Zachary Backes - TP 7

6/18/12

Over the last couple days Talal has been sending me videos of some of his favorite Arabic singers and by far the best he has sent me is Qusai. Hes an English/Arabic rapper whose art reflects his life growing up in Saudi Arabia. Talal told me that my homework would be to listen to the Arabic portions and try and decipher them from the context of the rest of the song.

So I spent the night re-listening and re-listening with my Arabic book in hand. I got some phrases and some keywords but nowhere near the level i thought i would. It was kind of humbling to have my own teaching tool turned around on me. it made me realize how impressive Talal's performance a week ago was. It taught me that that a good way to test any idea for an activity or lesson plan is to try it while learning my second language.

When we met thi time Talal came with the transcripts in both Arabic and English. In this case Talal was more the tutor and I the tutee but that was actually a nice change of pace for us. I think it helped balance us out. I always felt like the teacher instead of sitting back and taking on the role of the student. We can't really teach if we hav e forgotten how to learn. So I was really happy to let Talal run me through most of what I couldnt undersatnd and even explained how most of the Arabic songs out now are not ever sung in Fuusha, the formal form of Arabic I have been learning. They are instead done in the colloquial of the singers home country. This made complete sense once he said it to me, but up until that point I had been trying to figure out why they were using words I'd never heard to describe verbs I knew Fuusha.

But at least I found out that the listening activiyt works pretty well. I've now got almost all of Qusai's catalog on my Ipod and I'm listening to him almost every day on my bike rides now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFXs0eXIrFk&fb_source=message

Here is pone of his best videos.

Zachary Backes - CP 7

6/17/12

So me and Faisal had been saying we were going to go to a movie for awhile now but both of us were so busy the last couple weeks we still hadn't gotten the chance. Today we both had the night off so we figured we would meet and go catch a quick flick and then some dinner. However, when we get to the theater we both realize that neither of us has any idea what the movies are that were out.

I had just seen the Avengers with Talal the day before and he had seen it with his friend's last week. And outside of that we had no clue what was playing. We tried to get an idea of the films based off the rotating poster frames...I'm from this country and those things, without any context, are wholly uninformative. So after choosing something that looked good, we settled on "The Dictator". I asked Faisal to see what times it was playing, the request was off-handed since my roommate just called asking a question. He walked off like he understood me and I ignorantly assumed he could decipher the craziness that is the movie schedule board. This is one of those culturally, even regionally, specific. Like subway or bus transfers or menus at restaurants, you need some previouse information (schema) to understand these things. I found him staring blankly up at the board wiht a look of utter confusing. I waited until he finally asked me "so...all of those are...movies...yes?" I felt like an idiot. I assumed he could make out the random, half hyphenated/abbreviated movie titles and times.

Sometimes I forget just how much falls through those cultural gaps. I asked him how he had navigated the movies the last time he had come this theater . he told me that he had looked everything up on his phone which translates most of the information for him. Imagine if your phone was your only way to communicate, ok...I guesds thats not too far of a stretch for some of us. But imagine how much closer we would hold that little device if it was both your translator and your only means of making sense of the world around you.

So we finally get up to the kiosk and discover that the movie we want to see is no longer playing. Since we have no idea what anything else is i suggested we hit up the "Cheap Movies" or Movies 8, a few blocks over. But as Faisal said "Food should happen first" of which i agreed. Apparently, throughout his vast exploration of the American fast food industry, Faisal had never experienced Wataburger, a travesty. If you have not had your bowels ransacked by the glory that is a wataburger, then you have truly not experienced the extent of the American pallet. So I introduced them.

We finally settled into the movie, a crazy jason statham movie about how awesome he is at killing other people. Neither of us liked it all that much. It wasnt until after the movie that we actually started asking what tyoes of movies we liked and turns out...we both hate really violent movies. go figure. so we decided to try again ina few days and see if we couldn't find something we both like. he said he is a romance fan, so I'm going to try and start research current movies and find something we can both enjoy.  

Zachary Backes - TP 6

6/16/12

One thing I really like so far about the tutoring experience is the flexibility the one-on-one format affords you. Because you are not tailoring your ideas of teaching to match a broad group of diverse individuals, but instead developing them around a single learner your options are a lot more open. When I'm working with Talal I try and think of what a guy my age, living in a foreign city learning a foreign language, can reasonably do while also taking on a full course load and a part time job. So I've been focusing on thinking of practical exercises that can be done in multiple settings.

