Danny

Certified Tutor

I am a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I received my Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science with minors in Geography, Arabic, and French, and I have years of informal tutoring under my belt. My experience tutoring began in high school, where I used to tutor resettled child refugees from Myanmar in English and Math. Following high school, I took a gap year during which I traveled to Thailand and taught English to children from Myanmar who were living in a vulnerable legal position. Throughout my four years of college, I tutored peers in French and Arabic, and during a study abroad semester in the south of France, I assisted teaching English at a local high school. Although I can tutor in Environmental Science and Math, my favorite subjects to tutor in are languages!

My approach to tutoring languages depends on the context for which the student is learning. If the student needs help with particular assignments, I like to have the student first explain to me their knowledge of the subject. Using what they know as a base, I try to fill in the "I don't understand"s through various methods. For example, sometimes in language learning, you just have to memorize. In cases like these, I like to give my students mnemonic devices or small tips and tricks and will help them associate the material with something they understand/remember. In another example, if we're working on an advanced grammar topic, I like to start with how this topic works in English (assuming English is their native language) and then from there, how we have to change our native thinking to better understand the concept in the target language. Once I feel that the student has gotten a good grasp of the concept, I like to revisit the assignment, let the student lead and think out loud, and I am just there to guide the student's thinking.

If the student just wants to "get better" at a language, my approach is slightly different. I like to first engage in a conversation; there is no better method for highlighting a student's strengths and weaknesses than through conversation. From there, I suggest to the student what areas of language we can work on, and I develop lesson plans based off my experience of learning languages on my own. My lessons really revolve around helping the student understand important grammatical and syntactical points, and then I like to finish my lessons with a conversation to give the student the opportunity to put into practice what they just learned. Also, and very importantly, I encourage the use of music when it comes to language learning. I personally listen to A LOT of music when I am learning a new language and have found it to be an excellent tool in learning new vocabulary and sentence structure.