Blog Post 6

With the blog posting coming to a close and the final Chat Café session drawing closer I believe it’s time for some well-deserved reflection.  Reading through my first blog post I remember the nervous state I was in at the time. Looking back its almost comical to think I was that nervous for something that ended up being so natural. I still remember drafting that first email, constantly deleting and retyping words to find the perfect sentence and make a memorable first impression (or at least not mess it up). The first meeting with my group was good but I could tell everyone was nervous and reserved. The most notable member of the group at the time was a named Alila. She was by far the most reserved participant. She was very soft-spoken and barley made eye contact when she talked to the other members. One of the major successes of Chat Café, at least for me, was to watch her develop. Each meeting she would talk more and more and become generally more confident with her conversation skills. I was astounded when she came into a meeting and began talking right away with everybody and lead the conversation. To watch her, as well as the other members, develop their conversational skills over one semester was truly a gratifying moment.

If I could go back in time and give myself one piece of advice I would tell myself calm down and do less preparation for each meeting. I feel as though the weeks where I did the most preparation where the weeks that felt the most unnatural. The whole point of Chat Café was to help international students prepare for natural conversation. You can’t plan natural.

Chat Café has allowed me to expand a wide myriad of my facilitation and conversation skills. This summer I will be working with a Canadian International School in India and I plan to apply my experiences from Chat Café to working with international middle schoolers in India. One of the most helpful skills I honed will doing Chat Café was how to direct a conversation so everyone participates equally. While interviewing with the Canadian International School they told me one of my responsibilities would be to ensure that all students are involved equally in the various activities of the school. I plan to use my skill of conversation directing to help shy students break out of their shell in India.

With my final blog post I would like to thank Scott for being such a helpful resource during this process. I would also like to thank all my classmates for being so open during our discussion sessions to help create a dynamic and memorable dialogue. Thank You!

Blog Post 6 - Reflections

I sincerely cannot believe that next week is the last time I'm meeting with these amazing groups of people. I've had so much fun doing this and it was pretty unforgettable. Looking back, I honestly feel quite accomplished over the bonds that have grown out of these conversations and the real intercultural exchange that has grown out of the topics we've covered.

Some of my favorite moments from this semester largely come from the conversations that I never would have predicted having with others. Like the time my participants debated the merits and downsides of ethnic enclaves, or the time someone taught me all about the Korean film industry, or when the whole group banded together to explain to me how driving permits and license plates work in large cities in Eastern Asia; sometimes, I felt like the one who benefited the most from all of this was me based on how much interesting stories and information I got out of it.

That said, if I could go back and do it over, there are certainly things that I would change. There are some small logistical things that I would change, such as emphasizing how important it is to show up and be engaged, and also putting more focus on the conversation being more self-directed; I never really felt like I accomplished the right balance of me speaking or explaining or posing questions as compared to everyone else doing these things. 

Moving forward though, there are so many useful skills that can be drawn from this experience. For me specifically, I am considering a career in journalism more seriously than ever and asking pointed, open-ended, engaging questions that lead to thought provoking answers is a huge skill to have in interviews. This entire experience definitely helped me develop that ability as I pushed my participants to keep talking, tell me more, and look at things from different angles. 

In the end, I'm just so, so glad I did this!! That's the real takeaway here. 

Blog Post #6: The end of chat cafe :(

Chat cafe has been a wonderful experience for me, and I am very glad to have been a part of it. I met some wonderful people, had very nice conversations, and learned a lot about what life can be like for international students at UMich. I would definitely do it again, mostly because I have learned from my past experiences and from fellow facilitators about what not and what to do. 

One of my favorite chat cafe sessions was when only one of my participants came. At first, I was bummed that so many of my participants couldn't make it. But, our conversation ended up being wonderful. We talked all about our families, our history with relationships, what are plans for our future are, and more. I felt honored that my participant was willing to share personal details with me and that she could trust me. It felt like we were friends instead of facilitator and participant. Another session I really enjoyed was when I prompted my group with questions about themselves. I remember a lot of us interpreted the question in different ways, which made our responses very unique and also hilarious at times. It seemed like everyone was comfortable and it was one of the times where we were sad that our hour had passed so quickly. 

