Blog Post #2

I am happy to say that my second conversation circle went much more smoothly than my first! I did not anticipate having such a quiet group for my first session, and I was quite unprepared in terms of discussion topics, as I had hoped that we would naturally have enough to talk about. However, after the very helpful meeting with Carson and Angelo, I learned that I definitely needed to prepare more on my part, and that I should focus on giving them specific tasks to do, instead of just speaking.

In order to prepare, I organized our session into 3 sections: an icebreaker, discussion questions about cultural differences (holidays, foods, familial norms, etc.), and a game (Apples to Apples). At the session, 4 of the 6 members came (one had previously informed me of a time conflict, while I did not hear from the other). One of these 4 was new, as he could not attend the session last week. Thankfully, while our new member seemed to be more of a beginner with English, he was also quite talkative! He was able to introduce himself and meet some of the other members. Then, we did an Icebreaker activity called "Roses and Thorns," where each member tells the best thing that happened to them that week (the rose), and one bad thing that happened (the thorn). They seemed to enjoy this, and it gave everyone a chance to speak.

Then, instead of doing the discussion questions, I thought we should play Apples to Apples to make sure we have enough time. While I think that they enjoyed the game, it also seemed a bit difficult for some of them because they were unfamiliar with many of the terms. Nonetheless, I think they learned a lot by playing the game.

Next week, I hope we can have more discussion time, to simply talk about different topics. I think that a "genuine" conversation flows more naturally, and provides a comfortable and encouraging atmosphere for everyone to share their ideas with the group. In order to allow for such a space, I hope to make sure that we are all learning from each other, that every member gets a chance to participate, and that we are talking about relevant and important topics.