Blog #6

Over this semester, I have not only gotten to watch all of my participants grow more confident in their English and get excited about discovering new places in Ann Arbor, but also to become friends with each other as well. It has been wonderful to have both groups grow and share their experiences in a new country. It has also been a reminder about all of the different ways of life that exist around the globe, which has been important to me, given certain aspects of the current political climate in this country. I have learned a lot from my group over the semester, and I think that I will use this in my everyday life, both in and out of classes. It has given me a greater understanding of other cultures (especially China), as well as introduced me to some wonderful new people!

To improve in the future, I will make a more detailed schedule ahead of time with all of the things I want/ plan to do. This semester has taught me where participants may be excited to go, as well as what is fun to do at the various places. For example, TeaHaus was a big hit, despite being a bit of a walk, and one of my groups asked to go back for our last meeting so that they could try more teas! This will also allow me to make sure that I am always very prepared (and not waiting for craft supplies to arrive the day I want to use them!). I think it also allow me to incorporate a few more crafts in on the weeks where we do not visit anywhere.

Overall, Chat Café has been a wonderful experience, and I am excited to do it again and to learn even more from other students!

One final post....

It's hard to believe the semester is already coming to a close. I remember sitting in that eerie room in the basement of the dental building waiting for more people to arrive - only to discover that it would be a class of just 2 students. Never having had a class with just me, one other person, and the professor, I was a little nervous about how it would pan out. But Chat Cafe has been one of the most rewarding classes I've taken. 

Even though I was very anxious before my first meeting (wondering what I'd do if the conversation stalled or my group members didn't have fun), it has only gone up from there. Each session was something different; either in terms of activity or location. Based on student reactions, it was a good strategy to do this because they got a chance to explore Ann Arbor which they said they previously hadn't gotten to do.

One of the funniest times I had in Chat Cafe was when we were discussing our favorite TV shows and the quietest guy in the group looks sheepishly around before informing us that his favorite show is Desperate Housewives. I was completely shocked; I rarely find people who can tolerate that show besides me, and of all people, an international student in my Chat Cafe group turns out to be a Wisteria Lane fan - what are the odds? We spent a while discussing how irritating Teri Hatcher's character was and how everything in the show was so messed up and fun. I was pleasantly surprised to form a bond over such an unlikely topic. 

I've learned so much from being a Chat Cafe facilitator, and I know it'll translate to to other areas of my life, as well. Doing this has helped me develop my ability to adapt to novel circumstances. A lot of times, if someone didn't show up or there was an issue with our meeting place, etc. I had to figure out a different activity for us to do. 

Also, I learned that there is a lot a I don't know about the culture of international students. Sometimes a student would react in an unexpected way to a question asked and when I asked about it, they would reply "we don't really talk about that back home" or "that's too personal" or "I didn't understand it, I've never seen it." It has both taught me to be more attuned to the emotions of others and it has inspired me to learn more about the culture of others. 

I'm so glad I got this opportunity, and I am sad to see it end! 

Blog #5

I think one challenge faced by international students is getting out and exploring Ann Arbor. I remember being a freshman and being nervous to venture out into downtown, and this was without an added language barrier. A lot of the people in my Chat Café groups know about common hangouts for the international student community, such as Sweeting and a Chinese (I think) karaoke bar near North Campus. However, a lot of them have been very excited to explore coffee shops, museums, and other parts of Ann Arbor, and said they may not have tried a lot of the places one their own. Holding Chat Café in different places is one way to address this challenge. The university could also address this by creating a sort of handbook/ guide to Ann Arbor, using input from current students. I think this would be useful to all new students at the university, not just international students. However, to make it particularly useful to the international students, it would be helpful if this guidebook included things like menus, why people go to that place, (studying, casual dinner, fancy dinner, shopping, etc...),  and insider tips from other students. Even things like CVS and Walgreens could be included - some of my students didn't know what was sold at these stores! Something we take for granted was a huge revelation for many of them. This would also be different from a guide aimed at tourists in Ann Arbor. It would be targeted to include popular and/ or essential places for students, and while it's cool to go to the "touristy" attractions, the guide I have in mind would be more comprehensive and functional for the day to day life of a student.

