Jeff Dinert CP1 redone

For some interesting reason my computer wouldn't post my first blog with my conversation partner, and when I hit refresh it submitted a blank entry, so oh well. In any case the day I met with my conversation partner was Tuesday like everyone else at CIES tea time. I signed up for two partners, but only was fortunate enough to meet with one of them, a swell Fellow named Hoa Phan, from Vietnam who is getting his master's degree in Chemistry at FSU, and is in CIES classes until the and of the current session in August. The experience itself was extremely pleasant, not merely because Hoa is an extremely earnest, and jovial fellow, but also because, technically I might just be teaching someone who is smarter than I am. His understanding of things from that first meeting was very broad and well developed, and his ability to interpret what we talked about is extraordinarily developed, his speaking is what he really hoped to get a chance to work on. Obviously. He signed up for a conversation partner, but what I found very impressive from our first meeting is he introduced himself and then explained how he really needed and wanted to learn how to speak more fluently, more correctly, and to use more complex sentences and vocabulary in his interactions at FSU and in America. He said and it is appearent that his grammar is very good for a non native speaker, he also would correct himself, but he said hen he begins to speak he thinks to quickly to get the grammar correct all the time like there is still a slight nervousness in looking for the words and hearing them out loud. One wouldn't have known it, but I learned that if I am going to help someone, and Hoa in particular I should figure out what it is he is trying to accomplish and lead him in the direction of his goal, or particular area of need. Hopefully when he and I get together in the future we will be able to see what types of things he really wants to talk about and introduce him to more complicated words and structure within those areas of interest ad his life, and it should help him with his school, his social life, and in as eventually a Doctor in Chemistry teaching wherever he may land. It was fun and I am excited to be meeting with Hoa for dinner on Friday the 1st.