January 16, 2020
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Today I met with my conversation partner, Yunjia Guan, in the lounge area of Hecht House. We began our meeting by talking about ourselves. I told her about my major and my future plans and she told me hers. We talked a bit about the differences in Chinese language when compared to English. As we were talking, our conversation started getting deeper and deeper. We both started to realize that we have a lot in common. She told me about her life back in China and the decisions that she made to come to America. I was so fascinated by the story of how her and her husband met, and the series of events that led them together. During her story telling I realized why the conversation partner portion of this program is important. She became frustrated at times when she couldn't find the right words to express her thoughts. It was actually funny how we continuously tried to fish for the right word and the excitement we had when we found it. I noticed that we are both using our time abroad (I say 'our' because I too will be traveling soon) to not only improve ourselves but to find out who we are and what drives us. The main thing I think Yunjia needs help with is grammar and vocabulary. During our conversation I could understand the points she tried to convey, but she does tend to use the wrong tense and sentence structure. I hope that I can get to know her more and help her with these skills as we meet in the future.
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