CP #1 Ryan Milejczak
Date : September 17th / 5:30pm
Topic : Introduction and Culture
Cultural/ Linguistic Topics : My conversation partner was Talal Alajmi, who is from Kuwait and arrived in the US only two weeks ago. We mostly discussed his culture and education. I asked him a number of questions about life in Kuwait, such as his favorite foods to eat and the most important holidays in Kuwait. Being Muslim, Ramadan and Eid were the holidays he noted. We also discussed cultural differences between Kuwait and America, such as cultural attitudes about drinking and tattoos, both of which are forbidden in Islam. We closed out with him asking me a number of questions about things to do in Tallahassee, such as places to hang out and make friends, and places he could practice his English.
His skill level : Talal stated that in Kuwait, he had been taking English classes as a part of his studies since grade school, but that English in Kuwait is taught largely by Kuwaiti teachers who do not necessarily speak fluent English. Despite this, Talal's English was fairly good, and for the most part I had no difficulty understanding him, although he did struggle to understand me at a few points. I think confidence was a big part of what held him back; he was very shy and clearly about nervous about using his English.
General Notes of the Conversation : We began by going through an activity provided to us for conversation partners that had a number of cultural questions to ask each other, spending several minutes discussing various culture points, with a lot of time spent on the massive differences between Kuwait and the US. I didn't ask his age but Talal appears to be fairly young (I would guess 17 or 18) and as I stated above, quite shy, but he did get more comfortable over the course of the conversation. I had expected to make a few corrections on his grammar and speaking but did not catch a single such error, and overall I thought his English was very good. Interestingly, at the end of our session, a friend (who was Arab and possibly also Kuwaiti) of Talal's showed up and greeted us, and when I complimented his sunglasses, he stated that, in his country if I complimented something he would essentially be obligated to give it to me. He may have been pulling my leg but I certainly found that interesting.
Topic : Introduction and Culture
Cultural/ Linguistic Topics : My conversation partner was Talal Alajmi, who is from Kuwait and arrived in the US only two weeks ago. We mostly discussed his culture and education. I asked him a number of questions about life in Kuwait, such as his favorite foods to eat and the most important holidays in Kuwait. Being Muslim, Ramadan and Eid were the holidays he noted. We also discussed cultural differences between Kuwait and America, such as cultural attitudes about drinking and tattoos, both of which are forbidden in Islam. We closed out with him asking me a number of questions about things to do in Tallahassee, such as places to hang out and make friends, and places he could practice his English.
His skill level : Talal stated that in Kuwait, he had been taking English classes as a part of his studies since grade school, but that English in Kuwait is taught largely by Kuwaiti teachers who do not necessarily speak fluent English. Despite this, Talal's English was fairly good, and for the most part I had no difficulty understanding him, although he did struggle to understand me at a few points. I think confidence was a big part of what held him back; he was very shy and clearly about nervous about using his English.
General Notes of the Conversation : We began by going through an activity provided to us for conversation partners that had a number of cultural questions to ask each other, spending several minutes discussing various culture points, with a lot of time spent on the massive differences between Kuwait and the US. I didn't ask his age but Talal appears to be fairly young (I would guess 17 or 18) and as I stated above, quite shy, but he did get more comfortable over the course of the conversation. I had expected to make a few corrections on his grammar and speaking but did not catch a single such error, and overall I thought his English was very good. Interestingly, at the end of our session, a friend (who was Arab and possibly also Kuwaiti) of Talal's showed up and greeted us, and when I complimented his sunglasses, he stated that, in his country if I complimented something he would essentially be obligated to give it to me. He may have been pulling my leg but I certainly found that interesting.
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