Tutoring #7 and 8

On Tuesday from 3 to 4, I met with Ayni as usual.  We went over one of the papers she had written.  It seems to me that writing and speaking are two main concerns.  Her paper topic was "Does failure lead to success?".   She had some good ideas in the paper, and it was pretty well written for the most part.  The mistakes she tends to make are when to make a word plural and when to use 'to' plus a verb.  She has improved some since I started tutoring her.  When I read Ayni's papers, she now can point out some of her errors.  

Yesterday I met with my tutoring group at the Multicultural center.  The group always has different people in it each week with some returning tutees, which makes it difficult.  I try to think of activities that everyone can learn and benefit from.  I was trying to think of what I could possibly do for the Wednesday tutoring session when I suddenly remembered the video that we watched in class.  The video mentioned idioms in the U.S. and abroad and how confusing they can be.  So I looked up several idioms/ common sayings in the United States and typed them on a piece of paper with the meaning of each one.  I made many copies so I could give them out to each of my tutees after we went over them.  They really enjoyed learning certain phrases like "spill the beans" and "play it by ear" because they had heard them before and not known what they meant.  After we went over each phrase I asked them to use them in a sentence.  They all did very well with the idioms.  I then asked them if they use any of the phrases in their country or if they have any different phrases.  Hyejin said that in South Korea they say, "Are you eating honey?" for "Cat got your tongue?".  Ayni also came to this group meeting and she said that in Turkey they say, "Forgot your tongue?" for "Cat got your tongue?".  It was really neat to hear phrases used in other countries!  Overall I think the exercise went well.