From ordering a muffin at the Blue Room to engaging in small talk after class, conversational English permeates the day-to-day lives of all those on campus. But the terms and phrases used in these routine conversations may not come naturally to some international students who did not grow up speaking English.
In order to apply to Brown, international graduate students whose primary language is not English must pass a language proficiency test. While this exam can indicate English proficiency in an academic setting, day-to-day English-speaking scenarios like ordering coffee may still present a challenge, according to Anne Kerkian, the associate director of English language support at the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning.
In hopes of helping students develop these skills, Kerkian created the Conversation Partners Program.
Adapted in 2017 from a previous initiative, the program pairs students with staff members to practice speaking conversational English. During the semester, each pairing is expected to meet at least twice a month. The program is open to all students who identify as “multilingual,” Kerkian said, but it is mainly catered toward international graduate students.
Every semester, the program sees anywhere from 35 to 60 pairings, according to Joy Liu, assistant director of English language support at the Sheridan Center. Currently, 40 staff members and 42 students — including two undergraduates and three visiting scholars — are participating. Due to the popularity of the program, it consistently has a waitlist, Liu added.
Yilmaz Yeniler GS moved to Providence from Turkey in 2022 to pursue his Ph.D. in archaeology. Upon arriving, he felt “a little worried about the culture shock” and wondered if he would be “able to express (himself) clearly and confidently,” he told The Herald.
Although international orientation helped him feel more comfortable, he remembers taking an important phone call in English his first semester that made him nervous.
“I felt very anxious because the person on the phone was going too fast,” he said. “I felt so depressed that day … I was like, ‘What am I going to do here?’”
After that call, he decided to search for ways to better develop his English skills and was directed to the Conversation Partners Program. Three years later, Yeniler still meets with his conversation partner regularly.
maisune Abu-Elhaija, assistant director of campus employment development at the Center for Career Exploration, joined the program as a staff partner in 2021. As a first-generation American with family abroad, she understands just how difficult it is to master a new language.
“We make it so hard for people to just integrate culturally into English conversation,” she said. “We change slang every week.”
Abu-Elhaija has had multiple conversation partners since joining the program and is consistently impressed by how kind and outgoing the students are.
“The students who sign up for this program have no problem making friends,” she said, adding that “the language barrier does not (affect) the personality traits that they have that clearly got them here in the first place.”
Due to the informal nature of the meetings, students and staff members are free to discuss any topic and can meet wherever they like best. Yeniler, for one, usually meets with his partner on the Main Green before walking around campus. But Syrina Robinson, program coordinator of the Global Brown Center for International Students, generally meets with students in her office.
“A lot of our conversations center around where they call home, their lives growing up and their paths to Brown, but we also love to dive into the best food and coffee spots in Providence,” Robinson wrote in an email to The Herald.
The relationships fostered through the program extend far beyond their twice-monthly chats, students and staff say.
At one University commencement, Kerkian watched a graduate student walk across the stage as his staff partner cheered him along in the audience — all while holding the student’s baby.
The staff partner “really had become quite close with not only (the student), but with his family,” Kerkian said.
Although Yeniler goes back to Turkey during breaks, he keeps in contact with his staff partner via email, sharing everything from personal stories to birthday wishes.
“Even over the summer, we just keep this connection alive,” he said.
Ian Ritter is a senior staff writer for university news. A junior studying chemistry, he covers the graduate schools & students and admissions & financial aid beats. When he isn’t at The Herald or exploding lab experiments, you can find him playing the clarinet, watching the Mets or eating Ratty carrot cake.
