Isabel TS #14

 Remote 3:12-4:12

05/25/2022

First Remote Session with Gwan-Yong Na

Today, we conducted our tutoring session via Zoom since I have returned to my hometown for the summer. Using Zoom did not hinder our productivity as Gwan-Yong was able to share the online version of  his pronunciation book on the screen. Our lesson focused on the "L" sound. For words, such as "although" and "little," my tutee had the habit of producing the "D" sound instead. The word "little" began to sound like "ladle." We corrected this mistake. The tutee had an especially hard time pronouncing the word "girl." He felt silly since he says this word all the time, but I reassured him that it is okay to mess up and try again. He tends to not pronounce the "r", which makes the word sound like "gull" (like in "seagull"). I told him to hold the "R" like in the interjection "Grr" and then add an "L" at the end. This seemed to help as he started to get it towards the end of the lesson, but he still needs to practice. Another word Gwan-Yong found confusing was "soldiers." Soldiers is a tricky one because it makes more of a "J" then the "D" sound that is expected. There is no "J" sound in the Korean language, so it was especially difficult for him. He used to make a "Z" sound instead. I had him pronounce other words with "J", such as "jam", "jail" and "jelly". He had the same issue with these words, and he could not hear the difference on his end. I told him that when making the "J" sound, the back teeth come together as if you were taking a bite. This is when he had a lightbulb moment. He could feel the difference in the sounds and he no longer struggled pronouncing these words. The last correction we made was in regard to the word "heard." Gwan-Yong would fall flat at the end and not pronounce the "d" fully. This made the word sound more like "hurt." It was important to correct this error as there is a huge difference in meaning from "I heard you" to "I hurt you." I told him to really emphasize on the "d" at the end, so people can hear it. It looks like remote tutoring will work smoothly for future sessions.

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