Lora CP#1

I met my conversation partner, Jayoung, for the first time on Friday (June 24th).  I was excited to meet her from the time we scheduled the meeting earlier in the week, as she seemed genuinely excited to want to meet me and I found her enthusiasm quite contagious.  I suggested meeting for dinner and I asked her what she liked, she replied saying that she wanted something American.  I immediately thought of hamburgers and french fries because what could be more American than that?! 

We met at one my favorite burger spots, BurgerFi.  Her excitement when I arrived was palpable and I loved how it influenced me and generated more excitement for me – it was a wonderful reminder of how influential our own attitude can be on others and how I would like to incorporate more of that into my own life.  She was incredibly generous and offered to pay for my meal and at first I told her she didn’t have to do it but, she seemed like she really wanted to and I didn’t want to be rude so I accepted.  Accepting gifts such as letting someone else pay for my meal is hard for me and it was wonderful practice in learning to receive.  Not only that, when I was telling her that she didn’t have to pay for my meal, I started to think about what it might mean in her culture to refuse a gesture such as that and I didn’t want to be rude – which is also a good reminder to think about how other cultures might view things. 

When we sat down, I asked her if she wanted any correction and she said that she wouldn’t mind a little correction but she mainly wanted to work on fluency and from there the conversation was off.  We talked about the typical getting to know you things like where are you from, etc.  Jayoung is from South Korea and she is here getting ready to go to school - She works with the South Korean tourism organization and they sent her here to earn her master’s degree. 

Over all she communicated well but there were moments throughout the conversation that she struggled to communicate with me. However, by looking things up as well as discussing things we were generally able to figure most things out.  Communication difficulties aside, I found our interaction fun and enjoyable and I feel it was also helpful to her.  I am really excited to meet with her again!