Stephanie CP #1

I met up with my conversation partner, Ghunaim, at Starbucks today. I was surprised at how eager he was to meet; he initiated the email conversation right after we were paired and asked to meet the next day. I started off the meeting with the “Who Are You” activity worksheet because I thought it would be an easy way for an English learner of any ability level to express themselves in simple one word answers. I filled out mine along with him so we could learn about each other at the same time. After the worksheet, I showed him a picture of a map that I had printed out and we talked about some places on it that meant a lot to us, like our hometowns, places we had visited, and places we wanted to go to. It was such a great conversation starter because we bonded over our love for exploration and travel. He told me that he really wanted to go to London, England and it turns out that in Kuwait, his hometown, they are taught English with the English accent-- not the American accent which I found very interesting. The conversation was very fluid and natural despite needing to stop often to explain or translate some words. I ended the meeting having him rank certain places (concerts, sporting events, art shows, parks, etc) on a scale of 1-10 in terms of his interest level so I could find an activity for our next meeting that is catered more towards him.We’re going to go to an FSU diving meet next Friday!