Today I told him we were going to go get some food and see a movie. So we met at the Tallahassee Mall and I took him to the court. We got Sbarro and started off just chatting about the couple days since we last met. I apparently missed a crazy soccer match on Friday. As we were finishing our meal I took a second to canvas the area and picked out a few likely targets. We were positioned at double table in almost the center of the court, we had the circular bar seating behind us, occupied by a family of four. Our left held a table with a couple finishing off a couple of burgers, two tables to our right sat a group of about 6 high school kids. The cour was pretty noisy but there was still enough range between us and the groups to make out bit of conversation. My plan was to have Talal play the eavesdropper and try and pick up as much of the conversations around him as he could.

While I explained this to him I produced one of my old Molseskin Journals, I had taken out the used pages and there was  still about half the book left blank. I gave him a pencil and told him that for the next couple minutes I wanted him to just eat and listen to the conversations around him. Then, start jotting down phrases or words he recognized. He seemed to pick up on what this was about right away and was smiling when I handed over the notebook. He ended up guessing more than I had intended because after a few minutes he was reporting back main topics of conversation and even his assumptions about the people based on what they said and how they said it. I had been keeping a ear out for the conversations as well and besides the group oif highschoolers, whose incoherant  mix of giggles, guffaws, and slangs neither of us could really decipher, wHe picked up on a lot more than i expected.

He noticed that the family was going to a movie because the mom kept asking the father what time it was. That the couple didnt really like the movie they had just seen (I really don't think anyone goes to this mall for anything but movies and loitering) and that she had a girl in her class that she really did not like. He was marking the number of times she said "bitch" in his notes which made me about fall out of my chair laughing. After we were done I told him to keep the notebook and use it to practice his eavesdropping (a term I had to explain a bit before it made sense). I warned him that he needed to be "very very sneaky" and not look like he was trying to listen in on other peoples conversation because that was considered rude in our culture. But tI couldnt think of a better way to help increase listening skills, especially extensive listening, then out in the world where he will actually have to utilize these skills.

We went to see the Avengers afterwards and I think he enjoyed the activity. I told him the book would also be helpful to write down words he might want to look up, and he said he liked that idea. But, first i had to give him some more band names to listen to. Now I just have to think of something for our next meet.
     

Ted Hong - CP10

Since Rose couldn't make it to meet us, I hung out with just Butsawan instead.

She was telling me about this conference she has to go to in November that the geology department is having her present her paper. She didn't want to talk about her paper too much as she was working on it but she promised to tell me about later.

She feels like she's being treated poorly in regards to payment for her accommodations. She was trying to distinguish different types of restaurant so she could estimate her budget. I told her most places were fast food or casual sit down restaurants. I said maybe about $30 a day would be a fair amount. She estimated about $40 and suggested it to the budget coordinator and apparently that was considered too much, and so Butsawan feels like her budget is being cut down.

The conference is about 4 days, but she has another "technical field trip" that her and other students are attending so it'll be about 6 days. Not to mention the conference is in Orlando. She seemed really stressed about it figuring the accommodations would cover transportation, as well. I clarified with her that accommodations are generally thought of as lodging. If they include transportation, they'll specify.

I asked how much they offered for lodging, and it was a good amount to stay in a fancy enough hotel, but Butsawan told me that that was the rates the conference set. Hah. Only thing was, the budget coordinator would only pay for the conference, and not for the field trip. To which, I suggested to her to maybe bunk (I explained this word, too) with another student she feels comfortable with to split the costs and she conceded it to be a good idea.

She seemed really irked and thanked me for my patience. She said I reminded her of her mentor, though less strict and rigid when it came to teaching a class.

She also told me that she got a new job, a part time job at the oceanography lab. One of her instructors here knew of the opening and suggested it to her. I'm amazed because she's got a lot on her hands: graduate school, part time job, a son and family. She's going to have to get a car soon so she can do things on her own accord.

Regardless of the troubling content, I felt that our hanging out was easygoing. Her english is getting better, even if she stalls a bit to figure out the words to complex sentences.

Aaron-TP12

The second hour of our session was a little less productive. I we did a few more vocab words obstruct, prestige,  and constrict. I tried to give him the simpliest definition this time, trying to have him come up with the meaning. It worked alright, but he seemed to prefer the other way. In the middle of the session, I stopped what I was doing and asked him if he wanted to do a reading exercise and he said yes. I had printed out some news articles and asked him to read it out loud to me. While he did this I helped him with pronunciation. After he was done I asked him to summerize the article the best he could. This took a lot longer than I thought it would. I had three articles and we only got through one. He didn't have any trouble reading, but summarizing the article was difficult for him. I do think this style of lesson is a good learning method, because it has everything.

