Blog 6 - Final Thoughts

If I was able to be a conversation circle leader next semester, there would definitely be some changes, especially regarding the overall organization of how the entire semester would go. In the beginning, it is extremely important to be much more structured with how the meetings will be run. I think this is dependent on many factors. First, before you can really begin having meaningful conversation, you need to have a strong base to grow from. Secondly, these students almost never know each other and are nervous and overwhelmed. They are depending on you to help them start conversation, to inform how the conversations will be running, and what they believe they will be taking away from it. This sounds kind of scary. However, I do believe that something I didn't quite understand in the beginning was how essential my leadership was in the first two or three meetings. It is also easier to structure the first few meetings as these meetings are probably when you can expect the highest amount of participation. It was difficult in later meetings to plan games or activities if only one person showed up.
I think another important thing would be to mix it up more. I tried to do something different every meeting and this way I could figure out what people enjoyed, what they didn't, what created conversation. A person may seem extremely shy, but once you start talking about something they may be interested in, you have a more vocal participant. So always mix it up and don't be afraid to take input from your conversation group. One of my participants went to the Kelsey Museum and didn't seem as enthused as the other members. However, in one of the exhibits, there was an explanation of the game mancala and he suddenly became interested in the activity. And the next week, I decided to teach mancala and other games I had often played during elementary school. And this went over well with the participants.
I've spent a lot of time with international students, though this was the first time I've ever had the experience of leading them. I've always been an equal, just another student. The experience of leading conversation circles made me much more aware of how the experiences of domestic students and international students are different, increasing my awareness of the everyday difficulties of the international student. For example, when discussing how different the USA and Korean education systems with one of my participants, I was able to more easily understand the underlying worries he felt as a student new to the University of Michigan. As a leader, participants often asked me about ways to get involved on campus, ways to talk to teachers about grades, ways to de-stress, ways to pass a difficult class. These sorts of issues were brought to me because I am a leader of this conversation circle, allowing me to comprehend, at least in part, the lives of international students on this campus. It was enlightening and I am glad that I have had the opportunity to become aware of these sorts of difficulties.

Blog 6

Looking back on the semester, my first experience as a conversation circle facilitator had its ups and downs, but was overall a success! I managed to keep the group solidified enough that we are planning to keep the circle going when we return from break. I think that the conversations went really well when the majority of the group showed up. Three weeks ago, I had the chance to talk with two of my participants about their families (prompted by a question about Thanksgiving). It was great to hear them open up about what they loved about their parents, as well as what they found frustrating.

That being said, attendance has been fairly rocky over the past couple of weeks. Only one participant (Ray) showed up for each of the last two sessions. While I was happy to have the opportunity to have another one-on-one session with my most-consistent participant, the conversations took on the tone of therapy sessions. We talked a lot about Ray’s final schedule (murderous as it was), and how her group project members seemingly sabotaged their own experiments. All of this information needed to get out and it seemed like the circle (or line in this case) could act as a release if nothing else. But towards the end of the second session, I did miss the back and forth sensation that came with better-attended sessions. I hope that the new semester will renew attendance as well.

I think the aspect of this experience that I am most grateful for (aside from getting to meet my participants) has been the constant rediscovery of the difficulties that come from taking classes in a non-native language. I think of my participants like Ray, who must struggle through English translations of non-English philosophy texts. I wish there was a way to allow her to read the Korean version of Wittgenstein, for instance. Or I think of Martin, who must listen to economy lectures in another language. Is it not possible to translate these lectures and make them available on C-Tools? I believe that the University must start making changes to the academic setting in order to allow for greater ESL student participation. 

Blog Post #6

How strange that it's already been an entire semester! I can still very clearly recall the pre-meeting jitters of my first Chat Cafe. I was unsure what to expect, then, but I have a good grasp on how I feel now; in a small, but significant way, the Chat Cafes have allowed me to engage with the international community on campus, and have shaped my views on multiculturalism, and the experience of living and studying abroad. And, perhaps most importantly, I have had the singular pleasure of getting to know two wonderful students!

I've been reflecting on the fundamentals of my Chat Cafe experience, and how I might be able to improve. Time and available credits allowing, I would very much like to continue facilitating meetings next semester, and there's a lot that can be gleaned from this first experience that I'd like to keep in mind for next time. For instance, as we met weekly at Espresso Royale, I had trouble at our first meeting figuring out who was there for the Chat Cafe -- in the future I might pick a not quite so public place for an initial meeting, or I might make explicit where I'll be and what color shirt I'll be wearing beforehand, just to eliminate confusion. These kinds of organizational and logistic pitfalls will be easier to avoid now that I'm aware of them. Attendance is an issue that falls somewhat outside the realm of my control, but I've been thinking that maybe Sweetland could ask students to answer a few very brief short answer questions before placement into groups, so as to create a sense of a structured, formal program. Because the Chat Cafe system is meant to be casual, I would never want to enforce attendance, but if students felt like they were part of an offical, "formal-ish" Sweetland initiative, understood their commitment, and were prepared to follow through on the onset, perhaps that could have deterred them from skipping so often.

