Unique, not Eunuch

We worked on the word unique today in ESL 132, Speaking and Listening for Intermediate students, and about half of them learned to stress it correctly.  Others, giving their one-minute self-introduction, said, "My eunuch is...." We have a professional soccer player from Belarus--and that's unique--as well as students who think they stand out because they love beef, hate vegetables, like to bite their nails, and have glasses that change color under the sun.

But I want to get back to the students in my ESL 140 class, who wrote such wonderful letters.


Great America is a favorite among the students.  Jo Jo wrote of the Drop Tower.  She also said she kept a diary when she fell in love with her ex-boyfriend but now records everything through "Internet application."

Fer grew up on a ranch in Mexico and, I suspect, wrote his letter in class while we were having a lesson.

Marc comes from Dijbouti, Africa, and has a Taiwanese dad and Ethiopian mother.  He wrote about Five Flags instead of Great America, and he also loves Japanese comic books but had to sell a lot of them below value when he moved.  He works at Best Buy and likes to fly a kite in his free time.  His first language is French, and he wants to be a French teacher some day.

May wrote about her father's court case, which "was fake in marrying immigration."  However, he won the court case and has applied for US Citizenship.  He, her sister and May are studying questions for the citizen test while trying to get her mother over.
 Could she be the one who has a flooring company in South San Francisco and a Saturday class?  I'm almost positive that she wrote of "Micky Mice" and the fact that she has a photo that made her look so much like Mickey that someone added ears.

 They expressed sympathy for the deaths in my family.  (Not intending this, I mentioned the death of Javier's son-in-law, my mother's, my father's, and my son's father.)  May compared facing death with facing separation, as when she and her sister had t say goodbye to their mother.  She's good ag cooking and basketball and wants to open her own restaurant.  It could be a basketball food court!

Regina travels around by MUNI to a lot of tourist spots when she's not in school or working at her part-time job.  She has a cousin who lives in Brooklyn. 

. 

Kris is the student closest to my age--just five years younger.  He was born in Korea in 1950, when the Korean War broke out.  After he served in the military, he got a job that sent him and his family to Atlanta, Georgia, where there was a branch office.  He says he's now managing a tiny apartment in Millbrae and feels embarrasssed that after 25 years he can't speak English very well.  He says he doesn't use it out of class.

 

Jose, from Guatemala, loves Great America and loves taking his first class in piano.  He confessesd to working at McDonald's and said, "Yes, Tina, I areadly know that you don’t like that kind of food, and I try harder and harder to not eat it.  I got 10 poinds and I don’t want to be heavier in a few months."

Maven says he has a lot of friends at SFSU, which has a very good reputation.  (Where?  I wonder.)  He can't study there because they don't have his major, so his friends are asking him to change his major, but he won't.

(That reminds me of Luz, who told me she bought College Oral Communication 2 instead of College Oral Communication 1, and they won't refund all her money because she opened the packet, so she wants to take a higher level--the one that will use 2 instead of 1.)

Maven also has a cousin at Golden Gate U who is getting his MA in taxation.  He goes to GG
U a lot to "pick up her bags." 

His great-grandmother suffered from Alzheimer's.  They now put letters on her grave.  He mailed something back to China, and his father put it on his grandmother's grave.

 Anh, who was my student last semester in ESL 142, wrote a very appreciative letter describing me in glowing terms not always found online and explaining why she wanted me as a teacher again.

Sky has an amazing spirit.  He had complications after an operation to remove a tumor from his nose, but he got through it and enjoyed days in Hawaii.  He's studied Mayan and wants to learn other languages.   

I got late letters from students too, so I'll share those tomorrow.