Conversation Partner #1

On January 26^th, I emailed by conversation partner, Chia-Chi, using language that I would text or email a friend with, without thinking she may not be able to understand my language. From the email I received from the English program, I learned Chia-Chi was in beginner’s English and she is from Taiwan. When she replied, she used extremely basic English, but the content was completely clear. Today, we met at the TCU bookstore, where she brought her sister, who is in the intermediate English intensive program.  When we were talking, there were certain subjects and words they understand very well and other’s that they had no idea what I was saying. I found it was really hard to breakdown my sentences into simpler language, which I thought was going to be easy.  I asked them about American food and their classes, but an extensive language barrier, we had a really nice time. Tracy, Chia-Chi’s American name, and her sister began to open up and tell me a little bit about their culture, as well as about what their 3 weeks here have been like. I learned both of them are in their 40s, but I wouldn’t have guessed a year over 25 for either of them.  The said they really love the Big Bang Theory, but it took me a few minutes to figure out what their were saying, because they sounded like they were saying, “Big Bing!”  Meeting with these women who are so new to America, but were able to communicate very well was really refreshing. Our meeting definitely wasn’t like what I had expected, but it was really rewarding to teach them a pronunciation of a word and then use it later in a sentence.  It’s interesting to hear a point of view about America from people who haven’t grown up here.  I look forward to hearing about their American journey has the semester goes on.  Also, we plan to meet again in 2 weeks.