FSU TEFL 120 Summer 2 2019

I spoke with Dakhil for our last conversation partner meeting on August 7 th at Starbucks, where we actually first met at the beginning of the TEFL course. We did not have much time to talk, as he was getting ready to begin travelling that Friday and was going to be celebrating his birthday on the 8 th . For the most part, we spoke of how he enjoyed his time in Tallahassee so far and how he enjoyed the CIES program. Like the other CIES students I had spoken to, he really enjoyed his classes and the friends he had made, but because he did not have a car, he actually wasn’t able to see a lot of the city during his time here. We also spoke about what he plans to do when he returns from his travels and begins his studies at FSU. I recommended that he go to as many FSU sports events as he can to really get a sense of the Nole spirit. I told him that I really enjoyed talking to him during the conversation partner program and wished him luck with his academic goals.

Date/Time: 07/24/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Final Review Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: When I met up with Andres, we jumped straight into our final review of what he learned, with example sentences on different vocabulary words he learned, as well as idioms and how to understand different homographs depending on context clues. It was a long list of over 50 homographs, as well as a lot of context clues to puzzle piece, which Andres was able to do almost flawlessly. I also noticed grammatical improvements in Andres's speech, to which I respectfully congratulated him. After covering everything, I provided Andres with the list of vocabulary and homographs before wishing him the best of luck on his English studies and saying goodbye.

Date/Time: 07/26/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Final Review Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Seungjae and I met for our second and final tutoring session, in which I set up a review with example sentences and worksheets to allow him to practice grammar tenses he did not understand. This tutoring session took over an hour, as with many of the questions on the practice he had concerns, to which I helped him clarify with detailed explanations and reasons to grammar. He luckily showed much more understanding at the end of the tutoring session, to which I encouraged him to continue his studies and provided him additional information that would help explain these grammar tenses he struggled with. 

Date/Time: 07/23/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Getting to Know One Another Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: I met Seungjae for the first time. Seungjae (Or his preferred American name "Chris") is a Korean ESL student at CIES, who lost his tutor because of her early departure from the TEFL program. Because of this, Seungjae had neither a tutor nor a conversation partner, although very eager to have both. Since I heard of this situation from my fellow conversation partner, I decided to speak with Seungjae and volunteer to tutor him for at least two sessions and help him in some way in his English studies. We got to know each other briefly before getting into his main concerns, which were present perfect (+ present perfect continuous) tenses, which I explained thoroughly and gave explanations as he took notes and practiced with sentences.

Date/Time: 07/22/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Homograph Practice Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Andres and I met and discussed homographs, a simple word to describe words that can be used in multiple contexts, a word I was not aware of which would have made tutoring sessions easier for him when it came down to activities, We practiced with example sentences using words like "milk" and "can" to find meanings to their definitions through context clues to find out the meaning of the sentences. Luckily, I had been tutoring Andres on how to find these context clues using cultural knowledge, to which he successfully showed understanding in how to use the clues. We decided to host a final review of everything the next and final tutoring session, covering both context clue usage and homographs, as well as all prior vocabulary we had learned together throughout our sessions.

Date/Time: 07/17/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Review Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Marcia came in after I met with Andres and we hosted a review of all of the concerns she previously had during her first two tutoring sessions, both of which were answered and clarified. Marcia was able to successfully show understanding of the material during our review on present perfect and present perfect continuous tenses, as well as prepositions, all of which were her only real concerns. With this, Marcia and I concluded our third and final tutoring session, after which I provided her with additional links in the case she doesn't understand or remember grammar we covered in the future before wishing her the best of luck in her future English studies.

Date/Time: 07/17/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: George Lopez and Other American Sitcoms Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Andres and I decided to watch part of an episode of the George Lopez sitcom during our tutoring session, in which Andres was asked to pick up vocabulary or idioms he's never heard before, in which the list was extensive due to the fact that the show is in native English and uses everyday phrases heard in America. Andres also lacked some cultural knowledge on idioms and phrases that were explained to him, to which he enjoyed learning about. At the end of the session, he was given a list of vocabulary words and phrases to cover on his own.

