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.