Grammatical and Oral Fossilization of a College Student in English Acquisition: A Longitudinal Study ()
1. Introduction
Second language learning differs significantly from learning the first language. According to Bley-Vroman and Masterson (1989), these two processes differ in the following ways: 1) the absence of success; 2) general failure; 3) variety in success; 4) variation in purpose; 5) fossilization; 6) ambiguous intuition; 7) the importance of teaching; 8) the necessity of negative proof; and 9) the function of emotional elements such as fear and motivation. The phenomenon of fossilization is widespread, particularly evident among college students who have studied foreign languages for a considerable period (Selinker, 1972; Han, 2013; Tajeddin et al., 2017; Yang & Xu, 2019). Various factors may contribute to fossilization, including pronunciation, lexical use, and grammatical structure. Even after years of living in L1, it remains unclear how the situation changes. Thus, the present study interviewed an L2 English speaker twice about the same subject before and after an academic semester. A longitudinal approach was used in this study. Study objectives include examining aspects of fossilization in the English expression of an L2 English learner who has been studying in an English-speaking environment for one semester. This research has implications for teaching and learning L2 grammar and phonetics.
2. Literature Review
Given that the present research examined the grammatical and phonological fossilization phenomena of an English L2 learner, the study will briefly discuss interlanguage and fossilization concepts. Following are the applicant’s studies on interlanguage fossilization in grammatical acquisition and L2 phonology.
2.1. Interlanguage and Fossilization
Interlanguage is a concept proposed by Selinker (1972) in which success and failure coexist as input into the target language increases. According to Selinker, interlanguage refers to the learners’ demonstration of their first language to get closer to the language they are learning. Students could construct closer approximations of the native language system through trial and error and testing hypotheses. Additionally, Selinker coined the term fossilization to describe the mistakes that often recur in learners’ interlanguage. In order to reach a level of proficiency comparable to that of native speakers, second-language learners face a challenging task. Approximately 5% of students can achieve this level (Selinker & Rutherford, 2014). According to Selinker and Lamendella (1978), fossilization is the phenomenon in which learners’ linguistic information gets cemented throughout the process of language acquisition, regardless of the learner’s ability, opportunity, and motivation to learn and acculturate.
2.2. Interlanguage Fossilization in Grammatical Learning
Selinker (1972) classified fossilization into five processes: native language migration, overgeneralization of linguistic norms, training migration, learning techniques, and communication strategies. According to Yang and Xu (2019), fossilization can occur at any level of learning and take many forms. Regarding the grammatical perspective, fossilization may be associated with L1 transfer (Han, 2013). Tajeddin et al. (2017) examined the pragmatic fossilization of English in Persian university students. Several factors contribute to English practical use difficulties, including L1 dependence, L1 transfer, insufficient target language exposure, target language overgeneralization, contextual unfamiliarity, and grammatical errors. Tajeddin and Tabatabaeian (2017) reported similar findings, which explored grammar, lexical, and cohesive fossilization among advanced EFL Iranian learners. Due to the participants’ failure to recognize the improper use of forms, non-target structures continued to be utilized. The study by Tang (2020) examined how Chinese English language learners learn and use finite and non-finite verbs. The participants were divided into low, moderate, and high proficiency levels. Across all levels, inappropriate verb use was detected. Low-proficiency participants misused verb forms, inflexions, and functions. L1 had an impact on error commissions. The learners appeared to transfer their L1 morphological and syntactic skills to help them produce L2 content.
Studies have shown that conditionals, forms, contexts, and grammatical complexity are critical obstacles for non-native users and language learners. In contrast, less is known about fossilization in learners who have lived and studied in an L1 situation for more than one semester, particularly in the natural language process rather than in a testing and academic environment. In order to address this research gap, the present study examines the production of English by a second-language English speaker in two natural conversations. There is a one-semester interval between the two interviews.
