Jodie CP # 5

I met with Marco for conversation.  Marco has a fiancée who is a student at FSU.  She is working on her master’s degree.  I asked Marco if he spoke English with his fiancée.  He said that it is very difficult to do that.  I understand the problem in using a foreign language with someone you know well. 

We sat on the bench outside and chatted about many subjects.  I asked him questions about his country so that he would be able to practice using descriptive words.  He told me that in the morning, people would eat bread with butter, jam or jelly. He expressed to me that the bread they eat is not a loaf.  It is round and is small.  He would eat two for breakfast and his sister would only eat one.  We compared the wages of an entry-level secretary in Peru and in America and the wages of an engineer in the two countries. 

Marco was more relaxed this time.  He forgot to use the word “mountain” that we talked about in the last session.  I reminded him not to use his Brazilian word for mountain.  He pulled out a little notebook and noted it.  There was some confusion between a “p” and a “b”, a “v” and an “f”.  We worked on pronunciation and grammar in our chat. 

It seemed that he is under a lot of pressure to do well.  His English language will play a big role in whether he will be able to move forward in his study and career.  I want to help him to learn and to do very well.