Speaking Portfolio 1st blog (Week 7)

Speaking Portfolio 1st Blog
Context of the conversation
May 7, 2011,Saturday evening after work my step-father pick me up so that I could stay on the boat from West Marina and it would be easy for me to travel back to work early in the morning rather than to go back home all the way from North Shore. We usually had conversation everything under the sun.

Cultural Difference
I'm used of calling my step-father "Dad" ever since because in our culture if someone got married and they had children, they usually call the step-parents as Dad or Mum for showing respect and acceptance for being a family. However, here in New Zealand is different, they just call them by names sometimes.

Critical Reflection   
I usually had conversation with him. I am already familiar with his spoken features and attitude so I don't find any difficulties in our conversation. Social conversation is my strength because I'm already used to it. It always started by asking about the work and about my studies, for example, "How's your work? What about the old bugger are they grumpy today, aren't they? Are you tired, aren't you? He asked "old bugger" because I'm working in the rest home. Afterwards, I asked him "How about your work? Did you work today?" Because sometimes he did not go to work on Saturday especially if it is raining. He works in construction company for roadworks. Our warming conversation ends when it's bedtime.

Evaluation of the conversation
This conversation flows smoothly even he suddenly used slang word or idiomatic expressions that more often used by the native speaker. It may cause problems with communication especially if it is your first time to hear these kind of words. Although, in conversation we have an opportunity to ask questions or clarification when we don't understand something. We don't need to be afraid or shy. I usually answered back or replied as " pardon Dad or sorry can you say that again, could you explain it to me Dad, I didn't quite get it." then his going to explain it. Instead of I'm going to answer "Yes I did" I said "Yes indeed" but I'm not sure if that was correct, anyway he didn't react so probably it was correct. My fillers or hesitation usually umm! Ah! or I'm going to say "it was in the tip of my tongue can you read it Dad." but I'm just kidding because I can't remember the words. Sometimes I tried to illustrate or give an example so that he could understand what I'm tying to say. He frequently said "carry on."

Vocabulary and Linguistic Features
Every time I'm talking to my step-father, I always learn new things or words, for example he mentioned about "Pak a road my car again,""going frog and toad," " going apple and pears" and I said to your mum "I give you a bell when I get there." " I bought a lemon" with my car. Then I said "why you need to buy a lemon for your car?" I thought it was a flavour of car freshener. He was talking about his car which was broken down and he bought a parts for it but it was wrong. And also about the road or place where he bought the things for the car, then he gave a call or ring to my mum. Sometimes, if I used a word that is not common like I was exhausted and starving. He is going to answer "What a big word is that" just teasing me because I'm learning something.
I've noticed about linguistic feature with the native speaker were often used of slang words, idiomatic expression and especially tag question which we don't have in our first language. So these are some of the important feature of spoken English that I need to focus or to developed in the future.