Bruce TS#11

TS #11 Do-jun

In this session we spent more time on going over our interview answers together and rehearing them, and also more role-playing. We practiced tense usage (specifically, the past tense) in our interview questions. In our role-playing, I wanted to focus more on appropriate usage of the present tense in conversational English. To do this, I asked Do-jun to describe how to brush one’s teeth. When you narrate an instruction, usually people use the present tense to do so.

 For example, you wouldn’t say “First, you took the cap off the toothpaste.” You’re more likely to say “First, you take the cap off the tooth paste.” He had some difficulty with the exact vocabulary of things he tried to describe, but overall he did well. Then we did a role-playing situation where he was a dentist and I was someone who had never seen or heard of a toothbrush before in my life. Do-jun had to explain to me how to brush my teeth, and then also give me directions to a place where I can buy tooth-paste. Occasionally, to keep things interesting and Do-jun on his feet, I threw in a few unexpected situations that would test his mental agility in English.  I said that I couldn’t pay, that I wanted to pay him in peanuts, that I wanted to and so operation, flip-flopping here and there. Do-jun practiced navigating these semantic and interpersonal tricky waters.