2.3. Interlanguage Fossilization in L2 Phonology
Second-language researchers have focused on phonological fossilization. Demirezen (2017) examined the fossilized pronunciation of the consonants /æ/ and /a/. According to the study, most Turkish English majors find it challenging to learn these preserved sounds. A study by Kahraman (2012) has examined the problem of fossilized vowel phonemes and possible strategies that can be used. There is a tendency for Turkish English learners in this study to pronounce the /æ/ sound as /e/. Additionally, they confuse the mid-back unrounded vowel phoneme /^/ with the front low-spread vowel /æ/. Similarly to what was previously stated, Zhang and Yin (2009) examined Chinese English learners’ pronunciation problems. Researchers found that Chinese English learners fossilized several sounds instead of the target sounds. The researchers contend that phonological fossilization results from differences in geographical location and articulation between the two languages. The sounds /r/ and /∫/, for example, are quite different from their Chinese equivalents /sh/ and /r/. In addition to Chinese language influence, inadequate knowledge of English phonetics and phonology, and other factors, such as age and attitude, lead to fossilization.
Senowarsito and Ardini (2019) examined the phonological fossilization of Javanese EFL learners. The authors attempt to demonstrate the influence of the local language’s phonological and orthographic systems on the phonological fossilization of English. Twenty-five university students in their fourth semester participated in the study. Observations indicate that Javanese English learners miss consonant clusters—/θ/, /d/ and /t/—in the initial, middle, and final positions, and /j/ following plosive bilabials. Rather than isolated words, continuous speech exhibits phonological fossilization when speakers enunciate the vowels /æ/, /i/, /ʌ/, and /i:/ in the starting and middle places. Their mother tongues’ phonological and orthographic systems are causally related to these chronic phonological faults. Less is known, however, regarding fossilization in learners who have lived and studied in an L1 environment for more than one semester, particularly in normal language processes instead of in academic settings. To address the research gap, the present study examines the English output of an L2 English speaker in two authentic conversations. There is a gap of one semester between the two interviews.
3. The Study
3.1. Participants
The participant we studied was a twenty-year-old student from Shanghai, China. Having been raised bilingually, she is fluent in Mandarin and a regional dialect of Shanghai. She currently lives in a city in Western New York and studies accounting at a university. Before moving to this city, she attended a college in Los Angeles, California, for one year. She spends most of her time studying for class and interacting with other international students. Although she has studied English for approximately ten years, this is her first time living abroad in an English-speaking country. Three individuals were present during the interview, including the interviewee and two interviewers. The interviewers were native Chinese speakers.
3.2. Procedures
In this interview, a speech sample from the participant will be recorded and analyzed as a Chinese-English language learner. Each interviewer drafted a list of questions to elicit specific speech patterns they believed would be interesting to study in advance of the interview. To observe her natural speech, the interviewers allowed the information to direct the conversation throughout the interview. Subjects were not informed of the reason for the interview to prevent them from altering their speech. The two interviews were separated by four months. The first interview consisted of a fifteen-minute face-to-face question and answer session recorded and then transcribed. The second interview took place under the same conditions except that the length was shortened to 7 minutes.
3.3. Data Analysis
The author transcribed the recorded audio data and began analyzing her speech patterns and errors as soon as the transcription was complete. Throughout these two interviews, the participant had several areas of difficulty, which will be discussed in more detail.
4. Findings
4.1. Grammar Part
One of the most salient features that make the participant’s English distinct from that of a native speaker is the inconsistencies in the tense used. She would frequently begin sentences in one tense and switch to another, favouring the present tense even when the past would have been more appropriate. When examining the speech of a native English speaker, it is expected that an entire utterance will use the same tense throughout. The participant appears not to have achieved the level of fluency associated with this type of English mastery as she struggled to maintain a consistent tense throughout the fifteen-minute conversation. For example, when discussing her relationship issues with her boyfriend, she said, “I want to broke up with him,” where the initial verb is in the present and the second verb is in the past. Additionally, in discussing why she switched schools during her time in America, she said, “...so I don’t like the sun so I change for this (unintelligible)” even though she previously explained that she transferred to an university earlier this year which would indicate the past tense as the appropriate tense.
