Erik TP5

Kukit had mentioned wanting to work with me as a tutor, and since I received a new conversation partner, I agreed to become his tutor for the rest of the semester. He’s pretty timid, so I’m glad I was able to get to know him as a conversation partner before shifting to tutoring. So we began as any first tutoring session would go about. I asked about his weaknesses, which were all pretty conversational—listening, speaking, grammar and vocab. So I pulled out a sheet of minimal pairs to work on some pronunciation. His Vs, Ls, and Rs need the most work, so I described how the mouth should be shaped, where the tongue was resting or touching, and we practiced the word “vegetable” for a good amount of time. It amazes me how he will get it, but it’s all about the muscle memory to really reproduce it in a conversational situation.

He then asked me about American humor, which threw me off. He said he needed help with American culture to really understand the language. I seem to get that question from every partner I’ve had so far! I asked him what kind of jokes he’s accustomed to, so he told me a Thai joke. I don’t know if it’s the cultural differences, or the translation of the story into English, but I didn’t get it. But I didn’t want to offend his attempt, so I waited until the assumed punch line and belted out a hardy laugh. I couldn’t recall any specific “clean” jokes, so I mentioned different types of jokes. I introduced American humor as pretty vulgar, and dirty—usually making a punch line at the cost of someone’s feelings. I explained blonde jokes, bar jokes, and “racist” jokes. I emphasized over and over again that Americans have a weird humor, and we usually laugh at things that may not be found funny in real life situations—the more ridiculous, bizarre, and random the circumstances of the joke, the better. I then tried to explain dead baby jokes, which was a horrible wrong turn. I think he now believes that I take pleasure in the death of tiny babies.

The openness of the conversation led him to explain his concept of the world to me. Pretty philosophical, I know. But he insisted. From what I can understand, he believes people perceive the world as the “real world,” the mechanical world, and the computer world. He personally thinks we’re all part of the computer world—and nothing is real. This absolutely intrigued me, but as he attempted to explain the concept to me, I had to get to class before he could delve too deeply. He promised he’d plan on explaining it a little better next time. I’m excited to hear about this computer world!