Keira TS #11
Date/Time: June 28, 2017 - 6:30pm
Location: Starbucks
Topic/Skill: Gift-Giving Culture/Thank You's
Today's session with Hani had more of an immediate real world application than any of our previous meetings have had. There is a CIES employee who has apparently been a very big help and a good friend to him while he has been here, even going so far as to help him when he car was involved in an accident. Naturally, he wants to thank her, but was not sure about the proper way to go about doing so in American culture. According to him, in Saudi Arabian culture, it is normal to give gifts as a way of saying thanks, and usually nothing cheap, either. Therefore, he wanted to do the same here, but did not know what to get or how to go about this process. We spent the majority of our session talking about the different ways people usually thank each other or give gifts in American culture, and some of the ways these practices can change depending on the context.
Feedback Provided to Tutee: To give him something visible and hopefully helpful, one of the things I taught Hani was the basic outline for how to write a thank you note in American culture. I divided this outline into the sections one might find in a thank you card accompanied by a nice message: the header indicating who it is for, a body section thanking the person or people and including any desired additional messages (e.g. when I send thank you's to my family and include something along the lines of "I hope to see you again soon."), and the closing including the sender's name. I told him that thank you cards are frequently given, perhaps in addition to gifts. We also talked about different gifts that might be given, and ways to pick something that the person receiving them will like without giving away the surprise. I also taught him the phrase "It means a lot to me," and gave him some examples of situations when it may be used.
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: I learned a lot about how influential this person has been in Hani's life while he has been in America. I also got to learn a little about how people thank each other in Saudi Arabia while getting a chance to more closely examine the ways we thank each other in my own culture.
Location: Starbucks
Topic/Skill: Gift-Giving Culture/Thank You's
Feedback Provided to Tutee: To give him something visible and hopefully helpful, one of the things I taught Hani was the basic outline for how to write a thank you note in American culture. I divided this outline into the sections one might find in a thank you card accompanied by a nice message: the header indicating who it is for, a body section thanking the person or people and including any desired additional messages (e.g. when I send thank you's to my family and include something along the lines of "I hope to see you again soon."), and the closing including the sender's name. I told him that thank you cards are frequently given, perhaps in addition to gifts. We also talked about different gifts that might be given, and ways to pick something that the person receiving them will like without giving away the surprise. I also taught him the phrase "It means a lot to me," and gave him some examples of situations when it may be used.
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: I learned a lot about how influential this person has been in Hani's life while he has been in America. I also got to learn a little about how people thank each other in Saudi Arabia while getting a chance to more closely examine the ways we thank each other in my own culture.
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