Megan TS#16

Since it was Dojun and I's last session, I wanted his writing lesson to be as interesting and related closely to culture. In the beginning of our tutoring session, Dojun and I discussed what it meant for something to be a cultural norm. By definition, cultural norms are the standards, rules, and even expectations that guide behavior. However, it can also be thought of overall as what a group believes to be common social behavior.When people go directly against cultural norms it is often shamed or considered offensive by the members of the group. To build his schema further, we each gave various examples of different cultural norms found around the globe. The examples I modeled of cultural norms in the United States were opening the door for others, maintaining personal space, and, of course, saying please/thank you, In Dojun's writing prompt, I asked him to formulate his answer based off what three common cultural norms he thought most South Koreans followed. Since was being timed for 10 minutes, I stressed that he focus mainly on communicating his thoughts than on complete accuracy. In this way, he could improve his fluency. After he had completed his writing, I asked Dojun to read what he had written aloud. His answers included how it is common to offer food, give seats on public transportation to the elderly, and to wait for the oldest person at the table to eat before commencing a meal. As he spoke, he was often able to correct his own mistakes himself. However, I stepped in whenever he mispronounced a word, made an error that changed the meaning of the sentence, or made basic mistakes (like incorrect use of indefinite and definite articles).

Ultimately it is the content of his writing itself that was of most importance. He was able to coherently communicate how it is traditional in South Korea to respect the "old people" of the nation. With this I discovered an important word for him to know, "elder." As a noun, an elder is someone who is old and has wisdom and is consequentially due respect. So when we use the word as an adjective, "elderly," we are implying that the person we are describing is more than just an "old person," they are wise.