Jackie CP4

Originally, both of my conversation partners were going to come to see Bridesmaids, but only Jia ended up coming along with three of my other friends. She is such a bright, bubbly girl so she got along perfectly with everyone! She was so excited to talk about our music, and wondered what kind it was, and that she loved America and driving in the car. I looked in the rearview mirror at her and she had her face by the window letting the wind hit her and she was just smiling, with pure elation! She didn't understand everything in the movie--especially because so much is extremely fast, but she definitely was laughing almost until tears like the rest of us. I'm pretty sure the humor involved in Bridesmaids can be made worldwide--whether it is catty girl problems or..uh..food poisoning, the horror is universal! She grabbed my hand and yelled at a lot of parts, which was fine because my friends and I were also yelling, or laughing really loud, so she was in her element. She was so grateful to have come, which I find is extremely refreshing about being with my conversation partners--because really, I'm getting out just as much from them as they are from me, I'm sure. But, they all have an appreciation that is beyond words. This was probably the best conversation partner date ever--but we promised to do new fun things in the future!

Francisco TO-1

I observed Jennfier's speaking class at 1pm on Tuesday. Jennifer seemed excited to have me observe the class and introduced me to her students. I decided to take post on the back left corner and observe the class with pen and paper ready. As I looked around the class, I could tell that most of the students are little older, perhaps in the the early twenties. The class began with a skit, two students gave a persuasive speech on whether or not the alcohol age should be lowered to eighteen. One student argued for it and another one against it. I listened to the student's points and became very interested on how they viewed American social issues from their perspective. The student arguing against the age being lowered gave a rather comical speech. He laughed in a non-understanding manner of how (when interviewing American students) American students said they rather drink at parties to have fun. In a laughing-manner the student said, " I do not understand how you have to drink to have fun." I found this statement intriguing and it reminded me how other cultures do not binge drink to extent that Americans do. He then mentioned how the decision to not drink alcohol at parties will limit the time "spent under the table." Jennifer asked what the student meant with this statement and he said it is the "blackout stage spent under the table because of too much alcohol at parties." Jennifer and I joined the laughter that arose from this statement. The class then took a vocabulary quiz, and I asked Jennifer if I could have a copy of the quiz. As she handed me the quiz, Jennider said "simplicity is the key" and laughed. I found this statement to be very wise and extremely true. The quiz contained words such as: secular, flood, arid, compromise, revenge, and humid. After the quiz, the students were then given two cards with different words focusing on vocabulary that was taught the day before. The students are to get with a partner and act out a skit with these flash cards. An example I saw is the sentence "apologize" on one word and "to a police officer" on another. As the students looked at their cards, they began to joke and laugh when they contemplated possible skits. I can tell that the students enjoy this class and appreciate Jennifer's teaching methods. Jennifer mentioned before she handed out the cards that if the students did not feel comfortable acting out a role (such as a man acting as a girl for the "girlfriend role") to switch cards, respectfully keeping in mind the student's cultural values. Before class was over and the students were dismissed, Jennifer mentioned that each student should pair up with someone from another country. I thoroughly enjoyed observing Jennifer's class and learned a great deal from her. I someday plan on using her skit idea which I believe is a perfect mix of class involvement, communicative teaching, and cultural awareness of different countries.

Francisco CP-2

SungJin and I met again on Tuesday during teatime for our second conversation session. Once again, we hit off our conversation right away and I can now tell we are very comfortable speaking with each other. Him and I have a lot to share to one another and are very interested in each others cultures. I asked SungJin what he did last weekend and he said he went swimming. I did not know that he liked to swim as a leisure time activity and I told him that I used to play water polo in high school and lifeguard over the summers. To my surprise, SungJin also is a lifeguard in his home country. I inquired about how his car hunting endeavors are going and he said not too well. I forgot to tell him that a small but very important item is needed when it comes to driving a car, a drivers license. SungJin laughed at this and pulled out a bag that contained his passport, visa and other documents. He showed me a beige folder and said "my drivers license." I looked at the document and noticed that it said "International Drivers License," something that I did not know existed. After this intriguing surprise, SungJin asked if I have a Facebook. I showed him my page and my family members. He was shocked when he saw that I have an identical twin brother. He seemed to really like this and was extremely curious when looking at pictures of my family members and friends. When we turned our attention to SungJin's page, he mentioned that he didn't have enough pictures like I did, instead he showed me what he calls the "Facebook of Korea." SungJin has a variety of pictures of him sailing on his page and he showed me the international sailing team he competes in. For the rest of our conversation, SungJin explained to me how the racing is done in sailing and how he looks at the water/ clouds to determined the best wind speed and direction to race in. I can tell SungJin is a very talented individual when it comes to observing outdoor conditions to his benefit, especially while sailing.

Erik TP2

Before meeting up with Hyejin today, I was a little worried that I would not be able to offer her anything for her studies in English. I had read a research paper that she wrote for her class, and I was blown away. It was very structured, and I would have never imagined that someone struggling with English wrote it. So I started the session asking her how Koreans wrote, since the Writing across Borders video had made me a little curious. I got the answer I wanted—they usually don’t introduce the topic first, but instead they usually develop background information before delving into a topic.

Perfect, I thought. It was a perfect segue into the essay I picked out for us to cover. Hyejin mentioned wanting to understand American culture better, since culture and language are highly interlinked. I picked out the shortest essay from David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day to cover in our session because he’s one of my favorite humorists, and he employs cultural topics throughout all of his writings. Within the first paragraph, Hyejin was already struggling with comprehension, so we explored each idiom as they surfaced.

