Oct 24, 2010 18:43
When my French teacher asked me if I wanted to help this sixteen-year-old with his homework etc, I was very happy and flattered (I consider it quite a compliment, and it's definitely good for me to get something to do) but also a bit nervous... We all know that my French is far from perfect, but if my teacher believes that I can be helpful, okay... It's just that I don't really know how to do it. Then almost a week passed and I didn't hear anything more, so I almost started to think that it was not going to happen. But then the boy's mother called me, and then he called me himself to confirm and arrange the details (I guess his mum wanted to check first if I sounded okay...).
So, I met him for the first time the day before yesterday. I hadn't prepared much as I didn't know anything about him; what he knows and what he needs to learn and is expected to know etc... So, it felt a little awkward at first, but I had been telling myself all day that "I CAN do this!"... and it wasn't so scary after all. The boy is very nice, polite, and ambitios; not totally clueless but I can already see that there are some holes in his basic knowledge. And my holes are on another level. So I think that with time (it will probably get easier when we get to know each other) we can figure out how to do this. He's coming back, so it seems that I neither scared him nor made a complete fool of myself.
But at the same time, I wish that I could get some private lessons myself!! Because I so need to learn how to talk better. But, one of my classes will be more focused on conversation (now that we've learned "everything" about IPA and had a test on it). Everybody tells me how good I am at writing, but I'm painfully aware of that talking is something else entirely; I need to know more "everyday phrases". Give me a book and I'll write an essay about it... but try to talk to me about what you did last weekend and I don't know what to say...
work,
french