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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