Thursday, July 26, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Will Stone - CI
We
left Jacksonville at around 7:00 pm and drove through the night for
around eight hours till we finally reached Miami. My parents had
arranged for us to visit our cousins down south for the first time since
I graduated from high school. My whole family took turns driving down,
with two people staying awake the whole time. It was my turn to drive
when we got off the interstate and made our way through the highways of
Miami to the suburbs of Kendall, where our cousins lived in a gated
subdivision. The security guard working the gate stopped us and spoke
only Spanish. Judging by his intonation, I assumed he was asking us
something, probably where we were going (given that he is a security
guard). I didn’t really understand what he asked me so I just responded
with my cousin’s address. The guard repeated his question (?) and I did
the same, this time with more confusion. He asked one more time and I
told him that my Spanish was very poor. The security guard shook his
head before he walked around the car and copied the license plate onto
his clipboard. When he finished writing he motioned us through, the gate
opening as I drove forward. I didn’t know it then, but the experience
with the security guard would be indicative of much of my visit with my
family in Miami. My cousins greeted us and had prepared a few air
mattresses for us to sleep on while we were visiting. I woke up early
the next morning and my cousin Alex was making coffee. His mom came into
the kitchen, greeted us both and said something in Spanish to Alex.
They held a quick conversation before his mom left to go get things
ready for the reunion later. Alex said that she asked him to go get
pastries before the rest of my family woke up and wanted to know if I
wanted to come with him to the bakery. It was a Cuban bakery with one
large glass display case with various and assorted pastries. The shop
keeper greeted us in Spanish and Alex responded, sparking a
conversation. I just listened and between their body language and
gesturing to the glass pastry case that Alex was requesting pastries,
but I did not pick up on any familiar words or phrases. I did however
start to recall what little Spanish I did know, which consisted
primarily of formalities, such as por favor or gracias or una mas.
As Alex paid for the pastries, we both thanked the shop keeper and left
to bring the pastries back to the house. On the way home we stopped to
get gas. Alex gave me his card and told me to put fifteen dollars on it.
I went inside to try and tell this to the clerk, but he only spoke to
me in Spanish. I said fifteen and he asked me two prices that I couldn’t
quite make out, so I chose the latter. Fifty dollars appears on the
check-out register and I immediately corrected him, saying I only wanted
fifteen. He told me to go pump the gas up to fifteen and then come
back. Upon my return the clerk handed me thirty-five dollars. I was a
little shaken about my complete failure to communicate resulting in
almost spending a bunch of money that wasn’t mine. Fortunately, Alex was
pretty understanding about the who situation. When we pulled up to the
gate, again we were greeted by the old security guard, only this time
Alex engaged his queries and we entered through the gate fairly quickly.
Alex told me that all he does is ask about the license plate and your
destination. Apparently he is the guard who asks this and it is of
frequent annoyance to my cousin’s family. When we arrived at his his my
family was just waking up, so Alex and I went out the back yard, where
his grand-father was sitting around. Alex’s grand-father immigrated from
Cuba 40 years ago and primarily speaks Spanish. He was smoking a cigar
when Alex and I came and sat down, bringing the box of pastries to the
table. We sat with his grand-father, Carlos, for hours with Alex talking
in Spanish and occasionally Carlos speaking in fractured English. We
all just talked about just general stuff, such as weather, NBA
championship, Euro Cup amongst other things. It’s a disorienting
experience not being able to readily communicate with people speaking a
different language. It made me appreciate the efforts of my
conversation partners and tutoring students over the summer for their
ability to pick-up so much English that for the most part we could hold a
conversation.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Lucy- Cultural Immersion at the Korean Baptist Church
I submit to you the : Website for the Tallahassee Korean Baptist Church.
All in Korean, eh?
I had it in my head, as soon as we were given this assignment, a place I have always been curious about.
The Tallahassee Korean Baptist Church.
I called twice and left messages, and finally, seeing only the numbers 9:30 and 11 on their website, decided I would head to the 11. Which I assumed indicated a time. A.m. On Sunday. That service was held.
I was right!
Showing up, I was greeted at the door by a very kind man, who asked in the most polite way possible what I was doing there. I explained to him the TEFL assignment and asked if it was o.k. for me to sit in. Nice as can be he said yes, and guided me to the back of the church, after taking my name down as a visitor. He told me I'd be introduced to the congregation later. Hmm. Well, the whole place is way more Baptist than Korean. The choir went up and began singing. The lyrics to the songs, all in Korean were shown on a big screen behind them. Everyone was flawless. Korean? Baptist? I really don't know what made them so...
Prayer time was the same, someone spoke in Korean, but at least I could close my eyes and get in to my own head for a while.
Then Reverend KeeSoo Na gave his sermon. Not a word in English. Someone came up behind me and told me the scriptures to read, but there were no Bibles, not even Korean Bibles. I spent the time trying to people watch, but even that wasn't too exciting- people are the same in the Korean Baptist Church. Had I really thought this would be so different?
I am surprised by how many people are there, and how many young people. Given, Asians really don't age, but I mean young people, 20's young. That was neat. I'd asked a few questions of the nice greeter man (Like his name...which I can't begin to repeat) and he'd told me it was a congregation of about 120. I'm going to estimate 50 or so were in the pews today.
I tried to find patterns in the characters for some of the passages that Pastor Na had put up on the screen behind him. Then I began to get worried about the offering plate coming around because I didn't have any cash, but it never came...That was nice.
Suddenly, as I've been people watching my eyes out (Korean babies...oh my goodness!!) the doors in the back open, and Korean children come flooding in. Pastor Na had pointed to the back of the church so I knew someone was entering but not this! They all streamed to the altar and lined up. Their teacher close behind cued the music and "This Little Light of Mine" (in English) began. In terms of cuteness I really don't think anything can top 30 little Koreans children singing and wiggling. Next came, "Amazing Grace" with a fast upbeat tempo. ...And the adorable-factor for me has pretty much been set.
Afterwards, they all run to their parents, and then out the doors they go again. Pastor Na speakes for a little longer, I'm thinking administrative stuff, then another song, another prayer and suddenly, I hear my name. I stand up and smile and wave and that's it. I wish I'd bowed. No but really, I learned that 'bowing' really is the way things are done.
I learned this after the service. When I was invited by the nice greeter (I really did get his name...Just can't recall it) to join the congregation for lunch. Korean? Yum!
I walk in to the fellowship hall, my how Baptist I sound, and there is KimChee on all the tables! It is Korean!
I get in line and that's when I notice the bowing. It's the way they greet each other. I'm feeling uncomfortable now. Finally, a young guy behind me speaks in English. Geez, I needed that. I turn around and wish I could respond in Korean, but say "Thank you!" We begin talking. I find out this is his home church and when he's home from UF for the summer he comes with his grandmother, who doesn't speak any English. I try to remember to bow to her but end up kind of doing a knee bend thing and a wave.
This is the kind of buffet line where people make your plate for you (which always stresses me out) but doubly so now, because I'm afraid I'll have to talk and I'll end up with the boy's grandmother yelling at me in Korean. I pick the less colorful of my two options, knowing that colorful usually means spicy. I miss where the chopsticks are, and get a fork instead. I find a spot and sit down, knowing I need to talk to someone and wishing I'd asked my line friend if I could sit with them... And then sits Kim.
People like Kim Perrier are a God-send in any language.
Her English was perfect, she moved here in the 1970's and I swear it, it was so perfect, I think she even had a bit of a Southern twang...weird! She works at the airport. She informed me that the whole church eats together every Sunday, with about 7 different prayer groups swapping out paying for it and preparing the food. "Come by any Sunday!" Always free, always Korean. And always a non-spicy option. Somehow, I like Kimchee, and I told her that, and my favorite dish Japchae, which she said was her daughter's favorite. I didn't want to get too personal with her- don't want to get all anthropological or case study on these people, you know? So we just sat and she explained a few things about the Church, and being Korean in the area. Only one Korean grocery store, and only one restaurant...I can't even remember where it is, now :( She dealt with people making fun of her accent when she first moved, but she explained that she was young, and now she knew how she would respond... "I speak two languages, fluently...And how many do you speak?" Hah, I love it, Kim. Here, meet Kim:
Kim asked what differences I'd noticed in the service. I told her I was Catholic, but grew up with lots of Baptist friends and had been to lots of Baptist services.
I did notice one thing different: When Rev. Na put up a scripture on the big screen, and gave the signal (whatever that was) the whole congregation said it together. She explained that actually Rev. Na would read a line, then the congregation would read a line. Nice approach.
After a little more chatting, I said my goodbyes. Lots of people were heading out a side door, but I didn't want to be too curious. I headed out the front, and got someone to take my picture, for documentary purposes.
All in all, I learned that even a Korean Baptist Church, is still church. Still people. Doing their people things. You can still get bored. Still lose the beat when you're clapping along, or go-off key as you hum along...Still wonder what on Earth the preacher man is saying to you, or what that one lady just said to you...The only difference is, it's in Korean. And so, you can stay blissful.
Good time!...........
All in Korean, eh?
I had it in my head, as soon as we were given this assignment, a place I have always been curious about.
The Tallahassee Korean Baptist Church.
I called twice and left messages, and finally, seeing only the numbers 9:30 and 11 on their website, decided I would head to the 11. Which I assumed indicated a time. A.m. On Sunday. That service was held.
I was right!
Showing up, I was greeted at the door by a very kind man, who asked in the most polite way possible what I was doing there. I explained to him the TEFL assignment and asked if it was o.k. for me to sit in. Nice as can be he said yes, and guided me to the back of the church, after taking my name down as a visitor. He told me I'd be introduced to the congregation later. Hmm. Well, the whole place is way more Baptist than Korean. The choir went up and began singing. The lyrics to the songs, all in Korean were shown on a big screen behind them. Everyone was flawless. Korean? Baptist? I really don't know what made them so...
Prayer time was the same, someone spoke in Korean, but at least I could close my eyes and get in to my own head for a while.
Then Reverend KeeSoo Na gave his sermon. Not a word in English. Someone came up behind me and told me the scriptures to read, but there were no Bibles, not even Korean Bibles. I spent the time trying to people watch, but even that wasn't too exciting- people are the same in the Korean Baptist Church. Had I really thought this would be so different?
I am surprised by how many people are there, and how many young people. Given, Asians really don't age, but I mean young people, 20's young. That was neat. I'd asked a few questions of the nice greeter man (Like his name...which I can't begin to repeat) and he'd told me it was a congregation of about 120. I'm going to estimate 50 or so were in the pews today.
I tried to find patterns in the characters for some of the passages that Pastor Na had put up on the screen behind him. Then I began to get worried about the offering plate coming around because I didn't have any cash, but it never came...That was nice.
Suddenly, as I've been people watching my eyes out (Korean babies...oh my goodness!!) the doors in the back open, and Korean children come flooding in. Pastor Na had pointed to the back of the church so I knew someone was entering but not this! They all streamed to the altar and lined up. Their teacher close behind cued the music and "This Little Light of Mine" (in English) began. In terms of cuteness I really don't think anything can top 30 little Koreans children singing and wiggling. Next came, "Amazing Grace" with a fast upbeat tempo. ...And the adorable-factor for me has pretty much been set.
Afterwards, they all run to their parents, and then out the doors they go again. Pastor Na speakes for a little longer, I'm thinking administrative stuff, then another song, another prayer and suddenly, I hear my name. I stand up and smile and wave and that's it. I wish I'd bowed. No but really, I learned that 'bowing' really is the way things are done.
I learned this after the service. When I was invited by the nice greeter (I really did get his name...Just can't recall it) to join the congregation for lunch. Korean? Yum!
I walk in to the fellowship hall, my how Baptist I sound, and there is KimChee on all the tables! It is Korean!
I get in line and that's when I notice the bowing. It's the way they greet each other. I'm feeling uncomfortable now. Finally, a young guy behind me speaks in English. Geez, I needed that. I turn around and wish I could respond in Korean, but say "Thank you!" We begin talking. I find out this is his home church and when he's home from UF for the summer he comes with his grandmother, who doesn't speak any English. I try to remember to bow to her but end up kind of doing a knee bend thing and a wave.
This is the kind of buffet line where people make your plate for you (which always stresses me out) but doubly so now, because I'm afraid I'll have to talk and I'll end up with the boy's grandmother yelling at me in Korean. I pick the less colorful of my two options, knowing that colorful usually means spicy. I miss where the chopsticks are, and get a fork instead. I find a spot and sit down, knowing I need to talk to someone and wishing I'd asked my line friend if I could sit with them... And then sits Kim.
People like Kim Perrier are a God-send in any language.
Her English was perfect, she moved here in the 1970's and I swear it, it was so perfect, I think she even had a bit of a Southern twang...weird! She works at the airport. She informed me that the whole church eats together every Sunday, with about 7 different prayer groups swapping out paying for it and preparing the food. "Come by any Sunday!" Always free, always Korean. And always a non-spicy option. Somehow, I like Kimchee, and I told her that, and my favorite dish Japchae, which she said was her daughter's favorite. I didn't want to get too personal with her- don't want to get all anthropological or case study on these people, you know? So we just sat and she explained a few things about the Church, and being Korean in the area. Only one Korean grocery store, and only one restaurant...I can't even remember where it is, now :( She dealt with people making fun of her accent when she first moved, but she explained that she was young, and now she knew how she would respond... "I speak two languages, fluently...And how many do you speak?" Hah, I love it, Kim. Here, meet Kim:
Kim asked what differences I'd noticed in the service. I told her I was Catholic, but grew up with lots of Baptist friends and had been to lots of Baptist services.
