Kennell_CP_3

CP  Session 3– 1/25/2015

I met with Ali, a 20-year old Libyan for the first time on Sunday, at the Starbucks across from CIES. He brought along his friend Dhawi, who was 18. We sat around, enjoyed our coffee and had a nice chat that covered various subjects. Though both were group 1 students, and had a difficult time communicating, we managed to discuss a broad range of subjects. We did occasionally have to use our phones to translate a word, or show a picture to explain what we were talking about, but it seemed like the conversation was great ‘linguistic exercise’ for the two, and they seemed to greatly enjoy it.

I learned from talking to them how easy it can be to isolate oneself from native speakers of English, even when living among them. They hadn’t really made a bunch of native friends, or explored the city all that much. A shy person myself, I could definitely understand that, but I could also see the toll it might take on their speaking abilities. I’ll have to make a note to push myself out there when I go traveling and try to learn other languages. We talked a lot about our countries, and plans for the future. All in all it was a great time, and I’m looking forward to talking to them again soon!