Helen

This is the photograph I took last night of Helen, Chris and Susan's granddaughter, the one I would have blipped yesterday if I hadn't left my phone in the car.  I wanted to share it with you even though it's a day late.

I had a frustrating time at the library this morning.  I worked with Soon, a South Korean woman in her 50's who has only been in the states for seven months.  She is taking three ESL classes at Shoreline Community College and had brought in some homework to review.  She had answered all the questions correctly - her understanding of written English is quite good for the time she's been doing ESL.  But her comprehension of spoken English is really poor and even though I kept simplifying my language, she still did not understand most of what I said to her.  Clearly what she needs most is English conversation experience, and the librarian helped us put together a list of Talk Time meetings at several local libraries.  We usually have one or two conversation groups during our tutoring session, though not today, and I encouraged her to participate in those while she's here.

I won't be tutoring next Saturday because I'm going to a brunch.  We're hoping to start a group for local women who are graduates of my university and this is the first meet-up.  I will likely be the oldest woman there.  I've checked the limited menu of the restaurant where we will be meeting, and there's almost nothing that I can eat.  I'm hoping that there will be some dishes of the day that might work.