Adam TP # 7

Today at 6:00 p.m. in the Askew Student Life Center I met my tutee Suyeol Ji (He asked me to simply call him "Ji"), whom I had signed up to tutor at the beginning of the semester. However, because he does not have a computer it was very difficult to contact him, and I was not able to meet him until now. He is from South Korea and is studying for the TOEFL so that he can study at a university in the United States.
I asked him what his largest problems were in terms of learning English. He said that the most difficult aspects for him were speaking and grammar. However, he was very well-spoken and had a good command of vocabulary. He already came prepared with specific questions, mostly involving the differences in usage between "to," "at" and "for." I made sure to explain the differences for him by giving example sentences and by modeling examples (for example, I tossed a pencil at the couch I was sitting on and asked which word would apply. He was quick to pick up on the fact that I threw the pencil "at" the couch, rather than "to" the couch). I also gave him examples of the differences in usage between "at" and "for": the example I gave him was "I work -at- the post office." vs. "I work -for- the postal service." He caught on to the difference in context very quickly. He also let me look at an already-graded essay he had written for class. His writing was very good, but he struggled with capitalization as well as with the usage of "however," "therefore" etc. I let him know that he should work on memorizing a chart showing the difference between capital and lower case letters, as well as what transitions work best in which contexts.
We agreed to meet again on Monday afternoon at the Center for Intensive English Studies. I let him know that he should come to me with more specific questions, and that I would be willing to help him review sample questions for the TOEFL exam.