Shanti CP#5

On Wednesday I had my fourth conversation partner meeting with Kyu. We went to Dunkin Doughnuts so that we could just talk. We spoke about our weekends and our plans for next weekend. He told me that he was struggling with listening in his speaking class. His teacher had shown them an old movie in black and white and he said he had a hard time understanding it. Kyu wanted to know if I had any suggestions on how to improve his listening. I suggested he watch Disney and pixar movies. I gave him a few titles that were less princess related. I also suggested he watch Studio Ghibli movies. I suggested this because in my Japanese class they suggest we watch these for listening practice with easy Japanese. I also have watched the English versions so I know the English is also very simply. We also spoke about an article he read about a respiratory disease going around in South Korea. This lead us to discuss different health issues. Kyu had difficulty saying robot. I thought he was saying Robert or Rubber. I had to ask him to repeat himself many times. Once I understood what he was trying to say I had him practice pronouncing the difference in the three words. He did not know that Robert was a name so I emphasized the the O sounds in both words and the U sound in rubber. This seemed to help him. Next week will be our last meeting so we plan to go to the new Crepe place since he has never had crepes before. Overall it was a fun meeting and I really enjoyed talking to him.