Things I didn't always think about before...

In the bustle of school and work and everyday life, it is easy to forget that some people have to juggle the same responsibilities - with the added challenge of doing it all in a language they didn't initially learn growing up. Being a chat cafe leader has opened my eyes to struggles that international students potentially face in their daily lives. When a group member told me that he misread an exam question and made a silly mistake as a result, I marveled at the obstacles the student had had to overcome: math is hard enough, word problems easy enough to misinterpret for a native speaker, but throw in the additional difficulty of being unfamiliar with the language the question is posed, and you have an exponentially more challenging problem on hand. I asked if he had received extra time from his professor, and he said he did not nor did he ask. I was impressed by how hardworking and determined the students are to challenge themselves even further and not ask for special accommodations.

Additionally, they expressed confusion over how to order coffee initially, which I understood as I also did not really understand what half caf soy nonfat really meant before I started drinking coffee. But these shortened, colloquialisms make it extra difficult for people who did not grow up speaking the language to pick up and utilize.

I think as chat cafe leaders, we can make session an open and welcoming space to voice concerns, problem solve as a group, and make sure each individual feels as though they've been heard. If a problem surpasses the jurisdiction or reach of the facilitator, it is important to recommend point people that the student can contact. For instance, if a student needs more time for a test, they can speak to their professor and fill out a form to potentially gain this extended time to complete an exam.

I think solutions can be worked out in these cases to ease the transition for international students.  

Blog #4

We have talked a lot about cultural differences in both of my groups. In particular, we have talked a lot about different foods. We had a meeting at Sweeting where I tried bubble tea and sweet sticky rice with red beans. Bubble tea is Taiwanese, and my Taiwanese group members decided that Sweeting has good bubble tea, but not as good as what is available in Taiwan. They also said that it is much cheaper there because it is not a specialty, it is just everywhere, from restaurants to street food carts! We have also discussed quite a bit about the differences in education systems between the United States and other countries. It was very interesting to learn, not only what is different compared to here, but also to hear my group members discuss the similarities and differences between their own respective countries. I've also realized that it is quite unique that, in the United States, more than test scores are taken into account when applying to universities, and that we can take our entrance exams more than once. Taiwan, Malaysia, and China all have these all-or-nothing exams at the end of high school. I also know that entrance to university in France is also based on a country-wide one time test. We did come to the general consensus that there are good and bad things about all of the different systems.

We have discussed many other things beside this, and I feel comfortable taking about these differences. I'm extremely interested to learn about the other ways of doing things that take place around the world. I also enjoy sharing US culture ideas (most recently, Halloween!) and discussing them. It's always interesting hear how someone who did not grow up with the same ideas views the way things are here. 

Blog #3

I have noticed throughout the semester that planning a conversation can go significantly different than facilitating a conversation. The biggest issue is that I'll plan something, and then we don't talk about it nearly as long as I expect, which leaves me jumping from Plan A to Plan B pretty quickly. However, I have found that just taking a step back after discussing my question or activity and letting the conversation continue without me guiding it is a good way for the other students to practice their English and ensure that I am not doing too much of the talking. This also spreads out my plan to ensure that I do not run through it before time is up. Then, once the conversation slows, I'll jump back in to ask a new question or move to a new activity. Additionally, I always imagine the conversation going in a certain direction, which does not always happen. This is not a big deal, but it is definitely a huge difference between my panning and my facilitating.

Furthermore, now that I know my participants a little bit better, it has definitely changed how I facilitate. I don't plan the same things for both of my groups all of the time. My Wednesday group is slightly more introverted, and won't always talk as much; therefore, I always have extra stuff to discuss with them. I recently went to Sweeting with them, and planned all the things we could discuss, including the menu, tea, and plans for fall break. I let the conversation flow, and we discussed the menu and what we were going to order for quite awhile, but I made sure to have a new question ready for whenever we had a lull. My Friday group is quite lively (surprising for 7 PM on Friday!) and the conversation flows pretty easily. Because of this, we usually don't get through as much stuff, but we also go off on many interesting tangents. For example, last Friday we discussed what is cheaper or more expensive in the United States vs their home country. This grew out of a conversation about the UM vs MSU game!

