This week in coffee and conversation I met Dongseung from South Korea. He spent 6 months living in Cambridge before coming to London in September. We talked a little about the differences between the architecture in London and in Seoul. Dongseung said he liked the historical buildings here as Seoul is made up of mainly modern architecture.
Our conversation moved on to discussing the political systems here and in South Korea and whether our governments were popular. I am slightly embarrassed to say that I was unable to fully explain how politics works in Britain! For example, I couldn’t really say what the Queen was for! (Anyone who can clear this up is welcome to add a comment to this blog.) Needless to say, Dongseung had a much better idea of how things worked in his country.
One of the language skills that is really important in conversation is expressing your opinions and we talked quite a lot about what we thought on a range of topics, including crime and the death penalty! Obviously, both these things are not usually discussed as part of small talk, but I felt very comfortable talking to Dongseung and I found the conversation really interesting.
As always, I am looking forward to the next coffee and conversation class and more interesting talks with students.
Saffron Holloway