Regardless of the attendance issues, which we've discussed at length during class times, I've been very happy with the overall vibe of the weekly meet-ups. I've been very lucky that two members of my group have attended consistently and have demonstrated both interest and engagement in the Chat Cafes. Prior to this semester, my understanding of the international community was very much constrained to my own experience, and I often committed the mistake of homogenizing the backgrounds of multicultural students I wasn't familiar with. However, meeting Paige and Natalia, and really getting to know the both of them, has opened my eyes to the very real individuality and variability present in the international community.

Blog Post 6: Reflections on the Semester

It's hard for me to believe that we've just about finished our conversation circles for the semester. During my conversation circle on Monday I was thinking a lot about the way our group dynamic has changed since September. All of the girls in my group are still gregarious, still talkative, and still make an effort to be there - this was one of the things I was most thankful for in September and continue to be thankful for during our conversations each week. Yet something about our group dynamic has shifted as we've gotten to know each other: Our group dynamic has brought us more together as a group. This happened almost imperceptibly, I think; I can't remember a specific moment when I realized that we were a group, each equal members in our conversation and peers in our time spent together. This was not something that I was expecting to happen; I worried at the beginning of the semester that I would play the role of the facilitator for the entire semester rather than a participant. But on Monday I really realized how we all genuinely cared about each other, how we were comfortable joking and laughing together because we had become friends.

As I write this it seems kind of cheesy, but it feels like the good kind of cheesy. The kind of cheesy that makes you feel good and warm and like you've done something worthwhile.

This has been a wonderful experience for me, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to at the beginning of the semester. Rather than being a burden in my schedule, my conversation circles, and our class discussions, have become a way for me to de-stress and a way to continue my learning in a really concrete way. I've learned so much about how people interact with one another, about my own biases and stereotypes, and ultimately how I can make this campus environment more welcoming to International students. What's most exciting to me about this is that it directly relates to my interest in social justice and the work that I do on this campus to make it a more integrative community. I've learned about where each of these students is coming from; I've learned about their families, their struggles, their likes and dislikes, and with each session my understanding of my own privilege and my own place on campus is broadened. I leave sessions satisfied, which, if you had asked me in September, was not something I was expecting to feel at the beginning of this experience. Though unexpected, this satisfaction with my work has allowed me to get more out of it, to be more invested, and ultimately to build more lasting relationships with the members in my group.

When I asked whether or not my participants would want to do this again next semester, they all said that they would want to stick together as a group so that we could continue to have our weekly meetings. This was amazing to hear, and I look forward to all of our future conversations.

Blog 6- Reflections

I have to say, the past two conversation circles have been a great improvement from before!  I would have to attribute this success to changing the meeting location and the topics.  I decided to take the advice of some of the other conversation circle leaders, and hold a conversation circle at the Natural History Museum across from CC Little.  The two girls that showed up enjoyed the museum immensely, and we had a great time walking around and discussing the dinosaur remains.  There is something so relaxing about moving and just talking freely about whatever you observe, which is something I was afraid to do earlier in the semester for fear of running out of things to say.  When we had watched the movies, I always felt like the facilitator, but in this case, I feel as though I am on the same level as my conversation circle participants.  We enjoyed this new style so much that we agreed to meet at the museum for our next conversation circle.  I only wish I had started this earlier!

            From this point forward, I would say that I am adopting a much more comfortable attitude with the participants.  Now that we have been together for almost three months, I think of them as friends, not merely participants.  I would like to use these last couple weeks to do more fun activities with them that we would not have been able to do when we first met, such as dinners together.  We actually have one planned for later this week which is really exciting!  Additionally, some of my members had mentioned that they will be on the west coast in San Francisco during Christmas break, and I offered to show them around the city, which they sounded flattered and honored, which was really heartwarming.  I think that this transformation into true friends is something that I hadn’t anticipated, but is welcome nonetheless.  When I study abroad myself next semester, I hope to participate in a similar style of conversation circle, and have a similarly rewarding experience.  I think that I could apply my experience as a facilitator when I come back senior year, and maybe work as a Sweetland peer tutor hopefully!

Blog 6: Creative Capstone Reflections

Over the past few weeks, I have really enjoyed working on my creative capstone project for this course.  It has served as a means for me to have very meaningful conversations with people at the University.  I have decided to focus my project to be specific to the College of Engineering because I think the campaign could have a great impact there since there is a very limited amount of cross-cultural education embedded in the curriculum.

I shared a fascinating conversation with one of my professors of biomedical engineering about her experience as a faculty member who is multilingual.  I found the conversation to be important to developing a better understanding of the issue.  A few of the lasting takeaways from that conversation were that she believes that "immigrants just have to work harder" because of the inherent difficulties with living in another culture/language, she said that proficiency is more important than accent, and people need to be aware of their own biases towards pronunciation when evaluating others.

