Conversation Partner Blog 4

This morning I met with Carol for my fourth conversation partner breakfast.  Since it has been two weeks since we last saw each other, we started out by discussing how much colder the weather has gotten, something that neither of us likes very much.  Carol especially does not like the cold since it never snows or gets very cold in Brazil where she is from.

            After this, Carol and I spent most of the rest of our breakfast discussing college and how the American system differs from the Brazilian system.  Carol is interested in going into psychology to work as a counselor with teenagers.  She explained to me that the process is different there than the four years of undergraduate followed by two years of master that we do here.  In Brazil, students go straight into a five-year program for psychology and then can do additional years to get a masters degree, which is needed in order to specialize, as Carol wants to do.  Unlike here where it is quite easy to change your major as often as you want during the first couple years of college, in Brazil it is not common for people to change their minds because they would have to start over from the beginning in a different degree program.  Carol was interested to hear that the Brazilian college process was somewhat familiar to me because I have a friend who goes to medical school in England where the process sounds extremely similar.

            I think there are advantages and disadvantages to having a set-up like that of Brazil and England.  For students like me who have always known what career path they want to pursue, this is a good process because it cuts down on the amount of time students have to spend in college (eight years for a medical degree there vs. five years for a medical degree there).  However, a huge percentage of American college students change their majors several times before deciding what they want to do.  For these people, the American system is more effective because it allows for this indecision.  Another advantage I see in the American college system is that our education is more well rounded.  In Brazil and many other countries, college students only study material directly related to their majors.  Contrastingly, most American colleges have a core curriculum, which requires students to take classes in a variety of subject areas better preparing them for a multitude of situations and interactions with many types of people.  Overall, I see the advantages and disadvantages to both systems.  It is interesting to here about the different processes we use to achieve the same end result of education. 

Conversation Partner Blog 3

This morning, I met Carol for our third breakfast.  She noticed that there were many more people in the BLUU than there had been during our previous get-togethers and expressed that she thought this was because of the time change and people being more willing to get up early now that it is light outside.  I asked Carol if they have a time change in Brazil and she explained that they do, but it does not line up with ours since it is currently summer there.  As a result, the time difference between here and Sal Paulo can range anywhere from two to four hours making it difficult for her to keep up.

            Carol and I spent much of this meeting discussing sports.  Last Thursday, Carol attended her first TCU football game.  I asked her whether she had enjoyed it, and she said that she enjoyed the exciting experience, but did not understand much of the game and was surprised how long it lasted since each quarter is only fifteen minutes on the clock.  I was glad she made it to a game because I feel like her time at TCU and in the United States would not have been complete without getting to experience an American football game.  We also talked about the Olympics since the summer games will be held in Sal Paulo next year.  I was surprised to hear that Carol was not that excited about this and did not even have a good idea which sports are played at the Olympics.  My family enjoys watching a variety of sports during both the summer and the winter Olympics, so I would have thought it would be exciting for Carol to have the Olympics in her home town.  However, she expressed that, for her family, it was much more exciting to have the world cup there last year, an event that most Americans pay little attention to.

            Something that Carol does seem to find quite interesting is the idea of winter and the cold.  In Brazil, they never get snow, and it does not get nearly as cold as it gets in the United States.  She also, understandably, struggles to comprehend what the temperature will be like day to day since she is not familiar with the Fahrenheit system.  I explained to Carol that the weather varies a lot here during November and December and can be anywhere from the comfortable temperatures we are getting right now to below freezing with ice on the ground.  She seems apprehensive about the colder weather since she thought it was quite cold just over the past weekend when it was in the fifties.  This will be a new experience for her.

            I am really enjoying learning about Carol’s life in Brazil and the cultural differences between there and the United States.  Carol often surprises me when I assume that things like the Olympics are viewed the same way everywhere and then discover that Carol and I have vastly different outlooks on this event.  This goes to show that, while we are similar in many ways, we may also be different in several ways that I have not even yet realized.