Blog Feed

•  What will be your topic of conversation be? 

Drinking.

•  What are 5 questions related to your conversation goal that you can think of ahead of time to ask your partner?

 - Do you drink?

 - Whats the drinking age?

 - Where are the partys at?

 - If so where do you go?

 - If not then what bad stuff you do.?

•  What are you looking forward to about this conversation? 

I don't know if this was personal but I asked about drinking in Mexico. Obviously I talked to someone who was underage and she said never in her live did she drink.

•  What are you nervous about? 

I'm nervous that I might mess up and she will Yell at me and say I can't speak spanish correctly. I had no confidence.

After:

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person? 

I talked to Nohemi from Mexico She was 17 from Mexico. 

• What did you learn about them? 

The drinking age in Mexico is 18. Thats different from the 21 drinking age in America. I also learned that in Mexico there are a lot of partis at the beach. Its different from regular teen parties. In mexico its more tradition with music parties.

• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal? 

Nohei was a very nice girl. She was my age and understand what I was going through because just last year she felt the same about english. Also she said that she was ok with the topic which was fine by me.

• What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations? 

I learned about drinking in Mexico. I also learned that Nohemi is a good little girl who never does anything wrong. She said she never had one sip of alcohol in her life. Not that she was suppose to but most teens usually have at least 1 sip in their teenage years.

• What specifically do you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again) 

I want to improve on talking like a regular spanish person and not like I'm some 5 year old trying to learn the language. I want words to come natural to me instead of looking them up.

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?
  I spoke to Jonathan Flores, he's from Spain. I didn't chose him chose him. He asked to have a private conversation. Then I thought, why not? 
  
  
• What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?
  I learned that he loves rock and romantic musics, but he hates rap music because he think it's ugly. He's 23 years old and he's a student in college majoring in English because he said he wanted to be a teacher in the future :) 
  
  
• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?
  To be honest, I always tend to talk about other things that what I planned to do. I think this is because we're both just going on with the flow of the conversation. But dont get me wrong though, we still talk to each other well and have a good conversation. We might have some awkward silence for a while but we both regain back our cheerful self. 
  
  
• What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?
  I did well on speaking and actually not being awkward and getting along well with him. I didn't have the awkward pace were I'm trying to see what I can say. 
  
  
• What specifically do you need to improve on? 
  Probably more topics to talk about. 
  
  I would have more pictures but I didn't know that when I shut my laptop, the conversation will end and close as well. Lo siento. 

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?
  I spoke with Alice, and i spoke with her for a few reasons. For one i hadn't spoken to a girl native speaker yet and wanted to see if there was a similarity in different genders. She was also 18, so she was the youngest person i had talken to as of yet. 
  What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?
• I learned that she is from Mexico and she is chosing to learn english because she wants to come to the US to take up college education. She also wants to learn medication which is cool because i too want to take that up in college. 

• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?

  Well it helped me to see that learning different languages are helpful for future education and depending on the field you go in, it could be necessary. 
  
  What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?
• I was able to improve on my vocabulary and see what the younger people want from learning different languages. 

• What specifically do you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again)

  Work a little more on conjugations. 

Human Trafficking, a story that never ends…

Why does this continue? Will this ever end? Why does this happen? Is it for greed or do the Traffickers do this to feel superior? What are the reasons behind this? Is there a way to stop this?

         Human Trafficking is not just making people work in farms, orchards and factories; Human Trafficking puts women and children into prostitution. These people are sold into sex trafficking and their scared because they know that the place that they are being taken to is not going to make them happy.

         These children, women and men who become Victims are forced to work and are tortured if they slow down. They are even raped and treated like trash. This is beyond Human Understanding of why captors would do this. What is it that makes them think this?

•  What will be your topic of conversation be? 

La tomitina y San fermines.

•  What are 5 questions related to your conversation goal that you can think of ahead of time to ask your partner?

 - Do you know what La tomitina is?

 - Do you know what San fermines is?

 - Have you ever been to either of them?

 - What kind of people go?

 - What is the atmosphere of the event?

•  What are you looking forward to about this conversation? 

I'm looking forward to learning about these events from a local. It will be interesting because from what I know these are mostly tourists events. 

•  What are you nervous about? 

I'm nervous about finding someone who has attended these events or even knows what they are. 

After:

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person? 

I spoke to Antonio, 19, from Spain. I didn't choose to talk to him. He started a conversation and it worked out. 

• What did you learn about them? 

I learned that he is a student and he knows of these events but has never attended. He wants to go but he can't afford it. 

• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal? 

It helped me because I learned about these events and Antonio also helped me with my grammar a little bit. It helped become a better spanish speaker in general. 

• What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations? 

I learned about la tomitina and san fermines. 

• What specifically do you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again) 

I should make sure I check my grammar before I send a message. I continue to make simple and silly  mistakes. 

I will try to find out what a typical day in the life of a person living in their country is like. I will inquire about what time people usually go to work, eat lunch and dinner. I also want to know what people do on their weekends.

•  What are 5 questions related to your conversation goal that you can think of ahead of time to ask your partner?

1. What time you wake up and you go to bed?

2. What time do you eat lunch?

3. When do you have work?

4. Do you go to church on Sundays?

5. What do you do for fun on the weekends?

6. How are the current economic problems affecting people you know?

•  What are you looking forward to about this conversation?

I am looking forward to having a long, sustained conversation because I have so many questions to get answered. I am also looking to share things about the United States, especially Philadelphia, with the person I talk to.

•  What are you nervous about?

What did you learn about your partner? 

I learned that Johnny lives in Colombia and is still in college studying computer engineering. He lives in a dorm and enjoys hanging out with his friends, hiking, playing guitar and drinking wine. Johnny also sent me a remake of the Black Eyed Peas song "I got A Feeling" it was really good, and I enjoyed listening to his music.

What did you learn from them?

I learned that a lot of the music that I listen to in America they listen to as well. The thing is that I think the music takes a little while longer to get to them. I also learned how to conjugate irregular verbs in the future, present and past. I also learned about the culture of Colombia, many of the people are huge fans of Shakira.

What did you learn about yourself?

I learned that when I begin to screw up a bit, I mess up things that I already know because I get nervous. I also learned that I need to relax and not take things so seriously when I'm speaking and if I make a mistake it's okay.

What were you surprised about?

I was surprised that we had such a long conversation but I was also glad that we got the opportunity to talk and that he agreed to help me out.

What are you proud of?

I'm proud that I was able to hold a conversation in Spanish for a good amount of time.