Week 3 blog post

It's interesting to consider how different conversations turn out in practice compared to when you're planning them. For instance, I set up a loose agenda for my last chat cafe session: 10min introductions and questions, 3 min to write down questions, 15 min activity, etc.

But in the actual conversation, the times I allotted varied sometimes. We spent less time writing down questions and more time during the introduction. I think a way to combat feeling like you're getting off track is to not be too regimented about your chat cafe session. It helps to keep things flexible, so if you get "off track" you're not really in trouble because you didn't have a strict structure to stick to anyway. It helps take the pressure off I think. You don't feel a need to guide the conversation stiffly or awkwardly - you just sort of let it flow.

Now that I know my participants a little better, I sort of know what topics get the most responses (i.e. what was something you experienced this week that surprised you?).

It's interesting to hear from their POV, and it opens my eyes to all the potentially confusing things around campus. It's so easy to assume that everyone will understand something so you don't have to be too specific, but you have to keep in mind that there's a whole audience that may not see it the same way. I'm glad this class is teaching me to be more cognizant of that.

Blog #2

I really appreciated the handouts from ELI, especially the one with all of the feedback from past participants and facilitators. It was good to get so much perspective and so many new ideas, while also learning some key what-not-to-dos. I got an idea for my most recent Chat Café from it: writing questions on cards, putting them in the center of the circle, and, going around the table, drawing a card to read and answer. This led to some very interesting responses, as well as discussion around the table after the initial person had given their response. We discussed everything from food (everyone wants to try cuisine from other cultures!) to study habits. The cards created structure and kept it moving, but there was still natural discussion around the table. Picking the card felt more like a game than a forced conversation, especially since we had written them ourselves! This actually surprised me a little, and made me think about "genuine" conversation in a new way. I think that genuine conversation can be had in infinitely many ways, but it is characterized by being enjoyable to all the participants. I think that to foster such conversation in my groups, it's important for me to have a plan and backups to the plan to make sure the conversation never stops. However, I should never stop natural discussion that is flowing away from the original plan because this is how real conversation works. I will direct the conversation back to the original plan if the conversation slows or stops. 

ELI visit

I learned so much from the ELI visit to our class. I was given very helpful feedback on what I can do to improve and what things I should recommend to the students. For example, I didn't realize that TV shows are not a good way to get better at learning a language by ear. However, there are YouTube videos, clubs, and other things that can make a student feel more comfortable with their linguistic abilities.

The other strategy that was touched on in class was the question rebound: when someone asks a question, ask another person to respond to that question. This way, more people are getting involved in the group and speaking up. This fosters an inclusive atmosphere of camaraderie. I hope that this will encourage shier people to engage in the group and be more vocal.

It's also important to consider the entire group's needs. For instance, if one person wants to do presentation-type chats, that might not be representative of what everyone wants. It's so crucial to pay attention to group dynamics and put effort into making sure everyone is satisfied and content.

First Blog Post

I'm so excited to start working as a Chat Cafe leader! I also work at Sweetland as a peer writing consultant, and in the past I worked for the Science Learning Center as a study group facilitator; both experiences have helped prepare me, at least to some degree, for this next challenge. Whereas as a peer writing consultant, I help students with their written language, now I will be helping students with their verbal language skills. I think it will be very informative to compare and contrast the two positions and get a more multi-faceted view on language.

I'm a bit anxious about having silences in the conversation and navigating that occurrence. I feel like I'll be responsible to keep the conversation going when it lags or to revive it if it dies. I suppose I will have to drink a lot of coffee beforehand to ensure that I will be very chatty. It's helpful to understand that silence can be a natural and normal part of conversation, though. Not every second needs to be filled with chatter. Plus, silences give us an opportunity to really stretch our minds for something to say.

