Conversation Partner Meeting #1

     Today, I met my conversation partner from the Intensive English Program for the first time. His name is Omar, and he is from Venezuela where his parents and two brothers still live. He's lived here in the United States for two years, and after graduating from the IEP he hopes to pursue studies in International Business. Currently, he is living with his "aunt and uncle," who he informed me were actually friends of his mother.
     When I first contacted Omar on Wednesday, I was surprised by how quickly he emailed me back; most of my friends had to wait days for a response, but he contacted me within a few hours. We eventually made plans to meet in the cafeteria at 1:30 on Friday. Although he showed up closer to 1:45, we were still able to have lunch and get to know each other. For somebody who had only lived in Texas for two years, Omar's English speaking skills were excellent; when we first learned about this assignment in my Literature and Civilization II class, I feared that the language barrier in combination with my speech impediment would make this a difficult experience. Thankfully, that was not the case, and I ended up having a great time.
     We started off asking each other basic questions about family and goals in college. The IEP Omar is in focuses solely on teaching students how to read, speak, and write in English, so he was not yet taking classes toward a particular area of study. He hopes to study international business someday, which is why he came to the United States; apparently, the Venezuelan government makes business a much more difficult endeavor in his native country. Several times during our conversation, Omar expressed the concerns he had about how the government was treating his homeland. Despite this, Omar said there is nowhere he'd rather live than in Venezuela. We also discussed interests outside of school and things we did for fun. Omar enjoyed both baseball and soccer. Interestingly enough, one of Omar's neighbors from Venezuela actually ended up playing baseball for the New York Mets. He also discussed wanting to play tennis for our school, but due to the size of our campus he hadn't been able to locate our tennis courts. As a result, we decided that our next meeting would be dedicated to figuring out where they were, as I still don't know where they are despite being here for two years.
     At around 2:20, Omar ended up leaving to pick up his aunt from work. The two of them share a car, which she lets him use on days he has class. His aunt is a caretaker for an elderly woman who lives not far off campus, and his uncle is retired. After he left, I realized how much I enjoyed the experience; not only did I make a new friend, but I also got introduced to a new culture. To me, this is what college is all about, and I cannot wait to see how this pans out over the rest of the semester. Literature and Civilization II has set the standard high for what I expect from collegiate honors classes from now on.

Defining Humor

For these videos, my partners and I were tasked with asking our friends the following questions: What is humor?, What is laughter? Why do people laugh?, What makes people laugh?, and What is the difference between positive and negative humor and how often do we see negative humor?

Literature and Civilization II: What is it?