For international students who want to improve their English-speaking skills, the Language Culture Resource Center now offers a Conversation Partner Program during the week.
“When you are a foreigner it is harder to get into those meaningful conversations that you need to be a human being, and people suffer a lot because of that,” said Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Literature and Language Department and LCRC Director Dr. Felipe Fiuza. “And having a place that people can come and just talk about anything that they want and practice to one day go out in the real world and be more comfortable and more confident.”
The walk-in program is offered Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Campus Center Building room 219 – no appointment necessary. It offers a place and an opportunity for international students to meet people and practice speaking English in casual conversations with ETSU students who work at the LCRC.
Students can choose what topic they want to discuss, or they can use already prepared conversation starter questions on language or culture-related topics such as movies, sports, health and fitness, the arts, technology and more. Program Coordinator Laura Kappel said students can even use the program to get clarification on things happening in the community that they don’t understand. She said sessions usually last about 30 minutes.
“So far, all of the people I’ve seen come always come back,” LCRC Student Worker Kari Carter said. “And they get more comfortable the more they come back. So, I feel like it’s definitely helpful to them because they are returning.”
Yanping “Lisa” Liu arrived at ETSU in March as a visiting scholar from China. This semester, she has used the program about seven or eight times.
“I love this program,” Liu said. “It’s improved me so much.”
“There is no appointment,” Liu said. “So if I have time, I can go there and choose a partner and talk with different people. Different students can give me different kinds of information, so I like to talk with different people.”
Liu said she picks topics that allow her to learn more about American culture. Every session, she picks a new topic. During her most recent visit, she used the program to ask about a concept that a professor brought up to her: homeschooling.
“He has nine children, so now five of them are in the homeschool, “Liu said. “So, I want to know something about homeschool, because there is no homeschool in China. So, I want to know about this.”
The program not only allows international students to learn more about American culture, but it allows roughly 25 student workers to learn more about other cultures as well. Because of this, Fiuza describes the program as an exchange between the student worker and the international student; not a one-way service. He finds this exchange to be the program’s greatest achievement.
“The students that work here, many of them are also learning foreign languages, and they are also interested in other languages and cultures,” Fiuza said. “So, while the students are here, they are always asking questions about the other student’s country, their culture, the language, how to say things; so, they learn a lot through this process as well.”
This is true for LCRC Student Worker Makayla Andrews who said she has learned about different cultures by helping the international students.
“I love all of it, really,” Andrews said. “I just think it’s so interesting to get to interact with so many different people from different cultures, and I think my favorite part so far has been learning and being educated on the different cultures, especially like Asian cultures just that I didn’t know about before.”
Kappel said the program is more social than academic in the conversations taking place.
“It’s for them to feel comfortable on campus, to feel welcomed on campus, have a place where they can meet people, make friends, and if they improve their language skill by doing that, so much the better,” she said.
Japanese international student Hiroaki Igari uses the program once or twice a week. He said he appreciates the program for allowing him to engage in non-academic, daily conversation. For other international students who have not used the program yet, Igari encourages them to come.
“Don’t hesitate not to come here,” Igari said. “So, please open the door without hesitations.”
As a college student, Andrews also finds value in the program’s ability to enhance international students’ speaking skills on a social level.
“It’s very important just in general in college to be social,” Andrews said. “So I think for people who have that language barrier, it’s very hard. … I think it’s very important that they try to get over that language barrier so that they can begin building relationships of their own,” Andrews said.
The program started in September with the intent of making the LCRC more language focused and to help the needs of the ETSU community. Since then, approximately 28 visits by international students from Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan have taken place. Through this program, Fiuza said the LCRC provides an open and welcoming space for students, and he hopes more students will start attending the program this semester and in future semesters.
