear in her expectations. Before they began the activity, she said, “Don’t focus on getting every word right. Try to focus on the main idea.”

Nic TP-11

My tutoring time with AR went well. We discussed many different things. One thing he was curious about was party etiquette and what to bring to a party. I told him it depended on the situation. Typically, most situations you would ask the hostess. Even if she refuses, wine is a good choice.

For a potluck, casserole is a good choice or an American-friendly Chinese dish. I asked if there was a dish that is not American friendly, and he said Pi-Dan. It is fermented duck eggs. Most Americans…would not be that adventurous.

We discussed the multiple musings/connotations of the word “crabs”. I explained why the phrase “I have crabs!” would elicit snickers from Americans and that the phrase “I have blue crabs at my house” would be more appropriate. He also shared with me a few more definitions about crabs. One is that an airplane flying into the headwind is “crabbing” because it is similar to the movement crabs make. Hence, crabbing.

He taught me some Chinese culture, too. The story of the dragon and his 9 sons, where each of the 9 sons protects a different aspect of Chinese culture from cooking ware to temples. He also taught me the phrase “Lee Yu Tiao Long Meng” which means “the carp turns into the dragon”. It is the equivalent of our saying “rags to riches”. I like the Chinese version better, it is more romantic.

He shared with me the cultural difference of Cantonese (spoken in Hong Kong and parts of China) and Mandarin (the official language of China). In Cantonese they have a phrase that, to speak to a Mandarin speaker, is like a “chicken speaking to a duck”.

It was a great meeting time, one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I am so honored that I get to work with him, and I am excited that I will continue tutoring him this fall.

Nic-TP7

Don’t you love a good student? When I arrived at the library to meet up with AR, he had all his homework completed and ready to discuss. We went over the terms I had assigned, and I could tell that he felt pretty comfortable using them in sentences and in pronouncing them.

During a break, I saw AR had a stack of movies he was planning on checking out. I asked his permission if I could glance through them. There were a few that I wasn’t sure that a middle-aged dad would like (such as The Lizzie McGuire Movie), so we went over movies on Rotten Tomatoes (great review aggregator of both critical and audience reviews).

I had made a worksheet on has/have for him and he completed it quickly. I think that I made it too basic, so next time I will have some more challenging work for him. The part that did give him some trouble was creating sentences with has/have. We discussed that for awhile.

Before I left, we discussed our weekend plans. AR loves to fish and he said he is going to St. George Island to fish for the day. As we walked out, I showed him a few movies that I thought he may enjoy (e.g. Gettysburg for American history) and he checked him out.

Nic-TP5

This morning I met with AR. His homework for last week was to discuss family and come in with some medical words he wanted help with. It was very interesting to hear about his family! Heart-wrenching stories woven through China’s political history: An uncle who fought for the Taiwanese side shoved out of his homeland by the Communist regime, a father who dreamed of being a doctor but whose dream was buried in the ground of the soil he worked as a peasant, and a brother who managed a Chinese restaurant in Tallahassee for years in order to survive in the US with detest for this job with never-ending labor. Yet, there are also stories of hope: re-uniting with his parents after 20 years of separation, his brother leaving the restaurant business to become a CPA, and AR working towards a new future in America.

He came with a McGraw-Hill Chinese-to-English Medical Diagnostic Textbook and a Casio Chinese-to-English Digital Dictionary that was quite helpful.

I had him read a section of the textbook without stopping. This was somewhat difficult because the text was challenging with words in it that even a native English speaker has a difficult time pronouncing and using properly. Another reason it was difficult is that AR has not even mastered pronouncing everyday English. So, I am somewhat stumped because he wants to work on these medical words, but he needs practice in pronunciation of everyday words. I’m going to have to give further thought as to how to bridge his passion with everyday practicality.

At the end of the session, I assigned him 10 words to work on that he had trouble with today and encouraged him to find ways to study these words that worked best for him. I shared with him a few ways that my classmates and I use to study vocabulary in our second language: color coding words, repetition, including the words in conversation, etc.

Now, I’m working on a lesson plan to test his comprehension of the vocabulary. Suggestions are welcome.

Nic CP1

My first visit with my conversation partner, Joungouk Park, went well. I thought the conversation flowed naturally. It took some effort to find a balance of letting him lead the conversation and then me leading the conversation.

He said one of his goals was to speak English smoothly.

Joungouk already has a good grasp of English. His receptive vocabulary is high with an expanding productive vocabulary. Is pronunciation is good with the biggest “beautiful mistake” showing up with the R’s (e.g. “Everybody Loves Laymond” or “Pletty Little Liahs”). Any suggestions on helping with the R’s/L’s would be appreciated.

We both learned a few new words: He taught me how to say his hometown and name correctly, and I expanded his knowledge of the word nostalgia (we were talking favorite movies, and I shared with him that “Winnie-the-Pooh” is my favorite movie because it is nostalgic). I think the things he appreciated the most were my attempts to pronounce the Korean words correctly, and allowing him to lead the conversation.