Your Conversation with Doshisha Partner

1. The food information you gave that your partner seemed to be the most interested in or surprised by

I told her about oyster noodles, and she seemed pretty disgusted. If I were her, I would also be disgusted because I just don't like the taste of the sea when I eat oysters.

2. The food information that you asked about and got an answer to

I asked about Japanese sushi, she said there are different kinds of sushi. There are raw meat fish sushi, grilled fish sushi, and also half raw half cooked ones. I was really surprised when I heard there were a lot of different kinds of sushi. I have never tried sushi that has grilled fish on.

3. Differences in the way that your partner talks or communicates compared to what you are used to in your friends around you

Since I have never met her before, it was pretty awkward at the start of our conversation. I talked to her very formally and tried to maintain my tone. But when I am around my friends, we speak in an informal way, and we talk about very random things.

4. What are two things you had trouble understanding when you were talking to your partner?

I know that we are supposed to teach them Chinese, but my partner really doesn't know Chinese. So I talked to her mostly in English, so I think language is important. and also it was really noisy on her side and my side. So we had a little trouble understanding.

5. What kind of things do you need to remember and what kind of skills are needed for cross-cultural communication?

Language is definitely important, and also you have to be prepared. If you didn't prepare beforehand, you will really have no idea how to start the conversation and how to bring topics up.