On February 13th I met with Ran at CIES for our third conversation partner meeting. We talked for a while about many different topics. She gave me a brief overview of her week and the tests that she took and how relieved she felt to be done with them. I started asking her about the differences between the grading system (and the school system in general) in China and the U.S. She said academics are more stressed in China, and although they don’t give out letter grades, the grading system is very similar. They take the average percentage across all your grades to give you your one final, all-inclusive percentage. She explained to me how people seem less busy in America, that they have more time to care about the environment and nature. In China life is very fast paced. I asked her about global warming and the pollution in China. She said over the winter months they must wear masks from all the smog and pollution. Ran said she gets a cough when she’s in China, and the air in U.S. is noticeably cleaner. I was aghast after hearing this. I told her environmental activism is pretty important here, especially among young people, and it is important for me to reduce the amount of emissions and waste I produce. She said she cares, but also doesn’t think one person can make a difference. It was a very interesting talk we had about these issues!
My next tutoring session was with Turki. We met at the Starbucks on Tennessee Street, the usual spot, and started the session with a causal conversation about life and his short term English goals. Turki decided he didn't want to continue with the second session of CIES classes, and that he wanted to rather focus solely on passing the IELTS exam. He said he found the CIES classes to be helpful, but also distracting. He said he thinks he's gotten the most out of his classes and that it would be more productive for him to study on his own. Where I don't completely agree with his logic, it is his life and I trust his decision making. For this session he brought his own material that he wanted to focus on. This time it was a reading passage that I even found to be quite difficult, and I was once again impressed by his far reach in practice and ability. The reading passage was accompanied by a set of numerous comprehension questions that we reviewed and answered together. The qu...
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