Lena Watson

English 100: Basic Writing

Email Assignment Reflection

September 24, 2019

Emailing with my partner in Lebanon so far has been a great experience. I feel like I’ve really gotten to know her in the short time we’ve been talking. We’ve been using different strategies to communicate. We used these different strategies so we can understand each other’s background and cultures. For example, I want her to see me as a nice person and someone she’d be interested in talking to. So, I used words like “excited, can’t wait to hear from you,” and “happy.” Therefore, I would try to emphasize words or statements to show her I’m excited to be working with her. For example, after, I would tell her “I can’t wait to hear from you soon!” We both also used exclamation points to show that both of us are excited to be talking.

As we talk back and forth, we like to talk about the differences in our communities. For example, I told her Indiana is very rural and small; she told me how Beirut has lots of traffic and many tall buildings that she doesn’t usually see in her village she comes from. We like to talk about college and the reasons we chose our majors. To introduce myself, I told her that my major was public health and that I chose it because it’s always been my dream to go overseas to help the children in third world countries get the help that people like us don’t have access to. She also told me that she chose nursing for the same reason. She loves the idea of dedicating oneself to others.

In addition, she has also showed me a different insight on the reading that I might not have interpreted on my own without her perspective. She had a better understanding of what the writer was trying to portray throughout the reading. For example, when I first emailed her about the reading, I said, “based on my understanding, Peterson and Aakerberg are arguing about how the language advanced through technology.” She answered saying, “I do think that technology has shaped language, and that a common language can cross the barriers of distance and is a major factor in increasing the rate of technology.” I never would’ve thought of interpreting the reading this way if she wouldn’t have explained how she thought of it.

In conclusion, emailing with my partner from Lebanon has been a great experience and has really helped me understand the Peterson and Aakerberg reading. I do think it made us both look at the reading in different ways, which helped us see what he was really trying to portray in the reading. After the assignment is over, I’d still love to talk to my email partner and get to know her better.

Below are examples of emails I sent to my partner: