Jackson TP8

On Wednesday I met with Fei for our fourth tutoring session in the food court of the Governor Square Mall. I’m starting to see a trend in the places we meet – they always involve food! Even though neither of us wound up eating, the mall was a perfect place to meet to cover that day’s grammar point (articles) because of the vast amount of places, things, and people (things that necessitate articles) around us for Fei to use as an example. All in all I think that the lesson went really well. The fact that there are only two types of articles (a/an & the) really helped to simplify thing for Fei. She did seem, however, to have a little trouble with when it is appropriate to use a definite article over an indefinite. This problem was addressed, however, just by using examples right in front of us. I explained to her that the appropriate time to use “a/an” when there is not a specific member of a group that you are referring to. Here, we used the example “I want to see a movie” over “I want to see the movie.” Also, I referred to a text I had sent Fei when she had told me that she was at the Mall – “I’m in front of the Starbucks.” Since there was only one Starbucks in the mall, it was appropriate to use “the”. Fei’s reception of every lesson we have covered so far has really impressed me. It is also nice seeing our friendship develop both in and out of class!