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!
Hey Costa,
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that your conversation groups are improving! The fact that it feels like an actual dialogue is happening in a rather fluid manner is always good, even if it was with a group smaller than normal. I also enjoyed the fact that some of the more shy people within your group are starting to open up a little bit more, that's always a positive. With regards to having trouble understanding jokes, I feel as though that would be a problem any international student would face. The complexities and nuanced utilization of language that goes into a joke is much deeper than we might initially think. With jokes, we play on word definition, phonetics, semantics, and much more; it really involves messing heavily with the English language, something that these Chat Cafe students are just starting to become accustomed to. Good observation about the difficulties your participants have with comprehending jokes, and I like your answer to such a problem.
Costa, I think its great that the conversation was so fluid and that everyone finally feels somewhat comfortable. I've had the same experience where some weeks my group has great discussions, and others it can seem a little dragged out and dry. I also love that you set aside 5 minutes for questions. That is an excellent way for your participants to use you as a resource or a peer who may know answers that they cannot figure out alone. I find it interesting that your group hasn't touched on the struggles of being an international student, as this is a central theme to my group. But, I think that is the beauty of chat cafe! Each group is different and has many varied conversation topics that they touch on. I'm proud of your progress this year, especially since I know you were nervous and it seems that you're always looking for ways to improve and make the experience better for your group. Great work :)
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