The reason I chose to be a Chat Cafe facilitator involves the desire to form connections with people I may never have gotten to know otherwise. It's always healthy to hear about perspectives and beliefs that differ vastly from your own; I think that's how we learn and get better, or at least learn to understand others. I also thought it would be interesting to explore the opposite of what I do at Sweetland Center for Writing which is instead of helping with written word, helping with orally expressed language.

All in all, I'm very excited to begin meeting new people and just having good conversation with them!

Blog #1

I am very excited to meet new people through the Chat Cafe, as well as share and discuss different cultures. After studying abroad in France this summer, and living and taking classes in a foreign language, I feel that I have an interesting perspective going into this. I'm excited to share cool things about Ann Arbor with my groups, such as restaurants and the Arb, as well as to learn about cultural differences between their home countries and the United States. I always found discussions like this my host family in France very interesting, and there's always so much to learn from other people! Of course, that is not all that I am excited to talk about. It will also be fun to talk about things like books, TV, food, and classes. All of these things, particularly the opportunity to meet new people and share new and exciting ideas, are what motivate me to be a Chat Cafe leader. I love to meet new people and learn from them, so Chat Cafe seems like an awesome opportunity to do that, all while helping to create a safe space for international students to practice their English.

On the other hand, I am nervous about having a very shy group, or having one person who really dominates the conversation. I really want everyone to be comfortable, both with me and with the other members of the group. Having a very shy group would be difficult because it would be very important for me to keep the conversation going and ask a lot of questions; however, I am confident that they would eventually warm up. Having one person always dominating the conversation would be a different challenge, but I think that my first approach to remedying that would be to ask direct questions to other members of the group who weren't talking as much. Despite these concerns, I am overwhelmingly excited to meet my groups and get started!

Chat Cafe End-of-Semester Update

On Friday, at our Chat Cafe session, a member of my group, Jinyu, asked if we could take a picture before going our separate ways.

This request--one that might seem simple or insignificant to someone else--meant a lot to me.  Jinyu wasn't prompted or egged on by me to commemorate our group's last meeting--instead, the idea was entirely hers, one that indicated to me that Chat Cafe meant something to her this semester.

My hope, of course, is that it meant something as well to other members of our group.  We had a solid 5 throughout most of the semester, and thankfully there was a great deal of chemistry within our group.  Jinyu, Xiwen, and Yang were all from Beijing, and bonded over that shared experience; Adam and Jinyu both had transferred from other universities, and were able to share perspective on the best way to navigate through UM; Xiwen and Yang loved to talk about the places they hoped to travel one day.  Conversations flowed freely through most of our sessions, which would often continue beyond our allotted time (which was fine by me--the discussions were fascinating!).

I hesitate, some, in making comparisons between my two Chat Cafe groups; both were great, in their own ways, and I feel very lucky to have had groups that both remained pretty committed to coming to sessions.  But I would say that this group probably had a greater interest in getting to know one another, whereas the last group probably was more interested in getting my insights about UM and America.  I noticed that this semester, many more conversations took place between pairs in a group, rather than with me at the center of them.  Whether this was because I was a better facilitator this time around or because of a difference in what my group members hoped to gain from Chat Cafe, I don't know.

I do know, however, that I appreciate the way things went this semester.  One of the things I've heard most often while facilitating is how isolating and lonely being an international student at UM can be.  Students have told me about how they worry about talking to their American roommates because of a language barrier, how lectures require them to translate the material from English to Mandarin, and then comprehend its academic meaning, how much they miss their families and their homes and their pets.  Watching the people in my group become friends this semester--I know several of them are friends on Facebook, and that a couple have gone to dinner with one another outside of our group--makes me hope that Chat Cafe might have made the experience at UM a little less lonely.  Beyond giving students the opportunity to practice their conversational English, I think the real value in Chat Cafe is how it gives international students the chance to feel like they are part of a community.