I had another conversation with the Assistant Director of Student Affairs in the College of Engineering about the more practical aspects of developing a inclusivity campaign in the college.  We talk about how it important to make the language used to be accessible to the intended audience.  For people who often study topics of identity and culture, terms that we use in discussions are actually rather confusing for others.

I have also done some academic research into studies on the discrimination of multilingual speakers.  I believe that these findings should be useful in constructing the posters for the inclusivity campaign that I am developing.

Blog 6

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks in regards to conversation circles. I held two sessions where only one participant came (very new for me) and I was able to visit Emma's where unfortunately no one showed up, but her and I had a love conversation about family and the future and the like. And even though I have this idea that I'm supposed to be bummed that attendance has been lacking, I'm not. And I think part of that is because I get it - the semester is slowly taking over each of us. But also because I think the last two conversations with Xin last week and Kyle this week were the most natural and enjoyable conversations I've had all semester. And a lot of that is me. I definitely relied a lot on having a structure to fall back on that a sort of natural flow may not have had the space to grow. In addition, I'm definitely more comfortable and engaged in a conversation with just me and another person.

I've been thinking a lot about whether or not I want to be a facilitator again. And for the longest time, I was thinking it wasn't for me. Having to come up with something every week was one more thing that I needed to think about and it constantly got back-burnered. I don't want to do that again because it doesn't feel productive or valuable for any of us.

But on Tuesday sometime between talking about Thanksgiving, Festivals in Taiwan, and whether or not her should take 125 or take a multi-lingual writers class first he asked me if I was going to do this again. I told him I wasn't sure, that it'd depend on how the credits fell. And he said, if you do it again, I'll definitely do it again.

It's a warming thought - and as we were sitting there talking about English teachers and German teachers I had a strong desire to be one again. If this is what it's like, I thought, I would love to do it again.

I still haven't decided, but what I know I'd like to do, formally or not, is to invite my participants back next semester and see if they want to take an hour, half hour out of their week, or every once in awhile to talk and catch up. Right now that feels like a good compromise.

Blog Post #5

Lately, I've been trying to think in very concrete terms how Chat Cafes benefit international students, and whether the two girls who regularly attend my conversation circles feel like it's been a helpful or enjoyable experience in any way. It's hard (impossible, probably) to force amicability and friendship to form naturally and spontaneously within a group and, similarly, it's difficult to pinpoint people's exact feelings without asking them candidly and assuming they will be honest in return. That's why, last week, when one of the girls expressed the desire to continue attending out weekly meet-ups next semester I was both pleasantly surprised and privately thrilled. I don't think the successful cohesion of our group has been due to my efforts so much as sheer luck but I'm still very happy that the Chat Cafes have brought these two students some enjoyment these past few months! 

As an international student myself, I'm no stranger to the feeling of isolation and disengagement that being "foreign" can be; when I was a freshman I often felt so unattached and disconnected from the reality of "college life" that I couldn't figure who or how to be, if that makes any sense. I wonder if feeling part of a group like a Chat Cafe would have assuaged those feelings a little. It's definitely an idealistic, rose-colored notion but it'd be nice if Chat Cafes could be a moment to touch base, an hour to kind of talk freely and without the pressure of making American friends or dealing with all the intricacies of navigating a strange country. Although I'd like to continue meeting with these two students next semester, it'd be great if new members could join the group and we could explore the international experience together. 

Returning to more practical topics, tomorrow we will be meeting at Espresso Royale during the UEA's yearly Write-a-Thon! I'm not sure if it'll end up being too loud to hold a conversation but I thought it might be fun to emerge from the conversational unit and engage with an Ann Arbor cultural activity. From what I've seen, the literary scene here can be a lot of fun and very energetic, and I'm excited to see what my conversation circle members think. There's a quote (I'm paraphrasing) that goes: I want to travel the world twice. Once, to experience it myself, and a second time, to see how you experience it. Being an international student is kind of like that, maybe -- although, since you can't really be an undergraduate twice, I'm both experiencing life as a college student and seeing someone else experience it at the same time!

Blog Post 5

Attendance has been a common theme of difficulty with conversation circles the past two weeks. When I attended Megan's conversation circle a two weeks ago, unfortunately none of her participants came.  Instead of letting this be the end of the conversation, Megan and I shared a wonderful conversation and got to know each other much better.  Despite actually observing her facilitate the conversation, I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to get to know another facilitator better, which is difficult with our class only being 1 hour per week.

Attendance has also been woefully low for my participants for my circle.  I have one student Xiaoman, who communicates and attends regularly.  It has been a great experience to get to know her on a more individual level.  I can tell that as we continue to build trust between us, she is more willing to steer conversation into more unfamiliar territories.  Overall we talk less about school and more about personal goals and life "back home."

Finally, I am very excited by my creative capstone project.  I have already arranged an interview with a non-native English speaking professor to hear about her experience to inform my project.  I have also contacted staff in Student Affairs in the College of Engineering to see if it would be possible to garner their support.

