Blog Post #2

As a result of the holiday and the slight issue of nobody signing up for my original time slot, I finally held my first conversation circle yesterday.  I am co-facilitating it with a senior named Jamie, whom I have known previously through LHSP.  Jamie has also been a facilitator for these conversation circles before; in fact, two of the people in our circle were in Jamie's group last semester.  I was nervous that this would cause me to feel out of place, but I think it worked out very well: every person in our group knew at least one other person, which resulted in us talking like old friends rather than feeling awkward about being strangers.  As Angelo and Carson assured me in class last week, this did end up working out for the better- our group dynamic was great!

The information the handouts relayed to us was accurate- my group said that they would rather chat about random topics than take a lot of field trips.  To them, it is simply enjoyable to take time out of their busy schedules to have fun and relax with friends while practicing English.  However, we did discuss a few activities outside of the normal chat café hour such as going to a baseball game, going ice skating at Yost, or meeting up to see a movie.  Jamie showed us a journal that she had hand-bound herself, and everybody was intrigued- we might all learn how to make our own journals sometime this semester.

The conversations in my circle seemed very genuine in that everybody seemed truly interested in what everyone else had to say; nobody was talking just for the sake of talking.  This being one of my first experiences with non-native English speakers, I was really interested to learn about where my group was from, how they came to choose U of M, how they felt their English was developing, and their experiences here so far.  They seemed equally as interested in learning about my life; I spent quite a while answering questions about my personal activities such as being on Michigan's sailing team.  I have only had one meeting so far, but my group seems to be wonderful.  I think the conversation flows very naturally; thankfully, everybody is an enthusiastic participant and excited to be there.