Aaron-TP11

On wednesday I met with Abdullah for our last two sessions. I told him I really wanted to keep tutoring him, after I'm done with the TEFL program. We planned to do one session, take a break and then do the second hour. We started with some vocabulary. Insted of using the vocab from his practice book, we did some words I came up with.  The words we used were conscious, script, sensation, interrupt, consecutive, Isolate, spectator, and despise. We did the normal thing of defining, obtaing the Arabic equivalent, then having him give me examples. Then I asked him questions to quiz him. I gave him similar words, different definitions, and gave him a sentence asked him to fill in the blank with the word. Then I asked him this time to give me two different examples for each word after the lesson to quiz him. He did great! There were a few grammaticle , mistakes, but he retained all the information of the definition and proper use of the vocab words.

Aaron TP10

On Monday after my unsuccesfull attemp to teach my class, I went to Abdullahs for sessions of tutoring and conversation. I asked him how his eye exam went and he said it was good. We then went into a speaking exercise I prepared having to do with P's and B's. I started by explaining to him how much trouble I have differenciating the two diffeent H sounds in Arabic and that it will take a lot of practice to get it right. I started about with giving him ten words, five B's and five P's. I then told him to right down the letter he thought it was. He did pretty good when I said the word slow, but I tried the same exercise speaking at normal speeds and he had some difficulty. He asked if I had an idea of how he can learn it faster and I said just keep on practicing. I then did a speaking excercise asking him for directions to particular places. This ended up being fun and productive. I told him to take his time and try his hardest to use proper grammar. When he made mistakes I took note. I have seen progress in his speech, he was always a great reader and listener.

Aaron TP9

On sunday I met with Abdullah for a Tutoring session and a conversation session. I told him I needed to meet with him as much as possible because all of my other partners have either dissapearred or moved. We started out with some vocab from his Toefl practice book. Some of the words we went over included Anticpate, flood, plunge, and catastropic. We did the normal lesson of defining it in several differnet ways, I give him an example in a sentence and then he gives me an example and writes it down. I explained to him that some of the words in the practice book were relativitly difficult for his level and not to worry if he is still confused. We went over the Arabic equivalent and I have him expalin to me the different meaning of the Arabic terms, using proper grammar and pronuciation. I thought this would be  good practice for speaking. He often uses improper grammar in speech, although I can always understand him. I told him to take his time and think what he is saying when he made a mistake I corrected him. I went over some vocab having to do with news media because he couldn't make it to my class the next day because of an eye doctor appointment.  The words we went over were Republican, Democrat, Bias, and Censorship. We didn't go over them as much as I wanted to, but I think he got a good understanding of the terms.

Aaron CP10

After our Tutoring sesson me and Abdullah started our conversation. We started talking about Syria and Bashar Asad. He semed imbarresed that Asad called himself a Muslim and told me his actions were not alright in his religion. I told him of course and  that I would never judge a relgion on the actions of one dictator. I asked him what he thought about Iran and the possible war that may come. I told him i though the US and Israel we partly to blame for this conflict, considering all the forms on sabatoge we have used against Iran. I asked him how Saudi's feel about Iran and he said similar to that of America. He then asked me how Ohio(my home state)  was different from Florida. I told him that it get very cold there, and snows every winter. I told him it was similar to Tallahassee because of the hills.

Aaron CP9

After our tutoring session, we starte our conversation. Abdullah made coffee and offered me pretty much every food item in his house. He brought out some fruit, cookies, a bottle of water and coffee. We started talking about our favorite thing religion. I asked him if there was any Islamic scholars that he followed or was fond of. He said "no" and pointed up and said "Just Allah". I told him I liked that and said that I think following people can lead to some awful ideas and actions. We then talked about Hadith reports. (sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad) I told him that I really liked the idea of scholars studing all the sources. They have long chains of this person told this person.....People study these individuals to see if thier reliable. We then talked about where he wants to live after school and when he has a career. He was unsure, but he would rather live in a smaller city. He said he can't stand the noise of the big city. I told him I feel the same way and would love to live in the North West of the US, in a small town.

Aaron-CI

Last friday I went to the Jama'a on Old Bainbridge Rd. I was picked up by my partner and friend Abdullah. I really didn't want to use this as my cultural immersion, because I wanted to do something that would make me uncomfortable and was different. I haven't been to a Friday prayer yet, but have been meaning to. I had planned to go to mosque here in Sarasota by myself, but unfortunatly it  closed. I felt like I was cheating going with Abdullah and I had no access to a camera in tallahassee and my phone does not have one( at least an acceptable camera). We arrived for friday prayer at about 1:30. The prayer started at 1:45. The first thing I noticed was I didn't see many(if any) women. I didn't bring this up to Abdullah, because I didn't want to sound stupid. Upon entering we took our shoes off  and went inside.  I was wearing a blue button down long sleeve shirt and khaki pants. I felt like I stood out with my extreme whiteness and long hair, and because most were wearing white. When the prayer started I became very excited. In my Arabic class the previous  semester my professor chanted a few verses from the Qu'ran and I though it was beautiful. I can really listen to Arabic all day! Although this mans voice was not as good, I still really enjoyed it! I was listening for words I could make out, but it was difficult to understand. After it was over I was introduced to some of Abdullah's friends. I met a man who was also studying Arabic and planned to go to eith egypt or possibly Saudi Arabia to study Sharia. He was a Tallahassee native, which surprised me. When he was talking to Abdullah his Arabic sounded like a native to me, although I'm not the best judge of accents. On the drive home I told Abdullah I would take him to temple with me when I get the chance and he seemed excited. Over all I wish I could have gone somewhere a little different or at least by myself, although I thought it was so nice of Abdullah to invite me.

