So where are you from? (1st meeting with my conversation partner)

So where are you from? 

This week, I had my first meeting with my conversation partner. Before the meeting I was pretty nervous. It wasn’t so bad in the days before the meeting; I had imagined that this wouldn’t be difficult. Being on a college team has given me opportunities to talk with students who are from other countries. I’ve spoken with my teammates, and seemed to be able to communicate pretty well. But still, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to communicate. What would I say? What can I ask? How do I speak? What words do I use? Those are just a few of the many questions that popped up before going to meet with my partner. I was particularly worried about the words that I would use when speaking with my conversation partner. As a writing and journalism major, words are a gigantic part of my day. In my creative writing classes, I ponder how to describe and illustrate a scene. In my journalism classes, I focus on which word conveys the truth in the clearest and most relatable ways. What words should I use when talking to someone who doesn’t speak English as their first language? Those were all concerns that I questioned before meeting with my conversation partner. Once I met her and started talking, it became more about trying to get to know another person rather than analyzing everything. It was really interesting getting to speak with someone who came from a country that I didn’t know anything about. I learned where her country was, what language she spoke, and a little bit about what she does when she is back in her country. It was a truly interesting experience. I learned that I have a lot in common with her, even if our backgrounds are vastly different. We can both sing and play the piano. Also we both like volleyball. During our conversation, we walked around the campus and were able to keep up a pretty steady conversation. That’s not to say there weren’t awkward pauses, because they did happen. But the awkward pauses weren’t that bad and once getting over the initial pause we were able to pick the conversation back up. After walking around for a while, she showed me where the IEP program was housed. The program is housed in the rec center, and it was intriguing getting to see a part of the rec center that I had never been in before! Overall, it was a really fun experience getting to talk to someone I may have never met on my own. I learned about where she was from, her language and many other things. I even learned a new place on campus that I had never been to. Linguistically, I also learned about word choice. While my conversation partner had a good vocabulary, I still ran into some words that I wanted to use, or did use that didn’t quite convey my ideas. It was a fun challenge figuring out what words I would normally use, and finding a new way to express that same thought. I can’t wait to see what I learn next week in my next meeting.