For this conversation partner meeting, I met with Turki. Normally I tutor Turki, for he is a very serious and studious student, but today we decided to just chat rather than work on English assignments. We met at Starbucks, our usual spot, and dove into a pretty deep conversation pretty fast. Turki has a pretty advanced level of conversational English and kept up with the advanced topics of conversation well. We talked a lot about the trials and tribulations that come with living abroad, as well as the benefits of it. He said he has travelled to a number of different places before coming to the US and felt his numerous experiences have helped open his mind beyond the cultural norms that exist in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is obviously known for its conservative culture, and Turki said he sometimes struggles to agree with those around him when it comes to the enforcement of such conservative laws. He believes he is more Western-minded than even his mom, as well as other family members and friends, and that he blames his exposure to other cultures though traveling for it. Although he doesn't agree with everything that goes on in Saudi Arabia, he did say he plans on going back eventually and working for a business similar to his dad's.
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...
Comments
Post a Comment