Kelly CP-10

I have had a very difficult time finding an outlet for a cultural immersion project in Tallahassee. Instead, I will write of a past experience from last summer.
I was in the countryside of Panama doing some independent research on Panamanian ceramics (Past, Present and Future). My friend Bobby (now boyfriend: hearts, stars, and unicorns!) had accompanied me for some days, so we decided to see some of the very rural townsites nearby.

Kids kickin' it outside the church

After visiting some slow towns, we decided to visit a village named "Parita." Parita was a native cacique (chief) when the Spaniards arrived. Parita did not much care for these newcomers and fought them off until he died of unrelated causes. Famously, the Spanish broke into the edifice that was holding his body and tore off all the gold jewelry that were part of his funerary rites. Parita is known for being one of the most traditional townsites in Panama- things haven't changed too too much in hundreds of years.
When we arrived there seemed to be some action going on in the town. We were confused as we had expected to stroll through, see the church and that be about the extent of things.

(Note: My Gringa whiteness must have glowed as bright as the sun as I was stared/gawked/ and just looked over with confusion the whole time I was in Parita).

Salchica!

We walked towards the town square (all old Spanish towns are built on a square whose center is the hearbeat of the town). We could see several people, and some beer and salchicha (variation on the hot dog) stands set up. Confused we asked a police officer what was going on, and he sort of shrugged- not giving us an answer. This turned out to be quite odd as it was obvious to everyone that they were celebrating Corpus Christie- basically the biggest thing that happens in this tiny town. Corpus Christie is an old Catholic event in which the Devil tries to go into the church, but the archangel Michael prevents him from doing so and "defeats" him. Basically- good triumphing over evil. (An interesting sidenote- Panama is the only country that allows the "Devil" to go into the church after his defeat).


After finding out what was going on, people in costumes came out and haphazardly processed through the streets. Men and children were dressed as "Diablos Sucios," an iconic Panamanian costume for Corpus Christie. They wear black and red striped outfits and have a crazy paper mache mask personifying an elaborate devil/demon. Cross dressing is also a part of this festival- Men dressed as ridiculously hideous women, and younger women dressed as campesinos. Of course throughout all of this are little bands playing guitar, hand drums, gourds and accordions.





It was extremely apparent that I was the ONLY gringa in the town. We got some beers and settled into "Jardin Denis" (a bar) and watched the Diablos Sucios perform some of their dances. A man on guitar plays a tune while the Diablos go in little circles, stomp, yell out, and slap this weird dried leather bubble on their thigh/ground and click castanets. There some little boys dressed and performing as Diablos Sucios. Very cute.

There was a little hub bub in the field adjacent to the church. (The church was by far the most impressive edifice in the town). Music was being played and as people watched they noticed a turtle on the ground. It became a soccer ball of sorts and people started kicking it mercilessly. I had not wanted to impose my gringa ways, but I dived to save the injured turtle and we took him to a safe place. (Who knows what became of him).

As night came on, a stage was set up in the field for more Diablo Sucio performances. The night ended with a reenactment of Cortez encountering Moctezuma. (You know, the Mexican conquest). The point of this strange ritual is to display how lucky Latin America is that Europe brought over their Christian ways. It was a droll sort of musical in which Cortez and Moctezuma sort of size each other up and throw jive at each other.

Aiming at the Spaniard with Moctie's arrow

At one point, Cortez's soldiers took away Moctezuma's men's weapons and distributed them to audience members. Shocked, one of these soldiers handed me a (stage friendly) bow and arrow. He went right for me and placed it in my hands- no smiles- and walked immediately back. I was surprised, and my friend offered an explanation. "Well, when Cortez took Moctezuma's arms, he sent them to the Queen of Spain. You're the only white girl here... soo...."

 This reenactment is a common ritual throughout Latin America for Corpus Christie celebrations- but is made more strange to me that these townpeople put so much effort into this stage show (costumes, etc) in the town named after their country's greatest resistor to Europe's influence.

Apparently the man who played Moctezuma had been doing it every year for years- and this was his final performance. After the show was over he received great applause and tearing up went down to embrace his family.

