My Talk Abroad conversation with Yanina was my first experience talking to a native speaker. I was nervous and was not sure what to say, but overall the conversation went well. Yanina was very patient with me, and she did whatever she could do to progress the conversation. There was a lot of pausing. I had a phrase I would use when I had trouble comprehending what she said, and it was, “Lo siento, puedes repetir eso, por favor.” She was able to repeat herself a couple times for me to understand what she was saying and asking. I also found that after I understood the question, I struggled to formulate my thoughts into sentences. There were definitely a few things I would rephrase.  For example I said, “ Luray es un Virgina Beach pero aquí para mi casa.” I was trying to say that Luray was in Virginia Beach but it was far from my house. I should have said, “ Luray está en Virginia Beach, pero está lejos de donde vivoAll in all, we were still able to understand each other in the end.  Yanina had to help me out a bit. I did feel the conversation was one-sided, and I should have asked my partner more questions. All in all, we were able to communicate effectively to each other.  

I think the one thing I had the most difficulty with was the listening part of the conversation. It might be because it was my first time speaking to a native speaker, but I had trouble understanding what she would say the first few times she said it. I had her repeating phrases over and over again, and I am so grateful for her patience. I had most of the material memorized and prepared points to say. I think what I need to do is to have more conversations in Spanish, so I am used to hearing the questions being asked of me.