TP12

Today, April 11th, I met John at Sakura for lunch. He had asked me to come meet him for sushi and conversation practice, as well as answer his occasional grammar questions. At first, we exchanged pleasantries and talked a little about his research after submitting his guava paper for review, but then moved on to a variety of other subjects.

We talked about cultural differences between S. Korea and America, such as tipping etiquette and how much teachers get paid. John was impressed by my ability to hold chopsticks and inhale wasabi, and suggested that I would do well as an English teacher in Korea because I already liked the food they eat there. I asked John where else he had traveled to, outside of the obvious two countries, and he said Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and others. I told him I had only been to Eastern Europe, but wanted to travel all over the world - at this he said he would like to join, and be my English student everywhere.

We talked of our plans for this summer as well. He wants to send his kids to summer camp here while they won't be in school, except for a few weeks in July when they are going to travel to see the West Coast and Grand Canyon. I told him I would help by looking for information about local education-focused, safe camps for his kids, and also that I had never seen the Grand Canyon and would love to join him and his family on their sightseeing adventure.

The sushi was fantastic, as was the miso soup and salad. After helping John discern the appropriate amount for a tip (with good service), I thanked him and we discussed our next meeting as we left Sakura. As always, I'm looking forward to seeing him again!

CO3

Today, April Fools' Day, I observed Wayne Schiefelbein's reading class at CIES. Before class when I attempted to introduce myself to the teacher, he told me that Wayne had quit and he was the substitute. Joke was on me, the April Fool! He began class by asking them if they had received his evaluations over e-mail. He said that he had tried not to be too coddling (my word, not his) and more honest with his criticism of their progress in reading skill development. Next, he went over a timed reading assignment from the previous class on Friday. I liked how he told the class the highest, lowest and average grades (and for this particular assignment, the fastest/slowest/average times for reading the passage and answering the questions) for each assignment and quiz, because it let the students know how they were doing in comparison to their peers.

Mr. Schiefelbein (hereby known as simply Wayne) suggested using the site Voice of America for improving reading speed, because you can read the text while listening to it. After class I suggested watching movies or TV shows in English, but Wayne said it is thought to be less effective because of the distraction of the moving pictures behind the words, and if you could somehow turn off the video and just listen to the audio track while reading the subtitles, it would be a more helpful activity. Another possibility for improving reading speed would be listening to books on tape (perhaps while looking at the text as well!).

In reviewing the timed reading assignment, he addressed skills that would be crucial to scoring well on the TOEFL, such as finding key words in a passage, discerning the meaning of words in their context, synonyms/antonyms, vocabulary building, making inferences, and summarizing main ideas. In the case of inference questions on tests such as TOEFL, he said to beware of the red flag (also my term) of over-generalizations (his term) such as 100%, every, and all. These questions are (almost =D) always false.

After the review of Friday's assignment, he passed out a vocabulary list, with words that would be on an upcoming quiz, words that were on the previous quiz (and the average grade), and a bigger list compiled from words that students e-mail him definitions of. After class he told me this is part of their 2-hour weekly reading assignment, and that nearly everyone participates and he thinks it is a great way to build vocabulary.

He finished the class by reading a short 3-page chapter from Roald Dahl's The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I think the students enjoyed it, and it was great extensive practice at this level - certainly the reading level was not too difficult for them. I learned a lot in this short class and I hope to incorporate some of Wayne's techniques into my own teaching practice!

TP11

Today, St. Patrick's Day 2013, I met John and his family at the Public Library. I brought Hayley, as she had never been to the LeRoy Collins Library and is a total bookworm. Unfortunately the library was closed until 1pm, since it is a national holiday, so we just sat outside on the benches at the Parks on Park and read. I saw Jason and Sally, but John asked me to help tutor his niece, Reina(?) with her reading. She had chosen a book called Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentime by Barbara Park.

Her English was quite advanced, though I did notice a few errors she was making that seem to be typical of ESL learners from Asian cultures (such as mixing up the R and L sounds). She had good pronunciation and excellent flow. One thing that bothered me about the book she had chosen was that often the main character, Junie B. Jones, would use incorrect forms (such as throwed instead of threw, holded instead of held, Valentimes instead of Valentines, etc.) but when I asked Reina, she knew the correct forms and seemed to understand that it was the author's way of making the little girl's dialogue sound more authentic. I would occasionally ask her about vocabulary or idea comprehension, and would help explain when she didn't understand what certain phrases meant or when the main idea of a paragraph slipped by her. Overall I was quite impressed by her reading skills, and I am sure she will excel in communicating in English if she sticks with it.

