Newspaper

When I met Alberto last night we immediately started reviewing his note cards. He knew them with great ease. He asked not to make new ones this time because he is having a busy week and did not think he would have the time to devote to studying new note cards. Alberto has also been writing weekly journal entries, so I went over his previous entry. I noticed that frequently forgets to put a subject in his sentence and often mixes up tenses but besides that his writing is flawless. After that we started to read an article from the ESL newspaper. Alberto could read perfectly but when I would ask him to summarize the paragraph he just read he could not do that. I started realizing that Alberto does not understand some basic words like believe, trust, change, and numerous other words. Without understanding those basic words it is difficult to understand a sentence or paragraph as a whole. I found that it was hard for me even to describe what believe means. Those words are so instinctive to me.  

After Alberto and I got over the words he was struggling with he told me that he had been talking with Ofelia. He would like to get as much help as possible with his English. He knows that his lack of knowledge with the basics is what is holding him back. Ofelia has told him that two people in our English class are without partners. He asked me who they were and if I could somehow get them in contact with each other. Alberto is available in the evenings on Mondays and Fridays. I am continuously shocked by how dedicated he is about mastering English.