Date/Time: 07/15/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: This American Life  podcast on crime Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: I met with Andres this week, and we went through the typical routine of reading a text and trying to use various context clues from the text to puzzle piece together the meaning of not only the sentence or the entire text but also vocabulary words within the text. This time, I requested of Andres to create even more sentences, using old words previously used along with new ones. 

On Monday, August 5 th , Futa and I had our sixth conversation partner meeting. This time, we went to the Starbucks on West Tennessee Street near Whataburger. While there, Futa brought up how Starbucks can also be easily found in Japan and our popular with people our age. However, he talked about how they serve different drinks that fit the different tastes that our found in our cultures. We also talked about the places we are from. I told him about how I am from a town in Madison County named Pinetta, which is so small it can not even legally be considered a town. This is quite different from Tokyo, which is where he is from. He told me he lives in an area in Tokyo called Hachioji and that it is not as nice and pretty as some of the other areas in Tokyo. However, I joked about maybe teaching there if I get accepted into the JET Program.

On Wednesday, July 31 st , Futa and I had our fifth conversation partner meeting at my place of work, Tally Cat Café. When we got there, he was surprised at how the place worked. He said that even though they have cat cafes in Japan, they do not work the same way. The cat cafes in Japan do not have a separate café area and cat room like ours does, instead focusing primarily on the cats over the café part. They also have cats that live there permanently, while Tally Cat Café works with the Leon County Humane Society to get the cats adopted and the cats only live there until they get adopted. He ultimately liked the idea of American cat cafes better, since people still get to visit the cats and the cats are given a better chance of finding a home they can go to instead of living on the streets.

On Tuesday, July 30 th , Futa and I went to BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse for our fourth conversation partner meeting. He was wanting to celebrate the last week of his current CIES session and go somewhere a bit nice that he had never been to before. He was amazed that there was a lot more to Tallahassee than he had thought when we were on our way to the restaurant, which prompted the topic of driving and the streets here versus Japan. He talked about how he had. He talked about he had a driver’s license in Japan, but only for his motor scooter since a lot of people in Japan do not drive cars. He also talked about his confusion with the streets here when he first came to America since they drive on the left side of the road in Japan. I found this to be an extremely fascinating aspect of their culture that was quite different than what I am used to.

On Monday, July 29 th , Futa and I had or third conversation partner meeting at the Hecht House. During the conversation partner meeting, we talked about the job I currently have and the one he had before moving to America. It was particularly interesting because we both worked in food service and could share a few stories. Another thing we talked about was how big Tallahassee is, not in terms of population but in terms of how spread out it is. Futa explained that Japan, particularly in Tokyo where he lived, almost every kind of place you would want to go to was within walking distance, and if it was further away then he could easily get there by bus or the subway. In Tallahassee, because of everything being so spread out, he has a more limited range of places to go. I had realized this a little bit before, but I was still amazed at the difference.

On Thursday, August 1 st , I met with YJ from 3 to 4 for our eighth tutoring session together and my sixteenth tutoring session overall. As usual, we started by talking about our weekends. After that, I then asked him how his CIES session went and how he thought he did on his exams. He said that he felt like he had learned a lot and that he did well on his exams. He also thanked me for the tutoring I had given him, saying that it helped him feel more confident about talking to native English speakers, especially since he now understood some common slang and idioms. When he said that, I brought out my vocabulary list with a few more idioms on it, such as “two peas in a pod” and “clear the air,” and explained them to him. I then told him he could text me any time he wanted help with English and he thanked me again before we wrapped up the tutoring session.

On Wednesday, July 24 th , I met with Futa from 3 to 4 for our eighth tutoring session together and my fifteenth tutoring session overall. During this session we mostly went over grammar. Futa was struggling with first conditionals and wanted more help with them. He did not fully understand why the first verb was used in the simple present form and the second verb was used in simple future form. He then wanted to know the difference between “if” and “when” when used in these situations. I explained that “if” conveys a more uncertain tone, as if the outcome is not certain, whereas “when” sounds more like something is definitely going to happen or that the user is confident about the outcome. We then briefly went over how first conditionals are used for more particular situations, zero conditionals are used for general situations, and second conditionals are used when something is unlikely to happen. Afterwards, we finished by talking about cursive and how it is mostly used for people’...

