Pine Log

Issue date: 3/5/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Justin Elbert [Click to enlarge]

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live millions of miles away from everything and everyone you knew? For many students on campus, that is the reality they live with every day.

"There are about 180 international students attending SFA this year," Andres Ostria, senior from Mexico, said. "America is so diverse that some of these students are assumed to be Asian American, Indian American, etc. and they go unnoticed on campus."

Ostria, along with Kristine Lavelle, Denton junior, decided to reach out to those students and offer them help in any way they need, which led the two to begin Conversation Cafe, a group of American students helping international students learn conversational English.

The American students meet at 8 p.m., and the international students join them at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Henderson Hall at Grace Bible Church.

"This is different than the English classes that they are required to take," Ostria said. "Kristine and I are not standing in front of a chalk board teaching grammar. It's casual discussion with other students."

Ostria and Lavelle gathered a group of interested American students and asked them to help different international students learn common English phrases and basic conversational skills.

"When we meet we usually open with an ice breaker (last week it was hangman), a list of idioms and then a dicussion," Lavelle said. "Last time we discussed leaving messages on answering machines, which may sound silly, but it's really something some of the international students struggle with."

Although the obvious goal of the cafe is to help the international students, the cafe offers more.

"This is really a great opportunity for American students to broaden their horizons and learn something new about someone else and their culture," Lavelle said, "And hopefully make a some new friends."

Every month they are going to focus on a different country and the international students, from that particular country, are asked to explain different things about their culture using some of the English they had learned that night. This allows the American students to leave the meeting learning something new also.

If you are interested in getting involved e-mail Otrias at SFAJack07@yahoo.com.

crogers@thepinelog.com

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