the strange planet inside my head
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THE EMPIRE
What's Another Word For....
I'm not talking about the beginning part of this week. It's dark and I'm still not over it.
****
Today was my initial meeting and consultation with my Chinese student. What a nice kid! He is the only child, and in his second year of med school, specializing in ophthalmology. He has studied English for ten years, and his father retained me to teach him "conversational" English. Which is kinda funny.
He is here for a month, then he returns to China to continue his studies. I believe his father wants to get him into a program here.
Anyway, the problem is not in pronunciation, and it isn't really vocabulary, although he does have some trouble with the way English uses certain words. For instance, "circle". One of my suggestions (and I've never tutored conversational English, so I don't know if this is a good idea or not) was to read a magazine article and circle the words he doesn't understand. Then, we'll go over them and read for context.
When I asked him to circle the words he didn't understand, he looked at me funny. "Isn't circle a noun?" he asked.
Yes, it is. It's also a verb, I explained.
My job is not to teach him proper grammar. My job is to help him converse with people so he gets across what he wishes to convey. That seems to be his biggest frustration. He can't communicate what's in his head. He's also shy, which doesn't help.
I told him -- look, people are pretty friendly for the most part. They're not going to eat you if you aren't 100% grammatically correct. As a matter of fact, they will most likely understand you better through informal communication instead of talking like a walking Strunk and White.
His father nod, nod, nodded through the whole thing.
So, I'm going to do more research, but my game plan is to continue to bombard him with magazine articles as homework (today his homework was the Reader's Digest magazine) and I encouraged him to watch sitcoms like "Glee" (killed me to do it.) He has a dictionary, but I told him he needs a thesaurus -- because we'll be playing "what's another word for....". I told him to get his father's credit card and go to Borders and go nuts. (His dad laughed.)
I plan on a few field trips and role-playing things, maybe a couple of movies, comic books, and involving him in social situations in which he has to speak. I think he's had his head buried in textbooks so long that's part of the problem.
Nice people. Nice kid. Hopefully I won't fuck this up.
****
Other work remains elusive, and the beginning part of this week did nothing to improve that situation. In the meantime, I hope to finish that blasted edit, start on another reading project, and peek at Pallas. Other things are bubbling, I just have to wait until they're done.
Patience. I haz it. Sorta kinda.
****
Today was my initial meeting and consultation with my Chinese student. What a nice kid! He is the only child, and in his second year of med school, specializing in ophthalmology. He has studied English for ten years, and his father retained me to teach him "conversational" English. Which is kinda funny.
He is here for a month, then he returns to China to continue his studies. I believe his father wants to get him into a program here.
Anyway, the problem is not in pronunciation, and it isn't really vocabulary, although he does have some trouble with the way English uses certain words. For instance, "circle". One of my suggestions (and I've never tutored conversational English, so I don't know if this is a good idea or not) was to read a magazine article and circle the words he doesn't understand. Then, we'll go over them and read for context.
When I asked him to circle the words he didn't understand, he looked at me funny. "Isn't circle a noun?" he asked.
Yes, it is. It's also a verb, I explained.
My job is not to teach him proper grammar. My job is to help him converse with people so he gets across what he wishes to convey. That seems to be his biggest frustration. He can't communicate what's in his head. He's also shy, which doesn't help.
I told him -- look, people are pretty friendly for the most part. They're not going to eat you if you aren't 100% grammatically correct. As a matter of fact, they will most likely understand you better through informal communication instead of talking like a walking Strunk and White.
His father nod, nod, nodded through the whole thing.
So, I'm going to do more research, but my game plan is to continue to bombard him with magazine articles as homework (today his homework was the Reader's Digest magazine) and I encouraged him to watch sitcoms like "Glee" (killed me to do it.) He has a dictionary, but I told him he needs a thesaurus -- because we'll be playing "what's another word for....". I told him to get his father's credit card and go to Borders and go nuts. (His dad laughed.)
I plan on a few field trips and role-playing things, maybe a couple of movies, comic books, and involving him in social situations in which he has to speak. I think he's had his head buried in textbooks so long that's part of the problem.
Nice people. Nice kid. Hopefully I won't fuck this up.
****
Other work remains elusive, and the beginning part of this week did nothing to improve that situation. In the meantime, I hope to finish that blasted edit, start on another reading project, and peek at Pallas. Other things are bubbling, I just have to wait until they're done.
Patience. I haz it. Sorta kinda.
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