[asemov27]

I teach my friend, who is a 41 year old male. He has been living in the US for three years, he is from the Ukraine and only knew the alphabet before coming here. We have been studying together since last october (2011). He passed the TOEFL in June with an 85, but since then he has taken it two more times, and his score has gotten worse. He had some more problems outside of the TOEFL, including problems with immigration, and continued problems with his ex wife.
He does not want to study. He wants to learn English, but my lessons are "boring" and I cant "grab" his interest! Help! I have tried to get him interested, but maybe im not assertive enough because I am younger than him, and our relationship borders on boygfriend/girlfriend... also we both speak russian. How can I get him out of his frustrated moods? He becomes frustrated the first time he makes a mistake, he is a perfectionist to the extreme and i dont know how to help him! i want him to learn that he will mistakes, that this does not make him stupid, and that he IS learning! I need him to believe in ME as a teacher! How can I do this? How can I make the lessons more interesting?

[wi11iam]

It seems that your relationship isn't teacher/student, it's bordering on boyfriend/girlfriend as you said. Maybe you should ask on a relationship forum?!

That being said, maybe you're not the right person to teach him. He might respond better to somebody that he doesn't have a personal relationship with.