Gabe - TS #9

    For this lesson, I first went over the differences between "other" and "another." This was a big issue last meeting, and I wasn't able to explain it to him off the top of my head last time, so I figured I owed it to him to provide an explanation that was better than "because that's just the way it is." Once I researched what the differences were, I found it actually wasn't as complicated to explain as I thought it'd be. Masoud seemed to understand it well, but we ran into a brief hurdle with the way I worded an explanation. I wrote "'other' does not ever mean 'one more'" but also "'other' never means 'different.'" In this case, a native speaker would understand that "does not ever" and "never" are synonymous, but my wording really confused him here. It wasn't a big deal, however, because I simply told him that "does not ever" means "never" and he understood. Another hurdle we encountered was in the use of the word "other" with singular nouns. Normally, other is used with plural and uncountable nouns. It can, however, be used with singular nouns when followed by a possessive pronoun or a definite article. Masoud had a little difficulty with this exception, but he eventually got it. Afterwards, I had him write me some sentences to show that he understood how to use "other" vs. "another" and he was able to use them correctly. 

    The last time we met, I had him do some free writing. This is something he's not very good at so figured I would try to incorporate at least some writing into most of our lessons from here on out. We've talked before about TV shows that we both like, so I figured I'd have him write about a TV show he likes. I told him to tell me what his favorite show is, after Game of Thrones, because we've both seen it, tell me what it's about, and tell me why he likes it. He was able to write a little more than he did last time, and his sentences were a little less choppy, but there were still quite a few errors. Most had to do with spelling and punctuation, however, so I figured that it would be ok for me to correct them all, as he's past the point where he has trouble expressing his ideas. 

    All of this took less time than I thought it would, so we spent the last 10-15 minutes just talking. He asked me about various prepositions and how to use them. In particular, he had troubles with "in vs into", "on vs. onto", and "in vs. at vs. on." I explained them as best as I could off the top of my head. He understood the difference between "on" and "onto" and "in" and "into", but still found in/at/on to be confusing. I think for the next lesson, I will incorporate an exercise involving in/at/on. 

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