I'm sad to know that my time as a Chat Cafe facilitator has come to an end.  I'm happy, however, to have seen firsthand the way this program can create a stronger network of international students, and hopefully make their experience at UM better.  I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to take part in Chat Cafe, and am sure the program will continue to do great things in the future.

Chat Cafe: Part Deux

Before I talk about my experience as a second-time Chat Facilitator I would like to acknowledge why it is I signed up for round 2. After the first semester, although I spent a lot of time getting to know my participants, I felt as though I could better job at not only facilitating conversations but also creating relationships between the participants and myself. Also, this summer I will be going to India to facilitate a class of international students as they journey around the country, so I thought practicing and improving my facilitating skills would be beneficial to my summer internship.  So, from day one of “Chat Café Part Deuxs” I have had the active goal to use my experience from last semester to create a better learning platform for both my participants and myself.  That being said, this semester is completely different from my last semester. Last semester I had a regular group of 5 or 6 participants, this semester I have had a regular group of 3. Most of the time all 3 participants show up, however, there have been sessions with just 2 participants and on occasion, I have even gotten to experience a 1 on 1 session.  Another change from last semester to this semester is the rooming situation. Last semester my group only wanted to meet in one location for the whole semester, however, this semester, my participants have expressed interest in moving around campus each week for sessions. The first handful of weeks we moved from lounge to lounge around campus. This was a challenge for me. Each week I had to find the different lounge with the right environment to host a chat group. Eventually, I realized that I could reserve study rooms at the Shapiro library. The group loved the reserved room so much we just reserve a different room in Shapiro each week.

The main difference in my style from last semester to this semester is that I am much more flexible with my sessions now. Last semester I would try to come up with themes each week to generate topics. These themes ended up trapping the conversation and stunted natural conversation. This semester I come to each meeting with little to no preparation. Sometimes I will bring articles from the Michigan Daily in and we will talk about the general idea of the article, however, the article serves as a jumping off point for the conversation, not the main topic. One strategy I have used in both semesters is starting the meeting off with roses and thorns, basically, each member says something good about their week, ad something bad about their week. I usually use topics brought up from roses and thorns as jumping off points for the conversation. I just started using table topics in my facilitation as well. I learned about table topics from my time with a public speaking club called toastmasters. The idea of table topics is that a speaker is given a question like “talk about a time someone was nice to you, how did it make you feel?” then the speaker gives a quick speech for 30-60 seconds. After the speech, the person sitting on the left of the speaker give a constructive comment and the person on the right gives a compliment. I’ve adopted table topics to my group after asking them if they would be interested in that exercise. This week was the first implementation of table topics and my group really enjoyed it.

Apart from the small differences in my facilitating style, I would say the biggest difference is that I constantly seek feedback from my participants this semester. Usually, in the last 5 minutes of the meeting, I’ll ask my group if there is anything that I could do better or if they have any suggestions for next session. This constant feedback from my group has allowed me to try new techniques as well as improve my overall skillset as a facilitator.

Overall I was really on the edge about signing up for a second round of Chat Café, however, this semester has been really rewarding so far and I can't wait to see how both my group members and I grow. 

Chat Cafe: Winter Edition

I was pretty nervous about starting Chat Cafe again this semester.  My group from last fall had set the bar high--they were terrific, active participants who, by December, I considered to be friends.  So, naturally, I figured things would even out and I might not have such a great experience this time (eternal pessimist--isn't it charming?).  Boy, was I wrong.

My first two sessions of the semester were a tad unorthodox--at the first, three of the six people signed up for the group came, and at the second, the other three came (no one from the first session was able to attend).  Although initially dismayed by this (only two weeks in, and already half of the group can't make it--eek!), I realize in retrospect that this split, smaller group accident actually laid some really nice groundwork for us.  At those first two sessions, there was a degree of intimacy that can be difficult to establish in a group of seven in which no one knows each other.  Conversation flowed easily, we broke into pairs naturally and then came back together as a single group, and everyone became familiar with other people really quickly.  This was one of the things I was hoping would happen with the board game I created for my capstone project last semester--group members would become comfortable with just one other person, which would hopefully set them at ease with the group as a whole.  (To my slight disappointment, though, we didn't actually play the board game itself--I asked about it at the first two sessions, but no one really seemed interested, and because things were going well otherwise, I figured there was no reason to push.)

