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.
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