On Tuesday, July 23 rd , I met with YJ from 2:50 to 3:30 for our seventh tutoring session together and my fourteenth tutoring session overall. When we were discussing our weekends, I brought up how I had gone to the AMC theater to watch Spider-Man: Far from Home. When I mentioned this, YJ got excited because he had seen it too and wanted to know what I had thought of it. For most of the tutoring session, we discussed our opinions about the movie. We both loved it and thought it was the best Spider-Man movie so far. YJ was particularly interested in the special effects and visual effects used for the character Mysterio, although I had to help him with the technical terms and ways to describe his thoughts on them a little. For the last part of the tutoring session, we talked about our rankings for the actors who have played Spider-Man, and we both agreed that Tom Holland has been the best one for the role.

On Monday, July 22 nd , I met with Futa from 3 to 4 for our seventh tutoring session together and my thirteenth tutoring session overall. For this tutoring session, Futa said he mostly wanted to focus on talking that day, so I started by asking him how his weekend had been. Once he had told me how his weekend had been, I told him about mine so he could get some extra practice with his listening comprehension. At some point we got on the topic of homonyms, specifically “flour” and “flower.” I had mentioned how I had gotten flour all over my kitchen while baking a dessert, but he thought I was saying I had gotten flowers all over my kitchen. We also talked about stationery, which was a word he was unfamiliar with in English. He also struggled trying to come up with the word “glue”, and I had to help him figure it out. He also had trouble saying it, so for the last few minutes of the session I helped him with his pronunciation of it.

On Tuesday, July 16 th , I met with YJ from 2:50 to 3:30 for our sixth tutoring session together and my twelfth tutoring session overall. We began with asking about each other’s weekends again, and then I brought out the new vocabulary list for the tutoring session. I introduced two more slang terms to him, “stan” and “clapback”, and explained what they meant while giving example sentences. I also had a few more idioms to teach him, such as “all ears” and “change of heart.” There was one expression he already knew, which was “piece of cake”, that I had written down and was a bit surprised that he already knew that one. Afterwards, we talked about his thoughts were on Hulu. He was enjoying it a lot, especially since there were new shows and movies he could watch, and the shows were often updated weekly. He also really liked Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which I was happy to hear about since that was what I had recommended.

On Monday, July 15 th , I met with Futa from 3 to 4 for our sixth tutoring session together and my eleventh tutoring session overall. For this tutoring session, I had printed out a fill in the blank worksheet that went over the articles “a”, “an”, and “the.” Since he had struggled with articles a lot on both composition essays he had brought to previous tutoring sessions and was having a hard time understanding them, I thought it would be best to start with an easier worksheet. For the first 15 minutes of the session, I had him fill in the blanks to the best of his ability without my help. After he was through, I looked over the ones he had answered and corrected the ones that were wrong and explained why they were not correct. Once I was done with that part, we went over the unanswered problems and I had him try to answer them based on the feedback and explanations I had given him.

On Wednesday, July 10 th , I met with Futa from 3 to 4 for our fifth tutoring session together and my tenth tutoring session overall. For this tutoring session, Futa had brought in another practice essay for me to look over and correct. The topic for this one was whether or not it is good to have co-ed schools, which Futa argued is good. Just like his previous practice composition essay, he did well with the overall structure of the essay and was able to get his thoughts on the topic across. The supporting paragraphs were well written, and the introductory paragraph was solid. However, he still struggled with the closing paragraph. He was closer than before, but it was still not quite there. He also still made quite a few mistakes with plurals and articles. There were fewer plural mistakes than before and he quite almost all of them when I got to them, but he still did not fully understand the articles. At the end of the session, I told him that he needed to look over articles again,...

