Speaking Partner Experience # 2

We started off with introductions and brief discussion of how our lives are going.

Ismenia read things about clarification to me and then we talked about questions concerning clarification. Ismenia said that she sometimes doesn't understand what people said and it is embarrassing because she doesn't know what they are saying because they speak fast, they put words together, and their pronunciation. Ismenia says that at the Pathway gathering, she doesn't have any problem understanding the language because everyone, including the missionaries, speaks slowly and helps everyone to understand. I gently reminded Ismenia that I am here to help her and that if she has questions, she can ask them and to not be afraid of asking me questions. Sometimes, Ismenia feels uncomfortable about asking people to repeat what they have said because it makes her feel limited in trying to express her thoughts.

We then turned our attention to decimal practice and pronuniciation and I started by leading Isemenia through an addition and subtraction question verbally and it was very interesting, as I don't often do math problems verbally and I often take my time, so teaching verbally is very new for me.

Then, we turned our attention to pronunciation practice and pronounced sentences using the words going to and the shortened version, gonna. We also practiced pronouncing numbers and also rehashing the pronunciation of going to, gonna, and the importance of pronouncing the 'Y' in certain words.

The meeting was from 11 to 11:45 p.m.