Devon CP #3

Isabela de Oliveira Soares (Brazil)

7/30/21

7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

This is now the second session where I am speaking in English with Isa and she is starting to loosen up when speaking. This is a bit of a unique experience because when I usually speak with Isa, we speak only in Portuguese. I have known her for around four years, yet the only time I hear her speak English is when I really can't get an idea across in Portuguese. Though I already know a lot about her, it is strange to hear about her life in a different language.

Today we greeted each other as usual and caught each other up on our work, school life, family, etc. I realized that she made a lot of grammatical mistakes and that she was speaking at a really quick pace that made her skip over articles completely. I asked her if it was ok for me to correct her grammar, and she said yes. One word that she had a hard time grasping was the word "train". In Portuguese, the equivalent word to "train" can be used similarly to "try" or "practice", which made her use it incorrectly in English. She was even more irritated with the word when I revealed that train can also be the vehicle. Because I have a background in her language, I feel like I was able to understand the reasons for her mistakes better. 

For the second part of the session she attempted to explain the plot of a new show that she has been watching. She did pretty well in describing the intricacies of the show, though she would often times try to revert into Portuguese. Overall, her English is probably ranked at upper intermediate. She is more than capable of expressing her thoughts, even if her method of doing so is not quite linguistically conventional. For the next session, Isa said she will report more about her show to me in English as practice.