CP10

 On Thursday, March 14th (also known as Pi Day for those unfamiliar), after eating lunch with Hayley at the newly opened Gaines Street Pies, a pizza joint started by some friends, I picked up Mahdi from the Pitaria near CIES. The three of us headed back to my house and were soon joined by my friends Danny and Henry. 

I had sent this picture to Mahdi earlier in a text message, asking if he would like to go to this place. Unfortunately the water was not so clear, as it has been raining lately and the runoff into the sinkholes makes the water more turbid (cloudy), and the foliage not as green - this picture was taken in midsummer, but the forest is quite a bit more bleak in winter; though spring is upon us and I'm sure it will look like this in less than a few months.

We all crammed into my car for the journey. In the interest of time and being able to enjoy the water while the sun was still above the horizon, we parked at Teddy's house and walked the short way to River Sink, after checking out Whiskey Still Sink behind the pyramid. We had to cross a flooded cypress swamp to continue on the trail - Danny and I weren't wearing shoes, Henry and Hayley took theirs off, but Mahdi stubbornly kept his on, soaking them with tannic swamp water. I was proud of Hayley and Mahdi for trekking through the woods; although Hayley has lived in Woodville right next to the sinks for years, she had never been there, and Mahdi certainly had never seen anything like it, as he has spent most of his life in Kuwait. They were both in unfamiliar territory but refused to give up, and we all made it safely to (what I like to call) paradise, with minimal complaining.

There was a fire going in the dead stump of a huge pine tree that used to tower over the entrance to the spring (just to the right of the cooler in the above picture). Someone had burned the base a long time ago and killed the tree, and it finally fell and its stump made a natural fire pit. It was fortuitous for us that whoever had been enjoying the springs before had left their fire going for us, as there was no danger of it spreading. We didn't even have to start one! Mahdi and Hayley chose not to swim, but they still expressed their appreciation of the beauty of this natural wonder. Henry, Danny and I, however, could not imagine coming to such a place and not jumping in! Here's a video of Danny doing a sweet free-fall backflip from the rope-swing tree (to the right in the picture above).

I hope everyone enjoyed their experience, and I'm excited for the next time I can show the springs to someone who has never seen their splendor.

CP 9

Yesterday I picked up Mahdi from the Pitaria and took him to another Middle Eastern restaurant/grocery store off N. Monroe, the International House of Food. I have been going to this place for years for their amazing chicken/beef with rice dishes, as well as their amazing gyro sandwiches (with feta of course!). Mahdi  was excited to find another place in town with food from his part of the world. He kept saying how many of the items in the store reminded him of home, and was quite thankful to me for showing it to him. He bought some pressed pitted dates in a vacuum-sealed bag that looked delicious and seemed quite cheap (something like 2 lbs for 4 bucks!) as well as some gum (from Jordan =D) that he said he was going to use for an experiment: he would put them in the CIES hall and see how many students from Kuwait and other Arabic nations would take the gum.

Mahdi devoured his gyro even before me (and I love them, especially from IHOF!) and them promptly proclaimed that the lamb in his country tasted better. Hayley met us there and she got a feta sandwich, and she and I got a raspberry and peach malt beverage (sans alcohol) which were delicious. I also couldn't resist the date cookie! Luckily after all of this indulgence, there was time to get Mahdi back to class only a few minutes late. He is a great guy to hang out with and hopefully we will meet up again this weekend... I'm thinking about making more venison chili tomorrow!

TP10

 On Sunday, Feb. 24th, I met Mahdi at his apartment to help him prepare for taking the IELTS again (he took it in Tampa the previous weekend but jokingly suggested his score was probably a 2; while in reality it may be closer to 4 or 5, he needs a 5.5 to satisfy the requirements of his scholarship from Kuwait, so it seems he has some progress to make). We studied for quite a while from an IELTS prep book that he bought online, mostly covering how to devise information from graphs and put it into words. Some of these questions seemed tough even for a native speaker, but after a while I began to understand the kind of information they are trying to get English learners to extrapolate from such graphs.

 After working hard for what seemed like 2 hours but was probably closer to 45 minutes of actual English practice, we decided to call it a day. I hung out with him and his friends for more than an hour after we were done, in another apartment at Plantation belonging to a Kuwaiti CIES student. They are incredibly gracious hosts, and it was rad getting destroyed in FIFA '13 by some guys I could only communicate with in gestures, grunts and facial expressions. Next time I'm bringing my A-game and I will show them the true soccer prowess of America!!! (joke)

TP9

Today I met John and his family at the public library as usual. Unusually, however, they were a few minutes late - this gave me the opportunity to wonder about what John and I might talk about for conversation practice, as well as run into Hayley's friend Megan that I had just been hanging out with last night at Hayley's "birthday" party. Incidentally, she was tutoring Jason and Sally's cousin! What a small town Tallahassee is.