On Tuesday, July 9 th , I met with YJ from 2:50 to 3:30 for our fifth tutoring session together and my ninth tutoring session overall. Again, we talked about our weekends first to help with speaking and listening comprehension. After that, I brought out the vocabulary list I had prepared for this tutoring session, which was comprised of almost entirely idioms, such as “flat broke”, “strapped for cash”, and “wet behind the ears.”. I did, however, have one slang phrase, which was “on point.” I gave the definitions of each of them and gave example sentences. Once I had gone over the vocabulary, YJ and I started to talk about any TV shows or movies we had seen recently. He was running out of stuff to watch on Netflix, so I recommended Hulu, which he had not tried yet. I told him that he could get a free one month trial to see if there was anything he was interested in on there, such as my recommendation of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and he said he would check it out.

On Monday, July 8 th , I met with Futa from 3 to 4 for our fourth tutoring session together and my eighth tutoring session overall. During this tutoring session, Futa mostly wanted to practice talking, so we decided to talk about television shows and movies that are popular and could help him learn English. When it comes to popular TV shows, I recommended Friends, The Office, and Parks and Recreation, which can all be found on Netflix for his convenience. He had never heard of the last two, which I was happy to recommend since they are especially popular among people around our age. I was a bit stumped with movies, since he had already watched a bunch of Marvel movies and that was going to be my recommendation. However, since he had seen them, we were able to talk about what happened in them and our thoughts on them for the remainder of the tutoring session, with me helping by correcting his words and sentences.

For our final tutoring session, conducted in the afternoon, Yan and I covered both adverb clauses and casual speech. Our experience with adverb clauses was simpler with noun clauses; Yan had prior, formal knowledge on different kinds of clauses from her education in China. Much of this session was focused on writing out and practicing sentences to explain concepts such as with reduced adverb clauses: the changing of tenses of verbs and the condensing of words, and centering the subject of a sentence structurally. After completing our work with adverb clauses, we moved on to specifying different ways of greeting somebody, and the nuances of asking somebody how they are (where it is appropriate to actually be honest, versus where it is appropriate to just ask without getting an answer). Yan commented that I had helped through exactly half of her grammar material, which astonished me looking back at it. After our allotted hour together, we then had a rousing conversation session on variou...

In our penultimate tutoring session, conducted in the morning Yan and I covered noun clauses. This tutoring session proved challenging, as Yan was challenged by the way in which some direct clauses, when rephrased as indirect, underwent changes in the order of words whereas others didn’t (“who was calling/he was wondering how was calling” vs. “what was she wearing/he is wondering what she was wearing”). I taught her the differences in posing a first-person indirect question versus communicating another’s indirect question in a sentence, as well as how a subject in a direct question may become an object in an indirect question. To aid her in better understanding, and more quickly, how the grammar of different noun clauses work, we played out scenarios (as I explained indirect questions are often used in uncertain or polite situation) such as me playing an airport employee and her being a customer asking questions on boarding times and food court options. Yan took the strongest grip of t...

After a long hiatus, I finally got to meet Yan again for our first of three post-class tutoring sessions. In this one, we reviewed the usage of the word ‘whether’, how to verbally construct questions that use any of the 5 W’s, or the word ‘how’, methods on learning vocabulary, and taking on new vocabulary words themselves, with special attention paid to using prefixes to identify new words.  For questions involving the word ‘why’, I emphasized with Yan how, when posing the question, using a word such as ‘is’, ‘are’ or ‘has’ after the W word is crucial to having a grammatically correct sentence. We also walked through a scenario proposed by her, where she was telling a friend that she wasn’t sure about when she could meet with them tomorrow until she had her schedule for the day figured out. In vocabulary, where we practiced using prefixes, I taught Yan words such as “bicentennial” and “bisexual”, where I first led her in deducing the meaning of the word before revealing it.

