Hello, folks.
As many of you know, I have been volunteering at Santa Monica College
as a foreign language tutor, in a few of their language needs.
A few days ago, I got a call from a twenty-something woman who said
she needed help with Italian. She is a student at SMC, and was
referred to me as an expert in many foreign languages. She was eager
to see me to get some help! And she was willing to pay.
It may be true that I have studied a lot of languages, but the fact
is that I have never studied Italian. Latin, French, Spanish, and
Romanain, YES. But Italian, NO.
Rather than tell her that it was not something that I knew, I
paused. "Hm, well Italian is not my first choice, you know."
She was disappointed.
After a moment, I spoke up. "But, why not?"
Now she was excited again!
We set up an appointment. She would come by my place at 7:00 PM. Of
course, she now asked for my rate. I told her that I would charge her
$30 per hour. This seemed like a good deal to me, since I never
studied any of this language! After all, there is some fraud here. I
have never studied this language. But I need to keep the wolves away
from my door! I have not worked since May! :-( And I do know other
Romance languages, and have a good grasp of Linguistics.
She could hardly contain her excitement at this "low" rate of $30 per
hour, and said that she would come by. Most tutors charge $50 or $60
for such one-on-one service, in case you didn't know...
An hour before her arrival, I had some coffee on, and I pulled out
all the books I had with Italian grammar. The truth is that I have
about three books for Italian. I looked at all of them, examining
stress rules, verbal conjugations, irregular plurals, adjective
agreements, etc.... It was very easy. After all, it's only another
foreign language. ;-)
At 7:00 when she arrived, I was all set to help.
The lesson went extremely well, and I was able to cover the first
three chapters of her book. All her nagging questions about syntax
and pronunciation were answered.
Before you knew it, the lesson was over. She wrote me a check for
$30, and told me that she'd call me sometime later for another
appointment. She asked me what the rate would be if she brought a
friend the next time. After a moment thinking about it, I figured
that a rate of $40 would be fair. This would be more money for me,
and an incentive for her, since it mean she only pays $20 for the
hour.
A little progress, don't you think?
John
Received on 2002-10-08 00:45:12
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