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This English conversation event was a good opportunity for international students to pratice our English speaking skills. I met Risa and Nodoka, and they were really nice. Talking with them gave me a chance to develop my speaking skills because they don’t speak Chinese. Since they are from Japan, I shared my experiences from when I was in Japan. They were so surprised that I have been to Japan six times. I would love to participate in this event again because I can get to know more new people.

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Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of the international students who I talked to. I'm really bad at remembering names. We talked a bit about our bucket lists because it was one of the prompts on the paper on the table. I always enjoy speaking with people from other countries because I like traveling and exploring foreign cultures. I would do this event again in the future.

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I will probably misspell their names terribly, but I spoke with Nana, Momonet, and Ahmed. We had a lovely time. It was so fun to hear about all the languages they speak and introduce them to a few new words. I actually learned some slang as well. I had never heard of the slang with the word “Ohio.” You learn something new every day!

(Perry took our photo, so we have the same one!)

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English Conversation Reflection (Zebadiah Chen) 

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English Conversation Reflection (Zebadiah Chen) 

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This English Conversation Reflection event was a very valuable experience for me. I was unfortunately only able to talk for thirty minutes, however, I was able to have an invaluable conversation with a Japanese named Risa. We had a fun conversation about our backgrounds and where we are each from. I learned all about Japan, the fun places to visit, and her hobbies. It was a wonderful experience that helped me understand more about Japan and I would love to participate in an event like this again !!

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Talking with ELS’s student reflection (Mingkun Wang)

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Talking with ELS’s student reflection (Mingkun Wang)

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Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo with Nadoka. I had a short conversation with her. We talked about when we arrived there and why we study there. This was my first time talking with Japanese, and it was very interesting.（Although, I didn’t take a photo with her, but she give me one that she has saved from the meeting! This is another photo of them!

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Today I meet a girl from Japan, her name is nodoka(It’s a Japanese name I don’t know how to spell it). We chat about a lot of things like ours birthday, major, cosmetics, and what we cook everyday. We have a fun time together, she is so cute and friendly! I think this can help us learn how to speak English better, because we have to keep chatting to each other or the atmosphere will be awkward. Also, she is so cute so I want to talking to her more. By doing this, I can learn how to easily chat with each other in English, and just using easy vocabulary, but we can talk about ours live in here and some fun things!

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English conversation reflection (Jordan Fowler)

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English conversation reflection (Jordan Fowler)

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I had a great conversation with Mayara, Yoona, and Hana! Mayara is from Brazil and we had a great conversation about her experience in Brazil and her reasons for studying here. She was so nice and I feel like I learned a lot about the music and cultural life in Brazil. She also introduced me to some new musical artists who I am very excited to listen to! Yoona and Hana were also very fun to talk to. They are both the same age as me and they were explaining their hometowns. Yoona is from a traditional Japanese province and she was showing me all of the historical sights in her town. Hana however was from Nagasaki and she was showing me her town as well. I think this really was a nice break in my day and I am very glad that I got to meet these girls and learn more about their culture. All in all, I hope that I was able to help them with their English, but I also hope that they enjoyed our conversation as much as I did!

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I met Louis, Arabio, and Mayara and we had a really enjoyable conversation about my Japan trip this summer and trains in Tokyo and around the world — we also swapped Instagrams so we can keep in touch. Talking with them exposed me to different accents and cultural perspectives, which made it easier to follow varied speech patterns and gave me more confidence when speaking. The relaxed, friendly setting helped me practice casual conversation skills (greetings, asking follow-up questions, and sharing short stories) without feeling stressed. Overall it was a useful experience for improving both my listening and speaking, and I’d happily join future Conversation Hours to keep practicing and meeting more peers and friends.

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English Conversation Hour Reflection (Yukuang Chen)

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English Conversation Hour Reflection (Yukuang Chen)

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I met two Japanese guys named Serio and Tougo. They are both university students in Japan and stayed here for several months.

We talked about our travel experience and I told them about my trip to Japan this year. It really helped my English, especially in listening. I had an opportunity to listen people speak with different accents. Therefore, this experience improved my English skills and helped me more confident in communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds.

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I went to this event with my roommates and friends, we chatting with a person who came from Japan, we ate lunch together and have a good practice for English conversation.

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English Conversation Reflection (Julia Yu-Chen Lai)

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English Conversation Reflection (Julia Yu-Chen Lai)

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This English conversation event was an unforgettable experience for meeting international students at CIM. The girl from Japanese named Risa, she is so nice to us. She share a lot anima and recommended to us. It is a wonderful time with her.

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It’s so pity that I forgot to take photos with Hana, Yoona, Mayara and Arabio, but we really had a wonderful time to chat with each other. We talked about our hometown, the place we have travelled, our major, our hobbies… They introduced their hometown Japan and the local yummy food. I also shared my traveling experience there with them. Similar to me, they have just arrived in the United States not long ago. Hope everything goes well for us all, and also hope there will be more such opportunities to make new friends all over the world!

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I think it is a good chance to communicate with each other. We communicated with Japanese and Saudis. We talked about the foods we like and how to study English better. Unfortunately, I forgot their names, but they gave me a really deep impression. I think this is a really good chance to learn about other countries' culture. We also learned from each other in English. I really want to attend in the future.

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Unfortunately I was not able to attend this event, though I imagine other people had a great time conversing and communicating with ELS students

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I had the opportunity to talk with two groups within the hour both being from Japan. This was a very interesting experience learning more about the culture there and the different backgrounds everyone had around the table. I also had the opportunity as well to talk with some people from CIM I wouldn't normally talk to and make slight connections with them. Overall I believe this is a great experience for all parties there and I would go to more in the future.

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I met several ELS students. One was from Saudi Arabia and studying to become a judge. We talked about a park we both knew in Rocky River, a good deal west from CIM. It definitely helped my own English as I had to think about different ways to communicate when he didn't understand what I was saying. I will definitely be coming back to the English Conversation Hour as I found it enjoyable to meet new people with different background and talk about our hopes for our educations.

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I met several ELS students. One was from Saudi Arabia and studying to become a judge. We talked about a park we both knew in Rocky River, a good deal west from CIM. It definitely helped my own English as I had to think about different ways to communicate when he didn't understand what I was saying. I will definitely be coming back to the English Conversation Hour as I found it enjoyable to meet new people with different background and talk about our hopes for our educations.