Today, August 6th, 2019, I spoke with Hyo Sang over the phone. I would have liked to have spoken with Faisal for the final conversation partner meeting, but I unfortunately have been having difficulty getting in contact with him. Nevertheless, It was great to get back in touch with Hyo Sang. As with Faisal last week, Hyo Sang updated me on how his exams went. A big part of our conversation was focused on Hyo Sang's recent application for a part-time job at Strozier Library. He expressed some nervousness regarding how his English would stack up in a real-world interview. I encouraged him to the best of my abilities, providing study tips and other scattered bits of pragmatic advice. We then went on to discuss our plans for the upcoming fall semester among other things. That about covers everything Hyo Sang and I discussed during the final conversation partner meeting.

On Wednesday, July 24 th , Futa and I had our second conversation partner meeting at Momo’s Pizza. He had mentioned before that the portion sizes in America are bigger than he is used to, so I thought it would be fun to go there since their slogan is “Slices Bigger Than Your Head!” The pizza slices ended up being so big that neither of us could finish ours. While we ate, we did talk about the difference in portion sizes between America and Japan. I did admit that while Momo’s Pizza served abnormally large servings, we do have bigger portion sizes overall. We also talked about the places we have been before and the places we want to go. We had both been to Italy and France, which as exciting to find out. He also really wants to go see the Grand Canyon in Arizona, which I found very interesting. At the end of the meeting, we both got to-go boxes for our pizza, which I learned is another uncommon thing in Japan.

On Tuesday, July 9 th , Futa ans I had our first conversation partner meeting. During a previous tutoring session, he had mentioned how much he missed eating real ramen, not the instant kind. I suggested that we go to a place called “UR Bowl”, a restaurant on Tennessee Street that serves ramen and pho. He had never heard of it before and was really excited about it. When we got there, we both ordered tonkotsu ramen and shared an order of steamed gyoza. While we were eating, Futa and I talked a lot about the similarities and differences between the ramen at the restaurant and the ramen in Japan. He said it tasted almost exactly the same and the only main difference in taste was the different toppings used here that are not used in Japan. The biggest overall difference was the price; ramen is usually 800 yen (~$8) or less in Japan, whereas in America a bowl of ramen usually sells for around $12 or $13. However he really enjoyed it and thanked me for introducing him to the place.

On Tuesday, July 2 nd , I met with YJ for our fourth tutoring session together and my seventh tutoring session overall. We started off again by asking each other how our weekends were and whether or not we did anything special or interesting. After that, I introduced a couple of texting acronyms: “afk”, which means “away from keyboard”, and “ttyl”, which means “talk to you later.” I also introduced a few idioms and their meanings, such as “up in the air” and “out of the blue.” After defining and giving example sentences for each of them, YJ asked about politics in America. He particularly wanted to know about any topics that are often debated. I brought p two topics: marijuana and abortion. I briefly talked about some of the stances people take on these debates without stressing any in particular. I did, however, make sure to stress at the end of our session that these should be brought up in a civil manner so they do not become heated debates as they unfortunately so often do.

On Monday, July 1 st , I met with Futa for our third tutoring session together and my sixth tutoring session altogether. A couple hours before the session, he texted me asking for help with a project for his speaking class. The project was a PowerPoint presentation about an aspect of the students’ language or culture and the students would have to speak for at least five minutes. Futa had chosen to talk about the three writing systems in Japanese: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. He went over how kanji are from Chinese characters, hiragana are mostly used for grammatical structures like verb tenses, and katakana are used for borrowed words from other languages. He did well overall, with few grammatical errors on the PowerPoint that he immediately noticed and corrected. He did stumble over a couple of sentences while talking, but quickly corrected himself. We concluded the session by going over the PowerPoint one last time in order to reinforce both his confidence and his new knowledge....

On Wednesday, June 26 th , I met with Futa from 3 to 4 for our second tutoring session together and my fifth tutoring session overall. Futa had prepared a practice essay so I could help him with his composition. The topic he had written about was whether or not the Internet is a positive force in the world, and he took the position of arguing that it is. Overall, he did a good job of conveying the message he was trying to convey, and he also did well in setting up the layout for the essay. He had a strong introductory paragraph and had two good body paragraphs, one for each supporting reason for his stance on the topic. However, his conclusion paragraph was a little weak, which he admitted himself, which would have been made stronger by adding a one or two sentence summarization. When it came down to the details of the essay, he struggled with plurals and articles. He understood the mistakes with plurals when I would start reading them, but he struggled with the articles and I had to...

