•  What will be your topic of conversation be? 

I wanted to try to have a natural conversation and get to know my conversation partner. 

•  What are 5 questions related to your conversation goal that you can think of ahead of time to ask your partner?

- What do you like to do?

- What do you like to learn about?

- Where are you from?

- What do you want to do when you're older?

- What brought you to sharedtalk?

•  What are you looking forward to about this conversation? 

I think it will be great to get to know someone in a completely different place than me. I want to know exactly how different or similar we are. 

•  What are you nervous about? 

I hope I can keep the conversation moving without using a translator. 

I learned a lot about my partner in this conversation. We had a very good conversation that progressed as one would between two native speakers of any language. I discovered that my partner Rafael(19, Brazil), very much enjoys learning other languages and has a great love for China. He's also part polish and likes learning about astrology. 

What did you learn from them?

Honestly, I didn't gain much from this conversation except morale. Before this I'd had many dud conversations but this was uplifting. I didn't learn much because he chose to write in english, while I wrote in spanish. In the end, it worked out because I could tell if he understood what I was writing by his responses and it was much easier to do in english. 

What did you learn about yourself?

I learned that in trying to be quick and consistent in my responses, I let some spelling and grammar mistakes get through. I was worried about responding quickly, because with other people when I'd take too long trying to make sure everything was correct, they would disconnect. 

What were you surprised about?

I was surprised he knew so many languages. Rafael knew english, spanish, portuguese, and chinese. 

What are you proud of?

I was proud that he seemed to have no trouble understanding what I was writing. He never mentioned any mistakes which made me happy. 

What follow-up questions do you have?

I just would have liked to know specifically where my spelling, grammar, or usage could have improved in our conversation. 

What will you improve on for next time?  How?

I will think about the context of things before I write them so I use the correct tense of words and such. I'll carefully read and take a moment to fully comprehend what I'm reading so I can answer accurately. 

¿Qué déportes important en Brazil? 

¿Qué deportes en muy grande en Brazil? 

¿Haces ves fútbol? 

¿Deportes es mucho importante en Brazil o arte es muy importante? 

¿Deportes en las escuela?

The  topic of conversation will be about the sports that are played in Argentina and how that relates to the culture of the country.

•  What are 5 questions related to your conversation goal that you can think of ahead of time to ask your partner?

1. What is the most popular sport in Argentina?

2. What kinds of sports do you play?

3. What is your favorite football team?

4. Do most children like playing sports in Argentina?

5. Who is your favorite soccer player?

•  What are you looking forward to about this conversation?

I am looking forward to learning about the sports of Argentina since I myself is a big sports fan who follows professional football and even play football on SLA's varsity football team.

•  What are you nervous about?

I am only a little nervous about having a full conversation without using a translator. However, I have learned how to deal with this from my work on my first goal.

Post-Conversation:

Reflection:

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?

I spoke to Juan Vela and I spoke to this person because I wanted to know about sports in Argentina and he is a native of Argentina.

• What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?

I learned that Juan is a very passionate soccer fan. I learned that football is the most popular sport in Argentina but other popular sports include volleyball, tennis and basketball. I also found out that Juan plays football and tennis. His favorite football team in Argentina is Boca. Juan's favorite player is Carlos Tevez. Juan also learned that I also play football for my school and my favorite football team is Man City in the English Premier League.

• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?

I am very passionate about soccer and I wanted to learn about soccer in foreign countries and Argentina has one of the best national soccer teams. I have learned a lot of sports vocabulary while at the same time learning about something that I enjoy doing. I also liked that my conversation with Juan included different tenses.

What are 5 questions related to your conversation goal that you can think of ahead of time to ask your partner?

What are you nervous about?

Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?
  I spoke with Angel Cares. He's 22 years old and he lives in Chile. I chose to speak with him because he seemed nice and I liked his name.
• What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?
  I learned that he is studying psychology in college and that he's been in college for 4 years now. 
• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?
  It helped me move towards my achievements because I didn't expect for him & I to talk about college. He asked me a lot of questions, which I thought was cool because I wasn't doing all the work. 
• What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?
  I think I did pretty well with asking questions that wasn't so boring. That's what random is all about.
• What specifically do you need to improve on? 
  I need to improve on my long sentences. Making sure that it sounds right.

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?
  I spoke with a man named Sergio and he was a native spanish speaker. This man invited me to private chat and I asked him if I could ask him questions for a class of mine. He was very polite and accepted. 

• What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?
  I learned he was from spain. I asked about what kind of music was popular and what was on the radio. He told me what kind of music he listened to. He said he liked jazz and classical music.  

• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?
  It helped me understand that is spain, they listen to the same types of music we do, only the artists are speaking spanish.

• What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?
  I found very good answers to what types of music are popular in spain. I think it was good because he helped me understand that they don't only listen to flamenco or chahca or any other stereotypical spanish music. 

• What specifically do you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again)rc
  I wish I had asked more questions about the culture and not specifically to Sergio. 
  
  
  

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?
  -I spoke with Diana because she's a very close friend of mine & I just wanted to test out my spanish skills.
• What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?
  -I learned that she loves Italian food! 
• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?
  -It helped me a lot because I was able to act normal and not try so hard.
• What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?
  -I tried to conjugate at the right moment.
• What specifically do you need to improve on? 
  -I think I need to improve on my vocabulary.