Conversation Partner #2, A-R and friend, for third meeting on Tuesday, April 8, 9:00-11:00 pm
We meet at the Strozier Library late after I get a text while still in class. A-R shows up a little late but is very happy to be meeting. Within a few minutes as we are getting settled at the Starbucks in a quiet area, a few friends of his appear and greet us both. We all exchange a few words and they depart to other areas in the library. One friend remains with us but he says he will not interrupt us. I said it was OK with me if A-R wanted some native language support.
A-R is very quiet compared to his friends, and less confident speaking. I wish he did not rely on friends so much, because while it was a struggle, I thought we communicated fine one-on-one before. But this time his friend turned out to be quite helpful. He came with a notebook full of vocabulary they both were studying and a good Arabic-English dictionary on his phone. They were quite intent on studying and asked me many questions about word forms and grammar. I had to get my computer out to answer some.
The friend was not much better in English, but was better at forming questions and pronunciation than A-R. But I began asking A-R to repeat the question or word and encourage him to mimic his friend. Then I would answer him, and this seemed to encourage him a bit more, because we could practice asking "what is the meaning of…" and "how do you say…(spell)", etc. I had difficulty modifying my speech to offer good synonyms for some of the vocabulary and they added many to the notebook including words for extended family "aunt", "uncle", "grandmother"; and some contractions of "not" that were confusing.
Our conversation went well over an hour and they were both very grateful for the time. This was more like a tutoring session than a chat, and I was glad they both were able to focus on work for that length of time without seeming bored.
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