I learned something from each and every one of my sessions, which I really value. I am always someone who is very inquisitive and tries to be open minded, and I think chat cafe has helped me expand on those qualities. I learned about how to hold a conversation with a stranger who may not be fluent in English. I learned that there are a variety of struggles that international students go through. I learned that there are so many things that international students do not know about UMich or even American culture, which can make things hard for adjustment. 

If I were to do this again, I would plan more. I always thought about how I would love to do more activities, or go to more places, but I truly never got the time. I also felt that since my sessions were on Thursday evenings, it made it hard to have an outing. I think I would have benefitted from a little more structure, although it is definitely not a necessity. I also would have tried to change up the scene more or maybe invited more students to join throughout the semester, as my group was never larger than 4 people. But, all of these things are simply suggestions. I loved my experience and I wouldn't change it!

From here, I hope to definitely be a facilitator again if I get the chance. I love being an ally to our international friends and I absolutely love meeting them and hearing their stories. I hope to use this experience as a personal learning experience, as I feel that I have grown and really pushed myself somewhat out of my comfort zone. I also hope to reach out to international students in my classes and maybe help spread the word of chat cafe or simply be a friend to them. I have learned that I am able to carry on a conversation, gauge what the group needs, and be committed to a group of students that I care about. I hope to get an experience like this again :)

Blog Post #6

This is it. The end of our first (and for some, our only) semester as Chat Cafe facilitators for Sweetland. We all knew that this day would come, we just did not expect it to arrive so soon. It's somewhat bittersweet. On one hand, this signifies the end of our groups, the collection of people that we as facilitators have come to had meaningful and interesting conversations with. Ranging from food to art to customs to politics, each one of these sessions have undoubtedly resulted in both the facilitator and participants learning and growing from the dialogue provided: and now such groups will dissipate alongside the semester. Yet, we should not be sad over such things occurring, it was only natural that this would happen. Rather, we as facilitators should relish in the fact that we have learned from these sessions as much as the participants have. We learned a lot about interacting with individuals who have english as a secondary language, how to strike a conversation with them, and how silence can sometimes lead to the most fruitful dialogues. All of these lessons will be invaluable to us as we carry on with our lives, and will undoubtedly be of use in the future of this ever connecting world.

In terms of the highlights, I would say that the best moment was when natural dialogue started to occur. When I got the participants to effectively communicate with each other while saying very little, I knew that I have succeeded in my role as a facilitator. Rather than trying to instigate a conversation, it occurred quite spontaneously without any guidance from me. From then on, for the rest of the session, I let them take the reigns while offering my opinions here and there when asked. I would say that this moment was undoubtedly the most successful one that has occurred throughout the entirety of the semester.

With regards to improvements, I would say trying to organize more events next time would be far more beneficial for promoting dialogue. Most of the time, we were situated around a table talking about random things for an hour; ergo, it would sometimes become difficult to nurture natural conversation. If I could change one thing about my chat cafe sessions overall, I would try to promote more trips throughout the campus; not only would the participants benefit from seeing much more of the university they go to, but it would also lead to more interesting topics of conversation.

Finally, in terms of lessons that could be garnered from this experience as a whole, there are so many little aspects that will undoubtedly help me in future endeavors. The finite details in conversation that many may overlook when speaking are of paramount importance when it comes to chat cafe sessions, and being able to recognize the importance of these will serve as crucial information when it comes to interacting with other people internationally. I plan to use such information in order to help non-native english speakers improve their speaking and writing, in order to allow for more effective forms of communication. As a peer writing consultant, these lessons will certainly help me in further consultations, as I will be able to better help the writer express their concerns and points of view, subsequently allowing me to better address such problems in their pieces. While this specific application may only be applicable to me, I know that there are many more avenues with which such information will aid all of us in our future.

Blog Post #6

The end is imminent, and as trite as it may sound, I really am surprised by how quickly this semester and my time as a Chat Cafe facilitator have gone by.  During my last session, as I reminded my group that we wouldn't meet this week due to Thanksgiving, I realized that we only have two sessions left.  Two!  How did time slip by so quickly?

