Ted Hong - CP9

For this session, I skyped with Butsawan and Rose because Rose lives in a rather strict household. This turned out to be kind of fun. We couldn't do the video chat so we just do the audio chat.

We talked a bit about colloquialism and slang. We covered "What have you been up to?", and "How is Tally with you?" I explained the concept of ending sentences and questions in prepositions and that it primarily happens and is more accepted verbally. They asked me if most people speak this way, why they aren't taught this way. I informed them that there's an academic and professional standard that requires proper English, and not unofficial English. This gave me the idea to get them books regarding slang and colloquial phrases as parting gifts.

They asked me about car shopping and even asked if they could use my car to practice driving for their driver's permit. I enthusiastically agreed... but then I thought about it and the fear for my car's well being grew. Butsawan was looking at CRVs and Camrys as she'll be here for another 4 years for her graduate program. She noted the difficulty of buying cars in America is worse than buying it in Thailand. I told her I'd accompany her and help however possible.

Showed some internet videos: a duckling following someone (thinking he's the mother), a sad Thai commercial, and a bunch of kittens taking a bath.
Classic.

Which lead to talking about TV shows and movies. Butsawan apparently watches Kitchen Nightmare and CSI, but doesn't quite follow some of CSI's dialogue because it's too technical. Rose asked how she could strengthen her English by watching TV and I told her to pick a show, and have access to its episodes and rewatch them over and over. I also suggested to her to follow a character and try to imitate so she could have an active understanding on how things are spoken. It's how I did it when I was younger - following "Chandla" Bing.

We agreed to meet up at a Library near Rose's uncle's nail salon for a tutoring session because that was about the only option that Rose could take. And so... next blog post.