Feeling of Accomplishment!

Tomorrow I will be having my last tutoring session for the semester. Tomorrow, I would have successfully completed a whole semester of tutoring 7 students for a total of about 16 weeks! When I first started out as a tutor. Everything was a little vague and fuzzy in the beginning, even though I had previous undergrad experience with a Dialect Client. I had all the initial nervousness. Would my advice and teachings as tutor (an International one, who learned American English only 4 years ago) be taken seriously by my students? Would I actually be able to help my students improve their English? Would they actually like me as a tutor? I was nervous about all this, but still I was excited. I loved having a Dialect Client in the past. And I loved being able to relate to my past client about people not understanding me, and me not understanding others. It gives them a little more perspective and it makes me less intimidating.

Now that I am one day away from ending my first semester as a tutor, I can safely say that I survived. And I did manage to help my students. I listen to them talk now, and I know that I did help coax their English in the right direction. And that gives me a feeling of accomplishment. It gives me warm fuzzy feelings inside, that I was actually able to help 7 very amazing, very smart, international students transition in terms of language and culture into the American society.
Someone asked me awhile ago, "Suling, how are you doing in tutoring? Do you think you're actually helping your students? Do you see improvement in them?" My answer: "Umm YES! I do see improvement in them. And although it's not all because of me, I'm sure I did help in some small way! Why?" She answered: "Because I don't know if I'm seeing improvement. They still sound weird. They're still not as fluent! I still don't understand them!" Me: "What are you talking about? Do you really not see improvement at all? You can't say that because I am sure that you understand them better than you did the first time you met them! They have improved, and you have helped them!" *That was just a part of the little rant that I went off on to the person who told me that.*

I am not conceited, nor am I certain that improvements seen in my students can all be credited to me. But I am confident enough in myself and my abilities, to say that I have helped them in some small way in their speaking and understanding of English. I see my students every week, and I witness their weekly achievements - whether it is mastering a sound they've been struggling with daily, learning a new American slang phrase to use with their friends, being able to carry out a successful presentation, learning new vocabulary words... they are all achievements no matter how small. And I am so proud of all of them.

I had a meal with 5 of my students yesterday evening, and it was wonderful. It was my first time seeing most of them together in the same room interacting with each other. I wish it was all 7 of them, but nonetheless... I had a great time with them. It was SO worth skipping class for! :) All things good must come to an end. What matters is that you make the most out of the time you had together.

Zhen, a mother from China who has a young baby back at home (left) and WanJung who's a Fulbright scholar from Taiwan

Alyson (left), the classroom instructor with Fulizi, who translates English books into Chinese during her free time. 

Kiran (left) from Pakistan who's afraid to walk around Purdue at night, and Jing who went to college in Hangzhou, China (my fav city in China) 

And... here's a group picture. :)