After these initial sessions, we've had pretty much full attendance--and like I hoped, the familiarity created in those first two meetings have really helped the group mesh as one.  Members are really talkative in this group, which I love--we've actually already had some really interesting discussions about Mandarin, the layout/architecture of Chinese cities, and Spring Festival.  It's interesting to me that this group seems to be a bit more open to talking about their lives before college than my previous one was--last semester, most discussions centered around life at UM and in the US, but this semester has had a bit broader reach.  I like that my two semesters facilitating have given a mix of discussion topics, because I feel that I've both been able to help familiarize students with some of the idiosyncrasies of American life and learned from them more about the world at large.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens this semester--my gut tells me things are going to go well.  This group has great chemistry, and I love that I've gotten better at letting conversations flow where they will, rather than where I want them to go.  Last semester, Chat Cafe became a bright spot at the end of my week that helped pull me through school and work, and I have no reason to think it won't continue to be that.  It's exciting to spend time with my group, and I can't wait to see what conversations unfold in the coming weeks.

Chat Cafe Check-in

My chat cafe this semester has been a very easy going group! We've had a few late adds and so there will presumably be new people at our meeting this week. It will be interesting to see how this changes the dynamic, but we had a late add earlier in the semester and it was very easy to incorporate him into our dynamic. Everyone is pretty open and comfortable so I haven't had much difficulty making sure everyone talks. We've talked mostly about school and food and I've tried to keep them updated on my favorite events on campus like UMMA After Hours (one this Friday 5-8!).

I've gone to restaurants with my groups in the past but I think cost-wise it might not be as feasible with this group. Instead I'm thinking I'll do some sort of pot-luck movie night in an open classroom which I've done in the past. Several group members mentioned they liked baking brownies, so maybe a brownie night! Since we meet after museums and such are closed I've been thinking about other activities we can do instead and I did card games a few times which I might try again or a day where we play games like 2 truths and a lie or 20 questions which worked nicely the other times I've done them. I also told them about the Wellness Zone in CAPS in the Union which is open until 7 so I might take them there to try out the massage chairs which are so nice!

All and all it's shaping up to be another great semester!

I am very surprised at how  talkative my chat cafe group was this semester. Usually, it is the grad students in my conversation circle that will direct questions at me and keep the conversation going. For chat cafe, I usually have to come up with activities to break the ice. However, my activity for this conversation circle has been pushed off many weeks already because the members have been bringing up conversation topics. One member is especially talkative and has been texting me questions about courses and asking for advice, but he has not been taking over the group. His English is on the more advanced side which I think is because of his extroverted nature, but he always waits for those who speak slower and tries to help those whose English skills are not as fluent to help others comprehend. The only problem is that he texts me in Chinese and sometimes my Chinese is not good enough to keep up with him but I am trying to accommodate to him. I respond to his texts in English but I do not feel the need to make him text me in English because I am sure he reads a lot of English for his classes and the point of chat cafe is to help for conversation.
Our meeting place is in a reserved room in East Hall, and I'm not sure if it feels too much like a class or if the meeting room is a good idea. I know it can feel lie a class at first, but I really like having a private place because I feel like it is a safer place because they know no one else can listen in on the conversation. In addition, we can play silly games without having outsiders look at us. Last semester, I had a bigger room where it would have been inconvenient to sit at the chairs around the table because there were so many tables pushed together for one big table. At first I moved the tables but that made the room feel cramped and weird to be surrounded by tables so then I had them just sit on the tables and make that the new floor, but this semester the room is smaller and it feels cozier.
Overall, I am very happy with my chat cafe group this semester and I hope we continue to have good conversations with the topics that the members bring up.