Francisco CP-4

I met with SungJin once again for tea time on Tuesday, May 31st. I originally planned on meeting with my other conversation partner, Abdulrahman, but he called me prior to our meeting informing me that he will not be able to meet. I text SungJin twenty mintues before teatime and he responded quickly saying he would love to meet instead. SungJin and I began our conversation and I asked him what he did last weekend. SungJin told me he drove down to Orlando with another person that is in his international sailing team. I asked him who his friend is and he told me that she is not a friend. A confusion arose from this statement and SungJin attempted to explain to me that someone that is not of the same age as an individual is not considered a friend. I told him that if they hang out together then they are normally considered a friend here in America. He said he understands but not in this case. I do not know if I quite understand the concept in which SungJin was trying to explain to me with the whole "acquaintance" instead of "friend" thing yet. I will try to further investigate this manner before I meet with SungJin and see if I grasp the subject.
I was then pleased and extremely thankful to hear that SungJin has ordered a gift to be sent to me by his girlfriend in Korea. I told him I am extremely thankful for his generosity. He showed me a picture of the gift he sent. It is beautifully decorated pencil bag in Korean art. He said it also included an accessory chain that can be attached to a cell phone. SungJin said he did this because we are both friends. I became speechless at this extremely amiable act from SungJin and thanked him once again. I plan on also giving SungJin a gift before our last conversation meeting.

Pat WW CO-1

I observed a speaking class today with Olga Garmash. I arrived 10 minutes early. As I waited in the classroom, the students came in and greeted each other in what I suppose was their first language. Conversations continued until class started and until then, I heard no English spoken at all.

Olga walked in and started the class, which was practice for a debate that would be held in 2 weeks. The class was divided into 2 groups and the resolution was written on the whiteboard: “Should animals be used for testing of drugs and cosmetics?”

One woman asked to be moved to the “negative” side because “she liked puppies.” We all laughed. We all laughed even harder when another woman declared she was on the right side because she didn’t like animals at all.

The 2 groups were given 5 minutes to decide on their 4 points to argue for the affinitive or negative. These 2 words were written in the white board.

As the debate started, I was a bit surprised that there was very little correction of grammer or pronunciation. But seeing the obvious enthusiasm for the debate and then remembering our class lecture and readings, I understood that the Ms. Garmash was letting the students express themselves without correction. I noticed that some corrections were being written on the whiteboard during the debate: mouse/mice, vascular, systems, etc. The debate was very lively.

At the end of an hour, I was asked to declare a winner. I thought that everyone had made good augments. But the woman who had asked the affirmative group to imagine themselves as a puppy and then asked the puppy/people to voluntarily give up their lives for a cosmetic had made her point. The affirmative people wilted under that argument and the negative of the resolution won the day.

One great class management technique was observed. A student interrupted Ms. Garmash as she was explaining something and trying to move on to something else. She said, “The short answer is “no”. If you need a longer answer come see me after class.” Then she went back to what she was doing. That was brilliant. I’m going have to remember that one.

Erik TP6

I began my session with Hyejin by showing a video from Ted.com. Patricia Ryan, a TEFL teacher for thirty years in Kuwait, spoke about the cons of English growing as the prime bridge language for intelligence. With a love for anthropological linguistics, I agreed with many of her main points. She emphasized how a world with 6,000 languages could decline to 600 languages in a matter of a century. Currently, a language dies every 14 days! But ours thoughts are constructed by language. And each language inherently has a set of unique, complicated concepts engrained into it. Overall, the point was that language diversity leads to a broad array of intelligences. Hyejin agreed enthusiastically, and enjoyed it as much as I did.

We then shifted to an essay by George Orwell—the God of all English writers, at least in my book. She found it easier to read than David Sedaris, and we looked over each character he described, and how he constructed the mental picture for the reader. I then assigned her to pick one of her closest friends or family members to describe in a dialogue. She would start out by listing adjectives about that person, even the contradictory ones. The point is that each person is complex, and shows a diversity of behaviors for different situations. Then in her dialogue scene, she would pick the behaviors that applied to the scenario, and humanize the person for me to grasp that aspect of them. Since she’s working towards a PhD in social work, the ability to describe behaviors seems fit for the professional field. I'm glad that this type of writing seems to work for her--she even says its fun.

