Male and female, newly arrived from all parts. My sessions as tutor to ESL students have been punctuated with various accents. Chinese (light to almost indiscernible), Japanese, Mexican, Swiss, and German. Currently, I work in the area of Cross Cultural Training with a young man from Switzerland. This is a bit of a departure from ESL. I am to instruct him in the cultural gap that exists between his world and ours. This is interesting to me as well. I am learning a thing or two about the Swiss perception of the U.S. This is fun!
There is something very revealing about listening to a foreign-born citizen who says our size small fast-food soda is the equivalent of their large size back home. He doesn’t care for his commute to his job at Roche. But, he certainly doesn’t mind the money. Isn’t it always true that life is a series of trade-offs? Anyway, it’s time to run. I have a lesson to give to a student eager to learn all about California culture in under three hours.