It was getting quite late, and many beers in. Bobby and I walked towards the highway in the hopes of catching a bus or taxi back to our pension. On a festival day, in the remote country, at night, we thought that we were going to be in quite a pickle. After quite a while, a taxi drove by and picked us up. On the way back to the small city of Chitre we talked to the driver about stumbling into Corpus Christie celebrations. He lamented that he had been unable to go.

Bobby and Diablo Sucio

Moi!

Will Stone - CP 9

Yasmina and I met in the lounge. I brought her a copy of the Kudzu Review because at our last meeting she mentioned that she enjoyed reading short stories. I hung out while she flipped through it. She seemed interested in the journal and all the different types of writing styles that it contained. We taled about how her classes were going. She said that she still was';t engaged but that she did keep attending classes. She was however still frustrated with the lack of challenge that her classes still posed. She told me that after our meeting she was going down to the law school to finalize her paperwork and transfer her student visa. The conversation then shifted to what we were going to do on the weekend. She told me that her and some of her friends were going to visit Tampa and St. Pete. She said that her classes were wrapping up soon and she wasn't sure if she was going to enroll in another session, but rather take her TOEFL as soon as possible so that she could actually transfer into the law school. Through all of our conversations, I couldn't help but be in awe of how quickly she had picked up English. In about two months she had gone from picking words out of New Yorker magazine to speaking with remarkable clarity. I told her if she had any further questions about any grammatical problem or if she wanted to have some one to talk to so that she didn't lose her English skills. We talked for a little while more about what she would do after she graduated law school and what I planned on doing after I graduated. After a while of talking about future plans, she informed me that she had to go and meet up with her advisors. I wished her well and we parted ways.

Will Stone - CP 8

I contacted Hamad on Sunday about bowling on tuesday, but he said that he couldn't on tuesday. Wednesday worked much better for him.We met up at Crenshaw Lanes around four. Hamad was waiting, having already got a lane and was in the process of lacing up his shoes.i quickly rented my shoes, grabbed a ball and joined him on lane 7. I made small talk while we knocked down a few frames. I asked what he liked to read and he just smiled at me for a minute. i then asked what his favorite book was, to which he responded Harry Potter. i then tried to ask where he was in the series and he admitted that hadn't read all of it yet and had seemingly selected the third book at reandom. he told me that he read though it but couldn't understand most of tre words and found it difficult to follow the story as result. he confided that he had seen the films and that this did help him understand some plot points, but mostly he just liked the story from what he had taken from the movies. We kept bowling and the conversation switched to our school studies. Hamad asked what I studied and when I was going to graduate. I told him about my art history classes and my writing classes. He didn't seem to interested, so the conversation switched to tv shows. apparently Hamad didn't watch much tv, so most o the conversation was me explaining that some tv is made with movie level quality. he still didn't seem too receptive. It felt like Hamad was doing what he could to keep his answers short but he did it with a smile so I'm not sure if he didn't feel as comfortable talking or was disinterested and was just being polite. At this point we had played two games, the last of which Hamad had beat me 128 to 74. I didn't have anymore money, so we parted ways. I told him if he needed anything or just wanted to talk to call me if he needed anything.

Allyce_TP11

                Before I met with Nimah again I made sure to find a legitimate list of TOEFL writing topics. Nimah had reiterated to me several times how important it was to her that she improve her writing skills. I felt that writing on TOEFL prompts could kill two birds with one stone...her writing and vocabulary would improve and she would learn the tricks of the English trade!

                We looked over all the prompts and decided to choose the first one "If you could change one important thing about your country, what would you change? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer." Not only was this a broad subject but I was genuinely interested to hear Nimah's opinions. For this first timed writing we brainstormed together and made an outline. The whole process was really successful  and Nimah got a lot out of it. I first made her come up with a thesis statement on which she would base her entire essay upon. "In Saudi Arabia students need more degree options in University. More options will allow students to follow their career dreams and have more flexibility through their life." Okay that was a good start! We went through each paragraph step by step and in the process I learned a lot about Saudi Arabia's education system. According to Nimah, once you are in high school you must choose a major such as English, Science, Math etc., and once you have chosen this you cannot change it at the University level so a very limited amount of degrees are offered to you even if you change your interests later on.  

                After the brainstorming session I gave Nimah 30 minutes to write the essay. After her time was up, I looked through it a couple times and circled problem areas and handed it back. We went over the essay together but I let her lead the way and see if she could spot the errors before I corrected it. She identified several of them right away such as spelling or agreements. "I was stressed by the time!" she kept saying every time she found a small mistake but I assured her that was normal and that even native English speakers made these sort of errors during a timed session!  We made a list of corrected vocabulary  (Conclusen vs. Conclusion) and discussed grammatical structures. It is interesting that several of her sentences were not exactly wrong, but sounded awkward in the English language. In the essay she said "Students who study the English language in University..." or "students who study the Biology..." I told her that when describing a student's major we often shortened it to simple "an English student" or "a Biology student."  Knowing these sorts of things help make the paper flow better and improve her conversation skills as well.