I did notice one thing different: When Rev. Na put up a scripture on the big screen, and gave the signal (whatever that was) the whole congregation said it together. She explained that actually Rev. Na would read a line, then the congregation would read a line. Nice approach.
After a little more chatting, I said my goodbyes. Lots of people were heading out a side door, but I didn't want to be too curious. I headed out the front, and got someone to take my picture, for documentary purposes.
All in all, I learned that even a Korean Baptist Church, is still church. Still people. Doing their people things. You can still get bored. Still lose the beat when you're clapping along, or go-off key as you hum along...Still wonder what on Earth the preacher man is saying to you, or what that one lady just said to you...The only difference is, it's in Korean. And so, you can stay blissful.
Good time!...........
...............시간이 좋아요!
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Lucy TP-12
Yuki and I had a tutoring session via Skype today. Because I am living down in Wakulla, this is the most convenient for me, and still offers one on one conversation, the ability to write to each other, and share media.
Yuki was working on his Reading Log homework and I taught him the wonderful word of 'procrastination'...And how I knew it very, very, very well, myself.
Yuki didn't seem to want much help in tutoring, so I just asked him how he felt about his classes, and let him know that I had been on the lookout for resources for pronunciation...
An English dictionary that says the words and lets you see them.
and an awesome resource:
My ESL Corner
A compilation of lots of different websites for pronunciation. Games, audio files, everything.
I showed Yuki my cat, Jack (mentioned previously...at home Jack and I are pretty much inseparable) and Yuki opened up to me about some issues he'd been struggling with lately about his growing interest in converting to Christianity.
He's told me how he comes from a very old Japanese family and that he is the only son, but there is more to it... Yuki's grandparents are very devout Buddhists, who hadn't really liked that Yuki was going to the U.S. at all. His grandfather is what Yuki described as the 'boss' at a local temple.
Further, Yuki's family has a very old, maybe even ancient, family cemetery. If Yuki converts to Christianity, he won't be able to be buried next to his family... (I don't really know if this is a cultural rule or a family rule).'
Yuki also worries because traditionally if one of his parents were to die, Yuki would be the master of the funereal ceremonies. Once again, if Yuki converts to Christianity, he may no longer be able to do this (again, cultural rule, family rule, I don't know).
What I worry about is Yuki being too heavily influenced by Christians ignorant to the richness of the Buddhism.
Yuki has told me that he has never been a very serious Buddhist himself, and that his parents weren't really either, they just hold tight to the tradition.
I tried to tell Yuki that one idea might be to revisit Buddhism and really seek it out, and seek in it the principles which he really feels a connection to in Christianity. When he asked why I was a Catholic I was honest. Catholicism is personal to me. It's a church that I could visit anywhere in the world and feel at home in. I told him that learning about other religions had given me a lot of insight in to my own religion and had strengthened my value system, and that part of the discovery was realizing that I could enjoy, be fascinated by, and participate in religion, but I wasn't really up to having religion dictate a whole platform of thinking for me.
To this end, I told him I really didn't think all of his Buddhist friends and family would burn in hell for not knowing Jesus.
I sort of want to tell Yuki about the movement in many Protestant churches to spread the religion to other countries... there's even a title given to the need to 'witness' in "the 10/40 window" that some evangelicals believe. The 10/40 window refers to 10 degrees to 40 degrees north latitude on the globe, which has swaths of Africa, the Middle East and Asia..... The 10/40 Window
Ok, maybe I'm acting a little paranoid. I do think it's good for Yuki to be exposed to Christianity. I guess I really just have to leave it at that and hope that he finds his own way.
I asked Yuki again if he needed any help and made sure that he knew I was there to talk or lend help in English, whatever.
It can be difficult sometimes to be a tutor and a friend, but beautiful things happen with easy effort. And there's not much in this world that's easier or more beautiful than giving someone a smile and an ear.
Yuki was working on his Reading Log homework and I taught him the wonderful word of 'procrastination'...And how I knew it very, very, very well, myself.
Yuki didn't seem to want much help in tutoring, so I just asked him how he felt about his classes, and let him know that I had been on the lookout for resources for pronunciation...
An English dictionary that says the words and lets you see them.
and an awesome resource:
My ESL Corner
A compilation of lots of different websites for pronunciation. Games, audio files, everything.
I showed Yuki my cat, Jack (mentioned previously...at home Jack and I are pretty much inseparable) and Yuki opened up to me about some issues he'd been struggling with lately about his growing interest in converting to Christianity.
He's told me how he comes from a very old Japanese family and that he is the only son, but there is more to it... Yuki's grandparents are very devout Buddhists, who hadn't really liked that Yuki was going to the U.S. at all. His grandfather is what Yuki described as the 'boss' at a local temple.
Further, Yuki's family has a very old, maybe even ancient, family cemetery. If Yuki converts to Christianity, he won't be able to be buried next to his family... (I don't really know if this is a cultural rule or a family rule).'
Yuki also worries because traditionally if one of his parents were to die, Yuki would be the master of the funereal ceremonies. Once again, if Yuki converts to Christianity, he may no longer be able to do this (again, cultural rule, family rule, I don't know).
What I worry about is Yuki being too heavily influenced by Christians ignorant to the richness of the Buddhism.
Yuki has told me that he has never been a very serious Buddhist himself, and that his parents weren't really either, they just hold tight to the tradition.
I tried to tell Yuki that one idea might be to revisit Buddhism and really seek it out, and seek in it the principles which he really feels a connection to in Christianity. When he asked why I was a Catholic I was honest. Catholicism is personal to me. It's a church that I could visit anywhere in the world and feel at home in. I told him that learning about other religions had given me a lot of insight in to my own religion and had strengthened my value system, and that part of the discovery was realizing that I could enjoy, be fascinated by, and participate in religion, but I wasn't really up to having religion dictate a whole platform of thinking for me.
To this end, I told him I really didn't think all of his Buddhist friends and family would burn in hell for not knowing Jesus.
I sort of want to tell Yuki about the movement in many Protestant churches to spread the religion to other countries... there's even a title given to the need to 'witness' in "the 10/40 window" that some evangelicals believe. The 10/40 window refers to 10 degrees to 40 degrees north latitude on the globe, which has swaths of Africa, the Middle East and Asia..... The 10/40 Window
Ok, maybe I'm acting a little paranoid. I do think it's good for Yuki to be exposed to Christianity. I guess I really just have to leave it at that and hope that he finds his own way.
I asked Yuki again if he needed any help and made sure that he knew I was there to talk or lend help in English, whatever.
It can be difficult sometimes to be a tutor and a friend, but beautiful things happen with easy effort. And there's not much in this world that's easier or more beautiful than giving someone a smile and an ear.
Lucy TP-11
It has been forever since I've seen Kader!
So I called him up and told him I had promised him a 3d movie and I intended to keep that promise.
I told him we would need to make sure it was educational...so we went to see the Avengers.
I mean, cmon, that is total Americana. Captain America, The Hulk, whoever Scarlett Johanson is, Iron Man, Thor (?)...Isn't he from some kind of Norwegian mythology? I don't really know how he fits in...But still. The fact remains: this is Marvel comic books meets Hollywood- a sex and action combination unrivaled. And it's in 3D.
Anndd, I called a taxi for Kader, giving him his first-ever ride in a taxi.
Oh and in the movie, there are even subtitles in places...totally mixes up your learning. Intensive audio-visually, extensive in reading...This was scholarship at its finest.
The movie really was an awesome experience. I explained to Kader how huge a deal comic books were to some people and how I'd only grown up on a few- Archie comic books; the funnies in the newspaper, of course; Calvin and Hobbes...I'd missed the boat on Marvel. I told him a movie like this was sure to bring out an opinion for any fan of comic books.
Afterwards, we crossed Kleman Plaza and headed to 101 for a snack. Since I'd taken care of the taxi and tickets, Kader kindly treated me. When the bill came I saw my first-ever $1 coins! Kader said he'd seen them only in New York and let me keep one as a present. Mine has a picture of Franklin Pierce on the back.
Kader told me he's applied to go to TCC in the Fall, and is waiting to hear back. We toasted (with water) to that. He is not taking English this summer, but I let him know that I was still available for tutoring.
We voted unanimously that tutoring via 3D movie was the best kind of tutoring.
So I called him up and told him I had promised him a 3d movie and I intended to keep that promise.
I told him we would need to make sure it was educational...so we went to see the Avengers.
I mean, cmon, that is total Americana. Captain America, The Hulk, whoever Scarlett Johanson is, Iron Man, Thor (?)...Isn't he from some kind of Norwegian mythology? I don't really know how he fits in...But still. The fact remains: this is Marvel comic books meets Hollywood- a sex and action combination unrivaled. And it's in 3D.
Anndd, I called a taxi for Kader, giving him his first-ever ride in a taxi.
Oh and in the movie, there are even subtitles in places...totally mixes up your learning. Intensive audio-visually, extensive in reading...This was scholarship at its finest.
The movie really was an awesome experience. I explained to Kader how huge a deal comic books were to some people and how I'd only grown up on a few- Archie comic books; the funnies in the newspaper, of course; Calvin and Hobbes...I'd missed the boat on Marvel. I told him a movie like this was sure to bring out an opinion for any fan of comic books.
Afterwards, we crossed Kleman Plaza and headed to 101 for a snack. Since I'd taken care of the taxi and tickets, Kader kindly treated me. When the bill came I saw my first-ever $1 coins! Kader said he'd seen them only in New York and let me keep one as a present. Mine has a picture of Franklin Pierce on the back.
Kader told me he's applied to go to TCC in the Fall, and is waiting to hear back. We toasted (with water) to that. He is not taking English this summer, but I let him know that I was still available for tutoring.
We voted unanimously that tutoring via 3D movie was the best kind of tutoring.
Lucy CP-10
The grand finale....
Tayana and I went sailing!
More accurately, we went to down to my family's beach house and my Dad took us out on his boat. But really, as anyone who's ever gone sailing on anything other than a yacht knows-- when sailing, everyone is a first mate. Tayana got to see sailing up close as we both handled the rigging, and watched for changes in the wind. She got to see how important it is to keep your lines organized especially when you 'come about'...Does this sound like life advice to anyone else? She saw how to tie off a boat, and raise the sails...and of course how nice it is out on the Gulf after a long day.
Today was the day Tayana and I had presented our lesson on idioms to the class. It had been a tricky experience for both of us, so we needed to get on that island time. Live Oak Island time to be exact.
When we first got down to my parents place on Live Oak (near Shell Point) we sat out on the deck, just sipping and soaking, my Dad trying out his 30 year-old Portuguese on Tayana, and doing surprisingly well, as Tayana reported to me later.
After our 'jaunty sail' we went back to my parent's house on Lake Ellen for dinner. On the way, we stopped and caught fiddler crabs in the road and I picked a few blackberries for her to try.
At home, she got to meet Jack (my cat and life partner) and I showed her the paradise that is my life. We walked out to the dock at Lake Ellen and I could tell, I could just tell, that she had one of those 'take a picture' moments. Do you know the moments when things surprise you so much that you're caught off guard and you take a mental picture with out even meaning to? She just seemed kind of captivated. As we left the dock, she told me how she knew she lived in one of the most beautiful spots on Earth (the Amazon) but she had never really explored it.
Tayana and I are very different, and we know it. I'm not big into shopping or movies, she's not big into say, being outside- but we're both passionate people, and 'experience' people. And we love enough of each others loves that we really do get each other. I told her she would just have to go back and see what the Amazon was like.
My mother made a delicious pot roast with mashed potatoes and a salad for dinner and a peach cobbler for dessert. My mom had been nervous about feeding Tayana (?) and I assured her afterwards that it was the perfect U.S. dinner. Tayana and I did the dishes and then headed to bed. She slept in my sister's old room, next to mine.
In the morning, we drove back up to CIES. She told me how much she was going to miss Florida and her friends. She got a picture of the Wakulla County water tower, and I told her she was always, always welcome to come back. And maybe I'll have to go and see this crazy Amazon place.
:)
Best time, yet.
Tayana and I went sailing!
More accurately, we went to down to my family's beach house and my Dad took us out on his boat. But really, as anyone who's ever gone sailing on anything other than a yacht knows-- when sailing, everyone is a first mate. Tayana got to see sailing up close as we both handled the rigging, and watched for changes in the wind. She got to see how important it is to keep your lines organized especially when you 'come about'...Does this sound like life advice to anyone else? She saw how to tie off a boat, and raise the sails...and of course how nice it is out on the Gulf after a long day.
Today was the day Tayana and I had presented our lesson on idioms to the class. It had been a tricky experience for both of us, so we needed to get on that island time. Live Oak Island time to be exact.
When we first got down to my parents place on Live Oak (near Shell Point) we sat out on the deck, just sipping and soaking, my Dad trying out his 30 year-old Portuguese on Tayana, and doing surprisingly well, as Tayana reported to me later.
After our 'jaunty sail' we went back to my parent's house on Lake Ellen for dinner. On the way, we stopped and caught fiddler crabs in the road and I picked a few blackberries for her to try.
At home, she got to meet Jack (my cat and life partner) and I showed her the paradise that is my life. We walked out to the dock at Lake Ellen and I could tell, I could just tell, that she had one of those 'take a picture' moments. Do you know the moments when things surprise you so much that you're caught off guard and you take a mental picture with out even meaning to? She just seemed kind of captivated. As we left the dock, she told me how she knew she lived in one of the most beautiful spots on Earth (the Amazon) but she had never really explored it.
