Charlie - CP#5

Date/Time: June 13 / 1:00 PM

Location: FSU Campus

Topic Discussed: Going to college/high-school, Family, Sports

Cultural and/or Linguistic Topics you and your partner learned: For this conversation partner session, I took my mentees Akilimali and Chantal for a walk around the FSU campus. As they are each approaching or already in high school, I wanted to use this time with them to give them a glimpse into what college is like and get their thoughts on what they want to do in the future. I periodically ask Akilimali and Chantal about their past life living in the DRC and I often notice that they either have little to say about the topic or are too uncomfortable to divulge into their experiences. I am always struck with a feeling of sympathy for them and everything they have had to go through while assimilating into American culture. Based on past conversations and the one we had as we walked around campus, I feel that they do not currently have the proper confidence or direction to pursue their passions. With a family of 11 and parents that are gone most of the week, most of their time is focused around simply making it through the day rather than thinking about future plans. I see this as the reasoning behind why so many of our conversations revolve around day-to-day activities of them and their family. As we passed the tennis courts and track field, we began talking about sports and I saw how deeply Chantal identified with running. She spoke of her time learning to run back in the DRC and how it translated to running track for her school in America. I almost got the feeling that a part of her reasoning for joining the team in America was to hold on to some of her past identity. Every time I hang out with Akilimali and Chantal, I get better at communicating with ESL students of this age group. For me, teenagers are the hardest age-group to tutor and communicate with as they are going through such a transitionary stage of their life but I have found that certain topics work better at engaging them in conversation than others. Specifically, any type of pop culture that they are interested in almost always seems to do the trick.