Practicing English

The accounting club has two small groups of students who asked me to meet with them for some English practice for them and Korean for me. Professor Kim arranged it. I meet 2 to 4 Monday and 10 to 12 Tuesday - 4 students in each group. It is a little funny that they want to learn about American culture from me given I am not up to date on many things (my brothers would agree). One asked why Americans count "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, etc." I told them it was for something like Hide and Go Seek to slow people down when counting. They could understand that otherwise the seeker would reach 20 or 30 way too soon. But I think they understand using MS is not part of everyday counting.

They had the ideas for what to do while we are together. We put words on a piece of paper in Korean and English and folded them and put them in the middle of the table. I drew tree, namu, and could say "I ______ at look," while looking out the window at a tree. The students had to give 3 sentences for clues. A funny one that got us into a conversation was Thanksgiving. The clues included that people eat turkey and something ... but I couldn't understand the second item. Then I understood "lasagna," which was pronounced with "R" at beginning. The same letter is used for R and L in Korean, and when it is the first letter in a syllable it is R. (I saw a sign for Rounge Bar recently.) I said I didn't know anyone who ate lasagna for Thanksgiving, and then added that maybe Italians would. He said on the show Friends, an Italian guy brought lasagna. I know the Korean word for pumpkin, so I told them pumpkin pie is very common. One of the gals added that someone on the show brought pie. We had some good laughs. (They knew the characters' names).

The other activity was downloaded from a practice English website. The topic was dogs with questions like "do you like dogs?" and "are you afraid of dogs?" The students are then to explain themselves. So we also got into a conversation about pets in general and that I noticed the dogs at the park often have clothes like little boots or a sweater or scarf - the Koreans seem to decorate their dogs. We agreed Koreans tend to have much smaller dogs than Americans. I was surprised how fast the time went. It's interesting to have them to a little bow when we go our separate ways.

I hope we continue to meet and that I can reflect well on myself, AU, my country, Christians, etc. It's a big responsibility when they have so little direct contact with Americans! :)