Jules TP-1

I met Stéphane for our first official tutoring meeting last Wednesday afternoon. We went over to What Café, a quiet coffee shop that just opened next to Milano Pizza on Tharpe & MLK. He had expressed a desire to improve his listening skills (he's actually taking the TOEFL as I write), so I found some audio clips online for us to listen to. I just googled "free TOEFL practice listening" and found a slew of resources. The particular quiz I found placed a heavy emphasis on idioms, so Stéphane got to learn several new ones like, "he's letting it go to his head".

We finished up the practice test in a little over an hour, then grabbed a quick bite to eat at Milano's. Stéphane was in a hurry to meet up with some other CIES students for an intramural soccer game. I asked if he was very good at soccer and he replied that, in his country, there is a saying that goes something like, "The drum cannot play itself; it must be played by someone else". This essentially means that one shouldn't speak about how skilled they are at an activity-- only others can attest to the person's abilities. I taught him the phrase, "Not to toot my own horn, ...", which is somewhat related (though people usually follow it with "but", and then go on to brag about themselves!). He remarked that he was pretty confident about the game and I said, "Alright, just don't let it go to your head!". Hopefully the joke helped him to remember that idiom on the TOEFL test today.