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!

Erik TP4

The first thing Hyejin and I covered was an essay I had assigned her from David Sedaris’ book Me Talk Pretty One Day. I tried to pick a story with minimal cultural references, and she seemed to pick up most of the language pretty easily. I explained what “no strings attached,” means, as well as “pull yourself together.” It’s those small idioms that catch her up the most, but they’re pretty fun to unfold for explanation—I've never had to think of the real meanings before.

We then covered a detailed scene she had written the assignment I had given her. It was about a ghost that confronted her the night after an accident she had been in as a child. She was able to describe the events pretty well, but I tried to explain I wanted her to dig into the loaded sentences a bit more, unfolding each of the senses in detail. I absolutely loved her story, because it was unique, and an experience that was solely hers. Even if her family didn’t believe her, she knew exactly what she felt that night, I told her to try to dig deeper for those emotions. She hesitated, and then psychologist Erik took a step out. She was reluctant to agree on a revision, because she mentioned how creepy the event had been for her, and she didn’t like reaching for those specific details.

I mentioned that I also have stories that have been pushed into the writer's vault, because sometimes it’s difficult to revisit certain occasions. But at the same time, I emphasized that writing has its therapeutic effects. Once you unload the events in your mind, you must reevaluate your past self, as well as your current self. You’re making sense of the scene with a new set of eyes, and that’s the powerful aspect of it. The past can’t haunt you, unless you allow it to.

We veered off topic a bit, sharing a few personal stories, but she left the lesson with a little more passion than she had entered. She mentioned how exciting the session had been, and I couldn’t help but to feel the same way.

Erik CP3

When I met with Kukit, he was very excited to continue our game of Phase 10 while we talked. I think it took him awhile to realize that I was going to CIES for the TEFL certificate, because during my second classroom observation, I was in one of his classes. Although he’s a shy guy, his face lit up in the class, and I could tell he was explaining to some of his classmates that I was his conversation partner. So during our conversation, he wanted to explain all the opportunities available to teach English in Thailand. He was very hospitable, even offering to give me a tour of Thailand if I were to work there one day.

During the game, he won one round with a lucky hand, and the next round I did the same, so I kind of mumbled “Karma’s a bitch, huh?” At that, he asked me if that was slang, and what the meaning of it was. He didn’t seem to understand that Karma could be a concept translated into Thai Buddhism, so I explained that it’s a philosophical law of action and reaction, and since he easily won the first round, I won the second. Afterwards, I emphasized that he shouldn’t go around saying that openly. He laughed a bit, and repeated "Karma's a bitch, huh?". Each week I see that his English is improving, but out of all my foreign students, he needs the most work to fully grasp all the English language involves.

Also, since communication is pretty difficult between us, I find myself thinking more about what I say, and if he can follow along. I especially realized that I tend to repeat, "ya know?" after most of my sentences. Now I can't stop hearing myself and others say it in regular conversation! And so the transformation into an English teacher begins...

Craig Wilson CP-2

After an awesome first meeting, my conversation partner and I decided to take it easy this time and just chat on campus at FSU. We met at the Wescott Fountain area and simply lounged outside for the good part of an hour. He told me of his plans to visit Washington DC and reasons for wanting to visit. I was really excited to here about his want to travel in the US and let him know of a couple of local spots in DC that most of the tour books typically fail to mention. As a former resident of the area, some of my favorite restaurants, places and museums are sometimes not the typical highlights so hopefully he will enjoy them. We also spoke of Thailand, and his longing to have good Thai food again. He said his cooking skills had improved but are still a work in progress. It made for a funny thought because while I lived in Bangkok I took a Thai cooking class and they have a high critique for cooking standards. Recognizing my failures, I hope he didnt judge my lack of cooking knowledge too much! We reminisced on hot days in Thailand eating spicy food and sweating bullets from the combination of both. It truly was nice thinking back on those times and having someone who was certainly on the same page as I was. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation time. The next time we hang out, we discussed going to a book store and finding some good reads.