The exercise was just right for Hyejin. When we finished, she felt like she had just read a whole new language! Afterwards, we analyzed how this essay differed from her academic prose. He had a theme, but no thesis—and throughout the whole essay he was describing, imagining, and exaggerating. She was amazed at how open he was about certain subjects, and we started talking about the culture shocks she had experienced from the openness of American conversations. It was fun trying to break down American behavior for her—because we’re all still such a puzzle in her mind!

Before leaving, I gave her a writing assignment. I want her to write one scene of her life in the most descriptive way possible, employing all five of the senses. I told her to keep in mind one thing: “SHOW, don’t tell.” I want to feel like I’m being shown an interactive picture, I explained. It may be difficult for her to complete, but I’m interested to see what she comes up with for next week!

Whitney CO-1

I observed Felicia Ciappetta's Reading class, for students in the Group 3 level. I could sense immediately that Felicia has a good rapport with her students by how comfortable the class seemed and the way she greeted them individually.

She began by writing "Today's Agenda" on the board: "1) Attendance, 2) Context Clues, 3) Hamburgers." I thought it especially interesting that she included "attendance" as a part of the class agenda--that's something I wouldn't have thought of. I soon found out that attendance is taken online and is projected on the wall for the other students to watch. I've never seen attendance taken in this manner, and I especially like the way it almost involves the other students.

Reviewing yesterday's lesson (affixes/suffixes), Felicia left the class responsible for providing most of the information, and facilitated by asking for definitions and related examples. She then asked how affixes and suffixes could be useful or helpful. Here was her transition to today's lesson--by having students recognize that affixes and suffixes help us guess the meaning of unfamiliar words, she was able to introduce "context clues"--another useful method in comprehension.

She then provided hand-outs, read the directions aloud, and gave the students 10 minutes to read 3 paragraphs, with 5 words highlighted and corresponding questions (1 per word) at the bottom.

It was the silence that made me aware of Frank Sinatra in the background, and I wondered if the music had actually been playing the whole time.

After calling a "3 minutes left" reminder, she asked those still working to raise their hands. Only one student raised his hand, but I counted 2 more who seemed too concentrated to respond. This reminds me that it's important to ask and observe. We then reviewed the answers together--if no one had answered correctly, she had us look back and reread for context.

The 2nd handout we did not actually work on, except for the 3 "group-questions" which we answered and discussed at our tables, and then as a class. This was the "hamburger" section of class, and everyone was asked to share about the popularity (or unpopularity) of the fast-food burger in their home country. The multicultural aspect of the class made our discussion especially interesting, and students seemed eager to share and learn about each other.

Throughout the class, Felicia consistently called on her students by name--once as a way to circumvent distracted students (interrupting their conversation by asking them a question, consequently bringing them into the discussion). She also offered correction when students answered questions using the wrong word form or tense. She was especially direct about correcting their pronunciation of hamburger ("ham-what?"), perhaps because this was the theme of the lesson.

I really enjoyed observing Felicia's class today, and even met and talked with a few of the students: Kukit, Kevin, and Bushra (don't know the spelling). Felicia was extremely welcoming to me and another "observer" (a TESOL intern) and not only introduced us to the class but involved us in the discussions as well. I have so much to learn in regards to teaching, but I find my notes and observations from this class useful and insightful, and hope to establish the respectful and comfortable learning environment I experienced today.

Whitney CP-2

Conservation seemed to run much more smoothly than our first meeting—maybe it was the vanilla rooibos tea at Starbucks—Jongouk was definitely more relaxed. He showed me his hometown via Google maps, and went on to talk about the current construction of a new factory (in the middle of a bay, according to the map—but that will need to be updated since they have filled it in). Below is a picture I found of Gunsan, Jongouk's hometown:

http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_8_2_5.jsp

I also learned that he was in the Korean air force for two years—which is required of every Korean male over 18 years old (they have until they’re 30 to fulfill this duty). So, even though he has completed his first 2 years of college, he is 22. He left to come here after he had only been home from service for 3 weeks—which upset his friends, who were unable to visit him at the base all that time.

Now that he is here, he told me he wishes he could stay, instead of going back to Korea in January as planned. The university here is much more relaxed, he noted, pointing out the students playing outside on Landis. In Korea, he said, students are not as active, especially the girls—at least, from what he’s observed.

We could have gone on longer, and I was sorry I had filled my evening and had to leave. Next week, however, that will not be the case, and I can't wait to see where it will go.

Jackie CP3

My conversation partners are hilarious. They know each other, so at Tea Time we all sat together, with some other Korean CIES students, and were a little too loud. I met Jia for the first time, my second conversation partner, who has been in Tallahassee for five months and will stay until December. It's funny, because she sounds extremely American; as if her parents were from Korea but she has lived here growing up. Maybe this is simply vocal quality/tone, but she was excited to hear that! Fatih, my first partner, is a lower level than Jia, but he generally understands the same things. It seemed like a pattern that she would pick up on something immediately, but he would need it repeated twice or three times, and maybe converted to a simpler form. I think that it is extremely interesting though, that concepts are still understood--perhaps it is vocabulary that is the culprit. But in this case, it is a 4 level jump! So, we had an extremely non-serious conversation that included a lot of witty retorts and jokes about each other. It's so interesting to see two foreign students interact and communicate with one another when they both are learning the only language they could actually communicate in. But then again, it's not surprising--we are all about the same age, and meeting foreigners brings you the realization that no, we are not all exactly alike, but we have a lot of the same emotional mindsets. Our cultures and pasts and futures are different, and even how we see the world in terms of language, speaking, writing, making, and even thinking could have seperate patterns--but we all like to laugh. We all like to poke fun at each other and be silly for the sake of being silly. Or maybe my partners are just really hyper like me. But, it is a nice realization once you come upon it that around the world, you could probably communicate and probably relate to someone else.