Reconnecting

Hi all,

My apologies for the drought of posts lately. I've been job hunting, and managed to get some work this week with an ESL tutoring job. It's decent pay, and I like both of my students. I teach them both for one hour, and help them with either A) stuff they're working on in their classes; or B) stuff they feel they want to improve.

So for my first student, that's a combination of the grammar and vocab from class, and some idioms, which is what he likes to work on.

For the later one, it's pure pronunciation practice, since she's highly advanced, and wants to break through that 'wall' that students seem to reach when they understand the mechanics of English, but still freeze up when they're looking for words, or when they hear native English spoken at a fast clip.

This is something I've noticed with ESL students--the committed ones learn the language fast, and well, but 'street speak' throws them right off. I don't mean slang, of course, or idioms, although that's part of it. What I'm talking about is something that's called assimilation in phonetics: when we squish sounds together as we speak. For example, her least favorite one is "Didn't you do..." which becomes "didnchadu," and worse. And unfortunately, I'm not sure how much I can do to help her--it's largely a matter of speaking with native speakers and getting used to the way we speak at a full clip. This is something with which I help her, but the best way remains to talk to people outside the class, who are native English speakers. A daunting prospect, for sure, but the best way forward, nonetheless.

It's rewarding, although it's not yet full time. I've been getting used to Toronto, seeing old friends, and missing those from Korea. That said, it's been good, and I am coming to like this strange, sprawled out and English speaking city. Seriously, however, the sprawl is terrible. I suspect they'd have to put another dozen apartment buildings up above each subway before I feel comfortable, after Korea, where everybody's packed tightly close together. It's one thing I do miss--Torontonians have an over-developed sense of personal space, due to the size of the city and the relatively low population density. A word that I have come to loathe after returning from Korea is "sorry," which, of course, I am now saying constantly. I'm not sorry, I'm just trying to move around you.

It's the little things that trip you up, I suspect.

Chris