Olumayowa CP-2

Last week I met with my second conversation partner Plengchart for the first time. He is a graduate student from Thailand studying physics in FSU and he needed a conversation partner because he needs to pass an English speaking test before he is allowed to teach. As soon as we met I could tell that he is very tense about this, he absolutely needs to pass the exam this summer so that he can teach Physics by Fall and have the final year of his studies reserved for research only. He is also very tense because many of his colleagues have passed the exam and he feels left behind. Plengchart prefers to be called Joe and is very much an American because he has previously studied in University of Wisconsin and the University of Iowa, in one of these places he learned to water ski! He really does not need any tutoring in English language, but his accent is very heavy to the point where his words can sometimes be difficult to understand. He is very self-conscious about this and continues to ask me if his accent is terrible, but on a one-on-one conversation we were just fine. Though I have taken a math class at FSU that was made so much more difficult by the teacher's Thai accent, I really want Joe to pass and continue with his studies. In the future, he wants to return to Thailand to make lots of money but so far he is incredibly stressed by the amount of work that he has done in the past few years. I tried to strike up some interesting conversation and he could only talk about his brothers' new job at an airline company and how the entire family is traveling around the world without him. His eyes did light up when I asked him about his work and he began to speak about superconductors and how they apply to bullet trains; while his dream is not to work on trains, he wants to use the development of railway in Asia to further his research in superconductors. Joe is obviously a very focused and squared off student, he wants to meet with me at a specific time every week and his meetings are different from those with my other CP because he is really on a mission and has not loosened up to the point where I feel like we're just hanging out. I think his language skills are awesome and he just needs to speak with Americans more often and comfortably for his accent to become more comprehensible, hopefully we can try to break the ice again on our next meeting. If anyone would like to hang out with Joe so he can have more opportunities to speak English with native speakers, please let me know. I haven't promised or guaranteed anything, but I want him to pass his exam this summer and most of all I want him to teach a physics class and be understandable enough that the students won't be super freaked out.