I am Phuong Huynh, an international student, non-native English speaker, who is still struggling in class to express myself, to understand lessons, and to have confidence in public speaking. That’s why I attended in Conversation Partner Program to develop professional skills, improve English, moreover, I have the ability to get to know people’s cultures and also can have a lot of fun.
When I got there it was a little bit late, I saw people were standing in groups getting to know each other. The first time they were in groups of people living in the same borough, the second time the same major, next time the same horoscope.
After that, we were arranged to stand in groups of about five people, holding random people with both hands in the group and we had to make a circle without letting any hand go.
Later we picked partners, I and my partner sat opposite to each other, back to back, I faced the wall and she faced the screen. We switched chair a couple times. We played a game that the rule is the person who faces the screen has to explain what is on the screen for his or her partner to draw, but the person who faces the screen cannot look at what their partner draws and the other person cannot look at the board. I think maybe the point of the game is to help us to find out our skills of explaining to others. It made me realize my vocabulary of geometry is so poor. I learned some words from the game though.
It was a fun and exciting experience of participating in Conversation Partners Program. I think the idea of organizing this program is both meaningful for non-native English speakers and native English speakers – they can learn a lot about people’s cultures and have a lot of fun as well.