Tayana and I are very different, and we know it. I'm not big into shopping or movies, she's not big into say, being outside- but we're both passionate people, and 'experience' people. And we love enough of each others loves that we really do get each other. I told her she would just have to go back and see what the Amazon was like.
My mother made a delicious pot roast with mashed potatoes and a salad for dinner and a peach cobbler for dessert. My mom had been nervous about feeding Tayana (?) and I assured her afterwards that it was the perfect U.S. dinner. Tayana and I did the dishes and then headed to bed. She slept in my sister's old room, next to mine.
In the morning, we drove back up to CIES. She told me how much she was going to miss Florida and her friends. She got a picture of the Wakulla County water tower, and I told her she was always, always welcome to come back. And maybe I'll have to go and see this crazy Amazon place.
:)
Best time, yet.
Lucy TP-10
After all our intense tutoring sessions, Yuki and I headed to Bella Bella's today for some great local Italian fare. Do I sound like a foodie in all of these blogs? I don't hate it.
I had previously told Yuki that I would love to take him and a girl he liked (I am sworn to secrecy, here) on a double-date with me and Jon- but I hadn't seen Yuki in about two weeks and needed to explain to him, that I hadn't been a flake, I just didn't have a fella no more, and I had been hurting for a bit. As it turns out, Yuki had expressed his feelings to his secret romance, and off in to the distance she had scampered. We both gave each other big fat "Oh well" looks. I also told Yuki about my house flooding during Debby, and starting a new job. I think he got the picture that I'd been busy.
In talking to him, I could see that he spent less time formulating his thoughts, and even caught himself in his pronunciations. For instance, when I couldn't understand his pronunciation of "water" he took a moment and worked his face around the word, really pronouncing the 'w' and the 'r'. I told him how impressed I was, and he smiled knowingly and told me he'd moved up a level in all his classes.
We worked on a few tongue-twisters together, and I told him that practicing mouth movements everyday would surely help him. I told him I'd observed that he didn't move his mouth very much in speaking, and that in English with the sounds he has more difficulty with- the 'b's' and 'e's' and 'v's' that there was a specific way of moving your mouth to make those sounds.
I also brought Yuki some figs to try from a tree that grows by my house, and he loved those.
We had bubble bread and Yuki ordered a lasagna. He commented on how big American portions are, but how all of his friends back home called him a food vacuum. He said that Japanese really didn't give you boxes for leftovers. Sure enough, I got a box but Yuki cleaned his plate.
Lucy CP-9
So, Tayana asked me to accompany her to get her nose pierced. Normally her Dad comes with her to hold her hand for her piercings and it's something where she likes someone close to her to be nearby for.
I was SO honored.
Tayana has lots of piercings- really just up the side of her ear, but she's had a belly button ring before and has had her nose pierced before, too. We went right after TEFL class. I'd had a crazy day with a big, exciting job interview in the morning (since I'm writing all of these in catch-up mode, I can go ahead and tell you...I got the job!! I am officially WCTV's Internet Producer...well, co-Producer...there are two of us during the week).
Anyway, I hadn't had time to change, so it made it kind of funny to walk in to Piercings by Bink on North Monroe dressed as Tayana told me, 'like her mother'. Even funnier was that Bink wouldn't lay off trying to get me to get something pierced or tattooed. I didn't comply.
Anyway, I'd never been to a piercing parlor before and was impressed with Bink's. Very clean. Tayana and I went through all the paperwork together-- "age? other piercings? allergic reactions? blood disorders?" and then Bink gave her a cleaning solution and a lesson in how to clean out her nose everyday, twice a day...maybe more...it was too complicated.
We were then led in to the 'operating room'... I'm calling it that, not Bink, thank goodness. And Tayana sat down on one of those truly doctor's office, bed things. She had asked me to take pictures of the whole thing, so I got to snapping while Bink ...prepared...
When it came time. I stood next to Tayana and held her hand. And watched while steady-hands Bink pierced her nose. Tayana took it like a pro.
I didn't get any with my camera, but here's a pictures a couple weeks later, where Tayana and I are making brigadeiro for our lesson, which I've cropped so you can better see the piercing.
Afterwards we celebrated with you guessed it...drinky drinks. Actually, we went to this awesome place that Jon introduced me to, and here, we enjoyed great food aanndd wine.
And I admired Tayana's nose all night.
Lucy TP-9
I picked up Yuki at CIES today and we headed to All Saints Cafe. I explained to him that everything was vegetarian or vegan, a concept he thought was interesting, and he seemed alright with it, more so than Kader had been, anyway.
Yuki ordered his first cream soda, and loved it. You could pick any flavor to put in to your soda that you wanted and that let us go over a lot of vocabulary on flavors- vanilla, amaretto, caramel. There were probably 30 different flavors to choose from.
Afterwards we sat down and got straight to work. I told him I really wanted to work with him on pronunciation...We used manythings.org to work on pronunciation of similar sounds.
First, I asked Yuki to listen to the computer pronounce a word and then two words after it. One of the words after the original word would match the first word. For instance "Ferry"....1.) "Very" 2.) "Ferry"
I then asked him to identify which word matched the original word by holding up his hand, for #1 or #2.
I was a little shocked to see that it was true, Yuki had trouble even recognizing the differences in the sounds, much the less recreating the sounds himself.
We ran through a lot of these exercises.
Next, I had Yuki identify whether a word had a 'soft' ending or a 'hard' ending. He did better here.
We took a break and walked about the place a bit, upstairs to where the old arcade is located. He loved seeing games he recognized. Especially games with Japanese allusions- a samurai game, etc.
When we came back to it, I had Yuki work by himself, picking out which article would be correct in some fill-in-the-blank questions. It took a while, but Yuki finally began to improve towards the end of our lesson.
Lucy CP-8
Tayana and I attended Kader's party together, but had one-on-one time afterwards at IHOP. The waitresses are beginning to recognize me...
My boyfriend at the time, Jon, met us, and we all talked about the party and how funny Kader was.
Tayana has a kind-of boyfriend in CIES who I got to hang out with more at the party. He is from Kuwait and the cultural differences between an Arab-Muslim and a North American are just as significant as between an Arab-Muslim and a South American. Though he says he is not a strict Muslim, it seems that his family is and that maybe he doesn't know how strict he really is. Women in his country don't drive, or offer to pay for things on dates. he gave Tayana a 'talking-to' about that one. Tayana has enjoyed getting to know him, but I think she feels like they are too different and will be leaving the program to go back to their separate countries in just a few weeks, anyway. It is sad to watch, but I think I would feel like she does.
She and I talked about other people from the party and the CIES world, in general.
We also talked idioms and the lesson we're preparing to teach. We talked about what we wanted students to gain from the lesson and common idioms that translate. A lot of bird idioms...'A bird in the hand beats two in the bush', 'don't count your chickens before they hatch', this sort of thing. I told her how 'don't look a gift-horse in the mouth' always sounded like absolute gibberish to me until I realized gift-horse was hyphenated...an actual object with a story behind it.
When we left IHOP, Tayana wanted pictures so we took a few in the parking lot. I took her home to tunes of Taylor Swift. She and I both love Taylor Swift. She has such earnestness in her voice. That was our night.
My boyfriend at the time, Jon, met us, and we all talked about the party and how funny Kader was.
Tayana has a kind-of boyfriend in CIES who I got to hang out with more at the party. He is from Kuwait and the cultural differences between an Arab-Muslim and a North American are just as significant as between an Arab-Muslim and a South American. Though he says he is not a strict Muslim, it seems that his family is and that maybe he doesn't know how strict he really is. Women in his country don't drive, or offer to pay for things on dates. he gave Tayana a 'talking-to' about that one. Tayana has enjoyed getting to know him, but I think she feels like they are too different and will be leaving the program to go back to their separate countries in just a few weeks, anyway. It is sad to watch, but I think I would feel like she does.
She and I talked about other people from the party and the CIES world, in general.
We also talked idioms and the lesson we're preparing to teach. We talked about what we wanted students to gain from the lesson and common idioms that translate. A lot of bird idioms...'A bird in the hand beats two in the bush', 'don't count your chickens before they hatch', this sort of thing. I told her how 'don't look a gift-horse in the mouth' always sounded like absolute gibberish to me until I realized gift-horse was hyphenated...an actual object with a story behind it.
When we left IHOP, Tayana wanted pictures so we took a few in the parking lot. I took her home to tunes of Taylor Swift. She and I both love Taylor Swift. She has such earnestness in her voice. That was our night.
Lucy TP-8
I took Yuki to Blackdog Cafe for this tutoring session. We sat out on the deck and I worked with Yuki on some of his homework. He had a test the next day in Grammar but felt pretty confident about it. Of everyone I work with, Yuki asks the most questions. Often, they are 'why' questions, which I never feel like I answer adequately. He had questions about "absent, versus absence" "different versus difference" and the word "would", as in, "I would attend the concert, but I can't afford the tickets."
We ran through a few online quizzes on grammar, from the website usingenglish.com.
This quiz looks at adjectives and participles, including past participles... "tiring" versus "tired".
We both finished this session with our brains in major pretzel-mode. With Yuki, his pronuniciation needs the most work. It occurred to me at this meeting, that maybe he has trouble hearing the differences in words...It sort of hit my like a bolt, and I decided to think about it and tackle it at another session.
Yuki tried a quiche for the first time at this meeting, and we both sipped our iced coffees and talked articulation.
Yuki is a very laid-back guy; I think any frustration he has is just in that he wants to communicate so badly. The thing is, he really communicates very well. And he's got one of these shining personalities that just can't be hidden. And he's hilarious! Yuki gets humor. Everything else can be ironed out.
Lucy CP-7
Tayana and I are quickly becoming best friends.
I love this girl!
Tonight, we started off at her dorm- with her showing me where she lived and telling me how she liked it.
The only problem with really getting to be friends with a conversation partner is that you no longer even care about their mistakes in English. A few times I'll have to get her to repeat things, but for the most part I'm just becoming used to it. I've always felt like a Conversation Partner's place is to be there just for conversation, though. Get a tutoring partner if you want correction. As a conversation partner I'm here to show you how an American thinks, speaks, and has fun- and I want to know the same for you. We cover "schema" stuff, the heart of ambiguity tolerance. I'm here to boost your comfort levels so that you really feel comfortable exercising your skills.
Her dorm is super nice in comparison with dorms I've stayed in. She lives in Southgate, and didn't have a roommate assigned to her this session, so she's living by herself. She has a nice big window facing South and a lady who comes and checks on her, straightens up the place, and does weekly housekeeping. Wowwee.
It was neat to see how she kept her place. She pretty much stayed on the side assigned to her, and didn't do a lot of decorating (me neither, Tayana). She showed me some things she'd bought for her sister, and I noted the foods she kept around...Ramen noodles escape no college student.
After the room, we headed out to El Jalisco's for the night so she could try American Mexican food...and tequila shots. Good time. We talked school, boys, family, and general life stuff. The Mexican food was interesting to her. She knew cilantro because it's used in Brazilian cooking as well, and we both love it. I explained how Mexican food consists of basic ingredients: beans, rice, meat, tortillas, tomatoes, avocados, peppers, onions, lime, and cilantro... you just decide how you want your meat, and how you want everything put together. Simple, filling, and delicious. She agreed.
Next we headed to Zingales...She'd heard of it, so we went and enjoyed some more drinky drinks. We didn't play pool, just sat and talked some more.
Fun time, as always.
I love this girl!
Tonight, we started off at her dorm- with her showing me where she lived and telling me how she liked it.
The only problem with really getting to be friends with a conversation partner is that you no longer even care about their mistakes in English. A few times I'll have to get her to repeat things, but for the most part I'm just becoming used to it. I've always felt like a Conversation Partner's place is to be there just for conversation, though. Get a tutoring partner if you want correction. As a conversation partner I'm here to show you how an American thinks, speaks, and has fun- and I want to know the same for you. We cover "schema" stuff, the heart of ambiguity tolerance. I'm here to boost your comfort levels so that you really feel comfortable exercising your skills.
Her dorm is super nice in comparison with dorms I've stayed in. She lives in Southgate, and didn't have a roommate assigned to her this session, so she's living by herself. She has a nice big window facing South and a lady who comes and checks on her, straightens up the place, and does weekly housekeeping. Wowwee.
It was neat to see how she kept her place. She pretty much stayed on the side assigned to her, and didn't do a lot of decorating (me neither, Tayana). She showed me some things she'd bought for her sister, and I noted the foods she kept around...Ramen noodles escape no college student.
After the room, we headed out to El Jalisco's for the night so she could try American Mexican food...and tequila shots. Good time. We talked school, boys, family, and general life stuff. The Mexican food was interesting to her. She knew cilantro because it's used in Brazilian cooking as well, and we both love it. I explained how Mexican food consists of basic ingredients: beans, rice, meat, tortillas, tomatoes, avocados, peppers, onions, lime, and cilantro... you just decide how you want your meat, and how you want everything put together. Simple, filling, and delicious. She agreed.
Next we headed to Zingales...She'd heard of it, so we went and enjoyed some more drinky drinks. We didn't play pool, just sat and talked some more.
Fun time, as always.
Lucy TP-7
Mussad and I originally planned to hold a tutoring session at our usual spot, Red Eye Coffee, but when we got there, there was a concert going on inside and the place was packed. I had given Mussad some homework to do, but he explained that he'd been very busy, and I trust that as the case for these students, especially one like Mussad who is balancing a family on top of everything else. I had made him a list of vocabulary words dealing with Education and we talked briefly about his work on those.