Blog 5 - Literati

A couple of weeks ago Kyle, one of my participant suggested that we go to an American bookstore for one of our sessions so this Tuesday that's exactly what we did. I was a little worried about it, to be honest. The last 'excursion' session to the Kelsey didn't feel particularly productive conversation wise. But I wanted to make sure we did what Kyle had suggested.

It went so well. And I'm trying to figure out what was different. Perhaps it was because all but one showed up. Perhaps it was because Literati was open, instead of the closed UMMA which we tried to go to first. Or perhaps it was that walk - which was at least three times longer. 

On the sidewalk we ended up splitting into groups, Xin and me talking about conferences and Kyle, Sen and Hiroki behind. My conversation with Xin was brought up by her and lasted the entire way - we had seemed to have moved beyond small talk. And when we got there, we all spread out  and Kyle came and asked me about American authors - which led to me being able to lend a book to him. Otherwise we circled about asking questions. Hiroki loved the covers of the books - a personal love of mine, and Xin and I played a non competitive game of scrabble on one of the tables. I found Sen looking at travel books and we had a nice conversation about that. I was surprised by how quickly the time passed. I found I had to say "oops, we've got to go" so everyone could make it to class on time.

On the way back a conversation struck up about bookstores in America vs. their home countries. I learned that Taiwan still has 'bookstores like department stores' and that in Japan almost everyone still buys books from bookstores - compared to trouble that bookstores are facing here because of Amazon and the like. I like the new direction this week seemed to take us in.

I plan to ask them to bring something in and talk about it for next week. Show and tell. And I hope that i'll get us talking more about each other and our stories.

DINNER!

I wish that this blog post was for next week, because I have an exciting, new group activity that I will be trying for the first time. Instead of our normal 3-4pm meeting, my conversation group will meet this coming Monday evening at the Taste of India restaurant for dinner at 6. Even though this event will still technically be a part of the conversation circle atmosphere, it is our first time meeting outside of our timer period. It feels like it will be more of a conversation among friends, rather than among participants in a circle.

For the sake of clarification, I would like to address the main question that came up in class about organizing a meal trip for the conversation circle. For my group, no complaints or issues of economic means have come as of yet. I am not sure if this is genuine (i.e. no one actually feels they are unable to pay for a dinner out) or if no one has mentioned such issues because they did not feel comfortable. I might try to get Sweetland to cover the bill in order to address these problems before the dinner. Also, I am interested to see how food will change or affect the dynamic of our group. Will there be more conversation because of the setting? Or will the food distract us? I am glad that all of my participants agreed on Indian food, because I think it is perfect for sharing. This, I hope, will add another element to the conversation.

I will be sure to post after the dinner to tell you all how it went! In the meantime, any suggestions? Thoughts about this new experiment? 

Blog #5

Interestingly enough, my participants have expressed almost no cultural frustrations.  Instead, they seem very interested in getting to know what the differences are between their own culture and the cultures of others in the group.  This is a sentiment that I also echo.  We are fortunate to have participants from Turkey/Germany as well as from China, and that combined with my American perspectives allows us to look at a given topic with varied perspectives.  One such instance came around when we were discussing the topic of amount of children allowed in a household.  The German participant mentioned that in many European countries, families are paid by the government to have extra children.  When she said that, the Chinese participants eyes widened, and they said that, in China, there are laws in place to prevent the amount of children born to each family.  While the Chinese students did not necessarily seem frustrated, they seemed confused by the differing cultures rules.

            Through my groups conversations, I have learned about how difficult it is to travel to other parts of the US, or even to Canada.  The students have mentioned time and time again how difficult the visa obtenation process is, and how difficult it may be to travel around because of the lack of train transportation, as well as the fact that none of them have cars.  Their struggles really make me appreciate how convenient it is for me to get from place to place, or travel to Canada without any difficulties.

            I don’t think it is within Sweetland’s means to find solutions for the international students.  Their area of expertise is more in acclimation to student life at the university, and I think my students are doing a great job at that so far.

Blog 5 - Progress and Thoughts on Language

I was feeling really pumped after my Kelsey Museum meeting two weeks ago. I really do like all my Chat Cafe members and am excited to see them every week! However, Jake came to visit my group last Thursday but no one showed up. That sucked. But it's okay. Jake and I actually sat and talked for an hour and got to know each other better so it wasn't a complete loss. It was interesting to compare how I've been holding conversations with my group and how I held a conversation with Jake. I think in my Chat Cafes I have been very confident and more like a leader than I was when conversing with Jake. I hadn't realized this until after talking with Jake. This was also further emphasized when I visited Jamie's group. I was part of a Chat Cafe but I was no longer the leader. I was able to sit back and become a normal member. I think I enjoy both roles, the leader and the ordinary member.

