Andrew CP #1

 Date/Time: 05/21/2021

Location: Hecht House

Topic discussed: Studying abroad, culture shock, adapting to accents, our time in college

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Aziz and I discussed many different things for our first conversation partner session. Though, in large part, we compared our experiences of going overseas to do intensive language study. We both agree that adjusting to local accents and idioms is one of the most challenging parts of going overseas. I did my best to help  explain some southern colloquialisms that he had been hung up on but conceded that accents really do just take time and practice to understand. We then talked about what kinds of culture shock experiences we had and how we reacted/ adapted to them. After that we talked our majors. That is actually how I found out that Aziz is studying at FSU as a result of being sponsored by the Kuwaiti government to further develop his academic background. While I did not learn a particularly large amount about Kuwait or Kuwaiti culture during this conversation, I feel that I was able to help Aziz better understand the culture of the American south and maybe even a bit of Taiwanese culture. 

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