Jackson_ITA2

Friday I had my very first Skype session with my ITA parter, Zhongjun. I am beginning to realize that this may be a difficult medium used to communicate with someone who is not a primary English speaker. The main reason I say this, however, has nothing to do with Zhongjun's ability to express himself, it is due to the fact that his internet connection is pretty patchy. A good part of our conversation was just playing "phone tag" when one of us would get disconnected with the other. There are certain times of the day, he informed me, that his internet is better than usual so we have agreed to try and plan to Skype whenever that is. The tentativeness of this schedule is a little bit tricky because there is no set schedule and we are both busy, whether it be with school/work or personal leisure. 

Things did clear up though during our conversation and it was really nice being able to get to know Zhongjun. We talked about where we were both from and what we were interested in. I told him that I was interested in music and played him some guitar. He said he was really impressed with me and I tried to play some songs that he may be familiar with. He taught me about a Chinese card game that he likes to play online called sanguo sha and invited me a long to play with him. It is funny because the entire text of the game is in Chinese therefor I have to let him know what cards I have and he advises me on what to do. This type of cooperative learning is a lot of fun and is definitely a good way to get to know each other better.