Minseo CP #1

My first conversation partner meeting was fantastic. my partner, Bayasgalan is from Mongolia, which is close(?not really) to Korea. He is a doctor who has a beautiful wife and 3 kids(They were so cute in the pictures!!). He looked very excited to practice English, but nervous at the same time. So I tried to lower his affective level. However, he seemed like he didn't understand what I was saying and noticed that I spoke too fast. I usually don't speak fast, honestly I speak very slow, so I thought it would be ok to speak to him like I have been so far, but I was wrong. He is in level 1 and has not talked with many people in English and has not heard English very much, so it might have been difficult for him to understand what I was saying. I knew that I needed to slow down when I speak to lower level students, but I didn't know "How slow". Thanks(???) to my mistake, I think I got it. 

He wanted for me to correct him whenever he makes an error. I know it is important to correct his errors, but I don't know it is necessary to do it right this moment. I found out that he was having troubles with expressing what he wanted to say. Making a full sentence is very important in speaking(and writing as well). However, for a beginner who doesn't have much grammar knowledge, it will be difficult for him to make a full sentence without errors. Besides, he is going to make a lot of errors. I think that just correcting him will make him lose interest in English. So.. (Ms. Kim! I don't know what to do!! Should I correct him whenever he makes a mistake?)

Next Monday, I am giving him a book list or articles that he can read, so we can talk about the books or the articles while we are meeting. Topics will be various, such as history, science, art etc.

My goal is to make him feel comfortable with speaking English, to make him feel free to make a lot of errors, and to help him be albe to express himself even though it is not a correct sentence!