Meeting #3

Walking back from my meeting with Josefina, I thought about how great it feels to be helping someone learn the english language. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it would be to live in the United States and struggle with a language that is all around me. I feel like it would be very lonely and isolating.
Our meeting today went extremely well. We worked on verbs the entire time. I made a worksheet with fill-in-the-blank sentences that we read over while she filled out; she really has a lot of talent given the patience and the confidence. Each time she got a word right, she would smile and laugh, like a child learning how to ride a bike. It was an incredible feeling to know that I was actually teaching her and that she was so excited about it. We went to a website I found with the 100 most common english verbs, and conjugated them together. After we conjugated in English, she would help me conjugate it in spanish. It was really neat for me to see her struggling with english, then turning around and helping me with my struggling in spanish. Her confidence level seemed to turn 360 degrees when she switched from english to spanish. I told her that if she spoke with that much confidence in english, her speech would improve twice as fast. If your partner is interested in working with verbs, this is a very helpful website. (http://www.acme2k.co.uk/Acme/100.htm#) We are working with one column each week; she wrote down the verbs in the present and past tense, and is going to try to memorize them for next time.
I also gave Josefina a journal to write in for 10 minutes daily. She is going to try and write her activities for the day, to-do lists, grocery lists, anything, as long as she is writing in english. I hope this will be helpful.
I am so happy and excited about our 2nd meeting. I think she is learning a lot, and I certainly know I am.

Meeting #2

I got to the bookstore ten minutes before I was supposed to meet with Josefina so that I could buy her a folder to keep worksheets in and a spiral notebook to journal. My plan was to do a few worksheets on verbs, and then explain to her that she should write in her journal every day about what she did, who she talked to, and how she is feeling about her english skills. I sat and waited around for fifteen minutes after we were supposed to meet, and she did not show up. I left the bookstore, called her, and she explained that she had waited for me at the bookstore an hour earlier. Last week, we met at 10, but decided that this week we should meet an hour later so we could both sleep in a bit more (she works the night shift, so I thought it would be beneficial to her if we met an hour later). I guess she just forgot!!! We will try again next week..

First Meeting

I finally got ahold of Josefina late Monday afternoon after many attempts to reach her. Struggling to understand each other, we came to the conclusion that we would meet at 10AM Wednesday at the campus bookstore. I was anxious as I walked over there this morning; I had no idea what to say, what to do, or how she would react to me. As soon as I walked into the cafe, I knew exactly who she was. Her genuine smile and happy eyes instantly calmed my nerves; she was excited and eager to converse. We sat at a cozy table and talked about each of our lives. She has four children who attend Paschal, and lives off of Berry Street near the Sonic. She works in housekeeping at the Sid Richardson building, and told me that she is ready to be strong enough in english to talk to whomever she desires without feeling awkward or nervous. We were so wrapped up in conversation that we did not discuss our goals until the very end of our meeting. First and foremost, she said she wants to be a stronger english speaker. She would also like to learn how to type and be more efficient on the computer, a skill that, nowadays, is almost as necessary as perfecting the language itself. Josefina is such a warm person and is genuinely excited to learn. When I told her that I am a spanish minor, her eyes lit up. She said she is so excited that we can teach eachother our language and culture. I am ecstatic about our first meeting, and ready to see what we both learn. I am already looking forward to my next meeting with Josefina.

The Street I Grew Up On

The two-story red brick house that sat in the middle of the cul-de-sac appeared commonplace among the other five houses in a pocket of suburbia. The physicality of each house was almost identical; each was two stories tall, had a perfectly polished lawn and seemed to sparkle when the sun hit the roof a certain way. A naive child, I saw no difference between my residence and the other five on the street, but looking back I realize that each house was made a home in an entirely different way. My home was characterized by a family of five; we always had our differences, but we had a powerful bond that was apparent to others. My home seemed to be a magnet to the other children on the street. I naively thought my siblings and I were the most popular kids on the block, but now I realize that the other children were intrigued by the ordinary red brick house made a warm home by a family who loves and cares about each other.