But are these roles demonstrative of normal conversation? Is there a normal leader in conversation and then members who depend upon him or her? Or is conversation actually much more equal and fluid? I imagine all the conversations I have with different people in different roles. How do I use conversation when speaking with customers? How do I speak to my subordinates and how does this change when we go out together outside an office environment? I've come to the conclusion that conversation is a funny thing. No, language is a funny thing. Sometimes a conversation has a leader and sometimes it doesn't. But why? How does a conversation begin with a leader but end with another? Do you need a leader in order to begin a conversation?

I've asked many questions that I don't know the answer to but I think they're interesting questions nonetheless.

Blog 5: Understanding International Students

I can say with confidence that a year ago I did not know anything about international students. I knew that they were here, and had I been asked could have talked about how impressive it was that they were studying at the University level in a second language. But I had never really interacted with any of these students. I hesitate to write this because it groups international students together in one jumbled mythical idea, and my own desire to understand people as individuals reacts really negatively to this kind of language. Yet I think that this is how a lot of students at the university view international students, and I've come to understand that this is extremely problematic.

It wasn't until starting my work as a peer tutor in the writing center that I really began to understand how difficult it must be to be an international student. I read essays about missing home and the difficulty in being submersed in a completely different culture. I had conversations with frustrated students who felt dumb because they couldn't figure out a way to present their brilliant ideas on paper. And I began to understand that international students face very real struggles, and though it's very exciting for many of them to be here it's also very difficult.

That being said, being a conversation circle facilitator has only strengthened my desire to reach out to and learn from these peers. Almost every week in our conversation we bring up cultural differences between China, Mongolia, and America, discussing the nature of the cultures in general, the educational systems, drivers licenses, holidays, and much more. And through every one of these cultures my own ignorance is brought to my attention. They've told me about how difficult it is to come and not know anyone, and to feel isolated by university communities, feeling most comfortable when they are with students from their own country of origin. In one specific conversation we discussed the importance of identification in the US, and how difficult it is for them to get identification. Either they have to apply for a state ID, or they have to get some sort of drivers license, which can cost a lot because they would also have to take drivers ed. classes. Otherwise, they have to carry around their passports, even to go to clubs or bars. This was something that I hadn't even thought about before we talked about it. It seems like a small thing, but for the girls in my group it's a significant concern.

This, and other conversations, have led me really to realize my privilege in being American and being a native English speaker. Besides practical knowledge about cultural differences I think this is one of the most significant things I've been learning this semester through my conversations with my group. I've been reflecting on this a lot the last couple of days. Our conversation Monday was full of small moments when I realized how difficult it must be to be student in a foreign country. Yet throughout this conversation they talked about how much they liked it here, and how cool it was to be studying at an American university. Each week our conversation leaves me with a lot to think about, which has been really good for me to understand more about international students.

Blog Post #4

The two students who regularly attend our meetings both represent a somewhat atypical international student experience; their English language ability is very advanced, and they possess high levels of cultural competency. As such, the topics we discuss almost never develop like the emblematic "foreign confusion in the American context" conversations to which I've become accustomed; instead we talk about midterms, professors, Halloween plans. This colloquial pattern mimics my unstructured, so called "normal" hang-outs with American friends very closely.

I'm always struck by how quickly we choose to stereotype international students into a homogenous group -- even I have grown to automatically expect certain personality traits from students based on their nationality, though I should know better than to anticipate total congruity among the international student population. Facilitating these conversation circles has re-taught me a lesson, it seems, in comparison. The international students at my conversation circles are indeed very similar to their American born and bred counterparts; their interests and concerns are often identical, but, like the non-international students here, the qualities of their character are never attributable to country of origin. Though their backgrounds and perspective can be (and often are) conditioned by the cultural circumstances of their upbringing, I have yet to meet two international students who can be considered to possess carbon copy personalities. It seems an obvious inference to make, but it does not always come easily, especially on a campus where the assumption is that students of a certain type behave in a certain way.

This kind of reminds me of the article we read on why Asian students don't talk in class; the rationale for their absence from discussion is that they are culturally programmed to be quiet, submissive, and docile. This kind of explanation falls into line with common campus-wide opinion, but its application of a few traits to thousands of students is overly simplistic and dangerously alienating. It makes much more sense that the reason behind the supposed "untalkativeness" of international students is due to nervousness -- just like any other student at Michigan!

The One on One

Only one person has attended my last two conversation circles, so I have had to scramble a little bit to make them as productive as possible. Despite being disappointed that I could not converse with all my participants at the same time, I am glad that I have had the opportunity to have one-on-one meetings with two of my participants. I learned more about these two in these sessions than I ever had before, and it felt as though they were more talkative than normal. I could ask them both specific questions that bore personal answers.