I mentioned that Ramin was playing a show at Milano's Pizza, and he really perked up. I suggested we go and I could find a way of mixing in a little tutoring session as we enjoyed the music.
Mussad and I both had an awesome time. It was loud sitting outside, so I passed him notes and we talked between sets. We actually covered quite a lot and I underlined his beautiful mistakes as we traded notes back and forth. This let me see quickly his recurring mistakes. Problems with articles.
We talked music, and he told me about an instrument he plays... The oud:
I mentioned that Ramin was playing a show at Milano's Pizza, and he really perked up. I suggested we go and I could find a way of mixing in a little tutoring session as we enjoyed the music.
Mussad and I both had an awesome time. It was loud sitting outside, so I passed him notes and we talked between sets. We actually covered quite a lot and I underlined his beautiful mistakes as we traded notes back and forth. This let me see quickly his recurring mistakes. Problems with articles.
We talked music, and he told me about an instrument he plays... The oud:
As the picture shows, it looks a lot like a sitar. Mussad tries to practice once a week.
I'm always so grateful for technology when working with tutees, because I was able to type it in to my phone and pull up a picture, and of course, if I can't understand even what they're saying- I pass the phone to them where they can type in what it is or use a translating service to give me the general idea. Seeing pictures and knowing that a concept can be searched and found legitimizes everything and rounds it out for me as 'real'...Then I know I'm not just misunderstanding and they know that they've got their facts right.
The food was delicious, the weather pleasant, the music awesome, and we even covered some skills- tutoring in writing, and a lil cultural loliputz.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Lucy CP-6
Normally Kader is my tutoring partner but this session was definitely more Conversation Partner, unless you want to say that he tutored me in how to throw a ridiculous American college party with a lot of foreign students.
And that's what happened this fine evening.
Kader turned 21? or 22? and threw himself a...rager? Can you tell I don't really know what this is? Anyway, he invited me and all night paraded me around to his big and very friendly African friends.
"THIS IS MY TOOT-AHH"
Indeed.
He seemed so happy that I'd come, and I honestly had a great time. It was infectious to be around so many happy people. There was no awkwardness or pride or contrived, insipid small-talk or even many, shall we say, 'juice-induced solicitations'. Nobody so sloppy as to be scatter-shot with them anyway.
So how then, you might say was this truly an American college party? You would have walked in and said it was, trust me. The music was booooming (American and African beats) and of course the alcohol was being alcohol. Somebody had even made a kind of hunch punch in a big orange igloo. I was proud, a little.
This is Kader, in the white shirt. Blurry because he's dancing, but with the hugest smile.
This is Kader, in the white shirt. Blurry because he's dancing, but with the hugest smile.
Kader and I danced and talked music and I met all of his Ivory Coast friends and other CIES people who I'd only heard about. Kader also got to meet my boyfriend at the time, Jon, who to his credit, handled the whole experience quite well. We were the only white ones there, but it wasn't weird at all because everybody else was a CIES student, and race just isn't a divisive issue in CIES. Everyone was awesome. I had soo much fun.
Happy birthday, Kader!!!
Lucy TP-6
A fun tutoring session today. Yuki and I took this session to go to a Catholic Mass. We went to St. Thomas Moore, right across from campus. Yuki is very interested in religions and had said he wanted to go with me to church because he'd never been to a Catholic Mass before. I picked him up outside of CIES and we headed over to the 5:15 vigil (not a full Mass...but just about- a good taste). Upon entering I showed him what 'holy water' was, and we hung around the side doors so we could peruse Catholic flair. I showed him saints depicted on these little cards. Like Catholic trading cards. I have a few for saints I really feel connected with ("Hello, St. Anthony -{Saint of Lost Things}...Wish it could have been longer since I last prayed to you, but I can not find my keys anywhere.").
I'm saying this all very lightly, but you know.
You know?
So then we sat down up front by a speaker because I know how the place echoes. I sort of wish I had sat Yuki in front of the altar but we were off to the side, where I usually sit...Gotta think for two.
I showed Yuki the missal, the music issue, and a little card that shows the recent changes to Catholic verbage. This happened a year or so ago when the Catholic Church decided to try to get the language in Mass a little closer to the original Latin. It really trips people up.
BEFORE
Priest: The lord be with you
Response: And also with you
Start of the Nicene Creed: 'We believe in one God.’
AFTER
Priest: The lord be with you
Response: And with your spirit
Start of the Nicene Creed: 'I believe in one God.’
Stuff like this.
I'm not sure how much of the homily Yuki understood, but he was incredibly respectful and seemed to really take it all in. I whispered to him a few times in Mass to explain things (receiving communion, etc.) and he could follow along with the responsorial psalms, but I wished I had brought a Bible.
After Mass, he and I went in front of the altar and 'de-briefed'. He had some questions about Mary (in Catholic Churches a statue of her is usually placed right next to the altar) and her divinity.
Yuki's impressions of Catholics and Baptists were very funny. "Baptists are louder, Baptists are funner, They sing more"... I told him he was absolutely right. I explained the ideas of 'proselytizing' and 'fellowship', both which I have observed that Baptists emphasize more than Catholics. "Yes, it was so quiet in there." Yuki did say that he though Catholic Mass was 'more beautiful'.
All in all, I think Yuki got a great introduction in to how Catholics practice their faith.
Afterwards we went to IHOP. It was fitting for our religions tutoring session, since when he had mentioned IHOP previously I had thought 'pancakes' where he had meant 'The International House of Prayer'...Funny moment.
I'm saying this all very lightly, but you know.
You know?
So then we sat down up front by a speaker because I know how the place echoes. I sort of wish I had sat Yuki in front of the altar but we were off to the side, where I usually sit...Gotta think for two.
I showed Yuki the missal, the music issue, and a little card that shows the recent changes to Catholic verbage. This happened a year or so ago when the Catholic Church decided to try to get the language in Mass a little closer to the original Latin. It really trips people up.
BEFORE
Priest: The lord be with you
Response: And also with you
Start of the Nicene Creed: 'We believe in one God.’
AFTER
Priest: The lord be with you
Response: And with your spirit
Start of the Nicene Creed: 'I believe in one God.’
Stuff like this.
I'm not sure how much of the homily Yuki understood, but he was incredibly respectful and seemed to really take it all in. I whispered to him a few times in Mass to explain things (receiving communion, etc.) and he could follow along with the responsorial psalms, but I wished I had brought a Bible.
After Mass, he and I went in front of the altar and 'de-briefed'. He had some questions about Mary (in Catholic Churches a statue of her is usually placed right next to the altar) and her divinity.
Yuki's impressions of Catholics and Baptists were very funny. "Baptists are louder, Baptists are funner, They sing more"... I told him he was absolutely right. I explained the ideas of 'proselytizing' and 'fellowship', both which I have observed that Baptists emphasize more than Catholics. "Yes, it was so quiet in there." Yuki did say that he though Catholic Mass was 'more beautiful'.
All in all, I think Yuki got a great introduction in to how Catholics practice their faith.
Afterwards we went to IHOP. It was fitting for our religions tutoring session, since when he had mentioned IHOP previously I had thought 'pancakes' where he had meant 'The International House of Prayer'...Funny moment.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Austin TP 12
My 12th and last blog for this session was also the first meeting of the new one. I met with Dohoun, who is both older and bigger than me, which is a first. Dohoun is 30, from South Korea, and is a physical education master, going for his doctorate now. He says he weighs 85 kilograms now, but weighed over 100 kilos not long ago. I've already asked him for his help in the gym, in exchange for my help with his English. He is taking and ITA exam, (International Teacher Assistant...I think). His favorite sport is Badminton, something you don't here very often. He says the game is very popular in Korea, so I guess I'll have to take his word for it.
Dohoun wants to be a TA here at FSU, and his biggest weakness according to him are his listening and speaking skills. I have yet to assess his reading and writing skills, but that will come later. He says he is nervous about teaching in front of so many people. This is a universal fear, not just native to Americans. Public speaking is difficult, so my plan is to have him make a speech in his native Korean, and then make the same one in English, and take note of the differences.
I asked Dohoun if he was married or had any kids. He says he is too young. I've never thought of 30 as too young, but I guess I can't know until I get there. I definitely think 23 is too young. We're meeting again on Tuesday at 12. Being that he just started, he didn't have any work today, but hopefully he has something on Tuesday. Otherwise, I'll just make up a lesson from scratch.
Dohoun wants to be a TA here at FSU, and his biggest weakness according to him are his listening and speaking skills. I have yet to assess his reading and writing skills, but that will come later. He says he is nervous about teaching in front of so many people. This is a universal fear, not just native to Americans. Public speaking is difficult, so my plan is to have him make a speech in his native Korean, and then make the same one in English, and take note of the differences.
I asked Dohoun if he was married or had any kids. He says he is too young. I've never thought of 30 as too young, but I guess I can't know until I get there. I definitely think 23 is too young. We're meeting again on Tuesday at 12. Being that he just started, he didn't have any work today, but hopefully he has something on Tuesday. Otherwise, I'll just make up a lesson from scratch.
Austin TP 10+ 11
So now that my old tutees have all abandoned me, I had to find some new ones. The first one is Yuki. We met first in the morning, and just got to know each other. We met again in the afternoon, where I helped him with his homework.
I learned that Yuki is from Japan, and that he is majoring in sports management. He really likes basketball and wants to be the GM of an NBA team. I think that's a killer idea, though it might be hard to implement if you never played the game. Anyway, I found out that Yuki is a level 3 speaker, and it shows. However, one thing I realized right away when talking was a deficiency in geography. He seemed to have a vague understanding of where Tallahassee, or Florida, was on the map. I asked him if the instructors at CIES ever go over American geography. He said no. This was something I learned in Civics class in middle school, as Yuki had to learn Japanese geography (he says he's not so good at that either) I asked him where New York was, and he said "somewhere in the North". Just another thing for us to work on. I'll have him naming all 50 states when we're done.
I also learned that the Japanese people borrow alot from their Chinese cousins, but that their culture is their own. The Ainu people are the most original inhabitants of the Japanese mainland, during the Jomon period. However, there must have been contact between the islands and China, because their characters (alphabet) are so similar.
We met again in the afternoon, and he showed me his homework, and some classwork he did poorly on. When I looked over the activity, I found it confusing and difficult even for me. The questions were poorly worded and the instructions vague. Many of the questions were opinion based and could have more than one answer, and yet Yuki was marked wrong on alot of them. However, I found nothing wrong with many of his answers. (In a couple instances, the instructor was flat out wrong in the answers she gave, which concerned me. And those were the multiple choice ones.)
However, the mistakes were not all one sided. Yuki has some work to do on his own. His biggest problem, I noticed, is the distinction between plural and singular. When a pronoun is plural, it must stand for a noun that is plural, not singular. And the same goes for a singular pronoun, but Yuki liked to mix and match them. For example, "they" stood for "the fish". He, she, or it, wouldn't make sense their, but he used "He". A beautiful mistake.
Also, I taught Yuki how to look at words he doesn't know, find the root, and then figure out the meaning without looking it up. For example, "mobility" and "adaptability". I told him to get rid of the suffix "ity" and find the root (the first half of the word) "Mobility" becomes Mobile, so the ability to move, and "adaptability" to "adaptable", so he changed the nouns into adjectives, and then back again. This is a trick I learned in middle school that gets rid of the need (in most cases) of a dictionary.
I feel like I'm getting better at this every time, so I look forward to more sessions.
I learned that Yuki is from Japan, and that he is majoring in sports management. He really likes basketball and wants to be the GM of an NBA team. I think that's a killer idea, though it might be hard to implement if you never played the game. Anyway, I found out that Yuki is a level 3 speaker, and it shows. However, one thing I realized right away when talking was a deficiency in geography. He seemed to have a vague understanding of where Tallahassee, or Florida, was on the map. I asked him if the instructors at CIES ever go over American geography. He said no. This was something I learned in Civics class in middle school, as Yuki had to learn Japanese geography (he says he's not so good at that either) I asked him where New York was, and he said "somewhere in the North". Just another thing for us to work on. I'll have him naming all 50 states when we're done.
I also learned that the Japanese people borrow alot from their Chinese cousins, but that their culture is their own. The Ainu people are the most original inhabitants of the Japanese mainland, during the Jomon period. However, there must have been contact between the islands and China, because their characters (alphabet) are so similar.
We met again in the afternoon, and he showed me his homework, and some classwork he did poorly on. When I looked over the activity, I found it confusing and difficult even for me. The questions were poorly worded and the instructions vague. Many of the questions were opinion based and could have more than one answer, and yet Yuki was marked wrong on alot of them. However, I found nothing wrong with many of his answers. (In a couple instances, the instructor was flat out wrong in the answers she gave, which concerned me. And those were the multiple choice ones.)
However, the mistakes were not all one sided. Yuki has some work to do on his own. His biggest problem, I noticed, is the distinction between plural and singular. When a pronoun is plural, it must stand for a noun that is plural, not singular. And the same goes for a singular pronoun, but Yuki liked to mix and match them. For example, "they" stood for "the fish". He, she, or it, wouldn't make sense their, but he used "He". A beautiful mistake.
Also, I taught Yuki how to look at words he doesn't know, find the root, and then figure out the meaning without looking it up. For example, "mobility" and "adaptability". I told him to get rid of the suffix "ity" and find the root (the first half of the word) "Mobility" becomes Mobile, so the ability to move, and "adaptability" to "adaptable", so he changed the nouns into adjectives, and then back again. This is a trick I learned in middle school that gets rid of the need (in most cases) of a dictionary.