I'm a regrets kind of person--I have them about almost everything, and think a lot in terms of "what ifs" and "what could have beens."  Upon reflecting on my time as a facilitator, however, I've found that I have no major regrets from the experience.  No, things often didn't go perfectly--some sessions were awkward, many of my strategies and attempts to break the ice between group members futile--but I realize that the goal of Chat Cafe was never really to have consistently perfect meetings.  The program is based in and relies on people, which makes it inherently subject to the quirks and roadblocks of person-to-person interaction.  Sometimes there's silence.  Sometimes there's confusion. Sometimes there's awkwardness.  Communication is not always ideal, but therein lies the opportunity for students to become more comfortable with how to navigate conversations in effective ways, especially in a second language.  

As our weekly sessions went on, I found that my group members seemed to become more and more confident and comfortable in their English communication.  They dwelled less on their mistakes and seemed to take increasing pride in their successes, which made them more open to engaging with one another frankly.  This in turn led to better conversations and more authentic bonds (and maybe even friendships?  Some of my group members exchanged numbers and added one another on Facebook!) between members.

Our most recent session, in particular, seemed to serve as a culmination of all the progress we've made as a group during the semester--the group split into two pairs, which I floated between.  Each pair was united in conversation about something both members found interesting--Hohyun and Qianli discussed basketball, while Camille and Tim tried to determine whether Universal Studios or Disneyworld was Orlando's best amusement park (I was more heavily involved in the latter conversation, because of my love for Harry Potter World).  Then the group rejoined in a larger discussion about multilingualism and the difference between Chinese dialects, and then halted conversation for a couple minutes to together watch a squirrel jump from tree to tree.  Then, organically and without my prompting, the group split into pairs again, once more talking about things they had learned over the semester their conversation partner would find interesting.

It's meetings like these that make the stagnant sessions of the beginning of the semester seem to have been worth it.  I feel that we needed those first few weeks to adjust and grow comfortable with one another--only after kicking some of our anxieties were we able to engage in real conversation that felt natural and was (hopefully) helpful.  One of the most valuable lessons I'll take from Chat Cafe is to allow things time to grow and develop naturally.  I've long been the kind of person that feels antsy when things don't go right immediately--it's normally been hard for me to have faith that things will work themselves out and get where they need to go.  Chat Cafe has proven to me, however, that waiting can be rewarded, especially in situations that can't be forced (as in those involving large groups of strangers).

To future Chat Cafe facilitators, I would advise this: be patient, and allow your group to develop at its own pace.  Yes, it would be great if we could overcome the tension and nervousness inherent to a group like this at out first session (I'm working on that for my capstone project!), but don't bank on that being the case.  It's okay--and, honestly, probably a good thing--for things to be a bit slow at first.  That's how both friendships and communication develop.  In time, your group will become more loquacious, and your students will hopefully become increasingly confident in their English speaking.  That, at least, has been my experience.  I'm immensely glad to have joined Chat Cafe this semester, both because I hope I helped my group members become more comfortable with their English and with life in Ann Arbor, and because it helped me become a better and more sympathetic conversationalist and person.

Blog Post #6

I would like to use this final post to reflect on my experience and my participants' experiences throughout the semester. Even though the semester flew by, a lot happened.

For our first meeting, I was much more nervous than I was prepared to admit. The same tension could be felt amongst the participants. This was to be expected as no one in the group knew one another. Regardless of this, my group was quick to start chatting. I thought that our semester was off to a wonderful start. However, sometime between the 1st and 2nd meeting, my participants hit a conversational roadblock, the origins of which were unbeknownst to me.

It's easy, as a point-person of any group, to become flustered when things don't go as planned. I will admit that I felt stranded during those meetings which were not as lively as the first. But, I will share this piece of advice: failed attempts at conversation should not be taken as a failure or a disconnect. Rather, failed attempts give you, as a conversational leader, a better idea of the preferences of your group, and moreover, a better opportunity to allow your participants to incite conversations of their own.

One of the most successful strategies I implemented during the semester was allowing my participants to begin the conversation themselves. By taking a few moments of silence at the beginning of each meeting my participants eventually realized that the conversation would begin only when they took the initiative. Not only did this lessen their nerves about communicating in English, but it also allowed us to avoid stagnant conversation.