I was thinking about asking John about his research with FSU, and that was exactly what he wanted to discuss. He is finalizing a research paper to summarize the efforts of his study, and wanted my help editing and revising it for grammar and clarity. It was a bit much to jump right into it, so I talked to him for a few minutes first about the kind of experiments he was conducting, and then did some quick browsing of a few science-y articles on Wikipedia, which he helped to explain in further detail. Once I had a grasp of what he was trying to learn and the methods he used to obtain his data, we began to look at his paper and I made suggestions on how to make it more concise and readable. The focus of his research is to find the best method for extracting the beneficial antioxidants (phenolic compounds and flavonoids), by using different ratios of water/ethanol/methanol and organic solvents. He had innumerable references in his paper and I was  impressed with completeness of the study. Before I left I told him that if he wanted more help, he could e-mail me his paper or just send me sentences that he was unsure about and I would respond with my suggestions.

I'm looking forward to helping John make his research paper more accessible in English, and hopefully will have more opportunities to work with his kids on their English skills as well.

CP8

After our Valentine's Day beer and billiards date this Thursday, Hayley and I picked up Mubarak and Mohammed from Grand Marc and went to Mahdi's apartment off Pensacola St. When we arrived, we met their friend Jarrah, and Mahdi was just finishing his prayers in the traditional white kuwaiti dishdasha. After the introductions we just hung out in the apartment, snacking on dates and chips and watching clips on youTube. At first we just watched a clip of George W. Bush dancing with a sword in one hand and the other arm around the president of Bahrain, an island nation in the Arab Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Then Mahdi showed us videos of the largest fountain show in the world, at the tallest tower in the world - the Dubai Fountain in UAE.

We talked a bit about their experiences with the IELTS, both recent and fast approaching. Mahdi told us he was traveling to Tampa over the weekend to take the test, and Mohammed said he had just taken it and his score was a 4.6 (or 4.9?) and their government grant program requires them to pass with at least a 5.5 before they can return to Kuwait to continue in university. After more conversation and youTube videos, I had to use the bathroom; when I returned I asked Mahdi if the strange attachment on his toilet that looked and functioned exactly like a sink hose for washing dishes was a bidet. Everyone in the living room heard him exclaim all-too-enthusiastically from the bathroom, "Yes, you can use it!" and uproarious laughter ensued. It was getting late, so Hayley and I offered to take Mubarak and Mohammed back to Grand Marc but they declined, saying they would stay and hang at Mahdi's some more. I can't wait to see these guys again, their fast friendship and sincere, generous hospitality is very welcome and refreshing. Best of luck to Mahdi with the IELTS!

TP8

 On Sunday, February 10th, I met John and his family at the library. It had been several weeks since I had seen them last, with the exception of a few short meetings with just John for some conversation practice. I asked Jason and Sally how they were doing and how they liked Disney World. Jason read aloud from Annie and Snowball and the Dress-up Birthday by Cynthia Rylant, author of the Henry and Mudge series that Jason loves. 

 As he was looking for another book I realized something incredible: there was jazz music floating in through a secret side room in the library that I had never seen before! It turned out to be an FSU jazz ensemble giving a performance in a banquet room. 

 I tried to explain to Jason what was going on as we peeked through the door's thin window, but I'm not sure he understood. After reading another Henry and Mudge book and answering some of my questions to see what he was comprehending, I was delighted to see that he had chosen Dr. Seuss's One Fish Two Fish to read. The rhyme scheme really helped him to sound out the correct pronunciation of many words, and as he was slowly but surely making his way through the tongue-twister of a children's book, I realized that he has made significant progress since I began working with him. After talking a bit more, we agreed to meet later in the week. I can't wait to talk with them again!

CP7

On Friday, February 1st, Mubarak and Mahdi came to my house for venison chili. I cooked the meat separately from the rest of the chili, because one of my roommates is vegetarian and some of our friends do not eat meat either. I made some bacon separately as well, since Mahdi and Mubarak do not eat pork. Mubarak helped by preparing rice in the traditional Kuwaiti fashion, to the best of what limited spices and cookware my kitchen could provide. My roommates and I had several other friends over as well, since we usually have a Friday night jam session, and my Kuwaiti friends were delighted to discover that my friend Orion who plays flute with us (and studied with a flute master in India) knows some Arabic. They instantly asked for his phone number since they very rarely encounter people here who have studied their language at all.

