First time tutoring Barry

First thanks Kyoko for always leaving nice comment for me. I really enjoy the friendship.

I believe I have already been accepted by CUNY CAP, and am going to start the job in QCC from next Thursday. I’ll working in the admission office. Although I don’t know how the job is and what kind of people I am going to meet, I have the confidence that I can manage the new job.

I had the first tutoring for Barry Chinese yesterday. I arrived to the Chinese bakery five minutes before the arranged time, but Barry has already been here. He stood up to greet me and said that is American culture to stand up to greet one’s teacher. In additional, he insisted in buying the coffee for me. Not only that, he showed his concern that I would pay extra transportation fare to come to meet him. I explained to him that since I am about to work in QCC, I am using an unlimited Metro card now.

Before the tutoring, Barry knew I have my accent, but he still wanted to try. He was born in New York and he said he has accent too. He told me when he tutors students in English, he pays special attention to speak neutrally. He believed that even though the students couldn’t sense his accent, his peers, the other tutors in the library would watch his speaking.

In the first class, I asked Barry to read the first chapter of his Chinese textbook. By the way, Barry had his textbook when he took class in NYU. Both of us agree that it is an excellent book for the beginner to learn Chinese. Barry had already studied the whole book, but he certainly needs review in order to better understand the materials in the book; this is the part he wishes I can do for him. After I heard he spoke some Chinese words, I found his pronounce is not bad at all. When he speaks, rather than randomly copy any Chinese available to him, he strictly follows the accurate pinyin and tone of each word from the book, which makes his Chinese sounds good. At the same time, he was testing my Chinese too. Thanks for my teaching in this summer. The intensive teaching in pinyin polished my Chinese pronounce too. Barry was glad that my accent is not as heavy as he thought before.