Bobby_TP_#14

This past Monday I met for the first time with one of my CIES tutees, Helal. Helal is from the United Arab Emirates. At 31 years old he is much older than any of the other CIES students that I've had as conversation partners or tutees. He has three children and a wife who studies childhood education. When I met Hilal at the Hecht House he had his books and notes from class on the table, but when I asked him what he wanted to go over in the tutoring session he implied that he mainly just wanted to speak with me. Based on his text messages I assumed he spoke English pretty well; he texted more fluently than anyone else from CIES did. When I we began to speak, however, it became clear that he is at a very basic speaking level. He told me about his camping trip to Georgia, about how he hunts rabbits in the desert with a falcon, and a little about his family, among other things. We had to resort to drawings, gestures, sound effects, and if all else failed translation in order to communicate. He would often mispronounce words or simply lack for them, so the conversation broke down quite frequently. I wrote a few words down along with the drawings (tent, deer, gun, bullet, scope) to help him remember them and tried to make corrections or suggestions when speaking became unintelligible or broken down. He invited me to play pool with him sometime and to meet his family. I would gladly oblige, since he seems to want an English speaking conversation partner to practice with, but I would also like to work with him on his homework and classwork in order to feel more satisfied as a tutor and see veritable proof of something being accomplished.