4th ESL Class

Hank and I worked with "Noah" for the second time. We did some readings in the book, but most of the time, we just had open conversations about general life topics. To continue the conversation from the previous week about this girl "Kaitlin," Hank and I helped Noah write a conversation that he might have with her if he worked up the courage to ask her to church with him.

It went along the lines of this... first saying what it would be in spanish, then translating to english. 

N: Te gustaria venir a la inglesia esta domingo conmigo? (Would you like to come to church with me this sunday?)

K: Maybe. Where is the church?

N: La inglesia es en Norwood en La calle de Norwood. 

K: What time is it at?

N: A las dos en la tarde. 

K: Can you pick me up?

N: Si, donde vives?.... Te gustaria ir a la cena despues de la servicio?

So he seemed really excited about being able to have this potential conversation with her. We rehearsed the script together with me pretending to be Kaitlin. 

When we did get around to the book, there was a couple pages about family member terms and an illustration of a family tree. I was curious about Noah's family and it seemed he needed a little guidance with the English words for family terms, so in order to illustrate what a family tree was, I drew my own and said in Spanish the relations of my family and how they were connected to me.. then I had him tell me about his family and I drew out his "arbol de la familia" as well. He has an enormous family, many of which still live in Guatemala. 

Noah is a great student, but like me, he gets nervous at the prospect of holding a formal conversation. I encourage him to read things aloud and to speak more English at work. He really wants to get a different job at work, but I can tell that he's afraid that his English isn't good enough. He's so close!