Perhaps a positive ESL session?

I read Nina's post and I feel very bad that she is feeling so down about ESL clients :( So, I'm going to try to lift the mood... One of my best sessions so far at the WC was a 2 hour session with an ESL grad student. Yes, I was terrified. But it was probably the only session I actually felt excited after. What made it good was that the client was really interested and involved and wanted to talk WITH me about how to make her paper better. It was long, so we needed the 2 hours... Of course there was the usual grammar issue... but it wasn't distracting, and once I pointed out the patterns, she could fix them herself. Her problem was taking the ideas in her head and making them make sense on paper. She had awesome ideas, and was really emotionally invested in her topic. We spent a lot of time with her just explaining her views to me; then I would read that section of the paper, and show her how to make her words reflect what she said without confusing the reader in a jumble of run-on thoughts. It was fascinating to talk with her about her ideas, and it was fun (yes.. fun, oddly enough) for me to help her express her ideas. I learned a lot from the session.. even though I was way intimidated going into it.