As the weeks passed, so did the occurrence of silences, long pauses, and crickets. Now, headed into our last week, I am happy to say that not only have these participants gained a tighter grasp of the English language and conversational skills, but have also grown closer as members of the international community. Although it is my ultimate goal to is to catalyze friendship between domestic and international students, this is a pretty good start.

Blog Post #5: International Students at UMich

My group has addressed cultural frustrations, especially since I have asked about them many times. I came into chat cafe wanting to be able to ease those frustrations and be a guide for international students who may need a space to vent or ask questions. Common frustrations include: understanding what the professor is saying/what exam questions are asking, knowing common lingo or knowing about annual events at the university, and being able to make friends with non-international students. 

1) Breaking barriers between students: I think that international students should be able to have special office hours or meeting times with professors so that they can get one-on-one time with them. Exams written in simpler English or access to a dictionary/ more time during an exam could help students understand what the questions are asking. Students could also be buddied up with another student or have a special study group for international students through the SLC/ other tutoring orgs so that they don't feel pressured and unable to ask questions. 

2) Knowing about campus events/ locations: I've noticed that many of my participants are not aware of things such as 'tailgating', cider mills, the arb, thanksgiving, etc. I think chat cafe is a great way for students to learn about these terms/things to do. The university could have a calendar or some kind of infographic for each month to explain what kinds of activities occur on campus at that time. Students would know what events they have access to and would be able to participate and learn. 

3)Being able to make friends with non-international students: Professors should make an effort to pair international students with native students so that they can learn from one another in group projects/study sessions, etc. Chat cafe is also a great way for this to happen.

Overall, I think the university needs to recognize that more resources or better accessibility to existing resources needs to be implemented. Chat cafe is one of the best ways to do this. Professors and other university institutions will need to be involved to make UMich more welcoming to international students. 

A Trumped up Conversation

My group has yet to have an exposé about the daily struggles of an international student. However, that being said there have been a few glancing comments that suggest some difficulties they face as a foreign student. For example, one struggle that is ubiquitous among all my group members is their struggle to understand jokes by professors. To help the members in my group I set aside 5 minutes at the end of every chat session fro them to ask any question they want. usually the question pertains to jokes they heard on campus or random groups they see in campus.

Asides from the suggested prompt for this blog post I'd like to talk about the progress of my group! Each week seems to be getting more and more fluid. Last week went very smoothly and felt like an actual conversation and not just forced. This weeks meeting was also a a very interesting and productive meeting. For the first time only two members showed up to my facilitation. However, this did not negatively affect the group, in fact, this meeting had one of the most fluid conversations of the semester! Usually our group meetings start off with a round of roses and thorns, but today I forgot to even initiate roses and thorns because our conversations as the two members showed up just flowed so naturally.

 Another amazing aspect of today's meeting was that we had a very engaging conversation about the election results. The two members that showed up for the meeting are usually the least talkative of the group, but today they opened up a lot. I was amazed when one of the students started to defend Trump (she wasn't pro trump, but she voiced an opinion that is different than the popular discourse on this campus) on. I wasn't expecting that member to say anything controversial. I think it is a great step in the group that member felt comfortable enough bring forth such a controversial view point. Overall the whole conversation was very fluid and very civilized with a diverse viewpoint and I look forward to have more meetings like this past one!

Blog Post #5

My group has not necessarily experienced cultural frustrations here in the United States; rather, it would be more applicable to label it as cultural confusion. The biggest source of confusion that resonated within the cafes I host is the notion of political correctness. For instance, one of the members in my chat cafe was very confused about why it would be bad to dress up as an Indian or Hispanic for Halloween. To him, he saw the act as paying homage to such cultures, that one would go through such time and effort to replicate and mimic the demeanor and appearances of other cultures. He almost saw it as a form of reverence, if not respect, towards said cultures, and did not understand how one could take such actions as being insulting in nature. To this, I explained to him how it may be considered offensive, playing off of stereotypes and arguably degrading the culture of whomever one is dressing as. He responded by saying he could simply retaliate by doing the same thing.