                Overall a very good session and she said several times that she liked our tutoring plans so we decided to stick with it next time!

Austin CP9

One more to go after this. So I contacted my Israeli friend Sean, who is actually on vacation in Amsterdam now. Apparently, his mother is a flight attendant on EL AL (the Israeli Air Line) and get him cheap tickets wherever he wants, which I have to say makes me extremely jealous.

We began by jamming to the Pearl Jam "Why Go Home", and afterward my brain hurt from all the head banging. After that extremely juvenile act, we discussed Amsterdam in length. I've never gone, and this is Sean's third time. It's definitely next on my bucket list, as I am getting an early start. He told me something that surprised me: They don't sell marijuana to tourists anymore (not that I would ever partake. Oh no. Not me. Definitely not me.) They say the Netherlands passed an ordinance restricting the drug trade to the native Dutch only. They don't want the scum of the world converging on their paradise to party and debase themselves (don't they do that already?) Their also trying to shut down the red-light district to prevent the spread of disease. This may prevent STD's from spreading but will definitely cause widespread depression among tourists.

Sean told me that he is applying for his VISA to come to America and visit. Up to now, he has just been working in his father's garage, and never went back to school after the Army. Apparently, they won't give him a VISA unless he is a full-time student, so he is applying to colleges right now. I hope he is approved.

We closed like we always do. "Shalom, Haver. Ata Melech Haolam."

Aaron TP-6

On wednesday I met with Abdullah. Our plan was to go over writing because he had an exam the following day. I told him to bring all of the previous writing assingments he could find to try and find patterns in his mistakes. I did notice he used a lot of great words/phrases in his papers, but made a few grammatical mistakes. I then gave him a prompt asked he to write a shorrt essay paragraph by paragraph fixing any mistakes as well as giving him better words to use. we then went over the proper use of transition words.  After we completed the short essay he gave me some previos writing assignments. I went sentence by sentence explaing grammatical mistakes and better arguments to make his papers better. This session went on a lot longer than other ones and he seemed to take a lot from it.

Aaron CO-3

Today I observed the foundations level listening class. When I arrived a sat by the door, but was asked my a student to sit at the main table. Vicky told the students what todays lesson was about and asked me if I would read the story they were going to listen to. I was kind of nervous because this was so unexpected. She told me to read each paragraph three times. The story was about a woman named Sara and had to do with her buying some things at a made up store and getting some milk for breakfast. The first time I read the paragraph she told me to slow it way down.  I found reading slowly extremely difficult. After the second time reading the first paragraph she told me to slow it down just a bit and pause after each sentence. Some of the students seemed like the assignment was easy and some had some difficulties. I could tell some were bored with my reading because they already had the awnswers. The students were given  in the beginning of class a handout with the story on it and some blanks to fill in as they heard. After the students were done filling out all the blanks she asked them if there was any new words in the story. They said resident. She tried to explain it and one student mixed it up with recipe. A few studetnts got out their translaters and she told them to put them away and listen to her. She then explained it.

Aaron CP6

Today I met with Abdullah. I had texted him about meeting and he told me he had brought his car to a garage and asked me if I could give him a ride. After I picked him up he introduced me to new CIES student name Mahmoud. Mahmoud was from Hebron, Palestine.   We then started talking about Cat Stevens conversion  to Islam. I was confused and first because he was calling him Steven, but eventually I found out he meant Yusuf Islam or Cat Stevens. I told him I was very fond of the song "A is For Allah" as well as his music before the conversion. In a previous conversation he told me he doesn't listen to music, which initially shocked me, he was the first Muslim a met that followed that rule. I have to assume it is more of a Saudi custom, considering the prominent music culture in most of the Middle East. I then asked him if he knew who Malcolm X was or Farrakhan. He said he didn't and I asked him if he would like to attend a culture class on the subject. He said that it sounded interesting. I was having difficulty finding a topic so I thought maybe this would be a interesting topic and its something I am really interested in.

Ted Hong - CIP

For my cultural immersion project, there was a lot of equivocation in terms of what I should do. In discussing it with Zach and Mayowa, Mayowa suggested that we could go to the church he used to go. Zach and I accepted the suggestion and made plans to attend a service at the Redeemed Christian Church of God - Go Ye Chapel.



June 24th, a dark and stormy day it be. Zach and I agreed to go to the 1035 service. When we first walked in, I have to say it was nice not getting discriminating looks. I've been to another church and I remember getting sharp glares, so this was a nice welcome. There were separate rooms; the one we entered was adjacent to the main seating area.

