Elaine CP #1

 My tutee is an 11-year-old South Korean boy, and I had more interactions with him by the time I had my first meeting with my conversation partner. My conversation partner is Shatha, a current CIES student from Saudi Arabia. The first thing I learned about her is that she is a single mother of two kids who had just recently moved to the US. This is a drastic difference from my tutee, and I was nervous about how I would code switch to create an appropriate environment and conversation with Shatha. I was equipped with the first resources that were sent to us for discussion, about our identities and the elephant story. This helped me feel prepared, but Shatha immediately took control of the conversation for the better. She immediately asked about the type of family I had, and we quickly realized that we come from similar big family structures, but now live very with a small amount of family due to immigration. We quickly bonded over these similar life experiences and found out that we share similar philosophies in life. I thought it was very sweet how she was hyper focused on the relationship between my mom and I, and how happy she was to learn about it. I guess it's because it deeply resonates with her.