I have an elderly student who is a very generous and kind man but his concentration during conversation is limited to whatever he is thinking about. I cannot broach a new topic if I suspect he is still thinking about the previous topic. He won’t understand me.

Today was a prime example of his limited ability to recognize the current topic of conversation. I was asking him some questions from the text book and he had prepared some answers. Normally he would be alright to answer but he wasn’t sure which answers matched which question as he had written them down haphazardly on a previous day. He simply looked at his book and answered with what he had written without listening to me or reading the question for himself. It went something like this:

Me: What do you do when you feel very stressed?

Student: Take a rest.

Me: Anything else?

St: Drink some alcohol. Take a nap.

Me: Okay. What do you do when you have an argument with a friend?

St: Wash my face.

Me: You wash your face?

St: Take a nap.

Me: When you have an argument with your friend. What do you do?

St: (looking at his book) …

Me: Do you say you are sorry? Do you stop talking to your friend?

St: Take a rest.

Me: Do you ever argue with your friends?

St: Discussion?

Me: Not a discussion. An argument is a disagreement where you both get angry. Do you ever have arguments with your friends?

St: All the time.

Me: What do you do then?

St: Change the topic.

Me: Change the topic. Okay, sure. Talk about something different. Next question. What do you do when it’s 2 A.M. and you can’t sleep?

St: Go to bed.

Me: Well, no. You are in bed and you can’t sleep.

St: Take a nap.

Me: That’s the problem, though. You can’t sleep. What do you do?

St: (looking at his book) … Ah, ah, ah, ah… Take a bath.

Me: Take a bath. Okay that might help. Drink some alcohol?

St: Ah, yes. Or take a medicine.

Me: Take some medicine. But not with alcohol, right? Okay, what do you do when someone standing near you faints?

St: Take a rest.

Me: Uh, no. Someone near you faints. What do you do?

St: Take a nap. (He's looking confused. I look at his book and see his finger move to "Wash my face.")

Me: Do you understand faints? (I stand up and mimic someone fainting. He is not looking at me even when I fall to the floor)

St: Yeah. I understand faint, but I don’t understand the situation.

Me: Okay. Look at me. You are in a train. It’s very warm. A person near you faints. Like this. (I mimic fainting again. He looks puzzled and finally takes out his dictionary.)

St: … Ah! Ah, ah, ah, ah… Faint. (He shows me the dictionary with five definitions for faint. His thumb is under the first definition meaning something light, weakly defined or a weak sound.) I see. Not this one. This case faint is blackout. Call an ambulance. Take the person to a hospital. Call a doctor.

Me: Okay. Good. Yes, faint has many meanings. Last one. What do you do when you need to study but you can’t concentrate?

St: I always need to study but I can never concentrate.

Ha, ha. You got that right.