Talk Abroad #2 Reflection: 

I really enjoyed this Talk Abroad. I felt very prepared and made sure to study the questions and think about what I would say before I went into the conversation. . In addition, for words I have a hard time pronouncing or hearing, I broke down the word phonetically so I would be able to speak it clearly or understand what it meant when it was being said to me. I practiced conversing with a family friend who is also studying French as a warm up. I also made sure to be able to pronounce all of the questions that were on the sheet in case what happened in my last TalkAbroad happened. It was very interesting to talk about habits and lifestyle. I am so used to talking about hobbies or work so this was a brand new subject to be discussing with a french native speaker. I spoke with Donovan from Quebec. He is a french professor and does TalkAbroad as a side job. He told me how the hours vary a lot for TalkAbroad. We agreed that being depressed is not good and that if people feel depressed they should seek help and find medicine. I did have a hard time because he asked my opinion on certain things I was prepared to answer. Since we were talking about 3-4, I only chose 3-4 to prepare for (the ones I did in class). I wish I had prepared for other questions he would ask and follow up questions. I still have a hard time with recognizing questions that aren’t written because the pronunciation of the language is so different. This was my last TalkAbroad and I can say that TalkAbroad really helped me learn because it took me out of my comfort zone. It allowed me to have a new experience living in America but still conversing in French. I can’t believe the semester is over and I won’t be doing TalkAbroads. Since it was my 4th one in school, I think it was my best and I wasn’t nervous at all. I also have had Donovan as a partner before so the familiarity really helped me too.