A couple of examples come to mind:

When I had a one-on-one meeting with Ray, the conversation inevitably turned to her struggles with the Philosophy major, which has been the focus of many of our discussions. However, this time, I was able to ask her why she chose the major to begin with. Her reply surprised me. Apparently, after taking a particularly difficult Psychology class (her other major), she had had enough. She walked directly to the Philosophy department (seemingly at random) and asked how to sign up for a major. What a story! I admire Ray’s desire (courage?, recklessness?) to try something completely out of her comfort zone. I feel like I know her a lot better now. I also had the chance to meet with Ting. Together, we explored Hatcher, picking random floors to walk through. While a similar story did not come up, we did discuss our majors and she even planned to take a history class soon.

These two experiences have made me re-think the one-on-one conversation “line” (as opposed to a circle). Although it resembles an interview too closely, it also gives the facilitator the chance to really get to know his or her participants. Perhaps, future conversation circles would benefit from one-on-one meetings with each participant outside of the conversation circle itself.   

Reflection on Culture, Language, and Perception

I have enjoyed the reading and discussions in class over the past few weeks about the culture, power, and perception that comes from language, especially English.  This has been a topic that has been in the back of my mind since I came home from France in the summer of 2013.  The readings have been very good at bringing up thought-provoking issues such as "why Asian students do not speak up in class."  The competing cultural values of modesty in many Eastern cultures juxtaposed against the "look at me" Western, especially US, culture all in a context of language, provides for a multidimensional complex situation.  The article presented the view that discomfort with the language was the most significant reason for why Asian students do not speak up in class.  As we talked about during our class discussion, English ability is often equated to intelligence because of the dominant position in society of English-speaking countries.  I think that the unfamiliarity with the spoken language is definitely a factor, but I think it is impossible to separate culture from parts of oneself completely.  Culture will always be at play in a situation because it is embedded in everything around us.

From my conversation circle, the most committed member of my group and myself have had some  very in-depth conversations.  One of the most interesting was a conversation that highlighted the human connections between us despite our cultural differences.  She was explaining to me how her and her friends from home are struggling with the age old question "what am I going to do with my life."  While there were significantly different factors influencing our decisions, there was still the common human need to have purpose in life.  Looking forward to more moments that will help facilitate working together across our differences.

Blog Post 4 - Switching Things Up (sort of)

Many of my conversations have been more supplemental teaching and learning about specific things - whether it be language based or football so this time I tried to switch things up. We didn't have a specific topic that we were discussing so I figured I'd try to do what Lauren suggested and play a get to know you game (basically I asked them what they all wanted to know about each other and we all answered it). And it was okay, but the structure of the 'game' sometimes limited a more fluid conversation. Sure, when they had questions about what others said they asked them, which was wonderful and exciting to watch - but it would eventually die down and we waited for someone to think of a question - in the end, only three of us offered questions (2 participants and me). 

I realized that perhaps instead of asking them to think of them on the fly I should have had them write their questions out on strips of paper at the beginning, put them in the middle and we could have taken turns drawing questions from the middle so they didn't necessarily have to ask their own question - but at least everyone was asking a question - as well as everyone answering it. But it feels like it's too late to try that structure again.

I have been very fortunate with attendance - all 5 of my participants showed up yesterday! But even so I feel as though we lack the fluidity that I envisioned the group having - and feel more like a teacher instead. I'm searching for ways to help bridge that gap if anyone has suggestions of things that went well for their group in order to increase conversation.

Blog Post 4: Reflection on Visiting groups

This week Carmella and I were able to visit each others conversation circles. I thought that this was a really interesting experience, and I really enjoyed both having her come visit and visiting her group. I was worried initially about how having another person would change the group dynamic, but I found that when Carmella joined our group it was actually good for our group dynamic. Only two people showed up this week, so it was nice to have another person join in on the conversation, making us a group of four rather than three. Additionally, because Carmella didn't know either of the girls in the group, they were able to get to know each other for a portion of the conversation. While this made me more of an observer at points because they were having conversations that I had already had with my group, it was really interesting to be able to see how they seemed even more comfortable talking with someone new, compared with when I first met them and we began our conversation circles. Worried that this was a figment of my imagination, after Carmella left I asked my group if they thought that their English had improved from the conversation circles. One of the girls said that she wasn't really sure, but the other said that she thought that it definitely had, and that she was more confident in being able to converse easily with native English speakers. I was really happy about this and hope that this is something that others are experiencing as well.

I also really enjoyed visiting Carmella's group. It was great being able to see another facilitation and learn from the way she interacted with her group. Carmella asked her students to watch a film called "The Intouchables," which is a french film that I had already seen. She facilitated a conversation about this film that I thought went pretty well, and it was interesting to see the different group dynamic in her group as well. I enjoyed getting to know them a little bit and see how Carmella interacted with her students.

Blog 4 - Half Way?

    Two weeks ago, right after my third blog post, I had two of my members show up and last week, I only had one show. I'm not so much frustrated with the participants as much as I am by the fact that the Chat Cafe is ineffective if so few people show up so sporadically. In my last blog post, I did mention the getting-to-know-you game I wanted to play with my members but haven't yet been able to do it since there hasn't been enough people.

