Annalise TS #5

In this sessikn, Jane and I focused on speaking and we talked about TEFL. I corrected all her grammar errors and wrote them done for future review and then discussed them with Jane. After we corrected all these grammar mistakes, I gave Jane questions to answers to reinforced good grammar use. This lesson was more upbeat than usual and wipe had fun discussing all the topics. During thd second half of the lesson we read a short reading paragraph. I tried to pick an advanceD passage for her so we could discuss any new vocabulary she didn't understand.

Annalise TS #6

I met with Jane again this week and we worked on extensive writting and advanced listening. I had her write on a subject using a larger vocabulary list that included more advanced words that I discussed with her before she started. After time was up, we went over the mistakes together and fixed any grammar that was out of order or didn't flow well. The listening was of a clip that had a fast tempo and no CC. She did well with both exercises.

Jane TS#4

TS#4

Annalise and I met at the library for our fourth lesson. I wanted to develop my speaking and grammar skills so, Annalise and I had a depth conversation. The topic was about our TEFL session. She corrected my grammar errors and wrote them done her notebook. She explained the grammar errors I made by giving me some few questions. This reinforced my speaking and grammar skills. The lesson was interesting and fun. Annalise kept on asking me questions to check my comprehension. We also read a short reading paragraph. We focused on the words that I didn’t know. Annalise gave examples and definitions to each word.

Barbara TS#11

Dojun had just arrived back in town from Pusan (or Busan) where he visited his parents this week to start to find a wedding company.  Pusan is the second biggest city in S. Korea and it seems to be around 220 miles away.  And so it begins…the time will now fly by before the wedding. I happened to have a very bad cold so I asked him to tell me about the health care system in S. Korea.  If I understand it correctly, most people have insurance with the government which pays half.  Dojun told me that his parents were on his plan which he has with the government. This was interesting because not only are his parents on the plan but the company pays their half too.  In the US, we generally keep children and young adults on our plan but not parents.   I asked him if his company has a plan and it does.  Apparently, it is possible to choose a different plan if it is cheaper.  He went on to explain that S. Korea had been a victim of the MERS virus which affected a lot of people.  When I looked it up, it seems as though the outbreak happened several years ago now.  Dojun says that the hospital culture in S. Korea is one of everyone visiting the sick person.  These visits are not necessarily related to MERS, but Dojun used it as a example.  He was quite adamant that he disagrees with these visits because who wants visitors when you are sick and look awful.  I couldn’t agree more. 

Barbara TS#10

When I asked Dojun how his day had been, he said that it consisted mostly of presentation meetings.  There is a company, CAE, which is originally from Canada that made a presentation related to aviation and training. The training is for commercial pilots who need to connect to airlines for cockpit environment security.  He told me that the main speaker looks Asian and his name is Eng which is not a Korean name so he thought he was Chinese.  This speaker was in charge of sales.  There were also two Korean presenters.  Dojun said that the meeting was conducted in English with the Koreans there to translate when necessary.  But he took the meeting mostly in English.  I, then, told him that I wanted his advice for the advanced English class that I am teaching in a week.  When I told him that it was Star Wars (1977), he told me that he heard about Star Wars for the first time when he was 7 and that he loved it.  He was familiar with the Science Fiction genre.  He said that some S. Koreans don’t like it because it is not realistic.  Dojun likes Harrison Ford (Hans Solo) as well as Darth Vader.  Dojun noted that Vader was a good man who changed over to the Dark Side. He believes that Darth Vader is well known and had a strong impact because he represents a good man gone bad.  All cultures have characters like this.  He recommended that I explain the culture behind the movie and how it applies in America.  He then told me that Rogue 1 had just come out.  It’s too bad that we can’t teach it together.  I explained that I was teaching it to advanced language students whose English was as good as his.  He laughed and said, “you are a liar.”  This comment was funny because it was so direct but it goes along with Prof. Kim’s discussion in class about how S. Korean’s don’t take compliments well.  In response to my question about what to include, he said, 1) Explain what the story in Star Wars is about; 2) Show some clips but explain them first; and, 3)talk about the Sci Fi genre.  He called it SF. 

Barbara TS#9

Again, we talked about his wedding plans because I asked how the luncheon had gone.  He laughed and said, “my mother saved my life.”  She took control of the meeting and carried the conversation.  Dojun said that they told his father not to say anything because he doesn’t always come up with the most appropriate comments.  And he asked his girlfriend not to mention money for a wedding at this first meeting of the families.  His brother was there and helped as well.  Dojun was very nervous about the meeting. That I could tell the nervousness was more about cost then the actual event itself.  Dojun is 39.  He and his girlfriend work at the same company and have known each other a long time. He told me that it was becoming customary in S. Korea for couples to marry later because they wanted to wait until they had good jobs and could afford it.  I commented that this custom must be worldwide because my daughter still hasn’t married and seems in no hurry.  We talked about the economy and some of the political reasons why people wait to marry.  This talk led us to a conversation about S. Korean’s economy and how Dojun feels that younger people are not being given opportunities to work and make money.  He hopes that Mr. Moon will fix this situation. 

Christiana TS #7

Date/Time: June 4, 2017; 1:15-2:15 P.M.

Location: All Saint's Cafe
Topic: Pronunciation & reading 
Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Pronunciation of minimal pairs & reading aloud. 

For today's meeting, I picked Jiwon up from her apartment and we headed to the All Saint's Cafe. Jiwon wanted to work on pronunciation today so I found a page on minimal pairs and sentences and we went over pronunciation techniques and specifically getting her to hear the differences between sounds like 'Th' and 'D'; and 'F' and 'V'. I had her read through words and sentences, correcting her mispronunciations as she went and having her repeat after me with specific words. I also wrote down words that were particularly difficult for her to say and decided I would make a worksheet and look into other ways to help her say these words correctly. Words with 'rl' consecutively like "Charles", 'girls', and 'regularly' were especially difficult which makes sense because words with 'r' and 'l' often get mispronounced by people who speak Asian languages. I had her do extra practice with words that gave her trouble and then we moved on to reading a few articles aloud. We chose two different articles to read and she read them aloud and we worked on sentence stress, and pronunciation of words that were difficult for her to pronounce. We took breaks in between each activity because it I know that it can be very frustrating to work on pronouncing words with sounds that you're not used to making. Jiwon seemed to feel accomplished after today's tutoring session. It was great that we were able to pinpoint some problem words/sounds and I am going to find a few other ways for her to practice with those so that she can continue to improve her pronunciation and feel more confident with her English. I was very happy with today's progress and look forward to continuing to practice with Jiwon over the next few weeks.