Write a description of your tutoring or conversation partner experience. You can use your prior reflections as a starting point for this page, but it should consistently be written in past tense. Include photos or visuals that would help tell this story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation partner opportunity, and I found it to be very eye opening for me.  When I asked my partner what he was wanting to get out of this experience, he said he just wanted someone to talk to and practice his English further. This was the main reason that we decided it would be best to communicate through zoom.  He is a very advanced English language learner and I didn’t notice too many times where I would need to use techniques that we have learned to repair any communication breakdown.  I feel as if I got very lucky in who I got as my partner because he makes me look at the things in day to day life that I take for granted.  Every time we touch base, my partner was telling me about a new place that he traveled because in Russia he said that cities are more spread out then they are in the United States.  He takes advantage of this and travels constantly.  It was nice to hear about his progression as an English learner throughout the semester and hearing about a lot of his “firsts” in the United States.  When we first started talking, he had just got his license and then half way through the semester he had just bought his new car.  I really enjoyed seeing all of his accomplishments throughout the semester. 

My partner and I would start every meeting talking about what we had been doing since the last time that we saw each other.  Then the conversation just naturally flowed from there.  From the beginning, conversation flew really well between the two of us.  The first couple of meetings I focused on getting to know him as a person and just talking about things that we share in common.  Since he loves seeing new things and places so often, I would often suggest places locally that he could go see that I think he would like. 

One of the biggest reasons that I was looking forward to this opportunity was to learn about a different culture. I think it’s not only important to learn about other cultures as someone who lives in the United States, but I also thoroughly enjoy it.  I learned a lot about Russian culture and what Vitalii’s life looked like when he lived there.  With the fall semester being around the Holidays it was really interesting to hear about how Russian traditions differ than American traditions especially surrounding Holidays.  I learned about the work life in Russia, some of the things that he misses, and some things that motivated him to want to explore other parts of the world.  The biggest challenge of speaking or teaching a second language that people or myself may face is the cultural differences.  Every culture is vastly different and when learning or teaching a language, culture is a huge part of the process.  A challenge specifically for speaking a second language is that not everyone is going to be aware of the minor things that they can do to make it easier to communicate.  I would catch myself talking too fast with Vitalii and I could tell that he would feel too uncomfortable to ask me to repeat myself or slow down for him. All of the English learners that I’ve talked to say the same thing, that they or their peers often felt embarrassed to make mistakes or not grasp something.  I see this as a challenge to someone learning a second language because it can be an uncomfortable situation for them.