EC Boston English Language School offers an exciting and valuable program to international students studying English with us in Boston. It’s called the Conversation Partners Program. Through this program, students who are at an Intermediate level and above can be matched with a Native-English speaking American volunteer. Over the course of a 10-week program, the student and volunteer set up weekly meetings at cafes, restaurants, and other public areas in and around Boston in order to practice English conversation! It’s a great way for students to meet “real Americans” and take their English practice outside of the classroom.
This blog post was written by EC Boston student Dong Jin Lim, from Korea:
“At the end of January, Laura and I met through EC Boston’s Conversation Partners Program. I realized that EC had worked hard to find each other’s partners because Laura and I have the same interests and hobbies. I really like reading comics and Laura also enjoys cartoons. Whenever we meet, we usually drink a cup of coffee and chat for an hour. We don’t know each other very much, so we talk about ourselves. It is fun. Actually, I had just known about Americans’ daily lives by watching American dramas before I met Laura. Even though there are many friendly teachers in EC, I hardly met teachers in real life, outside of classes. However, Laura is different from teachers. She has a job that doesn’t relate with ESL students. Therefore, I’m getting know a real American.
Our last meeting’s topic was the Super Bowl. As she is an American, she watched the game and explained her Super Bowl party’s atmosphere and how it was. Afterwards, we conversed about sports. The difference between sports in America and Korea is university games. In Korea, when any sport’s university league starts, just a few people watch the league. Koreans don’t care about the league because lots of athletes enter professional teams after they gradate form high schools. On the other hand, America’s athletes usually enter professional teams after finishing universities. Therefore, a lot of Americans love watching university leagues.
I’m sharing a photo of a coffee shop where Laura and I went called Diesel Cafe. It is nearby Davis Square Station that is on the red line train, north. They sell many different types of tea, coffee and some sandwiches and snacks. The price is cheap and the mood is very cozy. I recommend that EC students who are living nearby the red line go here!”
