Christiana CP #2

Date/Time: May 15, 2017; 7:00-9:00 P.M.
Location: Campus Circle Study Center
Topic: IELTS Exam, Current and Future plans and College classes in America
Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: I learned more about the IELTS exam and how the speaking portion of it works, and Nasar learned a bit more about how college courses work. 

For my second meeting with Nasar I met him at the Campus Circle study rooms. A big part of his life right now includes studying for the IELTS Exam, which he dedicates a portion of every day to doing. He wanted to show me a bit about how the test works so we started our session by watching a few videos of the speaking portion of the exam on Youtube. This portion of the exam is split into three parts where the student is asked questions in an interview style set up about themselves (part one), a specific topic of the proctors choosing (part two), and then they are asked to elaborate more on the topic in part two (part three). After watching for a few minutes we looked at his study booklet for the exam and went over a few of the questions provided to give him some practice. We spent quite a bit of time speaking with each other and going over possible answers that could be used in his exam, which he was quite happy to do. 

After we had finished some of the practice speaking questions we started talking about what he wants to do once he gets his desired score on the IELTS exam, which is to be able to attend University in Minnesota. We started talking about what college courses are like here in America and I gave him a few examples of the different class types that I had during my time at FSU, ranging from the largest lecture class I had which was about five or six hundred to the smaller higher level classes I took my Junior and Senior year where we had about 20-25 students per class. We also talked about how, when he was young he had never imagined that he would be studying English here in the Unites States and how plans change and how he even though it was not what he expected is excited about his new plan. It felt good to be able to answer his questions and give him a better idea of what things will be like when he starts his life at University and help him feel a bit more ready when the time comes. After talking for a few more minutes we decided that, weather permitting, we will go to lake Ella on Thursday so that he can experience a new Tallahassee "hang out" spot.