On Tuesday, June 25 th , I met with YJ from 2:50 to 3:30 for our third tutoring session together and my fourth tutoring session overall. We started the session off by simply asking each other what we had done over the weekend. After that, I introduced more slang and idioms to him. I went over the meanings of “sweet tooth” and “light-headed”, the differences between something being “the bomb” and “bombing” something, and what “tea” means among our generation and what it means to “spill the tea.” I also covered y’all”, which I had to explain was a Southern term meant to be a contraction of “you all.” I then had to go over the fact that although Tallahassee is rather diverse, it is still in northern Florida, which is considered a part of “the South” and that means that hearing “y’all” at least once was likely.   We then talked about the negative stereotypes surrounding Southern people and their accents and dialect we had seen in media for the last five minutes of tutoring.

On Thursday, June 20 th , I met up with YJ from 2:50 to 3:30 for our second tutoring session together and my third tutoring session overall. Between our first meeting and this one, I had kept an eye out for any slang, idioms, or “text speak” that I came across and wrote a list of them to bring in. I did not come across many idioms, only having written down “it’s raining cats and dogs.” However, I did write down quite a few slang words and texting acronyms. Among these were “high key,” “low key,” “btw,” and “omw.” These were the main focus of our tutoring session, since slang and phrases used while texting others were what YJ wanted to focus on. I explained each one to him and provided some example sentences for each. After the session, I wrote an email with all the words and their meanings to him.

Sarah and I met on Tuesday, July 23rd. Sarah told me about Colombian Independence Day. She had just celebrated it the past weekend (July 20th). This event is a great event for Colombians in America to come together and celebrate together. I discussed with Sarah the similarities between American and Colombian holidays including Christmas and Mother's/Father's day. These holidays are times for families to come together and celebrate - just like holidays in Colombia (Independence Day). 

Sarah and I met on Thursday, July 18. We talked while completing our listening lesson plan and then afterward we went to Super Perros, a Colombian restaurant here in Tallahassee. Sarah described the food there as not the most authentic. This is because of the different ingredients used and how the food is prepared in the restaurant (it is prepared differently than in Colombia). Nevertheless, the menu consists of popular Colombian dishes that Sarah has eaten in Colombia. We shared a dish called Bandeja Paisa. This dish is from the region that Sarah is from (Antioquia). It was delicious! I noted to Sarah that some of the dishes on the menu were Americanized or mixed with other cultures. For example, they had chicken nuggets and fries. They also had churros and tres leches cake - these are things I ate while I lived in Peru. 

Sarah and I met on July 16th. We conversed about our weekends and daily lives. We also discussed soccer and how passionate and competitive soccer is in Colombia. I learned that there are different national soccer teams in Colombia, such as Deportivo Cali (from Cali) and Atletico Nacional (from Medellin).  These teams do not participate in international soccer tournaments. I noted to Sarah that in America, soccer is not that popular/competitive. Instead, Americans love American football. College football and professional football are HUGE and the Super Bowl can be compared to the World Cup. Throughout the conversation, we kept joking about how football is different from "futbol" (soccer).

Sarah and I met on July 11 We discussed how our 4th of July weekend went. Sarah told me about how Colombians celebrate holidays. In Colombia, they don't really have fireworks but instead, have street festivals (depending on the holiday). Holidays are usually spent with immediate and extended families. Sarah compared family reunions in Colombia to barbeque get-togethers in America. I told Sarah about the typical American 4th of July: fireworks, American food like BBQ, hamburgers, and hotdogs, American music, and family and friends. 

