I digress, Tugba did enjoy some good horror movies though, and one of her favorites is The Exorcist, which is a classic. Good choice. She could not recall the name of the King books she had read, but I managed to get her to explain a few to me. She seems, like many foreign speakers to be a little afraid of speaking to a native, for fear of mistakes. This is probably because it's our first meeting. I actually can sympathize with this, when I was in Ecuador, all of the people I was with spoke Spanish, and oftentimes I was nervous to speak because my Spanish is no where near fluent. It can be quite intimidating. Overall I think our first meeting went well, and look forward to further meetings, and more conversation.
It's true that the fear of making mistakes is often the biggest obstacle to communicating in another language, whether it be writing, listening, and most of all, speaking. I've been told by friends in the East that the most important first step towards even being functional in a language is to just accept that, no matter what, you will look and sound like a blubbering fool for a short period of time. Once you can overcome that sense of self-posture, the potential to actually withhold information around you is greatly increased, and intimidation becomes less and less. That's not to say this is an easy transition by any means, but one that is fundamental in early language learning. By the way, I'm with you on the zombies.
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