We came in during the opening prayer, lead by Assistant Pastor Florence Olorunnipa, and a lot was going on for me to take in. People in their seats were taking part in verbally praying, all under their breaths, almost a hymnal chanting. Maybe it was. There were musical instruments adding to the hymnal prayer: tambourines, conga drums, a drum set, and a keyboard. Admittedly, I think if you closed your eyes and just listened, you could be swept away by the wholesome nature of their prayer worship. It was kind of cool.

Everyone was addressed as brother or sister. During most of the sermon, people would jump in adding an "amen" or "hallelujah". Zach would do so as well, almost naturally. It was something that took me a bit in figuring out the cues but whether I should partake or not was another concern as I was trying to be as respectful as possible.

Speaking of respect, I had called ahead of time to inform the pastor that Zach and I would be coming and that we would need to have some recording of such, but I could never reach them. And so, I felt really anxious pulling out my phone and documenting what I could for me and Zach.

Newcomers were asked to come to the main seating area and introduce ourselves. There, Zach and I, along with a family and two others, were given blessings from everyone. We were asked to sit in the main hall thereafter. I sat down next to the sweetest elderly woman carrying her grandchild. During parts of the sermon, we were asked to repeat messages of goodness to our neighbors and she exchanged those messages with me. I was also trying to do the same with Zach since he sat at the end so I was like... turning my head back and forth repeating the message to both.

Toward the end, the main pastor, Pastor Zacch Olorunnipa, gave his sermon. The focus of the sermon was based on the garments we wear, but not in the conventional, tangible sense. Rather, it was of the garment of service and garment of salvation. In listening, I had trouble distinguishing what was said for a bit, and even got lost once or twice because of the Yoruban accent (?) but I got most of it. These two were of the most important to ensure the way into heaven that it is through wearing the garment of service, helping others, combating the devil's influence and spreading God's word. It is through this that one wears the garments of salvation.

There were some wee lads, babies, introduced in the service and they were a part of the testimony segment showcasing God's grace - allowing the a safe, healthy delivery and with the support of everyone there. Tithes and offerings happened more than several times: to the church, to some followers, and to others in need.



There is another video that was the actual blessing given upon the babies from the pastor, but I'll leave that to be used by Zach.

The service was intended to be 2 hours, but it ended up being 3. Zach and I were starving at this point but we were kindly asked to join them for a word after the service to which Zach and I complied. We were rounded up with the other newcomers and were given goody bags (enclosed were two peanut butter cracker packs, popcorn, and a bottle of water) with a flyer welcoming us along with the service schedules and contact information.

This session we were asked some personal questions, all in regards to accepting Jesus as our savior. Zach and I gave honest answers and we were asked to stay longer. All of this was done in the nicest fashion and nothing felt overbearing. We also were not ones to disrespectfully dismiss what they had to say and just leave. The woman (I don't remember her name, unfortunately) was trying to convince us to join their church, that there were no coincidences in our being there, and that she wanted to save our souls. It's a pretty touchy subject but Zach and I handled it with finesse and respect, then we went on our way.

All in all, we spent a good 4, 4 and half hours there but nothing felt boring and nothing felt uncomfortable with our being there - aside from our stomachs' eating themselves in. It was very lively, wholesome, and warm. The was a great amount of strength given off from the praying hymnals, the chanting during prayers, and the acceptance from everyone. However, There was a bit of stereotyping in regards to who I was but it wasn't anything big, so I shrugged it off. Zach found that to be most hilarious, though.

Will Stone - CP 7

 

I was waiting in the lounge reading Time magazine waiting for Yasmina to finish her classes. She came in with a crowd of other students and came over to sit by me. Immediately I could tell she was frustrated ad when I asked how her day was she let it all out. Yasmina told me that she felt like she hadn’t learned anything so far in this session and complained that the teacher of the class she had just gotten out of was ill prepared to teach grammar. Apparently in the last class the teacher made several egregious grammatical errors in her lesson that Yasmina had pointed out and corrected. Being an upper level student, Yasmina was already familiar with most of the material being taught and was having trouble advancing in her studies. She said that the lack of challenging material had completely lost her interest and motivation for trying. I offered that a lot of newer English teachers probably have trouble recalling the distinctions and finer points of grammar, having learned it at such a young age and having it internalized over time to the point where it becomes difficult to discern why certain rules are employed. She seemed unconvinced and suggested that it did not require much time to re-familiarize ones self with fundamental grammatical rules. It was hard to argue with that logic. She continued to vent, taking aim at the shortcomings of her classmates. Yasmina said that many of the newer, younger students didn’t take their lessons as seriously as she thought they should, speaking in their native languages when they were not in class and at home as well as treating the CIES as more of a hang out locale than an institution of learning. I appreciated her desire to continue advancing her skills and told her that I thought she spoke quite well. She told me she was flattered and that most of her skills had stemmed from intensely studying the language, starting by going through short stories in the New Yorker and looking each individual word until she could discern the plot of the story. by this time we had been talking for about forty-five minutes or so and I had to wrap up our conversation so that I could get to class. I told her that when we met next Tuesday I would bring her  some reading material that contained some short stories.