    However, like the one previous time I only had one participant come, the conversation was really interesting! I didn't direct the conversation in this way, but the participant began discussing the education system in the USA versus South Korea, claiming he liked it more. And I was like, "Wow. I just talked about this in class yesterday." Which he thought was interesting and then we talked about our Writing 302 class and ended up talking past our hour time limit until someone kicked us out of the space that they had reserved before us. I really love the one-on-one interaction with my participants because it allows us to get to know each other much better. However, I do wish that all my members would come every week and we could all have these meaningful conversations together. I noticed when I had two members come two weeks ago, the conversation was a little slower. I'm thinking this was because the two members really hadn't met until that meeting. Even though we were already at week 6, it was like week two all over again.

    The participant that came last week asked why attendance was so slow and asked if we could change the time. I explained that this was not exactly the best thing to do as participants had a choice for which Chat Cafe they wanted to attend. This was the only advice he offered but I don't think it would work very well. Since we began Chat Cafe, all members have emailed to tell me if they would be coming, so I assume they are still invested in this group in some way. Last week, I had two no call no shows, but this was the very first time it has happened so I have been hesitant to send a list about no shows as almost all of the time my participants inform me whether or not they will be coming. Three weeks ago, I began explaining what the plan was for our next meeting, thinking this would make participants more likely to come. However, attendance is low as it was before. I guess I'll keep trying out strategies. I might also email my group and ask them to tell me if they are no longer able to come since I haven't seen two of my members since the second week.

Blog Post #3: Conversation Facilitation

At the beginning of the semester, it was hard for me to find the balance between facilitation and planning a conversation. As I would think about the conversation circle for the upcoming week I would come up with a list of questions to ask my participants, just in case I found that the conversation was lagging. But I've found that this is not as necessary with my group. As I've gotten to know them better I've found that all of them are really good conversationalists and do a great job of asking each other questions, so it's fun to be able to really be a participant in the conversation.

Having such a great group has allowed me to get better at facilitating a conversation. For example, by modeling how to ask follow up questions of the students early on in the semester, I've noticed that some of the others have started to do this as well. As they begin to ask each other questions and continue to be engaged and interested in what others' have to say, I'm able to take a step back in the conversation and just be a participant. I can't plan for any of these things, these questions that they ask for each other. So I still come with ideas of activities, just in case the conversation lags, but I've found that I don't really need to plan anything out. They're interested in being there and with each other, and because of that I've been able to understand better what being a facilitator means.

Even though this has been a really good thing, and I'm happy that they are really able to converse with one another easily, I think that sometimes it's hard for me to go into a conversation without a set out plan. I'm a planner; I like to have a really clear idea of how things will go before I get there. But because I can't really plan our conversations it's become a challenge to refrain from developing expectations about our conversation beforehand. I don't want to come in with any plans or expectations because I know that there isn't a whole lot I can or should do to control the conversation. Though this has been a challenge it's also been a great learning opportunity.

On Advice From Participants

My conversation last week was sparsely attended. But, honestly, I am not sure how to feel about that. Only one person shod up for the conversation (the philosophy major). I chalk up the absences to the impending fall break and the numerous other commitments that people have. I was discouraged at first, thinking that I could have made the circle more of a priority (both in my own life in and in the lives of my participants), and avoided this situation. But, at the end of the hour, I was more enlightened to the possibilities of the conversation than ever before.

In our hour long conversation, Ray (the participant that met with me) had the opportunity to voice some of her thoughts about how the circle was going so far. She gave me some great ideas for improvement and ultimately changed the way I view the circle. The most important concept that expressed was her recognition that the short and infrequent nature of the circle made it not the best choice for consistent improvement in speaking English. Rather, she believes, the circle should serve as a gateway to “English-speaking friendships,” that is relationships that develop further outside of the group setting. She suggested that I made a google doc page of everyone’s contact information; so that they could all meet up outside of the conversation circle to speak in English. I am going to try this and see what happens!

From our one-on-one meeting, I really grasped the importance that feedback plays in this whole conversation circle project. Now, I wish I could have an individual session with each of my participants to mine their brains for more improvements on the current system. When it comes down to it, they are the ones experiencing the circles on the most immediate basis. They know them best.  

Blog Post 3 - American Footbal

My participants have always been ripe with questions for me and this past Tuesday was no exception. The topic was American Football. I hadn't prepared much for the session as I was up until 6am writing a paper for another class and figured that I'd just show some clips of football and we could talk it through as we went. However this is not exactly what they were looking for. Sen asked if I could explain generally what the rules were and basically how football worked. I froze a little bit, because I wasn't sure where to start - I'm not a football master - in fact there are a lot of intricacies of the game that I don't know if I'll ever know. But then I just pulled out my notebook and started drawing a football field on a blank piece of paper.