The chili was a big hit, and the jams were groovy, although I gave Mubarak and Mahdi a ride to go bowling with their friends at Crenshaw and came home before they really started pumping. I really enjoyed showing them my home and how we spend our leisure time, and as always, I am looking forward to our next meeting.

CP6

 On Thursday, Jan 24th, I met up with Mubarak at Jimmy John's near his apartment. I got a sandwich and we headed to our friend Mahdi's apartment off Pensacola St. We had discussed going bowling, but instead we just decided to hang out at Mahdi's and talk. Mahdi had set out some delicious chocolates and other desserts, as well as cashews and pistachios, and prepared for us the traditional tea of his country, flavored strongly with cardamom (هال in Arabic). We watched some documentaries about jaguars and other wildlife in the jungles of South America such as caimans and capybaras, and discussed the IELTS and TOEFL (Mubarak says he is not allowed back to Kuwait until he scores at least a 5.5 on the IELTS as they are here on a government grant).

 We talked about a few other things such as differences between what is polite or expected behavior for someone from the U.S. versus someone from Kuwait; for instance, when asked whether or not they desire more tea, someone from the U.S. usually will not hesitate to say yes or no, but people from Kuwait will say no thank you even if they really do want more.

 I think it's important to have discussions about cultural expectations, to raise awareness about international manners and hopefully help avoid unnecessary conflict due to such differences. Just yesterday when I was eating at Far East Cuisine with my girlfriend, she told me that in Japan (she lived there for some time) and likely other Eastern cultures, it is considered rude to leave your chopsticks sticking out of your food and instead should be placed together sideways to indicate that you are finished. [Just looked this up and chopsticks sticking straight up from a bowl of rice indicates an offering for the dead. More chopstick etiquette: http://www.neiu.edu/~sdundis/examples/cook/chopsticks.htm]

 After taking some goofy instagram pictures and chatting for a bit more Mubarak subtly hinted that he was ready to go home, so I gave him a ride back to Grand Marc. I am looking forward to spending more time with these great guys and helping them to pass the IELTS so that they can return to their home country victorious in their quest to learn the language and culture of the United States.

CP5

 On Monday, Jan 21st, I met up with Mubarak, as well as his friends Mahdi and Mohammed, at FSU's student union to go bowling at Crenshaw Lanes. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the bowling alley would be closed as it was a holiday (even though Chili's was open), so instead we decided to play pool at Zingale's, stopping at Starbucks on the way. We all crammed into my girlfriend's tiny VW Beetle for the ride. I found out that, like Mubarak and Anwar, Mahdi and Mohammed are also planning on studying engineering; Kuwait has a high demand for engineers to develop technology for the oil business.

 After Mahdi graciously bought Hayley and I some hot chocolate, we sat outside Starbucks talking for a while and then walked to Zingale's. We played 4 games of pool, rotating players through teams so everyone got a chance to play on a team with everyone else. I ran into a friend that I used to work with playing pool next to us, and found out my girlfriend knew him and his buddies from high school - small town! After our fourth game, our Kuwaiti friends decided it was time for them to head home. Though I offered to give them a ride, they chose to walk. I think the brisk January air would be more pleasant than a stuffy and cramped backseat car ride. I had an awesome time making new friends with Mahdi and Mohammed - they are incredibly nice - and I'm excited to show them more fun things to do in Tally! Hopefully I will be meeting up with the 3 M's again this weekend; perhaps I will take them to a nice park such as the Miccosukee or Pedrick Greenway or Wakulla Springs.

CP4

On Sunday, January 13 I met my new conversation partner, Mubarak, at Starbucks on Tennessee. He was late, but he told me it was because he had been at the hospital getting flu shots with his roommate. I learned that he knows Anwar from CIES. Mubarak told me a little bit about himself: he wants to study chemical engineering at one of several universities, he has some 30-odd camels back in Kuwait, and he wants me to introduce him to American girls. Cool guy! He likes sports, especially European soccer leagues, but also likes to bowl and play ping pong. I may try to get him to branch out and play ultimate and do some cycling or swimming, but perhaps hiking would be the best place to start. We were showing each other pictures on our phones and I installed the Arabic keyboard, which incidentally changed the language of my entire phone to Arabic. Thankfully Mubarak switched it back right away. We talked a bit about potential future activities, such as bowling or billiards, and then called it a night. I gave him a ride back to Grand Marc from Starbucks. People from Kuwait seem very friendly, I'm excited to have new friends from foreign lands!