ESL Meeting #4 – 10/18/11

ESL Meeting #4 – 10/18/11

            This meeting was a little bit different from the previous ones. Although Jeanelie and I still carried on a conversation about everyday topics, the bulk of the meeting revolved around a grammar lesson. Jeanelie had another test coming up at the end of the week and one of the main components of the test dealt with the correct use of prepositions. I knew that propositions had always been a challenge for Jeanelie and when to use “by” rather than “to” or “in” had been a difficult task for Jeanelie.

            In order to help Jeanelie practice using the correct proposition and in hopes of boosting her confidence and understanding of the concept, the two of us sat down for a test prep on prepositions. I quickly found it difficult to define many of the common propositions used in English. How does one define “to” or “over”? This quickly became a much harder task than I originally thought it would be. In order to help aid my test prep workshop, I had Jeanelie find some worksheets and activities her professor had provided her class to help learn the concept of propositions. The two of us reviewed these worksheets looking over example after example until Jeanelie eventually started to get the hang of things.

            Working to help Jeanelie understand how to decide what proposition was appropriate was a much more challenging task than I predicted. Even after close to an hour of practicing the uses of the most common prepositions, I still felt that Jeanelie struggled with the overall concept. It was hard for me to explain to her when to use what and I found myself frustrated. I felt like I couldn’t help Jeanelie, I felt like I was stuck. The feeling of not being able to teach someone what appeared to be such an elementary subject was a foreign concept to me, a concept that I was not taking well. Taking a step back and reflecting on my test prep with Jeanelie, I found myself gaining a new respect for teachers and those involved in education.

            Meeting with my ESL partner was the first time I had ever had the experience of actually teaching someone. In years past, I had helped fellow classmates with assignments and helped my younger sister with her math homework, however I had never sat down and actually tutored an individual. Looking back over our meetings, I began to gain a new perspective on what it was like to be in the teacher’s shoes. Gaining a better understanding for what it was like being on the teaching side of education, Jeanelie helped me work through my first teaching experiences. I believe and find that my patience and understanding has grown and I have also found that I am learning a lot about my personal habits and the way in which I communicate. This meeting with Jeanelie provided for a much deeper opportunity for reflection than the previous meetings.

David Belpedio 

The Chrysanthemums - John Steinbeck Reflection

The Chrysanthemums

John Steinbeck

            I really enjoyed this short story for a couple of reasons. One reason stemmed from the writing style of the story itself. Steinbeck organizes his story forcing his reader to think about what he is working to convey. By simply providing the reader with clues as to how to understand the events that occur throughout the story, Steinbeck rarely identifies a single correct interpretation. By doing so, I found this story to open my thoughts to a multitude of interpretations and to produce a variety of emotions and feelings. I also enjoyed how Steinbeck introduced this story. In the first two paragraphs, the passage about the setting ignites a variety of thoughts as to the direction the story may go. Highlighting undertones of new life and growth as well as empty hope and anguish, the story’s introduction immediately grabbed my attention and sparked my imagination.

            Throughout the story, Elisa is full of emotions. By allowing for a variety of interpretations, Steinbeck allowed me to go through the story feeling some of the same emotions I believed Elise felt. The scene that interested me most was the scene in which Elisa discovers the abandon Chrysanthemums on the side of the road. Leading up to the discovery of the Chrysanthemums, a rush of emotions crossed my body. Anxious, nervous, and unsure, these emotions were simultaneously defining my feelings as a traveled alongside Elise to the spot where the abandon flowers lay. As Elisa appears to be transitioning between emotions as well, the slow, dragged out ride to the abandon flowers provides the reader with a space to form their own interpretations regarding Elisa’s feelings. A mixture of emotions, I felt sadness, anger, and uncertainty fall upon Elisa as she passed her abandon flowers.

