Conversation Partner Meeting #5

            After the IEP social, Kit, one of my classmates, and I got ready to film our final presentation for Literature and Civilization II. Our project was focused on the conversation partner program and its contribution to our education, so we asked our conversation partners to be a part of our presentation. We interviewed them both, and they each had interesting things to say about their experiences interacting with us.

            We started by interviewing Kit’s partner, Ileana (I think that is the proper spelling) from Albania. Not only was I granted a brief exposure to Albanian culture but I also got see how different conversation partner groups interacted.  It seems that Kit and Ileana spent much of their time together exploring campus and trying new things like rugby, rock climbing, and even going to the meteorite exhibit in the Sid Richardson building. I wish Omar and I had gotten to do more things like that, but our meetings were usually kept short due to us both having hectic schedules. We then interviewed Omar. Omar and I discussed a lot in our time together, but what he seemed to reflect on most was what I told him about TCU and my experience here. I was surprised, as I had always felt that most of our conversations were focused more on the cultural aspects of our different countries. Regardless, interviewing Omar and Ileana was an enjoyable experience that also provided a lot of insight into what our partners had taken away from their time with us.

            Interviewing our conversation partners was a flipping of the script of sorts; instead of talking to them and trying to learn more about their home countries, we were now finding out what they learned from us. With only one more week of classes left, Omar and I will have our last meeting next week. Hopefully we get to see more of each other in the future even after my Literature and Civilization II class comes to an end.