After I started drawing, the rules and regulations came flowing out of me. I started from the start of the game with the coin toss and moved from there explaining offense, defense, special teams, rules - players positions. There was suddenly so much about football that I hadn't realized was in the recesses of my brain. When I wasn't clear they asked questions, often thinking about it in context of soccer and how it's similar and different. They were guiding me in the direction of what they wanted to learn. The hour was animated and involved - I had a rush after it.

It was a really great session and I attribute that mostly to that active listening and active response. I'm not sure if it was because were were talking about a game or because we were all focused on this sheet of paper that was continuously being added to, but it had a sort of urgency like we couldn't explain everything fast enough. The peppered questions "well what about this?" or "why does the kicker need to be protected" made me think more about the game and it's structure. I really had a blast.

That being said there were only four of us that day - two of them missing. I wasn't sure whether or not to chalk it up to a busy week, the topic of football itself, or something else completely, but I'm interested to see what happens this coming week especially since I plan to do a get to know you question game like Lauren suggested.

Also, I reserved a study room in the Ugli for this session, and for this one that worked really well. I think I may try it for my  next one as well.

Blog Post 3

With it being the week before Fall Break, 9 am Wednesday morning proved to be an exceptionally busy time for the other students in my conversation circle.  This week three of my participants emailed me saying that they could not come because of exams, which is understandable.  I waited for the other person in my group to show up, and they didn't.  It was a little frustrating to not be able to have the conversation circle meeting, but I understand where the students priorities are.  I am hoping to having a great meeting next week to make up for the lack of meeting this week.

I have found this entire process of conversation circle facilitating to be very reflective on my own experiences in the US and abroad.  The opportunity to better understand the struggles of international students on this campus has been important to furthering and rounding out my social justice education.  Through this experience thus far, I have been able to reflect on my perspective of having been a US citizen abroad in a non-English speaking country and develop my perspective of being a US citizen in relation to international non-native English speakers.  I am excited to continue in the process, and I look forward to the learning to come!

 

Blog Post #3

Today's Chat Cafe flowed quite like some of my previous meetings, which gives me confidence that I'm beginning to find a natural, easy-going mode of conversation during these weekly encounters. Although attendance continues to be somewhat of an issue, I do have a couple dedicated participants who regularly attend, and they've been positively wonderful. It's been simple and painless for me to facilitate "meetings" so far -- the students have very accommodating and warm personalities, so much so that I often feel as though they themselves are doing the brunt of the facilitating work for me. Now that the awkwardness of the initial introductions is over, I think we are transitioning smoothly into something resembling the "adolescence" phase that Lauren touched on last class, which makes me very hopeful for our future as a cohesive group.

I've been surprised so far to find that our conversations don't typically veer into "English language" territory -- that is to say, I am almost never asked questions about grammar, vocabulary, syntax. or any other linguistic component of English. Instead, we talk much like a typical friend group, discussing everything from card games to the Ebola crisis. I think this is most probably due to the fact that the regular attendees are highly proficient in English and possess similar levels of ability. They are also very friendly, and conversation flows in a way that does not resemble a "hub and spoke" model. Though I was admittedly disappointed by the less than favorable attendance rates from the majority of the students, I've been extremely fortunate in that my "regulars" do seem to enjoy and benefit from our Chat Cafes.

I'm excited to report that we have officially made plans for our first outing; in the spirit of Halloween, we will be going to see a horror movie later this month. One of the students highly recommended "Gone Girl," and so I am looking into possible avenues for that currently.

Blog Post #3

As I spend more and more time with my conversation circle groups, I have definitely picked up a few processes and tricks along the way that help the circle flow more easily.  A large part of that has to do with altering a conversation that I had originally planned to fit with what the group may be saying in the progression of the actual conversation.  One such example occurred at the most recent conversation circle I led last Wednesday.  I had planned to discuss a movie, “Crazy Stupid Love” in regards to the portrayal of middle class American culture and values, and had several video clips that I was going to show.  However, after I showed the initial movie clip, I felt as if there could have been a warmer reception. Therefore, I made the decision to use the idea of family values as a jumping off point for a conversation about different family raising values and techniques in the students native countries.  This elicited much more positive feedback, and we had a lively conversation about how there are actually rules against having a certain number of children in China, while in Germany, families are reimbursed money for having more children.  These differences in values was interesting to all individuals involved, and got us talking about more current event issues occurring in the students native countries, and we agreed to work in current event issues into our weekly conversations. This organic progression was not what I originally had in mind, but actually proved more fulfilling of a conversation to all involved. 

            Now that I have gotten to know my participants a bit more, it has really made our group into more of a camaraderie.  In fact, this was the first class where one of the no shows actually came, and it was great to have all of the other participants welcoming him into the group by asking him questions.  From a leadership standpoint, I now feel much more comfortable asking people to compare and contrast differences in America versus their native countries, on topics that I would originally have glossed over as being too awkward (for example, the one child law in China, or the revolution in Hong Kong). 

            I have yet to go to another conversation circle, but I am really looking forward to it! I would love to see how the other groups are run, and maybe incorporate some of the projects or activities into my own groups.