Marissa_CP#1

Marissa M.
Conversation Partner Blog #1
9/3/2014

On Wednesday night I had my first conversation partner session with Jesus.  I really enjoyed speaking with him!  Jesus is a non-traditional student from Colombia in his early 30's whose first language is Spanish.  He came to the United States specifically to take part in the intensive English program at FSU for seven weeks.  Before speaking with him I had honestly not known that the program was only seven weeks long - I thought it was a full semester program.  The primary motivation for Jesus participating in the intensive English course is to help him with his business back home.  He is an engineer. 

Jesus spoke English well and only had a few difficulties understanding some of the bigger, less common words that I mentioned.  He does realize that some of his grammar (specifically tenses) and word pronunciations are incorrect sometimes.  At his request, I corrected the "beautiful mistakes" he made in speaking when they really stood out.  However, I did let a few smaller ones slide while he was in the middle of a description so that he would not stop talking and lose his train of thought. 

I was able to teach Jesus a few new words, including pothole.  We were talking about the ease of transportation in the US compared to other countries such as Costa Rica and his (Colombia).  The roads are often more difficult to navigate and in more disrepair in some Central/South American countries which makes travel more of a chore.  To help him with this word, we looked at pot and hole separately and I told him how you would normally see both words.  He seemed to like learning more words such as this.

Since he is only here for a brief time, I asked him what HE wanted to really experience and learn about while in Tallahassee and the United States.  Jesus said that he wanted to know what he should do in Tallahassee.  He is staying with some family members who took him to Ginnie Springs a few weekends ago.  I told him that was a nice thing to do and that Wakulla Springs was fun as well - he could kayak with manatees there.  Additionally I mentioned going to Mission San Luis, a Downtown Getdown before a homegame, attending an FSU football game, going to the First Friday in Railroad Square, and if he liked beers Proof Brewing in Railroad Square.  I told him I would look at a calendar to see if there were any events going on in town during this time as well. 

Finally, before leaving we exchanged numbers to stay in touch via WhatsApp in case he had any questions and to schedule future chats.  In my own learning experience I've found the app to be helpful in communication and helping with language learning because it makes it easy to quickly answer a question when it comes up.  I told him that if he had one to please message me at any time and I would be happy to help!