Sarah- TP 1

I met with Shivani for the first time Monday night. I had no idea what to expect, I only knew that she was a "she" and from India. I started by engaging in some simple conversation. I told her that I wanted to know more about her and what she does for a living, etc. She said, "Yes, mhm." But didn't follow with any explanation. I didn't know if she had not understood, or didn't know what to say, so I told her I would go first. I proceeded to tell her about members of my family using some pictures I had brought to the meeting.

My family!

She seemed to understand family vocabulary very well, and could even guess who certain people were, though she did so in one word. This exercise helped with the awkwardness, as we were both hunched over my photos and were speaking about a familiar topic, which she understood well, instead of me talking AT her, like I felt I was doing at first.

She then told me about her family, and knew extended family member's names such as mother-in-law, but still was only listing names, and not using full sentences. I found out that she is 25 and married. She wanted to know why I wasn't married or engaged, and no answer seemed to appease her confusion. I'm not sure if this was cultural or verbal misunderstanding!

After struggling through a few minutes of trying to find out what she likes and does (I will be going to her for all my future eyebrow waxing) I found out that she had gone to both Atlanta and the beach last weekend, so I told her to write down as much as she could about what she did this past weekend.

Her responses told me that although she smiles and nods every time I say something, there is probably a larger gap in understanding than I thought. I was also able to get a perfect basis for some beginning lessons. Each sentence was a mixture of past and present tenses, and there were no determiners. I wonder if they don't have them in her language? I began by explaining the "easy to fix" issues in her sentences: such as the difference between "went" and "want". (She "want to the beach") and the spelling of beach (vich). Afterwards I tried to talk tenses but realized I would have to set up some basics first. We dove into articles, maybe too quickly as well, because when I gave her some examples to try out, I realized I had explained it terribly, or too fast, or both. I found something online that I want to try with her next time:

I am hoping to expand on this and come up with a lot of visual examples because oral communication I am finding, is falling short. Her "homework" for the week was to learn her vowels, as this is essential to learning indefinite articles. The lesson went so quickly. Her husband is her chauffeur for now (One of her goals is to pass the driving test and get her licence.) and we told him we'd be done at 7pm, in one hour. I went 10 minutes over without realizing, even though I checked the clock at 10 til!

I am definitely a bit overwhelmed with how much work I have cut out for me. But I think that articles and present tense is as good a place as any to begin learning English. Now that I think of it, these were some of the very early lessons I had in my French and Italian classes as well. And if you can teach foundations, the rest has to be easier, right?

I am open to suggestions!