I feel like I'm getting better at this every time, so I look forward to more sessions.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Sarah- TP12
Holiday shenanigans have interrupted my blogging but here's the last tutoring blog continued from TP-11:
Second hour of tutoring with Shivani.
After returning from our break, We dove back into another sentence completion worksheet.
Italy is a _____
a. city
b. sport
c. country
d. animal
She did pretty well again, and really only had problems with the American cities like L.A. It would be hard to have to recognize a whole new set of city names! This question on Italy (there was also one about Paris) sparked a conversation about where we had been and wanted to go. I knew she had only really been to Atlanta, Orlando, and Tallahassee, and her own home country of India, but she knew all about Italy and how beautiful it is, and said she really wants to go someday. The Paris question merited an almost identical response. She couldn't believe I had been to both places already. Really reminds me how blessed I have been!
We moved onto a spelling by picture game / worksheet. This one, as you could guess, had pictures of animals, and the word next to the picture with only a few letters filled into the blanks. These spelling practice sheets are useful for Shivani, I think, because as she sounds out words, she often lumps a bunch of sounds together, or adds her own. For example, if she sees the word "fantastic", she will start the sounding out process correctly with "fa... fa" but seems to immeditely give up and guess "family! farm!" Sometimes she will even use the last letter first, and guess something like "carefull". One of the kids I used to tutor did the same thing as she learned to read. She would try to sound it out, and because "c" was the last sound she heard in her head, would always guess a word beginning with that sound. I find it extremely interesting that Shivani occasionally does the same thing. Anyway, I figured that slowing down and remembering how our lettering system works could be a useful building block to sounding words out. I think this is a useful activity that I will continue to use with her.
The rest of the session was pretty uneventful. We did one more spell by picture page, that had driving related words and was a little harder. Once we figured out together what the word was, she did a pretty good job sounding out and inserting the missing letters. I was embarrassed to find out that I wasn't sure which order the C and S came in "license" (And even as I type it now, I have to make sure I'm doing it the right way!)
We finished with one of her reading comprehension worksheets. She has run out of level 2 worksheets, and has been doing really well on them (see TP11) so I gave her the first one from Level 3. We both agreed that this was a little too difficult though, so we're going to back up for the next lesson.
Second hour of tutoring with Shivani.
After returning from our break, We dove back into another sentence completion worksheet.
Italy is a _____
a. city
b. sport
c. country
d. animal
She did pretty well again, and really only had problems with the American cities like L.A. It would be hard to have to recognize a whole new set of city names! This question on Italy (there was also one about Paris) sparked a conversation about where we had been and wanted to go. I knew she had only really been to Atlanta, Orlando, and Tallahassee, and her own home country of India, but she knew all about Italy and how beautiful it is, and said she really wants to go someday. The Paris question merited an almost identical response. She couldn't believe I had been to both places already. Really reminds me how blessed I have been!
We moved onto a spelling by picture game / worksheet. This one, as you could guess, had pictures of animals, and the word next to the picture with only a few letters filled into the blanks. These spelling practice sheets are useful for Shivani, I think, because as she sounds out words, she often lumps a bunch of sounds together, or adds her own. For example, if she sees the word "fantastic", she will start the sounding out process correctly with "fa... fa" but seems to immeditely give up and guess "family! farm!" Sometimes she will even use the last letter first, and guess something like "carefull". One of the kids I used to tutor did the same thing as she learned to read. She would try to sound it out, and because "c" was the last sound she heard in her head, would always guess a word beginning with that sound. I find it extremely interesting that Shivani occasionally does the same thing. Anyway, I figured that slowing down and remembering how our lettering system works could be a useful building block to sounding words out. I think this is a useful activity that I will continue to use with her.
The rest of the session was pretty uneventful. We did one more spell by picture page, that had driving related words and was a little harder. Once we figured out together what the word was, she did a pretty good job sounding out and inserting the missing letters. I was embarrassed to find out that I wasn't sure which order the C and S came in "license" (And even as I type it now, I have to make sure I'm doing it the right way!)
We finished with one of her reading comprehension worksheets. She has run out of level 2 worksheets, and has been doing really well on them (see TP11) so I gave her the first one from Level 3. We both agreed that this was a little too difficult though, so we're going to back up for the next lesson.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Will Stone - TP 12
I
met up with Mohammad at our usual room in the Johnston building. I told
him if he rented the room I would bring coffee. We settled in and began
working. I asked Mohammad what he wanted to work on and he pulled out
his workbook, flipping to a page with an activity focusing on the proper
use of the word ‘what.’ He told me that he had trouble understanding
how to use what and didn’t understand why he kept hearing everyone say
‘what.’ I explained how ‘what’ was is used in reference to an object,
or, general state of being, as a way to inquire or express quality about
a specific object. Mohammad still looked confused, so I explain to him
that it was commonly used as a question so that someone can inquire
about specific information from another person, and that he probably
heard it from other people asking about his interests. By the time my
explanation had come sort of full circle, Mohammad seemed to have
grasped how people had been using the word towards him. With that
explanation, I located the activity that used the word ‘what,’ and
walked Mohammad through it. It only took him a few minutes to complete
the activity. I checked over it to make sure he had completed it
accurately. Afterwards we talked about what had been going on with each
other, so as give him practice speaking as well as exercise his new
understanding of the word ‘what.’ We spent about fifteen or so minutes
talking and asking ‘what’ questions to each other before we moved on to
reading. In our last meeting, Mohammad had expressed interest in reading
a Superman comic, so in the few days between meetings I picked up a few
issues of the early issues of the relaunched Action Comics
for him to read. I watched him flip through it for a few minutes. After
some silence he turned to me and told me that he could not read this,
so I asked him to start from the begining and we went through and found
words to add to his vocabulary list. It made sure to distinguish between
ficticious words and words that could be used in casual conversation.
We finished a whole issue before he told me that he needed to go and
have dinner with his family. I asked him t continue writing down words
he had trouble with and that we would go over them next time we met.
Austin TP 8+9
This was my last meeting with my tutee Michel. He is gone away to California to receive a second master's degree. Being our last meeting, we made first in the morning, where I gave him his tutor evaluation forms. When he was done, I seriously questioned him on what I had done well, and not so well as a tutor. He was a little hesitant to critique me, but I insisted that he could not hurt my feelings or offend me.
He said that I always made our lessons fun, and he actually looked forward to our sessions. I did not expect too much of him, nor did I baby him or spoon-feed him. However, there were times, he said, where I went a little too fast. In a way, I may have pushed him through the lesson, just wanting to get through it, rather than make sure he fully understood. Now, nobody wants to sit and work forever, but I also wanted to make sure we were progressing, and not being redundant.
Like in Michel's reading activities at CIES, I didn't necessarily teach Michel the meaning of every word we encountered (I tried to cover what I could, or rather, what we had time to cover) but rather look for the main idea. Like anyone else, Michel said I did a good job, but there is still room to improve. A fair evaluation.
Later in the day, we met again. I was going to take him to a house party, but on the way, I had to teach him another lesson on culture. "Have you heard of the Plus one rule?" I asked him. "No," he replied. Earlier, Michel said he had a few friends he wanted to invite, and have me pick up each of them. I explained, "Listen Michel, you know when someone gets invited to a party, it is proper etiquette to bring no more than one other person, hence the +1 rule. I'm bringing you, that's the one. It is especially impolite to bring a bunch of people to someone else's party whom he does not know, or to send your ride on a mission to collect all these other people." (I said this in the calmest, most polite voice possible) "That is a good point," he said. "And maybe we should bring a gift, would that be polite?," he asked me without my suggesting. "That is a great idea," I replied. "Let's stop and pick something up." So we did.
I then explained the Naked Rule, which should be known across the world by now. If you are skunked in a game of beer pong, meaning you lose without hitting one of your opponents cups, you must run a lap around the party host's house, naked. We did not lose after this :)
He said that I always made our lessons fun, and he actually looked forward to our sessions. I did not expect too much of him, nor did I baby him or spoon-feed him. However, there were times, he said, where I went a little too fast. In a way, I may have pushed him through the lesson, just wanting to get through it, rather than make sure he fully understood. Now, nobody wants to sit and work forever, but I also wanted to make sure we were progressing, and not being redundant.
Like in Michel's reading activities at CIES, I didn't necessarily teach Michel the meaning of every word we encountered (I tried to cover what I could, or rather, what we had time to cover) but rather look for the main idea. Like anyone else, Michel said I did a good job, but there is still room to improve. A fair evaluation.
Later in the day, we met again. I was going to take him to a house party, but on the way, I had to teach him another lesson on culture. "Have you heard of the Plus one rule?" I asked him. "No," he replied. Earlier, Michel said he had a few friends he wanted to invite, and have me pick up each of them. I explained, "Listen Michel, you know when someone gets invited to a party, it is proper etiquette to bring no more than one other person, hence the +1 rule. I'm bringing you, that's the one. It is especially impolite to bring a bunch of people to someone else's party whom he does not know, or to send your ride on a mission to collect all these other people." (I said this in the calmest, most polite voice possible) "That is a good point," he said. "And maybe we should bring a gift, would that be polite?," he asked me without my suggesting. "That is a great idea," I replied. "Let's stop and pick something up." So we did.
I then explained the Naked Rule, which should be known across the world by now. If you are skunked in a game of beer pong, meaning you lose without hitting one of your opponents cups, you must run a lap around the party host's house, naked. We did not lose after this :)
Will Stone - TP 11
I
met up with Mohammad in the lobby of the Johnston building like we had
at previous tutoring sessions. We checked out a room and as soon as we
entered he took out the Calvin and Hobbes collection and his workbook.
He told me that he liked the comic strips for the most part, though at
some places he didn’t necessarily understand what was happening in some
of the panels. He flipped through his workbook and found some of the
exercises that we had been working on last session and I checked through
them to make sure he had answered correctly. After I checked his work I
asked him if there was anything in particular that he wanted to work
on. He said that he was tired of the workbook activities and wanted to
try to read through a newspaper article like his sister had been doing. I
retrieved the article about the tropical storm and opened it up so that
Mohammad might start reading through it. I found it interesting that
Mohammad picked up on some of the same words that Shaykhah had entered
into her word log. I had never seen Mohammad use a word log so I asked
him if he kept one. When he told me that he did not, I explained to him
some of the benefits of keeping one. He seemed receptive to learning new
words this way, so I set him up a word log on a blank page of one of
his notebooks. we read through two articles and by the time we finished
about half of the page was filled with words, definitions, and
explanations. After the articles, I asked how he felt about the words he
had chosen and we went through and a conversation about all of the
words and what they meant and how they function in casual conversations
generally. Mohammad had some of the roughest speaking skills of any of
the conversation partners or students that I had worked with over the
course of the session. His syntactical grammar was choppy and much of
his speech was wired in his accent. We talked for about thirty minutes
or so before concluding our session, I asked if there was anything he
would like to work on and he told me he was interested in reading a
Superman comic. I told him that I would see what I could do.
Will Stone - TP 10
I
didn’t hear from Shaykhah for a couple of days. When I finally did call
her, her and Mohammad were in Tampa visiting some family. She told me
over the phone that she would contact me when she got back in town. Sure
enough, a few days later she called and we scheduled a for the
following Monday. Her classes were over for the session but she still
wanted to work on her English studies. As usual I brought yesterday’s
newspaper to the room where she was waiting and we got started working
through articles. Most of the paper was about Tropical Storm Debbie and
all of the flooding that had resulted across the state. The first word
that she entered into her word log was ‘meteorological,’ for which I
offered a very general definition. We worked through the front page and
several articles on the interior pages and filled up half a page in her
vocabulary log with words like ‘depression,’ and ‘landfall.’ After we
had worked through a few articles, Shaykhah asked if we could practice
talking to work on her conversation skills. I asked her what she wanted
to talk about and she said that she didn’t know. So I asked her about
the recent weather and whether or not there was ever weather like that
in her home country. She said that her home in Saudi Arabia was never
quite as humid or wet as Florida. Shaykhah’s speaking skills are at a
fairly high level; she picks up quickly on pronunciation and is very
polite when she converses. We talked about the weather for a little bit
and that shifted the conversation towards general recreational
activities that she did with her family and that I did on the weekend.
We talked for a little longer about her vocabulary list, talking about
how the words could be used in casual conversation. After a few minutes
of talking she abruptly stood up and told me that her husband was
waiting downstairs and that she would contact me about future sessions.
Sarah- TP11
I met with Shivani last night for our last bloggable tutoring sessions. We have agreed to keep meeting once a week however, until I move in August.
Before we got down to tutoring, I asked her how her last two weeks were (we didn't meet last week due to severe weather conditions and the ensuing laziness). I usually ask how her week was, but don't get too much response, or there just isn't much going on in her week or mine, but this time we had twice the material to talk about, and with the crazy weather etc, a more interesting conversation. I noticed her communication skills have gotten a lot better even since the last time I met with her. They seem to increase every week, and now her progress is truly noticable. We talked about how she has gotten to practice, and how working with the customers in her in-laws store has really helped her with small talk and basic conversation. She admits that sometimes she doesn't understand what they are asking and has to advise them to "direct their questions to her father-in-law". After a lot more talking than usual, (which was fun and insightful!)we got down to business.
