The wonderful world of our international conversation gatherings has begun again. We’ve had participants from Germany, China, Brazil, and India so far this semester. With me, the U.S. representative, facilitating and teaching. My roots are Italian and Japanese.
News of world events peppers our conversation, as does talk of intercultural similarities and differences. And of local events. Music festivals have been popping up in the Triangle area, so they’ve been bandied around the conversation table ~ Durham’s Centerfest, the Hopscotch fest, the Carrboro Musical Festival, and Raleigh’s La Fiesta del Pueblo. Those have all concluded, but the annual International Festival returns to Raleigh in October.
Last week, in addition to discussing local music festivals and world events, our focus turned to language. And I taught our group about understanding some reduced speech. Whaddya gonna do fa fun this weekend?
Why is understanding reduced speech important? Because if you’re struggling to understand the style of speaking here in the U.S., particularly by students, it helps to know how their words might sound as they become squashed together.
We coulda, shoulda, woulda gone to the music festival if we’d hadda ride.
Here is more information about reduced speech if you’d like to take a look.
If you’re a member of the Duke community, feel free to join us on a Thursday afternoon at 12:30. Look us up on events@duke: International Conversation Café.
I hope to seeya (see you) there,
Rene Caputo
Duke University ESL Specialist and Lecturing fellow
Duke ESL News 