Learning English with Harry Potter

My daughter enjoyed discussing the Sorting Hat with her Turkish counterpart via International Video Conferencing

My family and I have been huge fans of Harry Potter. Ever since my wife and I went on a date and saw the first Harry Potter movie, we've finished watching the whole series one by one in ten years. Following that, I've also read each one of the books, complete with all the audiobooks narrated by Jim Dale, and discussed the storylines and characters with my one-on-one online English teacher. My two daughters also grew interested in all the HP movies and have watched the whole series many, many times.

My daughter was quite excited when learning about she was going to discuss the Sorting Hat with her Turkish counterpart and his English tutor via Skype. I showed her an online website that provided a variety of survey questions and would tell you which Hogwarts house you would be in. Turned out we both would be in Ravenclaw, characterized by their wit, learning, and wisdom.

I prepared some useful sentence patterns for my daughter a few minutes prior to the session. We practiced a bit with some commonly used adjectives to describe different personalities of the four houses. Her background knowledge of the Harry Potter series made it easier to pick up the new words. Furthermore, we came up with some interesting questions to ask her classmate. 

Even though both Seren and I had to translate from time to time, these two students spoke more English than the previous two sessions. I was even impressed by Can that he was also quite knowledgeable about the plots and could answer my all my questions.

I considered it a very good collaborative product between my friend and me. I hope both students would gradually take interest in USING English because it's just so much fun.