I am trying to make it more fun for her, as I know that the sessions are exhausting for, and she is not used to school settings. So I brought in a few puzzle type practice sheets this time. The first was a crossword puzzle with colors to fill in the blanks. She knows her colors well, and so the clues just helped with her vocabulary, and it was good practice spelling, and using her brain in a new way! After she figured out how a crossword puzzle worked, she seemed to enjoy it and jumped ahead of me if I tried to help her, which was great! The only color she had trouble spelling was orange, understandably. Although she did keep trying to put a "g" in front of yellow, I'm not really sure where that came from. At the end she looked at me and said, "Pink!" I uunderstood that she was wondering why they didn't use that color, so I added a few boxes, had her write "P I N K" in them, and make up her own clue. She said, "This is your favorite color." Crossword puzzle was a success.
We then did a sentence completion sheet with questions like "Tennis is a ______". This was good again for vocabulary practice, and I again made her copy the word into the blank for practice spelling. She did really well on this, and knew most of the answers. We moved onto the last passage of level two of the reading comprehension sheets I have been bringing in. She did a great job on this as well, which makes me super proud because only a few weeks ago, we started with level one, and she did definitely have some difficulty. (You may have read my extremely frustrated posts around that time).
We took a break at this point, as we had reached 59 minutes. I pointed out that everything was easy for her today, and she seemed really happy about this. :) I think I underestimated how much she could improve in two weeks!
To be Continued.....
Before we got down to tutoring, I asked her how her last two weeks were (we didn't meet last week due to severe weather conditions and the ensuing laziness). I usually ask how her week was, but don't get too much response, or there just isn't much going on in her week or mine, but this time we had twice the material to talk about, and with the crazy weather etc, a more interesting conversation. I noticed her communication skills have gotten a lot better even since the last time I met with her. They seem to increase every week, and now her progress is truly noticable. We talked about how she has gotten to practice, and how working with the customers in her in-laws store has really helped her with small talk and basic conversation. She admits that sometimes she doesn't understand what they are asking and has to advise them to "direct their questions to her father-in-law". After a lot more talking than usual, (which was fun and insightful!)we got down to business.
I am trying to make it more fun for her, as I know that the sessions are exhausting for, and she is not used to school settings. So I brought in a few puzzle type practice sheets this time. The first was a crossword puzzle with colors to fill in the blanks. She knows her colors well, and so the clues just helped with her vocabulary, and it was good practice spelling, and using her brain in a new way! After she figured out how a crossword puzzle worked, she seemed to enjoy it and jumped ahead of me if I tried to help her, which was great! The only color she had trouble spelling was orange, understandably. Although she did keep trying to put a "g" in front of yellow, I'm not really sure where that came from. At the end she looked at me and said, "Pink!" I uunderstood that she was wondering why they didn't use that color, so I added a few boxes, had her write "P I N K" in them, and make up her own clue. She said, "This is your favorite color." Crossword puzzle was a success.
We then did a sentence completion sheet with questions like "Tennis is a ______". This was good again for vocabulary practice, and I again made her copy the word into the blank for practice spelling. She did really well on this, and knew most of the answers. We moved onto the last passage of level two of the reading comprehension sheets I have been bringing in. She did a great job on this as well, which makes me super proud because only a few weeks ago, we started with level one, and she did definitely have some difficulty. (You may have read my extremely frustrated posts around that time).
We took a break at this point, as we had reached 59 minutes. I pointed out that everything was easy for her today, and she seemed really happy about this. :) I think I underestimated how much she could improve in two weeks!
To be Continued.....
Monday, July 2, 2012
Will Stone - TP 9
Mohammad
and I met up at directly at the Johnston building. I arrived early and
checked out a study room. After a few minutes of waiting Mohammad showed
up and we started working. We had already agreed to continue working
out of his workbook, me explaining the exercises, walking him through an
example and then guiding him through the activities. We went over
possessive adjectives and proper sentence structure. Mohammad had
mentioned that he sometimes had a difficult time forming certain ideas
in English that indicated possession, specifically the distinction
between ‘my’ and ‘mine.’ It took me a second to figure out how to
explain the difference. After a minute, I offered up that the word ‘my’
possession as an adjective, whereas ‘mine’ is typically more of a state
of being which is indicative of being possessed. He stared at me for a
minute before I elaborated further. I pointed at a pen and said that it
is my pen. I told him to pick it up, so he would be holding my pen. Then
I took it from him and told him that it was mine. I was not trying to
be disrespectful, but illustrate how both words functioned. he seemed to
grasp it better and we talked about how he could slowly begin to
incorporate it into his vocabulary. I asked him if there were any other
workbook pages that he would like to work on. He picked out a few he had
been working on but seemed generally disinterested in workbook
activities. I suggested that we just try practicing conversation topics.
So for about fifteen minutes or so, we discussed how to approach
friends and aquaintances with small talk like ‘how was your day?’ or
‘what are you doing later?’ The colloquial nature through him off a
little bit, as he was used to more formal conversation but towards the
end he seemed to pick it up. I told him that the best way that he could
practice these skills would be to hang out somewhere friendly like the
CIES lounge and just try to start conversations with strangers or people
he knew. he was receptive to this idea. I asked him about our next
session and he said that he would be gone for the weekend and that he
would contact me when he returned from Tampa.
Will Stone - TP 8
Shaykhah was waiting in room 409. i asked how her classes were going
and she told that they were going well. I had brough a newspaper with
articles concerning the hazing scandal at FAMU. She immerdiately asked
what a drum line was. I explained that at some schools had teams of
musicians playing in unison rather than having dedicated athletic teams.
The article lead to a discussion about hazing and the culture around
hazing in social clubs. She told me that she wasn't as familiar with
some American social customs, but recofnized the concept of hazing.
This segued into a conversation where I explained Historic universities,
specifically how FAMU is a historic African American university. She
was still curious about what a drum line was, so I pulled up a youtube
video and after about thirty seconds she told me that she understood and
wanted to keep reading through the paper. There was a follow up article
a few pages later concerning the fate of FAMU’s president. Shaykhah
told me she knew what a president was, but that she didn’t understand
the context of the article. I tried to as clearly as possible explain
the situation regarding the hazing scandal and how it was the
president’s responsibility to correct the situation or take the blame
for the shortcomings of his post. she told me she understood what most
of the words meant, but that she was having a harder time determining
context or what the story meant. It hadn’t occurred to me that even if a
person understood all of the words in a given text, that the actual
context/purpose of the story may be shrouded in cultural
traditions/ideas that may be difficult to grasp on first reading without
supplemental knowledge. I tried to explain the whole scandal as
revealed through the two articles but I could tell that Shaykhah was
losing interest. after another minute or so she stood up and told me
that she needed to go pick up her son from school and that she would
contact me for our next meeting.
Will Stone - TP7
I met up with Mohammah at the library again. We bought some coffee and
walked over to the Johnston building to rent a study room. I asked if
there was anything that he wanted to work on and he told me that he was
having some trouble with when to use 'the' and 'a' and the differences
between them. I explained that 'the' is used to describe a specific item
and that 'a' was used in a more general sense. I flipped through his
workbook and found an activity that demonstrated what i had just
explained. I walked him through it and we talked for a little abourt why
it was important to make the distinction between the two clauses. Last
time Mohammad and I met, I told him that I would bring some things for
him to read through, just to see what he thought of different reading
material. I brought him a couple of issues of Time magazine and a
collection of Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. He flipped through the
time magazines and paused to read through some of the short articles,
but mostly just flipped through to look at the images. However, as soon
as he opened Calvin and Hobbes, he was transfixed. I could see him read
through a few strips before he turned the page and laughed out loud. He
looked up from the book and asked me to explain Calvin and Hobbes to
him. It took him a minute to grasp the idea of a child talking to his
imaginary friend, but eventually he picked up on it. I felt as though
some of the cultural differences made it a little difficult to fully
comprehend, because when i tried explaining imaginary friends he kind of
just stared at me. I told him could borrow tyhe book if he promised to
bring it back next time we met up.
Sarah- CP8
I met with my Venezuelan friend Andrea before she had to head back home. She will be up again for graduation but I won't live here anymore by then (crazy!)
Andrea has decided to take a job in Caracas, Venezuela after graduation, where she is from. She likes her house in Venezuela better, and says she will get paid more there too. Her sister is still in South Florida, though she'll be graduating from HS and heading to college. So unfortuntately, her family will still be all over the place. This was one of the things we talked about last time, and I'm sorry to find out that it wont be changing anytime soon. Her mom and sister will remain in the states, and she and her dad will be in Venezuela. I am again reminded of how hard that would be. Fortunately, until graduation, she will be in S. Florida and able to spend time with her mom and sister before heading waaaay South.
It was nice to catch up again before she leaves, and she even invited me on some caribbean vacation with her later this month, all expenses paid. It was such a surprise and an honor and it makes me miserable that I can't go. I don't have any vacation time at all, plus my last day of work is only a couple weeks after her trip. It just won't work out, and I'm really bummed. But she's already talking about visiting me for a ski trip in Denver next year, so here's to hoping we'll stay good friends even from such a great distance as Venezuela to Colorado!
Andrea has decided to take a job in Caracas, Venezuela after graduation, where she is from. She likes her house in Venezuela better, and says she will get paid more there too. Her sister is still in South Florida, though she'll be graduating from HS and heading to college. So unfortuntately, her family will still be all over the place. This was one of the things we talked about last time, and I'm sorry to find out that it wont be changing anytime soon. Her mom and sister will remain in the states, and she and her dad will be in Venezuela. I am again reminded of how hard that would be. Fortunately, until graduation, she will be in S. Florida and able to spend time with her mom and sister before heading waaaay South.
It was nice to catch up again before she leaves, and she even invited me on some caribbean vacation with her later this month, all expenses paid. It was such a surprise and an honor and it makes me miserable that I can't go. I don't have any vacation time at all, plus my last day of work is only a couple weeks after her trip. It just won't work out, and I'm really bummed. But she's already talking about visiting me for a ski trip in Denver next year, so here's to hoping we'll stay good friends even from such a great distance as Venezuela to Colorado!
Zachary Backes - TP 12
6/28/12
So this was going to be Talal and I's last meeting for awhile since he was going to be staying in Orlando with friends and I was picking up more shifts between my jobs since classes were out. I asked if he wanted to go and ride the St. Marks trial. Its about 32 miles from start to finish but its all flat and mostly shaded. We agreed to meet around 1:30, So I got there at about 1:50 and only waited 15min before he finally showed.
We set out at an easy pace, I didn't have to be at work until six and neither of us were planning on doing the full trail. We started talking about some of the new music we had exchanged, I introduced him to The Black Keys. Not for any language learning advantage, but because they are awesome and should be heard. He really liked them, even though he said he could hardly understand most of the songs. I cant wait to show him Pearl Jam.
The day was pretty nice and the trail was all but deserted except for the random jogger or other cyclist. I started asking him about his impression of America after being here for almost 6 months and the one he had before he came. He said he hadn't really thought much about what America would be like before he came. He figured it would be bigger and different but most of his impressions before that came from movies which he didn't think were real. Smart guy.
One thing he said he was not expecting was how much he would miss his home. He told me that he had not lived anywhere but the apartment he was currently staying at and his father's house. Talk about a big jump. I asked when he thought he would get to go back home, and he said it would probably after he graduated. The way in which he said it made him almost seem stranded, but he smiled after a second and said that at least by then he will be able to speak English and have a degree to work with.
We stopped for water at the Munson Hills Mountain Bike Trail after a good bit of biking. Talal was curious about the trail and mountain biking so I told him about the few times Mayowa had taken me out. Mountain biking is amazing fun, stupidly scary, and often times partially painful. But the more you stick with it the more addictive it becomes. I saw a slight gleam in Talal's eye as I described racing through the winding trails dodging trees and hopping brush. Told him I would take him out mountain biking the next time he was in town.
The topic of mountain biking lead us to sports, and me ineptly trying to explain the appeal of American Football. He didn't understand much of the point to the game but did understand when I said that I really only follow the teams my dad, and his dad before him, followed because it was kind of tradition. He is, of course, a huge soccer fan. And one thing this trip taught me was that you cannot convince a soccer fan that anything is better than soccer, ever.
So this was going to be Talal and I's last meeting for awhile since he was going to be staying in Orlando with friends and I was picking up more shifts between my jobs since classes were out. I asked if he wanted to go and ride the St. Marks trial. Its about 32 miles from start to finish but its all flat and mostly shaded. We agreed to meet around 1:30, So I got there at about 1:50 and only waited 15min before he finally showed.
We set out at an easy pace, I didn't have to be at work until six and neither of us were planning on doing the full trail. We started talking about some of the new music we had exchanged, I introduced him to The Black Keys. Not for any language learning advantage, but because they are awesome and should be heard. He really liked them, even though he said he could hardly understand most of the songs. I cant wait to show him Pearl Jam.
The day was pretty nice and the trail was all but deserted except for the random jogger or other cyclist. I started asking him about his impression of America after being here for almost 6 months and the one he had before he came. He said he hadn't really thought much about what America would be like before he came. He figured it would be bigger and different but most of his impressions before that came from movies which he didn't think were real. Smart guy.
One thing he said he was not expecting was how much he would miss his home. He told me that he had not lived anywhere but the apartment he was currently staying at and his father's house. Talk about a big jump. I asked when he thought he would get to go back home, and he said it would probably after he graduated. The way in which he said it made him almost seem stranded, but he smiled after a second and said that at least by then he will be able to speak English and have a degree to work with.
We stopped for water at the Munson Hills Mountain Bike Trail after a good bit of biking. Talal was curious about the trail and mountain biking so I told him about the few times Mayowa had taken me out. Mountain biking is amazing fun, stupidly scary, and often times partially painful. But the more you stick with it the more addictive it becomes. I saw a slight gleam in Talal's eye as I described racing through the winding trails dodging trees and hopping brush. Told him I would take him out mountain biking the next time he was in town.
