Meeting #2 with Gerardo

I would like to start by being negative. I shall begin with my faults, as my partner, Gerardo, does not have any faults, being attentive, eager to learn, and always engaging in his lessons. However, I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have asked "Does that make sense?" after I explain something. I must stop it because I am so repetitive and have caught myself every time I say it, and think to myself not again. It is important because I know I said it numerous times in our first meeting, but then I continued to say it today. Anyway, in spite of needing another phrase other than "Got it?" which is something I would never say, I think I often feel awkward in my sessions, in that I cannot always explain to the best of my abilities, as I am thinking on the spot. For instance, in today's session, Gerardo and I worked on the verb list we had started last week, by me explaining a word (verb) and its use and describing the meaning in terms and examples. Then he would write the Spanish equivalent on his paper for future study. While running through this process I stumbled on some words because there are many similar words as far as meaning goes, so I had a hard time explaining why there are words that are alike, yet different also in usage. I would like to note, however, that it is a nice challenge because I think it helps me further understand how words in my native language are used, and I also love English, and words obviously, so I enjoy explaining them to Gerardo, and he is such an excellent partner to teach. During the last part of our session, when we had completed the verb list, I asked if he wanted to go over the exercises in his workbook, but he asked if I could show him how to send an e-mail instead. I felt two emotions at this point: shocked and pleased. Shocked because how could someone not know that, and pleased because I could help him with such a detrimental part of our communication these days. He knew his log in name and password, and had checked his e-mail in early October, but had several e-mails that were unopened. I walked him through the e-mail process (i.e., clicking on New, typing in the recipients e-mail or looking them up with our system, selecting a subject, the attachment and copy someone options, and then typing the message and clicking send) and then he sent two e-mails of his own. When the e-mail disappeared after clicking send, I told him that it had sent it, and he was so happy that he had sent an e-mail. I was smiling along with him because I felt that even though I might not always be the best at coming up with synonyms and explanations of what the verbs we are working with mean and how they are used, I had just showed him something that is important to everyday life and his job, as he needs to know how to send e-mail through the TCU system. After he sent e-mails, he checked his ten or so new e-mails, and then it was time to say good-bye and discuss preparation for next week. I asked if he would practice sending more e-mails and suggested that he write a short paper for next week, since I hadn't helped him with his writing yet. Then I suggested that he e-mail it to me, and his face just lit up. I said that there was no pressure with the writing assignment, and if he did not have time we could continue to work on other things, but he was excited and said he wanted to do the "homework," if you will. All in all, this was an exceptional session and I hope all the rest are just as productive. So I guess I ended on a positive note after all.