Elizabeth-CP-Week 1

Wednesday I finally met my conversation partner. It is my fourth time having a conversation partner but I still get excited/nervous during the meeting process. What I like most about Tea Time is being able to talk and just hang out with so many interesting individuals. Now I have such a nice and interesting conversation partner. We exchanged phone numbers and emails right away and tried to set meeting times. She is from Bamako, Mali (West Africa) a French speaking country whose capital borders the Nile River. At first I had no idea where Mali was located, but after some "google-ling" I found out more about her country.



Her name is Rama Diallo. She is twenty-four years old and a finance major. She came to the United States to learn English because in her country many jobs are now looking for people who can speak English. I asked her if she was planning on going back to Bamako after the session, but she hopes to take TOEFL and attend FSU for her Master's degree.
When I asked her about her family in Mali, she told me that she is one of the youngest from 7, she has three brothers and 3 sisters. I was surprised at the number of brothers and sisters she has, but Rama says that it is very typical for families to have 5, 6 or even 7 children. Her oldest brother is fifty and her youngest sister is twenty-two. All of her family is in Mali, but she has many friends in Tallahassee.
We will be meeting during Tea Time and sometimes during the week because she is hoping that I can help her with homework, assignments and grammar. Since that would be like tutoring her, I will meet her twice a week so we can have our tutoring time and conversation time separately. Rama speaks basic English, which was noticeable right at the beginning. I told her to stop me or make me repeat what I was saying if she did not understand, but she only asked to speak slower. There were many times I would say something and she would just look at me with a confused look so I would try to either rephrase it or write it down on a piece of paper. It seems that she can understand more when she can actually read it, so I tried to keep a notebook near by and a pen. For the most part, we were able to communicate fine. I am looking forward to the next meeting.