The topic of mountain biking lead us to sports, and me ineptly trying to explain the appeal of American Football. He didn't understand much of the point to the game but did understand when I said that I really only follow the teams my dad, and his dad before him, followed because it was kind of tradition. He is, of course, a huge soccer fan. And one thing this trip taught me was that you cannot convince a soccer fan that anything is better than soccer, ever.
Zachary Backes - TP 10
6/23/12
After my meeting with Maud I waited around for about 30min until Talal showed up on his bike. I had mentioned to him in a conversation over facebook that I liked to bike around town a lot and that he should join me one day. I figured I could turn the ride into a tour/teaching experience. We filled up water bottles and headed out towards Soul Veg, another topic brought up over facebook that I figured would be fun to introduce him to.
The ride was pretty easy, Up St. Augustine to Adams and down that awesome hill to the greatest vegan food in Tallahassee. Heres how good it is; I am not a vegan, yet I eat there damn near once a week. We ordered quickly (half mac & Hebrew rice with extra garlic sauce /drool) and sat down in a booth. Talal got the Garbie burger and we both tore into our food.
After we ate I explained my plan for the day. We were going to ride around and I would try and find odd street names, ones with queer spellings or ones that were major to city thoroughfare. He would write them all down in the notebook I gave him and a major characteristic about it he noticed on the ride. He seemed to like the plan because he finished eating before I did and was impatiently waiting for me to catch up.
Once the meal was done and water refilled we went out the back parking lot and came out on Monroe, our first main street. I explained how long Monroe was, that it went all the way out to Wood-ville in one direction and headed to Georgia in the other, It was also the road the Tallahassee Mall was, which he knew of from going to the movies. we chugged up the hill until we hit the Capitol. We biked around for a bit then headed down Apalachee parkway, our second big street. I told him how this road was a Native American name and that a lot of streets around here had that. It also has another Mall much further down called the Governers Mall, which was much larger but farther away.
We rode down Apalachee until we reached Magnolia, I told him that this name came from a flower and it was a very important road because our major Hospital TMH is on this road. We biked down the road until we were right in front of the hospital. Then we took the connecting street back to Tennessee past Leon High School. Tennessee was kind of sketchy to ride on, so I took us over from Monroe to Jackson St which turns into Pensicola, another Indian name. Along the way I told him just how far Tennessee actually goes, the size of the streets really seemed to astound him.
We followed Pensicola back to campus and I took it all the way back to Appleyard and home. I really enjoyed the ride and I think Talal did too. All in all it was a pretty awesome way to spend a Saturday.
After my meeting with Maud I waited around for about 30min until Talal showed up on his bike. I had mentioned to him in a conversation over facebook that I liked to bike around town a lot and that he should join me one day. I figured I could turn the ride into a tour/teaching experience. We filled up water bottles and headed out towards Soul Veg, another topic brought up over facebook that I figured would be fun to introduce him to.
The ride was pretty easy, Up St. Augustine to Adams and down that awesome hill to the greatest vegan food in Tallahassee. Heres how good it is; I am not a vegan, yet I eat there damn near once a week. We ordered quickly (half mac & Hebrew rice with extra garlic sauce /drool) and sat down in a booth. Talal got the Garbie burger and we both tore into our food.
After we ate I explained my plan for the day. We were going to ride around and I would try and find odd street names, ones with queer spellings or ones that were major to city thoroughfare. He would write them all down in the notebook I gave him and a major characteristic about it he noticed on the ride. He seemed to like the plan because he finished eating before I did and was impatiently waiting for me to catch up.
Once the meal was done and water refilled we went out the back parking lot and came out on Monroe, our first main street. I explained how long Monroe was, that it went all the way out to Wood-ville in one direction and headed to Georgia in the other, It was also the road the Tallahassee Mall was, which he knew of from going to the movies. we chugged up the hill until we hit the Capitol. We biked around for a bit then headed down Apalachee parkway, our second big street. I told him how this road was a Native American name and that a lot of streets around here had that. It also has another Mall much further down called the Governers Mall, which was much larger but farther away.
We rode down Apalachee until we reached Magnolia, I told him that this name came from a flower and it was a very important road because our major Hospital TMH is on this road. We biked down the road until we were right in front of the hospital. Then we took the connecting street back to Tennessee past Leon High School. Tennessee was kind of sketchy to ride on, so I took us over from Monroe to Jackson St which turns into Pensicola, another Indian name. Along the way I told him just how far Tennessee actually goes, the size of the streets really seemed to astound him.
We followed Pensicola back to campus and I took it all the way back to Appleyard and home. I really enjoyed the ride and I think Talal did too. All in all it was a pretty awesome way to spend a Saturday.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Zachary Backes - TP 11
6/25/12
Ahh, the first real day of summer. And by summer I mean that wonderful time when you actually don't have to attend, be present, observe, record, or do much of anything besides figure out ways to get cool. I slept in until 1:00pm...it was beautiful... But I knew I couldn't be an invalid all day so I rousted myself and sent out a text to all my TPs and CPs and BBs (best buds) and TBs (tolerated buddies). Only Talal responded. We had a blast riding around town last time so I asked if he wanted another go at exploring Tally. By 2:30 we were under the unconquered statue at the stadium.
This time I took him up Psych ave until it turns into Call St again, then up the &#$% of a hill that is High Rd. We hit the latter so that I could show him the amazing bomb you get as a reward for climbing the whole way. There also happens to be one of the nicest parks in Tallahassee at the bottom of the hill, there we stopped and broke open the backpacks. We traded off our music transcripts as has become the norm, and went over the last couple songs we sent each other.
Both of us decided this was a good way to keep our second language skills up over the summer so I'm hoping we keep at it. After we had rested and refilled the water bottles we headed off again, I showed him the Winn-Dixie and told him that it was a very cheap place to shop and how you can get a free card that gives you better deals on food. This concept amazed him so much we were hardly on the bikes for 5min before we were off again and I was walking Talal into the store to sing up for the card. We got the application and I help him fill it out, he figured most of it out on his own though. Then I showed him around the store and explained how the different prices on the tag were for those with and those without a card.
I also explained how if he ever goes to a Shell station he can swipe the card and get a certain amount of money (normally a couple cents) knocked off the price of gas. He was delighted even though, as I stupidly realized 3 seconds after telling him, that he doesn't have a car. He loved the idea of having a card that made things cheaper, and that he didn't have to pay anything for it.
Satisfied with his newest addition to his wallet, we made preparations to climb High's second horrible hill form Hell. Crossing Tharpe we chugged up the hill and made it to Old Bainbridge, I explained to Talal that this road lead all the way back to campus but that it was not very safe to ride on except for the small bit we were about to. We ducked onto the long stretch of sidewalk that runs from its intersection with High to Tharpe. Once there we followed Tharpe to Monroe, Monroe to the Tallahasse Mall, and then turned around and took Duval all the way back to town.
It was a solid ride and both me and Talal were ready for a shower and a nap by its completion.
Ahh, the first real day of summer. And by summer I mean that wonderful time when you actually don't have to attend, be present, observe, record, or do much of anything besides figure out ways to get cool. I slept in until 1:00pm...it was beautiful... But I knew I couldn't be an invalid all day so I rousted myself and sent out a text to all my TPs and CPs and BBs (best buds) and TBs (tolerated buddies). Only Talal responded. We had a blast riding around town last time so I asked if he wanted another go at exploring Tally. By 2:30 we were under the unconquered statue at the stadium.
This time I took him up Psych ave until it turns into Call St again, then up the &#$% of a hill that is High Rd. We hit the latter so that I could show him the amazing bomb you get as a reward for climbing the whole way. There also happens to be one of the nicest parks in Tallahassee at the bottom of the hill, there we stopped and broke open the backpacks. We traded off our music transcripts as has become the norm, and went over the last couple songs we sent each other.
Both of us decided this was a good way to keep our second language skills up over the summer so I'm hoping we keep at it. After we had rested and refilled the water bottles we headed off again, I showed him the Winn-Dixie and told him that it was a very cheap place to shop and how you can get a free card that gives you better deals on food. This concept amazed him so much we were hardly on the bikes for 5min before we were off again and I was walking Talal into the store to sing up for the card. We got the application and I help him fill it out, he figured most of it out on his own though. Then I showed him around the store and explained how the different prices on the tag were for those with and those without a card.
I also explained how if he ever goes to a Shell station he can swipe the card and get a certain amount of money (normally a couple cents) knocked off the price of gas. He was delighted even though, as I stupidly realized 3 seconds after telling him, that he doesn't have a car. He loved the idea of having a card that made things cheaper, and that he didn't have to pay anything for it.
Satisfied with his newest addition to his wallet, we made preparations to climb High's second horrible hill form Hell. Crossing Tharpe we chugged up the hill and made it to Old Bainbridge, I explained to Talal that this road lead all the way back to campus but that it was not very safe to ride on except for the small bit we were about to. We ducked onto the long stretch of sidewalk that runs from its intersection with High to Tharpe. Once there we followed Tharpe to Monroe, Monroe to the Tallahasse Mall, and then turned around and took Duval all the way back to town.
It was a solid ride and both me and Talal were ready for a shower and a nap by its completion.
Zachary Backes - TP 9
6/23/12
Today was my third meeting with Maud, I'm counting this as a Tutoring session because when I contacted him I asked if there was anything specific he wanted to work on or discuss and he said he wanted to review some after the TOEFL. We decided to meet at the sweet shop, which worked out since I was going to take Talal to Soul Veg later in the day anyway and that was in biking distance (Talal and I both found we like Biking).
When I showed up about 10min late and found Maud sitting at a table I felt really embarrassed, I had gotten used to "Arab Time" which is what Faisal and Talal call the phenomenon of why a majority of people from the Arab world show up about 30min late for everything. I had heard the term from some of my relatives, my aunt (by marriage) who is Lebanese and my cousins, but I had never really experienced it until I started hanging out with these kids. Both Faisal and Talal have shown up over 30min late to our meetings so regularly that I've begun to plan around it. When the movie I want to take them to starts at 3:00 I say we should meet for food at 2:00.
Apparently, Maud does not subscribe to this mentality and my assumption that he did was now making me look like quite the fool. luckily he is a really cool guy and didn't seem to make much of my tardiness (or he just saw that I biked there and took pity on the poor fool riding in the Florida heat). When I settled into the booth across from him I noticed he had brought his backpack and already had a notebook out and ready.
Now fully regretting exchanging my school books and laptop for an extra set of clothes and my biking gear I ordered us some tea and asked where he would like to begin. We didn't waste much time. Starting with writing, which was his self admitted weak point, we reviewed his notes and handouts from his writing class. Spelling was truly the crux of his writing problem, He understood most of the grammar concepts but his spelling is highly phonetic (not a surprise seeing as Arabic almost completely phonetic). When to use a C instead of an S for the "Sss" or using double vowels in plurals like "Historees".
This is when I wonder how any of us learned English in the first place. Our Graphemes (The written symbols of a language) rarely match our Phonemes (Units of meaningful sound in a language). Maud is a pretty advanced English speaker but his spelling is handicapped because he thinks phonetically when trying to transcribe the sounds he hears. we native English speakers have spent years recognizing the pattern of our language and know that the C's in "Concept" create two different sounds based on where they are placed in the word. Maud writes "Concept" as "Konsept". This most likely has to the with the transliterations he has experienced up till now.
In Arabic the symbols of a sound take on many shapes based on where it is located in the word, unlike English. However, apart from the vowels which can represent both a consonant and a vowel sound, all the consonants refer to the same sound (this does change depending on regional dialects). So when an Arabic student is trying to learn English they are told the ك ("Kah") is represented by the "K" symbol. Actually, we all learned in school that you can also accomplish that sound by using "cc", "c", and "ch". Don't believe it? Reread that sentence.
I told him the best thing to do was to try and read more written English, I wrote down some names of books for him like "The Pearl" by Stienbeck, "The Great Gatsby" by Fitzgerald, the translated "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi. And to keep a log of the new graphemes he discovers, and to work on recognizing the patterns of where and when the symbols create different sounds.
He seemed pleased by the time we finished up and asked if we could keep meeting after the session was over, I told him absolutely. Totally felt like I passed a test. Looking forward to the next meet.
Today was my third meeting with Maud, I'm counting this as a Tutoring session because when I contacted him I asked if there was anything specific he wanted to work on or discuss and he said he wanted to review some after the TOEFL. We decided to meet at the sweet shop, which worked out since I was going to take Talal to Soul Veg later in the day anyway and that was in biking distance (Talal and I both found we like Biking).
When I showed up about 10min late and found Maud sitting at a table I felt really embarrassed, I had gotten used to "Arab Time" which is what Faisal and Talal call the phenomenon of why a majority of people from the Arab world show up about 30min late for everything. I had heard the term from some of my relatives, my aunt (by marriage) who is Lebanese and my cousins, but I had never really experienced it until I started hanging out with these kids. Both Faisal and Talal have shown up over 30min late to our meetings so regularly that I've begun to plan around it. When the movie I want to take them to starts at 3:00 I say we should meet for food at 2:00.
Apparently, Maud does not subscribe to this mentality and my assumption that he did was now making me look like quite the fool. luckily he is a really cool guy and didn't seem to make much of my tardiness (or he just saw that I biked there and took pity on the poor fool riding in the Florida heat). When I settled into the booth across from him I noticed he had brought his backpack and already had a notebook out and ready.