            Hinting at Elisa’s feelings, Steinbeck does a great job allowing for the open interpretation I mentioned before. As readers, we can sense the feeling of sadness Elisa experiences, however it is undefined as to whether she is angry or furious with the tinker man. This undefined interpretation, and the forcing us to draw upon our own conclusions, was what attracted me to this story. Steinbeck places us as the readers into the position of Henry or any other person in Elisa’s life. Those in Elisa’s life are just as unsure about her feelings as we as reader are. I also found it interesting to reflect upon what Elisa thinks about herself. Unable to pinpoint her emotions as the reader, I believe that Elisa herself appears to have a hard time interpreting her own behaviors and has a hard time understanding what she feels and why she feels the way she does. Throughout the story I really worked to place myself in Elisa’s place and tried to experience what she was feeling.

            The first two paragraphs of this story hold a sense of hope; a hope that appears to be in the near future, but is taken away quickly thereafter. For example, when talking about the weather and the rising sun, Steinbeck states “the fields seemed to be bathed in pale cold sunshine, but there was no sunshine in the valley now in December”. In this passage, the open interpretation holds that there is sunshine or hope in the distance or ahead, however there is none now. The description in the introduction of the setting of this story demonstrates the empty hope that is apparent throughout the rest of the story. In many of Steinbeck’s descriptions, of both events and physical environmental features, there is a sense of promise and hope with no fulfillment. As a reader reading these descriptions, I was able to feel this hope, and then time after time felt let down and almost disappointed with the consistent failure of its fulfillment. I felt like Steinbeck teased the reader time and time again inserting disappointment both into the scene at hand, but also many times into his characters, and in particular Elisa.

            Overall I enjoyed this story and surprised myself with some of the feelings I felt. Many times, I found myself feeling sorry for Elisa and found myself upset with the tinker for throwing out the flowers. Working to decode the different scenes in the story and organizing the emotions at hand proved to be an intriguing and complicated task.

David Belpedio

ESL Meeting #3 – 10/04/11

ESL Meeting #3 – 10/04/11

            As tradition, Jeanelie greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and a big smile. We began our conversation by talking about the weekend and the different activities Jeanelie and her husband participated in. Jeanelie described what seemed to be a pretty low-key weekend. She said that herself and her husband stayed around the hotel for most of the weekend with nothing to exciting occurring. Having a hard time understanding what life would be like living in a hotel for an extended period, I asked Jeanelie how she liked her current living conditions.

            As expected, Jeanelie said that she missed her family and friends from home as well as her home itself. However, Jeanelie said that she really enjoyed staying in the hotel. Not having to worry about picking up the house or dealing with various maintenance tasks, Jeanelie explained how living in the hotel provided her and her husband with flexibility. Jeanelie talked about the opportunities her and her husband were able to pursue because of all the extra free time she had with not having to maintain a home. I was interested in what Jeanelie had to say and asked her about some of the activities she enjoyed doing most while in the US. While it was still hard for me to imagine living in a hotel for almost 6 months, Jeanelie pointed out some interesting opportunities that doing so allowed for. However, I couldn’t take my mind off the idea of not having a kitchen to walk down to, or a living room to sit back and relax in. It was all so foreign to me.

Jeanelie and I ended our conversation by talking about my plans for fall break. Beginning by explaining what exactly fall break was to Jeanelie, I told her about my plans to head home for the long weekend. I was surprised to hear that Jeanelie knew where Kansas was. When I told Jeanelie that I was from Kansas and was going to go back home for the break she knew exactly where I was talking about. Jeanelie’s husband had traveled to Kansas before and had told Jeanelie all about it so Kansas was not as foreign of a place to Jeanelie as I expected it to be. Telling Jeanelie all about my home and the city I lived in, she began to ask me a little bit about my personal life. She wanted me to practice my Spanish so I told her in Spanish about my home, my family, and some hobbies I enjoyed. Encouraging me as I stumbled through the choppy Spanish sentences, Jeanelie helped me along just as I helped her with her English. She explained to me that sometimes she gets so tired of speaking English that its nice to take a break and return to her native language. I laughed and told her that I knew how she felt.

            Jeanelie had a test at the end of the week so she told me that she would send me a text when she was done to let me know how she thought she did. Jeanelie explained to me that she thought of us as more than conversation partners, but as friends. I was excited to hear this and was glad that she was beginning to feel more comfortable with me.

David Belpedio