I feel as though this is one of the greater challenges that international students face here: determining the extent to which one should be politically correct, if at all. That is not to say that international students are disrespectful of other people and their respective cultures. Rather, it means that they are unsure as to how others will perceive their actions, even if they believe that such acts are harmless in nature. They seem to not take great offense towards others making ethnic and racial claims about their own culture, something that is strikingly different in this country. After all, there is no direct physical harm being done. If they are offended, then they feel like they can simply return the favor by performing the same action: an eye for an eye, so to speak.

In turn, it has been difficult for me to try and provide an explanation that is fair to both sides of the argument. On one hand, I could most certainly stress the importance of being politically correct in the United States, about how it would greatly offend others if one attempts to mimic their culture. However, this could be seen as being contradicted by television programs like South Park and Family Guy that regularly display somewhat offensive material. In addition, this is not necessarily representative of the country as a whole: there are many individuals who do not adopt the politically correct culture, and actively opposing it. Yet, I do not want to propagate the notion that this is deemed as acceptable within the United States. There are equally as many people who would respond negatively to acts of cultural imitation, and could lead to severe consequences. The best I could do was explain how others could react to such actions, and how it could subsequently impact them down the road. However, I feel like my solution is not necessarily the best one, and that Sweetland and/or the University as a whole could offer a method to explain this phenomenon to international students in a far more nuanced and pronounced manner.

Blog Post 5 - Slang and Culture

Yesterday at my conversation circle, one girl brought up a linguistic feature of English that I thought was a great example of the difficulty in bridging culture and language; the word in question was, "literally."

The girl said that she heard people using it all the time and, while she technically understood what it meant, she had no idea how to use it like a native English speaker. During the discussion, I came to realize that if I weren't a native English speaker myself, I would have had no idea how to use it either. Not only is the word defined in two different, polar meanings, but Americans use it in such specific instances of hyperbole that it's extremely challenging impossible to definitively outline rules for its usage; it can't always just be freely switched out for "very" or "really" or other intensifiers like I was originally thinking when trying to explain its more common or recent usage. 

I think being surrounded by people in their early twenties who are more likely to be using challenging slang like this and using langauge that is only more recently entering popular usage is a very particular obstacle that international students face when it comes to language barriers. I try to be very candid when speaking with my conversation circle, using the same slang and references that I might with my friends so that I can better find openings to pick out things that might need cultural translation. That seems to have worked pretty well, but I feel sometimes that I'm relying too heavily on the others to stop me when I've said or referred to something that they don't understand; it's often hard to recognize things that are normal to me that might be foreign to others.

That said, I definitely think that Sweetland and chat cafe is such a great opportunity for casual conversation and meta-discussion about the way English conversation plays out. I always leave my circles hoping that something we've talked about helps them understand this language and this culture better.

Blog Post #5

Throughout my Chat Cafe sessions this semester, a recurring topic of discussion among my group members are the logistics and minutiae of life in America.  How to acquire a driver's license, how to go about proving residency, and where to find the best insurance rates for international students are all topics of conversation that have been raised more than once in our weekly sessions.

I take a back seat during these discussions, but not because I don't think they're worthwhile.  On the contrary, I think it's great that group members are using one another as a resource, learning the best ways to navigate America from other international students who have been in similar situations previously.  Engaging with others hopefully not only gives them advice to help deal with their immediate challenges, but also makes them feel as though they have a network they can turn to when they come across similar problems again in the future.

The reason I don't contribute much to these conversations, though, is because I don't really have anything helpful to say.  Sure, I know how I got my driver's license, but I don't know whether or not a license is transferrable from China to here.  I've always listed my residency as the house my family lives in, which fortunately is in the United States, so doing that has never been a concern of mine.  I'm lucky enough to be on my parents' insurance, so I'm not much help in traversing those waters either.

What I mean to say by all of this is that I, and I suspect many students at UM, have little understanding of what it's like to work out the everyday details of living in a foreign country. As a campus, I feel we're vaguely aware of the issues facing international students--we understand (if not totally embrace) that language and cultural barriers exist, and that it's probably hard for students to be away from home and family for so long.  What we don't think about, however, are the small details of life that we take for granted.

