A relaxing meal with a friend is how students often choose to end their days. Becky Cavnar and Ayako Iesaka, Ball State juniors, meet for dinner weekly, but their friendship involves more than common personalities. As participants in the campus Conversation Partners Program, the women not only exchange everyday chitchat but cultural knowledge from their different backgrounds as well.
The Conversation Partners Program pairs American Ball State students with international students who wish to sharpen their English skills. Organizers inform foreign students of the program, explaining that it is free, voluntary and flexible. Iesaka, a Japanese student, signed up after she arrived to study here for the 2003-2004 school year last fall.
"I wanted to have American friends, and also I wanted to improve my English," Iesaka said.
To recruit American students, organizers e-mail students of various colleges. M. Ali Bolgun, doctoral student and coordinator of the program, said the first recruitment e-mail to students of the Honors College at the beginning of the semester resulted in overwhelming replies.
"The first day the number of responses from volunteers exceeded the number of students taking classes from our Intensive English Institute" Bolgun said. Currently, there are 17 pairs of conversation partners.
Cavnar, who is from Ann Arbor, Mich., said she responded to the e-mail to experience more diversity.
"Coming to Muncie, Ind., I'm kind of shocked by how homogeneous it is," she said. "I like meeting people from different cultures."
As with all of its participants, the program randomly matched Cavnar and Iesaka. Bolgun said that time constraints and the large number of applicants make it too difficult to base partnerships upon specific criteria.
To meet the needs of busy college students, the program allows its participants to schedule meeting times and determine the subject matter of the conversations themselves. Cavnar and Iesaka typically meet weekly for dinner, and sometimes Cavnar helps Iesaka with her homework. They often talk about classes and daily life, but discussions can flow freely into any subject.
"Mostly, we just talk the same as I do with any of my American friends," Cavnar said. "We're pretty informal about it."
Cavnar assists Iesaka with pronunciation problems as they talk. Especially difficult for Iesaka is the difference between the sounds of the letters "l" and "r," a distinction many Japanese speakers cannot make without conscious effort. Though Iesaka says she has always felt comfortable in their conversations, Cavnar has noticed an improvement in her English. Cavnar says Iesaka uses her electronic dictionary less frequently and is better at knowing which words she needs to use.
Bolgun said that the difference he and his colleagues notice in their classes for the international students as well as the feedback they get from volunteers about their English improvement indicates the success of the program. He stressed the importance of each partnership's focus on the international student, explaining that some American students express the desire to learn more about the native languages of their partners.
"In this particular program, we just want to make sure our (international) students have a chance to practice English," Bolgun said. "We don't want them to focus on their own languages."
Both Iesaka and Cavnar experience benefits beyond Iesaka's English comprehension. Cavnar said that along with getting to know Iesaka and understanding more about Japanese culture, she has also gained encouragement to study abroad.
"Really she's been kind of an inspiration for me because I'm a Spanish major, and I'm pretty far from fluent," she said. "I've always wanted to study abroad, but I thought I was going to get over there and be scared to talk. After spending a lot of time with Ayako, I realized it doesn't matter. People are just happy that you're trying to speak their language, and you're working at it."
Iesaka said she approaches Cavnar with questions about American customs and practices when she is unsure that what she is witnessing is typical behavior.
"I'll ask her something like, 'What do American people do usually?'" Iesaka said in reference to unfamiliar situations.
Cavnar and Iesaka agree that they have formed a strong friendship.
"Pretty early on we were able to talk about a lot of personal stuff. Our personalities clicked really well," Cavnar said.
They are both interested in linguistics and intercultural communication, and many of their discussions derive from those passions. They also enjoy watching movies together, and Iesaka recently visited Cavnar's hometown. Additionally, they have gathered with Iesaka's international friends several times throughout the school year to cook meals.
Cavnar said she is pleased with her experience in the Conversation Partners Program.
"I think this program's a really great thing," she said. "I think people are excited to meet other people from different cultures. I definitely never would've met Ayako or any of her friends otherwise."
Iesaka shared Cavnar's enthusiasm toward the program.
"I couldn't imagine life here without Becky," she said. "If you go to another country you can feel homesick. You will be depressed sometimes. You need friends, definitely."
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