Friday, November 8, 2013

Jodie CP # 7


I met Serap for conversations in the CIES break room.  She is very sweet, but was way too quiet, especially for a conversation session.  If I did not have our computer with me, it would have been very difficult to sustain an hour of conversation with her.  I encouraged her to ask me questions and to speak many times.   During the entire session, so spoke very little, but was very attentive to what I had to say.

We talked about how she and her family spent the weekend.  That led to learning the names for different playground equipment.  I googled the pictures so she could see the pictures and the names of each piece of equipment.  I asked her about the food that she likes.  She likes desserts, so we spent some time on the kind of desserts Turkish people eat.  I shared with her my favorite Chinese food, including dim sum.  We looked at the pictures of different dishes of dim sum, and I explained to her that this kind of Chinese food is usually served in bigger American cities.  She asked about my children, so I showed her on the map where they live.  I asked her about how difficult it is for students in Turkey to attend universities and she responded.  She was very appreciative that I spent time with her.

If this was a tennis match, I think that I had to keep serving the balls to the other side during the whole “match”.  I suggested that she could think of topics to share with me next week, so that she would be able to practice her English.  I wonder if the cultural environment, birth order, and present family standing all play a big part in her being very quiet as a grown woman.   

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