I spoke with Dojun via Skype for our third conversation partner session on August 5 th and 9:00 AM. We spoke mostly about movies during this session as Dojun had just seen the new Lion King this past weekend. I was surprised to hear that he had not seen the original animated movie despite how popular he indicated American movies are in South Korea. Dojun said that Marvel movies have become the most popular American films in South Korea in recent years and he was surprised when I looked up the current box office numbers and saw that the newest Marvel movie, Spiderman: Far from Home, is only number 4 at the box office in America. We also spoke about American and Korean internet service providers and how Americans have begun to use streaming services like Netflix and Hulu to replace their cable packages. Cable television in Korea appears to still be a staple for media entertainment according to Dojun. We got so caught up in our discussion that it started to get very late for Dojun and...

Tutee Date/Time: July 11, 2019 Location: FSU Stone building  Topic/Skill: Final  Feedback provided to tutee: Testing Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: It was the last day of class for the children; therefore, it was testing day for the kids. It was to see how much they have improved on from the first test they had taken since the first day of class. 

Tutee Date/Time: July 15, 2019 Location: CIES building Topic/Skill: "Ough" and "augh" words. Feedback provided to tutee: Corrected her pronunciation and spelling of the words. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:   I had Kubra learn the different "ough" and "augh" words in use them in sentences. I also had her pronounce the words to me, and I would correct her on the sounds. I would say the words very slowly as well. 

Tutee Date/Time: July 10, 2019 Location: FSU Stone building Topic/Skill: Simon Says Feedback provided to tutee: Had them repeat after me and corrected their points. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:   Had them point to body parts as well as objects that were in the classroom. 

Tutee Date/Time: July 9, 2019 Location: FSU Stone building  Topic/Skill: Telling a story Feedback provided to tutee: Corrected their speech, but not too much.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Learning a bit about the children's family and how their parents migrated here. 

Wednesday, July 31st, I talked to Faisal on the phone, because I recently left Tallahassee to return home to Tampa. Much of this conversation centered on celebrating the recent end of the summer semester for CIES and TEFL students. Faisal gave me the full rundown of exams that he blasted through this past week. He described where he encountered the most difficulty and expressed sympathy for his peers who struggled far more with their final exams. The rest of our conversation centered on the upcoming fall semester and the plans boiling in the back of our minds. Faisal related that he will be moving closer to campus, which means that, despite our time as conversation partners coming to an end, we will be able to meet far more frequently. All things considered, this was a relatively uneventful conversation partner meeting, but not much else can happen over a phone call.

Tutee Date/Time: July 8, 2019 Location: FSU Stone building Topic/Skill: Arts and public speaking Feedback provided to tutee: Encourage them to speak out loud in English.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  We had the younger students draw on a piece of paper, and later on, stand in front of the class and describe what they had drawn. 

Tutee Date/Time: July 10, 2019 Location: CIES building Topic/Skill: I dioms and Expressions Feedback provided to tutee: Had her use idioms in her own sentence and corrected her on that to see how well she understood the idioms.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Learned about some of the same idioms she had in her language, but also learnt about idioms they have in Turkey. 

Summer Camp Date/Time: July 3, 2019 Location: FSU Stone building Topic/Skill: Present Tense Feedback provided to tutee: Corrected their mistake through comprehension  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Helped teach the present tense to the children at the summer camp I volunteer at. Mostly worked on the grammar rules of the present tense.  

Date/Time: 07/23/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Independence Day + Other Holidays Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: While Ally and I were both studying for the final exam, I began to talk about Colombian Independence Day, which I had celebrated that weekend on the 20 of July. I briefly talked about how people in Colombia celebrate it by not working and by spending it with their families as mentioned before, and that Colombian communities in the US come together during the event. Ally then began to talk about the similarities of events celebrated in Colombia to other holidays such as Christmas and Mother’s/Father’s Day in the United States, because not all families come together on events such as Independence Day and most of the time it’s just the immediate family.