By pointing this out, I don't aim to suggest that we have to understand all of these details as they apply to international students.  It's difficult enough for most people to keep up with the finer points of their own lives.  What I do feel, however, is that our community should be more aware of the fact that these problems do exist for international students (and for other residents and workers who come from abroad), and we should be sensitive to how these challenges affect their everyday lives.  An American student or professor doesn't have to learn how exactly international insurance rates work to be accommodating to and patient with people whose circumstances differ from ours.

I have no idea whether or not UM provides international students with guidance about how to deal with everyday things like insurance and driving in America--further proof of my lack of understanding of the circumstances of international students.   My group members have never mentioned being offered guidance through this at orientation or elsewhere.  Though that doesn't necessarily mean those things don't exist, that it has never come up in conversation between students in my group means resources like this aren't well-known or useful enough to be discussed between people looking for help.

It would be worthwhile, then, for UM to improve its efforts to help international students with the everyday details of their lives, so their focus here can be on their studies and activities. When members of my Chat Cafe group are unable to make it to sessions, it is invariably for one of two reasons: either they have an exam, or they have to go to the bank or the social security administration or somewhere else to sort out the issues I've mentioned above.  It seems that the need to pay attention to these issues for international students far surpasses the need to do so for American students, and therefore takes away from international students' experiences and opportunities at UM.  As a community, our campus should become more aware of and accommodating to the challenges that face our international peers, and as an institution, UM should better prepare students so these challenges don't detract from their experience at the university.  

Blog Post #5

• As I've mentioned in class, my participants have drawn attention to their inability to understand their professors. They've said that even though they speak English, the speed and complexity of many professors' speech makes it impossible to understand. Because of this they feel that they are left behind in lecture and section. They do not have an understanding of the material equivalent to that of native English-speaking students. When I asked if any of them have shared their concerns with a professor, no one said he/she had. 

A problem like does not have an obvious solution. The professors cannot necessarily adjust the speed of their lectures because there is a certain amount of material they must cover over the course of the semester. However, there are a few things that may help. 

1. Sweetland could increase the breadth of their outreach for the Chat Cafe program. Giving these students the opportunity to improve their English, both speaking and listening, would help improve their understanding in class. 

2. Professors could be encouraged to use lecture slides to accompany their speech. These slides should be required to be posted to Canvas following lecture. This way students can review the material covered in class on their own, at their own speeds. 

3. As facilitators, we can help our participants build their confidence, encouraging them to approach their professors in order to devise a suitable solution. These confrontational scenarios are difficult, especially when there is a language barrier of any level. If we could offer them an opportunity to script how they would approach their professors, perhaps the anxiety associated with these confrontations could be lessened. 

Cross Cultural Conversations

Firstly I want to apologize for the tardiness of my blog post, last week was of one of those "hold on to your hat" type weeks and I totally forgot about writing my blog post! That being said my lack of posting is not representative for a lack of developments in my group, in fact its quite the opposite. Last week was really eyeopening having Anna come and co-facilitate my meeting. I learned a lot by watching her interact with my group.

For some reason I feel like I'm slipping backwards with my group meetings. I believe I have lost sight of what has been important... conversation! the week before Anna sat in my group was extremely productive. We had a great conversation about the rise of the emoji language.  The next week I thought it would be exciting to talk about Halloween. My group did was relatively unresponsive for the first half of the meeting I kept asking questions about Halloween and silence would then consume the room.  It wasn't until we started talking about scary movies and roller coasters till the group became more lively. however the question the incited the most responses was Anna's simple question, "how do your keyboards work?"

One of the reasons I believe my conversations have been sliding backwards is because i'm only creating a one sided conversation. How can these students have a conversation about Halloween if they don't have knowledge about Halloween! The engaging factor of Anna's question has to do with the fact that it engages a topic they already have prior knowledge of! it sounds so simple but its something I have been neglecting during these meetings. This brings me to the topic for this blog post: cultural differences. In the past whenever we have discussed cultural differences we end up having a meaningful and productive conversation. I believe the reason for this is because these students have extensive knowledge of their own culture therefore can speak confidently about it. in the future I plan to have more cross cultural conversations to create an environment with in the group where each member can contribute and feel confident.