Brianna TS #20

Date/Time: Thursday August 1st
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Speaking (Housing in Tallahassee, moving, stationery, natural conversations)
Feedback provided to the tutee: While we were on the topic of moving and housing in Tallahassee, I gave Wei some non-language advice about adhesive strips she could buy to hang things on her wall. From there we moved on to talking about stationery (mostly notebooks, pens, and pen ink) and some new vocabulary included: artisanal, wax paper, fountain pen, and waterfall (describing the art on the cover of a notebook). Finally, we talked about how natural conversation between friends is spontaneous or sometimes goes in unexpected directions, like our session today which was supposed to be about idioms for business English. We did squeeze in a brief bit at the end for off the rails, as well as the difference between idioms and proverbs or adages.
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Cultural knowledge or education about idioms or proverbs is not limited only to the student(s). The instructor also has an opportunity to learn about these sorts of phrases and sayings from other cultures. For example, when we were talking about stationery and the importance of writing things down, Wei shared this proverb: “The palest ink is better than the best memory.” We could both relate to that one a lot!




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