Sharon TS #16

Date/Time: February 12th, 2022 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Writing skills
Feedback provided to tutee: The tutee wanted to go over an in-class writing assignment. This worked out well because we ended up covering and/so/but, like was promised in our previous tutoring session, because he used these words in his writing. We went through the assignment sentence by sentence. While there were grammar mistakes to correct, the big takeaway from this session was cultural. The tutee had written what was meant to be a compliment about someone in his work but, in English, his word choice was rude. So we spent some time going over the acceptable ways versus the non-acceptable ways to compliment someone in America.
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Explaining cultural notes is a different skillset from explaining technical/grammatical ones. While there are social "rules" that people follow, it seems to be more difficult to understand. Students seem to assume that, aside from things such as food or dress, people act the same in other countries and it is only the language that needs to be translated. And broaching this topic can be difficult because it is possible to offend your student by suggesting that they were ever rude or mean when they truly did not mean to be. It requires delicacy.

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