Will Stone - CP 6

 

I met up with Hamad again on Thursday after his classes, in the lounge. At this point I was still trying to get to know him, which can be difficult with the language barrier. So I made it a point to ask him about film making, which I seemed to be something he was really interested in, based on his Facebook page. I had some limited experience making film projects in middle school and high school as well as a working knowledge of how to operate film-editing software. When I asked him about his experience, I could see that he was interested in the conversation. He told me that ever since he was a child he had been interested in making movies and that he had been the only person with this interest in his community. Hamad has made several films and had Final Cut loaded on his computer for film editing. He then told me that his primary motivation for learning English in Tallahassee was so that once he passed his TOEFL he could directly apply to be admitted into FSU’s film program. I told him that I knew a few people enrolled in the film program and had even been an extra in a few of my friends’ projects. I told him that I could try to put him in touch with some of them and he expressed interest. I texted them on the spot but didn’t hear back from them till later that night. We then discussed film studies classes, which he had absolutely no interest in. he told me that he didn’t care about analyzing films and what they meant, but was intrigued by the process and technical qualities of film-making. I asked him at this point if he wanted to try to catch a movie over the weekend. We made plans to try and see Prometheus over the weekend and by that time it was 4:00 and time for TEFL class. I bid he adieu and told him I would be in touch over the weekend.

Allison - Cultural Immersion

A few weeks ago, I decided to go to a Jewish temple for the first time. Thankfully, my Jewish roommate Chelsea agreed to take me with her so that I did not have to go on my own. I would have been pretty lost without her assistance. For a while, she refused to bring me with her because she thought I had anti-Semitic tendencies. I would hardly consider that to be true. Although, I had been known to make the occasional joke about Hanukkah, I certainly did not think poorly of the religion or its followers.  I figured this would be considerably out of my comfort zone as a Catholic and boy, was I correct in this assumption. 

Although I had the added comfort of attending the Saturday morning Shabbat service with Chelsea, she had told me that there would be plenty of people at the ceremony and we could just slip in the back. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Instead, there was a very small group of about 12 people who were gathered in a small room across from the typical large meeting room. The rabbi later explained that their Friday night service generally has a bigger group of people. 

I was not really sure what to expect. I have never really had any close Jewish friends who actively practiced their faith so I didn’t really have any assumptions of what one might do during a Jewish service simply because I hadn’t taken the time to think about it. Perhaps one major difference that I noted between what I had thought it would be like and the reality was that there was much more Hebrew spoken than I would have imagined.

I’m not really sure how the service started because Chelsea and I were a little bit late in getting there. I can only assume that it was with a song though. For the first twenty minutes at least, they sang various hymns in Hebrew. There was a book to look at to follow along, but the pronunciation was not the easiest. After the first half an hour though, I started to be able to sing along with them though and say a good majority of the words correctly (or at least to sound the way they did).

After singing, we all read from a sort of Hebrew bible (or as I learned in my research the Tanakh). I'm pretty sure that the text that we read were scriptures from the Old Testament. I do know it was not the Torah because the rabbi read from that later on in the ceremony. Sidenote for non-Jews: the Torah meaning "Teachings" includes the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. When he read from the Torah, the whole mood changed and everyone was was so much more reverent. I remember that we had to kiss a book at some point. I think it was the Torah? I honestly don't remember. Too many books to keep track of. Different people in the circle were chosen to do various roles in getting out the Torah, carrying it, and dressing it. It was really neat.

At some point, the rabbi gave a short sermon about the importance of teachers and role models in our lives. He invited everyone to share their experiences about who might have shaped their past and who they might have taught. This particularly hit home for me because this was only about a week after Cullen, my friend and former Chinese tutor, passed away. Naturally, we discussed him as well as the CIES students who I was tutoring. Similar to the Catholic faith, there was a part where people could offer up intentions of people to pray for and the group prayed for Cullen. This was quite nice and moving for me.

After the service was over, the rabbi invited everyone into the main meeting room to have lunch. They had some sparkling grape juice and challah bread which was blessed before we all ate from it. We could not stay for long though because I had to get to a tutoring session and Chelsea had to go to work. Overall it was a very informative experience. Everyone was extremely welcoming and they invited us to return again. I would definitely be open to that possibility.