Marina - CP1

Last Tuesday I met my new conversation partner Fatih Aktas during Tea Time at CIES. He's a student at the CIES, looking to study comparative education here in the United States on the Fulbright Scholarship. From our lovely conversation, I found out that he is still trying to improve his English and take the TOEFL exam to get into the three schools of his choice. He has already graduated from a university in Turkey and now looking to go into the academia life here in the United States.

To my surprise, his English langauge skills were much better than what I expected. From the emails, his writing seemed decent for someone who just moved here form Turkey two weeks ago. However, his verbal skills are just as advanced. I could clearly understand what he was telling me, of course with some minor errors.

It also came as a surprise to me that he has been to Russian for a political science seminar through his university, so he was very curious to learn more about my own culture and my acquisition and deep interest in foreign languages and cultures.

I'm looking forward to meeting with him again and introducing him more to the American culture here in Tallahassee.