Conversation Partner Update

So far, working with my conversation partner has been both a challenging and an eyeopening experience. My conversation partner's english skills aren't quite developed yet which makes conversation more difficult than I thought it ever could be. During our first meeting, I was surprised to find that the conversation was more of an interview with me asking her questions about her life and her answering with one word, simple answers. After the first 15 minutes, the conversation felt awkward as I ran out of questions to ask. I got worried- what were we going to talk about during our other meetings? There are only so many questions I could ask.

Now, our meetings are less interview like and more conversation like. As i've gotten to know my partner, her comfort level has risen as she's opened up more and tried pushing her conversation skills. Now, we talk more about girly things like makeup and boys and we often compare our cultures which is interesting. Sometimes I help her with her writing homework; my background and experience as an ELL writing tutor comes in handy. Although the conversation now is better, it still challenges me to regress back to using simple english words and rely more on facial expressions and hand movements to get my point across and understand when she is confused. It has been really awesome to see what college is like for an ELL learner, making connections and noticing differences has been really eye opening.