Carlton TP #1

First meeting. Tong Zheng, Sunday March 2, 9-12

I met my CIES Tutee, TZ, on Sunday morning at Atomic Cafe near the Hecht house. I arrived early by bicycle to make sure it was open. I had contacted him by exchanging email. He does not have a US phone to use, but luckily we both use QQ for online chats and so we made arrangements through this program which works over smartphones and computers. QQ is a familiar platform to Chinese students and I find it is also very good multimedia chat software in general.

The coffee shop was not the best meeting place because the music was rather distracting. We tried sitting outside, but the traffic was almost as noisy. We need a quieter place to meet in the future. He suggested the Duroc Science library and that will be our next session location. When we parted later I checked the hours for future reference.

After introductions, we found that we had a few interests in common. His desired Ph.D. program is tax accounting, not something you hear everyday, yet this is a field I have worked in for years. Actually, I was trying to escape the tax field when I got my Masters in education, but it is not unusual for me to keep returning. I can use my knowledge of US taxes to help other expats file the foreign tax forms when I am teaching overseas. At least, I hope so.

Another area of common experience is fishing. We both have fond memories of relaxing times fishing simply from the banks of a river. But getting to your goals means fishing a lot less, and studying a lot more. So we can lament this together, or maybe we can do a session later on the water somewhere.

I was surprised to learn TZ had attended Tianjin University, located in the city I hope to teach in upon completion of this course and finding a job. I hope he will share some advice with me on living in a large city in China.

I had some difficulty understanding his speech sometimes, but I did not make any effort to correct him at this meeting. I was trying to make us both comfortable. We were soon laughing and talking about our families and sharing some pictures. I think we will work well together.

We spent far longer than one hour getting to know each other. TZ wants to focus on fluency in conversation and prepare for advanced business English. I will look at some TOEFL preparation aids and try to help him fill gaps. I am looking forward to meeting him soon in a better setting.

I think that covers my first session, so its back to the homework...