Students learn with conversation

Learning a language can be challenging, and speaking the language is often much more difficult. Conversation clubs are trying to fix that.

Held at IU’s Leo R. Dowling International Center, conversation clubs provide both international and American students the opportunity to meet once a week in order to practice languages and, of course, socialize.

According to the center’s Web site, for the spring 2009 semester there are conversation clubs involving five different languages. Sandy Britton, director of the International Center, said the existence of the clubs depends upon student initiative.

For example, the Japanese Conversation Club began when U.S. students and Japanese students indicated their interest in forming a club. The number of participants varies in each club and for each semester.

Britton added that she coordinates room availability and the wishes of the clubs’ members, but she leads only the center’s Practical English Tutorial, a time when international students can strengthen their English vocabulary and skills.  The returning participants’ schedules determine the day and time the clubs meet.

Sophomore Zach Grammel, a business, marketing and East Asian Languages and Cultures major, attends the Chinese Conversation Club on Friday nights. He explained that the club decided to meet on Fridays because it was the best day for the members of the club.  

Britton also emphasized the diversity of the clubs. She said that while the International Center’s main priority is to support the international students at IU, the conversation clubs “are a good way” to interact with other cultures.

“(They) learn about each other and cultures,” Britton said.

Diversity is beneficial for other reasons, too.

J.R. Nolasco, a graduate student and Chinese Conversation Club member, said it is “hard to find people who speak Chinese,” but through conversation clubs, students and native speakers can share the language.

Although all of the clubs meet in order to practice their respective languages, the method of achieving that goal is as diverse as the people who attend.

Yi-Ching Lee, a third-year doctoral student who has been a volunteer with the Chinese Conversation Club for three years, said all  the groups do different things during their meetings.

For example, the Chinese Conversation Club encourages students to talk spontaneously with other members. There are few structured activities, which is different from other conversation clubs.

Nolasco and Grammel both agree the spontaneity mirrors everyday life and is great practice for actually speaking the language in another country.

Though conversation clubs are informal and anyone who wants to practice can attend at his or her leisure, members of the clubs often become close friends. As Grammel said, the members of the Chinese Conversation Club are a “tight-knit group.”

“Conversation clubs are a good way to do that,” Britton said.