I participated in the conversation partner program through the ODU English Learning Center. My partner was a graduate student in economics and had recently moved from Iran to US to continue her studies. We exchanged our personal histories and why we were involved in this program. I found that she received her undergraduate degree in Iran, was agnostic and had younger sibling which she felt was more fluent in English. Her parents were both professionals and well educated. In fact, I found it interesting that like myself her mother was a nurse.

I focused on what my partner wanted more knowledge about, and she felt that she had problems understanding some people around Norfolk, either because of the dialect, use of unfamiliar idioms or speech was too fast. She wanted to learn more about African American Vernacular English which is something that she felt she had trouble understanding. I looked for many resources online, but I was not sure about many of the videos that I found would be appropriate to share with my partner. I contacted ODU English Learning Center and received a list of pertinent resources. One that was particularly helpful was the topics included dialects around Tidewater area in Virginia and different sources for learning English such as examples of podcasts and applications. In the meeting about dialects, I used recordings done by ODU linguistic department, a project that was called Tidewater voices (https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/tidewatervoices/). Some of these recordings were very effective in demonstrating the different dialects in the area. Most of the speakers spoke fairly slow so were understandable although some of the idioms of older subjects had to be explained. In another meeting I introduced some podcasts that had conversations in which speakers spoke in normal speed and seemed more common to what she had experienced around Norfolk. In another meeting I reviewed some applications and podcasts. I think some applications, like busuu were also helpful in understanding some English idioms. One of the activities in the application included watching a short video about a neighborhood in Toronto, Canada and answering questions afterward.

I think that I became more knowledgeable about what resources were available when I was researching for material to help my partner become more fluent in English. I learned about the tidewater voices project and how different dialects sound depending on age or generation around the tidewater area. Learning about different applications and podcasts assisted in learning different ways of presenting language learning materials and which were effective and economical.

My partner had minimal experience with podcasts and other language applications, and she learned some idioms such as the word gritty, sketchy and gentrified in the video about Toronto neighborhood. Also, I think she learned more about dialects around Norfolk with the tidewater voices project.

Overall, this was a very beneficial experience through the exchange of our cultures. Even though I had a few acquaintances from Iran, my partner did not match many of my preconceptions, especially in terms of religion. I thought Iranians were members of the Islamic faith, but my partner was not religious so did not match my original perceptions.