For my first talk abroad conversation I did not feel very confident going into it. I wasn’t sure what to expect and I thought too much into it. My partner was Clifford, he was very understanding and moved at a good speed. Clifford currently lives in the Dominican Republic. 

Although he was taking his time, his accent was very heavy so it took me a few trials and errors to understand him. Something very helpful he did was use hand gestures to point to things, to help with time and numbers. He also used his phone to provide photos of what he was talking about. Within our conversation I was looking and depending on the written out questions and my answers a little too strongly. 

The only thing I didn’t really like about my partner was the fact the questions he was asking were from all different sections and not just one section at a time. This slightly messed with me because I would read the next question to start thinking about my answer, then he would read one from a completely different section. Although I do believe this was a struggle for me simply because I was stressing myself out. Aside from my struggles there were parts of the conversation that I felt went smoothly and we both understood clearly. 

Overall I think my conversation slowly got better but it was not the best. My biggest setback was not understanding him and asking him to repeat. I feel if I went in with a little more confidence it would have gone smoother. Other than my few struggles Clifford was a great partner and did everything he could to help me out. We even used the chat boxes when we were unsure what the other was saying.