Emily_CP_3

I just met with Neto, my conversation partner from Brazil.  He is so sweet!  We met at Starbucks, and he bought me coffee.  He told me that he’s been here for two months and does not feel as comfortable speaking English as he does reading and writing it.  In spite of that, he took the initiative and ordered the coffee for both of us.  While conversing with him by email and text, I noticed that his written English has very few errors, but conversing with him was more difficult.  He was very smiley and pleasant and seemed a bit nervous and bashful while having trouble thinking of how to say something, but I was very patient.  I can empathize with him from my own language learning experiences.  He is 22 and is getting a degree in Chemical Engineering in Brazil.  He only has one year left in his undergraduate program but took a break to come to the U.S. and learn English.  He’s supposed to go back to Brazil in August.  We brainstormed Halloween costume ideas for him.  I think he’ll end up choosing to be Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory; either that or Woody from Toy Story.  Neto keeps a tiny black journal in his pocket and fills it with new words or phrases that he learns.  I saw that for most of the words, he has the English word with the Portuguese translation next to it.  As we were talking and he learned something new, he wrote it in his journal.  He wanted me to write in it as well as I explained something to him.  He would ask me things such as what the past tense of a certain verb is, whether listening to music or watching movies in English would be helpful, and much more.

Neto and I decided that Monday nights are going to be our meeting time for now on.  I’m excited to get to know him better and help him become more comfortable with speaking English.