Keira CP #2

Keira CP #2

Date/Time: May 15th, 2017 - 3:00 pm
Location: Hecht House (Student Lounge) 

For our meeting this week, Seongeun wanted to meet at Hecht House, so we went downstairs and sat together at a table in the student lounge. She wanted to show me a paper she had done for class and get my opinion and feedback on it, which I was happy to do. After that, we moved on to this week's Conversation Partner activity that we had been emailed, since last week's activity had helped to move our conversation along so much. This activity was a series of questions about different aspects of our cultures in order to get us talking about different subjects, some much more serious than others. 

While we each knew a little of the basics of each other's culture--such as me knowing the formal way to greet or thank someone in Korea, and Seongeun of course knowing the same for America--many of the questions got us talking about things on a much deeper level. Seongeun told me about an important person in her country's history, which was the man who created the written Korean alphabet. I found this utterly fascinating, and I told her that I would not even know where or how to begin looking if I wanted to know when the first English was created. I thought it was incredibly interesting and, frankly, downright awesome to learn that Korean people not only have a record of who invented their alphabet, but that this was common enough knowledge that Seongeun was able to tell me on the spot. 

She was able to tell me about many interesting things while we went through these questions, such as recent political events in South Korea involving the impeachment of a corrupt president, and how she was replaced by a president that Seongeun hopes will prove to be better. She also told me about some of her father's experiences working in the Korean military, and about some of the truly heartbreaking things he has seen by the North Korean border. 

Not all of the things we talked about were so serious, however. In discussing holidays that are important in our countries, I found myself explaining the different aspects of Halloween, which is not popular in Korea, for what must have been at least ten minutes. The more I told her, the more I realized there was to tell about just one holiday. Seongeun told me that she looks forward to experiencing Halloween here, and I hope it will be a fun holiday for her.