Date/Time: 07/18/19 Location: Super Perros Topic discussed: Colombian vs American Food Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: After working for a while on our listening lesson plan for the following Monday class, we went to Super Perros, a popular Colombian restaurant in Tallahassee - I noted that the food is not necessarily authentic to the core, due to the differences in ingredients as well as to how it is made in the restaurant from how it is made in Colombia, but that the menu had a bunch of the popular dishes that we eat in Colombia. One in particular I mentioned was the Bandeja Paisa, a platter specifically from the region of the country I’m from (Antioquia) - which we tried together. Ally noticed some dishes on the menu that were Americanized or mixed in with different cultures (since she lived for a while in Peru) such as the chicken nuggets and fries, as well as churros and tres leches cake.

Date/Time: 07/16/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Sports Teams/Fan Culture in Colombia and in the US Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Ally and I first started talking about random subjects such as our weekend and how we are doing on the final assignments, and then the conversation turned to soccer; we talked about how passionate and competitive the Colombian soccer team is as well as the different national soccer teams in Colombia that do not participate in international matches, such as Deportivo Cali (from Cali) and Atletico Nacional (from Medellin). Ally noted that soccer is not what’s competitive in the US, but rather college football (like FSU’s team) and how the Super Bowl is an event that sometimes is even compared to the World Cup to Americans. I noted the confusing/comedic differences in using the word “football”, and how Latin Americans use the word to talk about soccer (“futbol”).

Date/Time: 07/11/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: 4th of July and National Festivals Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Since Ally and I did not meet that week on Tuesday, we talked about how the fourth of July holiday went - as well as how people in Colombia celebrate holidays (such as Semana Santa - the Catholic “Holy Week” celebrated throughout Latin America): we don’t really have fireworks but we have street festivals depending on the occasion and during typical holidays we usually spend it with both our immediate and extended families and have reunions similar to BBQs in the US. Ally gave a lot of traditional details about the 4th of July, and how people similarly usually group up and watch fireworks and eat popular American street foods such as hot dogs and BBQ, as well as listen to popular American music. Ally also noted how some families just sit in and host BBQs or events to celebrate the holiday and how some families even ...

Date/Time: 07/02/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: Weather differences in Florida and in regions around Colombia. Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Ally and I discussed the topic of weather, in the midst of Tallahassee summer heat and humidity. I spoke about how Medellin, the city I’m from, is known as “the city of eternal spring”, as well as the differing weathers there and in the rest of Colombia. The weather in Medellin is typically rainy without any humidity, and rarely changes from this except for in the winter, when temperatures drop. In the north and southeast of Colombia however, the weather does fluctuate far more and in the capital (Bogota) it even snows. We then compared Colombia to Florida weather, and noted how much more humid it is here, as well as how unique of a state Florida is when it comes to weather, since other parts of the US have differing climates depending on the zones they are located.  

Date/Time: 06/27/19 Location: CIES Lounge Topic discussed: The cultural differences between testing and other academics between America and Columbia.  Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Before heading to class for the midterm - we talked about how students are accepted into universities in Colombia; it’s a rigorous exam that tests all knowledge learned up to their “high school” years kinda like the SAT but harder and if passed universities can accept you. I also noted the different universities in Colombia, such as the University of Antioquia, a very prestigious university located in the district I'm from. We then compared this exam to other American exams such as the SAT and ACT, in which I mentioned how lenient they are when it comes to requirements.

Conversation Partner Date/Time: July 15, 2019 Location: CIES building  The topic discussed: Languages Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Because Mercia's parents are Korean, but she was born and raised in Brazil, we talked about what it was like speaking two different languages in Brazil. We also compare similar phrases and words in Spanish and Portuguese, and I learn some new Korean words.  

Conversation Partner Date/Time: July 10, 2019 Location: CIES building  The topic discussed: Sports and school Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: With Marcia, we talked about different sports and how the education system is like in Brazil. As well as talked about what it was like growing up in Brazil with a Korean family. 

Conversation Partner Date/Time: July 4, 2019 Location: CIES building  The topic discussed: Festivals and dreams Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: I learned about a traditional holiday in Saudi Arabia in the village that Zayed lived in, in which, they sing a song that a different Arabic dialect. We also talked about future dreams.