Now fully regretting exchanging my school books and laptop for an extra set of clothes and my biking gear I ordered us some tea and asked where he would like to begin. We didn't waste much time. Starting with writing, which was his self admitted weak point, we reviewed his notes and handouts from his writing class. Spelling was truly the crux of his writing problem, He understood most of the grammar concepts but his spelling is highly phonetic (not a surprise seeing as Arabic almost completely phonetic). When to use a C instead of an S for the "Sss" or using double vowels in plurals like "Historees".
This is when I wonder how any of us learned English in the first place. Our Graphemes (The written symbols of a language) rarely match our Phonemes (Units of meaningful sound in a language). Maud is a pretty advanced English speaker but his spelling is handicapped because he thinks phonetically when trying to transcribe the sounds he hears. we native English speakers have spent years recognizing the pattern of our language and know that the C's in "Concept" create two different sounds based on where they are placed in the word. Maud writes "Concept" as "Konsept". This most likely has to the with the transliterations he has experienced up till now.
In Arabic the symbols of a sound take on many shapes based on where it is located in the word, unlike English. However, apart from the vowels which can represent both a consonant and a vowel sound, all the consonants refer to the same sound (this does change depending on regional dialects). So when an Arabic student is trying to learn English they are told the ك ("Kah") is represented by the "K" symbol. Actually, we all learned in school that you can also accomplish that sound by using "cc", "c", and "ch". Don't believe it? Reread that sentence.
I told him the best thing to do was to try and read more written English, I wrote down some names of books for him like "The Pearl" by Stienbeck, "The Great Gatsby" by Fitzgerald, the translated "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi. And to keep a log of the new graphemes he discovers, and to work on recognizing the patterns of where and when the symbols create different sounds.
He seemed pleased by the time we finished up and asked if we could keep meeting after the session was over, I told him absolutely. Totally felt like I passed a test. Looking forward to the next meet.
Allyce_TP12
My most recent tutoring session with Nimah continued along the same lines as the previous one. We decided that writing about the TOEFL topics was a really great way for her to practice writing in English so we moved onto the next prompt "What are some important qualities of a good school teacher? Use specific details and examplesto explain why these qualities are important." However, instead of spending 30 minutes brainstorming together, I gave her only 5 timed minutes to create an outline alone. I offered to help her but she declined, only asking me a couple of questions. She had me clarify what a thesis statement is and asked how many paragraphs she should have. She actually finished a minute early and moved on to the writing section.
I noticed a lot of improvement this time. She paced herself really well and allowed enough to time to write a conclusion. Previously I allowed her a couple extra minutes to finish up but she really made sure that each paragraph took about 6 minutes each and no more. When I told her we had only 3 minutes left she seemed really pleased and was almost done with her conclusion.
This time we spent a little more than 30 minutes going over the essay once she was done to make up for lost time brainstorming. The organization was great but there were still some significant spelling errors and a few awkwardly formed sentences. For example she said that "good moral teachers are better." I told her that you would typically say "a teacher with good morals." She was a little bit confused and kept on forgetting to correct the sentence each time it came up throughout her essay. We added the phrase to her list of corrections so that she could remember the proper form next time.
Overall, the session was great and I was thrilled with her progress! We decided that next time we would include outlining in the time we allow for writing and she promised to focus on her spelling for next time. Although I'm not required to blog about any more tutoring sessions, I've decided to continue tutoring her. Working with her has been such a rewarding experience and I can tell that she really appreciates the time I put into the sessions.
I noticed a lot of improvement this time. She paced herself really well and allowed enough to time to write a conclusion. Previously I allowed her a couple extra minutes to finish up but she really made sure that each paragraph took about 6 minutes each and no more. When I told her we had only 3 minutes left she seemed really pleased and was almost done with her conclusion.
This time we spent a little more than 30 minutes going over the essay once she was done to make up for lost time brainstorming. The organization was great but there were still some significant spelling errors and a few awkwardly formed sentences. For example she said that "good moral teachers are better." I told her that you would typically say "a teacher with good morals." She was a little bit confused and kept on forgetting to correct the sentence each time it came up throughout her essay. We added the phrase to her list of corrections so that she could remember the proper form next time.
Overall, the session was great and I was thrilled with her progress! We decided that next time we would include outlining in the time we allow for writing and she promised to focus on her spelling for next time. Although I'm not required to blog about any more tutoring sessions, I've decided to continue tutoring her. Working with her has been such a rewarding experience and I can tell that she really appreciates the time I put into the sessions.
Olumayowa Cultural Immersion
On Friday June 28th, I went to the Shabat Evening service at Temple Israel. My friend and co-worker Uriel Gottschalk suggested it for my immersion assignment so I decided to go with his twin sister Shuli and his dad Shimon. I was really lucky to go with them because they attend Temple every weekend and I definitely consider them both as "Jewish Scholars"; Shimon is a soft spoken man in his eighties who seems to know everything and everything, and Shuli is a 20 year old studying Biblical Hebrew and The Old Testament at Florida State University. At first I was really considering not going at all because I felt like I would be intruding on their time for personal reflection and that they were simply being nice by inviting me, but Shuli's persistence convinced me to show up. I did cheat by bringing along my friend/spiritual advisor Liz; she is a passionate member of SUJP ( Students United for Justice in Palestine) and is frequently accused of being an anti-semite so I figured that this experience would give her valuable perspective and that her presence would pull some attention away from me.
I cannot express how incredibly nervous I was while driving to the Temple for the 7:30pm service. I had just gotten off work and picked up Liz and we was freaking out about everything. 1) After my shift, I'm always worried that I smell strongly of Chocolate Ice Cream.(2)I had returned from a camping trip that morning and was absolutely covered in mosquito bites (3) I only had a T-shirt to wear and I felt like I was too casual (4) I was almost late for the service and really did not want to walk inside the Temple without Shuli or Shimon. I got there on time, in time to let them know about my anxieties and allow them to calm me down before walking in. Allegedly, I was dressed fine and didn't stink of Chocolate (though there were so many bites on my arms!).
Walking into the temple, I could feel all eyes on me, some people were really polite and others were blatantly staring. Uriel had already let me know the deal before inviting me, there are many black Jews in the world, but I would be the first black person to have attended Temple Israel for a good while. I would've frozen solid but Shimon took my hand and led us to his reserved seats near the front, all the while greeting people that we passed with "Shabat Shalom". Shimon is a retired FSU professor, travelling philosopher, Holocoaust survivor, and social worker so he is a really respected person in the community; so while Liz and I looked around and rubbed our hands uncomfortably before the service began, we did feel protected in being under his wing. Our greatest fear was that people would assume we were there to see some kind of spectacle, but coming with the Gottschalks easily made us feel like we were being taught about culture.
Most of a Shabat evening service is made up of singing prayers from the Torah. In the pews before us were copies that listed every prayer in Hebrew, Hebrew transliteration, and English. There is likely a standard progression of prayers to sing because everyone was jumping from page to page without directions while Shuli kept telling me what page to turn to and which passage I should be reading from as everyone sang loud and proudly. At some points I felt comfortable singing but most of the time the language was really confusing and I preferred to shut up so I wouldn't offend anyone. There were points in some songs when people would stand up to bow towards the Ark of the Covenant, turn around to bow towards the back of the room, or jump up from their seats and throw their arms in the air jovially. It was such an experience!
Unlike my childhood experiences from church, the rabbi's sermon was very philosophical and not very religious. Not once did he "preach", he just passed on wise words that he had learned in his studies. He spoke about his trip to the Vatican and seeing paintings that depict God. The short sermon was mostly about the danger in trying to quantify God because we will never be able to even convey how awesome he is. I learned that the Torah scrolls were only read on Shabat morning, not by the Rabbi but by members of the congregation, then the congregation has a discussion about what they had just read. Shuli is going to be reading next Saturday so she excitedly took out the Torah from the Ark for Liz and I to see after the service. All Torahs come from Israel where there are scholars who spend all their lives creating them; they're huge scrolls made out of parchment and covered in fabric so they can't be touched with human hands. As a famous klutz, I kept my distance but still took a picture.
I had the chance to see a significant part of Jewish culture during this service. A little Hispanic girl who had been attending the Temple with her mother for three years had decided to become a member of the Jewish faith. She had been studying the Torah for months and been tutored by the Rabbi and was now choosing to be recognized as a Jew before the congregation. This was the only time during the service that the Torah was brought out of the Ark of the Covenant because she had to hold it in her arms (it's very heavy!) and answer questions from the Rabbi before she could set it down. Later on in the evening, Shimon told me that this was very significant because Jews historically do not evangelize so the decision to join their community was entirely hers.
There is always a small potluck buffet after Shabat evening and Liz and I got fat off pita chips with five different types of dip, brownies, cupcakes, strawberries, e.t.c. The best part of the evening was having most of the congregation come up to us as the night went on to introduce themselves and thank us for visiting. We sat at a table with some senior citizens and had the chance to speak about what we just experienced and what it means to be a Jew. They responded beautifully, happy to tell us everything about their culture. The most surprising part about attending Shabat evening is that it was largely cultural, full of people who were proud to be Jews speaking Hebrew among other Jews; not once did anyone ask me what my beliefs were or if I would like to adopt their beliefs. They didn't even seem curious as to why we had decided to visit, everyone we spoke to was just happy to see us. I might be returning next Saturday because I want to hear Shuli read the Torah, she spoke a lot about trope- the notation for chanting the words that are written down in the holy book , and I want to hear how it sounds. Also, the buffet is bigger on Saturdays!
I cannot express how incredibly nervous I was while driving to the Temple for the 7:30pm service. I had just gotten off work and picked up Liz and we was freaking out about everything. 1) After my shift, I'm always worried that I smell strongly of Chocolate Ice Cream.(2)I had returned from a camping trip that morning and was absolutely covered in mosquito bites (3) I only had a T-shirt to wear and I felt like I was too casual (4) I was almost late for the service and really did not want to walk inside the Temple without Shuli or Shimon. I got there on time, in time to let them know about my anxieties and allow them to calm me down before walking in. Allegedly, I was dressed fine and didn't stink of Chocolate (though there were so many bites on my arms!).
Walking into the temple, I could feel all eyes on me, some people were really polite and others were blatantly staring. Uriel had already let me know the deal before inviting me, there are many black Jews in the world, but I would be the first black person to have attended Temple Israel for a good while. I would've frozen solid but Shimon took my hand and led us to his reserved seats near the front, all the while greeting people that we passed with "Shabat Shalom". Shimon is a retired FSU professor, travelling philosopher, Holocoaust survivor, and social worker so he is a really respected person in the community; so while Liz and I looked around and rubbed our hands uncomfortably before the service began, we did feel protected in being under his wing. Our greatest fear was that people would assume we were there to see some kind of spectacle, but coming with the Gottschalks easily made us feel like we were being taught about culture.
Most of a Shabat evening service is made up of singing prayers from the Torah. In the pews before us were copies that listed every prayer in Hebrew, Hebrew transliteration, and English. There is likely a standard progression of prayers to sing because everyone was jumping from page to page without directions while Shuli kept telling me what page to turn to and which passage I should be reading from as everyone sang loud and proudly. At some points I felt comfortable singing but most of the time the language was really confusing and I preferred to shut up so I wouldn't offend anyone. There were points in some songs when people would stand up to bow towards the Ark of the Covenant, turn around to bow towards the back of the room, or jump up from their seats and throw their arms in the air jovially. It was such an experience!
Unlike my childhood experiences from church, the rabbi's sermon was very philosophical and not very religious. Not once did he "preach", he just passed on wise words that he had learned in his studies. He spoke about his trip to the Vatican and seeing paintings that depict God. The short sermon was mostly about the danger in trying to quantify God because we will never be able to even convey how awesome he is. I learned that the Torah scrolls were only read on Shabat morning, not by the Rabbi but by members of the congregation, then the congregation has a discussion about what they had just read. Shuli is going to be reading next Saturday so she excitedly took out the Torah from the Ark for Liz and I to see after the service. All Torahs come from Israel where there are scholars who spend all their lives creating them; they're huge scrolls made out of parchment and covered in fabric so they can't be touched with human hands. As a famous klutz, I kept my distance but still took a picture.
I had the chance to see a significant part of Jewish culture during this service. A little Hispanic girl who had been attending the Temple with her mother for three years had decided to become a member of the Jewish faith. She had been studying the Torah for months and been tutored by the Rabbi and was now choosing to be recognized as a Jew before the congregation. This was the only time during the service that the Torah was brought out of the Ark of the Covenant because she had to hold it in her arms (it's very heavy!) and answer questions from the Rabbi before she could set it down. Later on in the evening, Shimon told me that this was very significant because Jews historically do not evangelize so the decision to join their community was entirely hers.
There is always a small potluck buffet after Shabat evening and Liz and I got fat off pita chips with five different types of dip, brownies, cupcakes, strawberries, e.t.c. The best part of the evening was having most of the congregation come up to us as the night went on to introduce themselves and thank us for visiting. We sat at a table with some senior citizens and had the chance to speak about what we just experienced and what it means to be a Jew. They responded beautifully, happy to tell us everything about their culture. The most surprising part about attending Shabat evening is that it was largely cultural, full of people who were proud to be Jews speaking Hebrew among other Jews; not once did anyone ask me what my beliefs were or if I would like to adopt their beliefs. They didn't even seem curious as to why we had decided to visit, everyone we spoke to was just happy to see us. I might be returning next Saturday because I want to hear Shuli read the Torah, she spoke a lot about trope- the notation for chanting the words that are written down in the holy book , and I want to hear how it sounds. Also, the buffet is bigger on Saturdays!
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