The proposed reasoning behind these findings is that the participant’s native language influences her spoken English. Studies show that Chinese-English language learners have a challenging time producing the correct tense as in Chinese, there is no grammatical indicator of tense, only time markers like “today” or “tomorrow” to indicate when the action is occurring (Chen, 2009). The student is relying on the grammatical structure of her native language and directly translating it into English, hence the mistakes in tense.
Another aspect of the participant’s speech that indicated that she was not a native English speaker was her tendency to drop articles. She consistently did not use “an”, “a”, or “the” when referring to objects in speech. For example, when discussing two cities in China, she said, “...Beijing is capital and Shanghai is economic city in China.” Later, when explaining what she does during her free time, our subject also left out articles, “...we play mahjong in our home and play card game... because we don’t have car so we cannot go out.” The participant consistently missed the use of both indefinite and definite articles, most likely since, in Chinese, there is no grammatical equivalent of the English article system (Robertson, 2000). Studies have shown that because of the lack of a similar structure in Chinese, frequently Chinese-English language learners struggle to master the use of articles in English.
The participant also appeared to have difficulty in appropriately using plurals when necessary. The participant would often use the singular form of nouns when indicating that there was more than one being referred to. For example, when discussing her class schedule, she said, “...one week I have four or five class so it’s okay but now I have twenty class... twelve class, one week so maybe I just sleep over the time.” At multiple points in the conversation, our subject did not appropriately use the plural morpheme to indicate the plurality of nouns, which could result from incorrectly labelling plurals is one of the most common errors that English-language learners make (Jia, 2003).
4.2. Phonetic Part
Within this particular portion of the interview, three major problems emerged in the participant’s pronunciation of the L2, English. A significant issue discovered within this analysis is the syllabic /l/ pronunciation and the retroflex /ɹ/. The participant had a typical problem pronouncing words with the sound /l/. This problem happened differently in two different situations, one of which was when she pronounced the /l/ sound, which is classified as a liquid; the participant always pronounced that sound like the /ɹ/. Two examples of this confusion include the following. The participant said, “Here is cold and I really like the cold weather...”. However, what she produced, orally would have been written as /ɹ i ɹ i/. Later in the interview, she struggled with pronunciation again, saying, “Actually, I think Los Angeles is better than here...”. The intended meaning of the utterance was understood, but the speech production was not that of a native English speaker. She struggled to pronounce actually, and it was pronounced closely to /ktuɹi/ as well as Angeles, pronounced more similar to /ndȝəɹəs/. This finding seems consistent with our participant and continues throughout the interview on various occasions.
Additionally, the analysis of interviews revealed a different aspect of her speech that was inconsistent with that of a native speaker. She continually mispronounced words that contained the letter /l/. The pattern was that when the /l/ is in the middle section of a word, she will pronounce it as a /ɹ/ sound. She correctly pronounces /l/ in Los, but cannot duplicate the same phonetic connection when the /l/ falls in the middle of a word. Speech samples support the conclusion that the participant mixed the use of lateral liquid consonant and the retroflex liquid consonants in the centre of a word.
Furthermore, when the sound /l/ plays the role of a syllabic liquid sound, the participant pronounces like the sound /ɹ/ or ignores the sound. For example, in the recording, we discovered when she said, “Here is cold and I really like the cold weather...” or “Because of the weather and people...” the sound of the /l/ was produced as if it were a /ɹ/. A proposed reason behind this problem is the absence of the syllabic liquid sound /l/ in Mandarin (Deterding, 2006). The participant may consciously know the difference between Mandarin and English, but a possibility may be that she struggles to incorporate all English sounds in fluent speech.
A second issue observed was the participant’s use of the /ɹ/ sound, which was only observed when the /ɹ/ sound took the form of a syllabic liquid. However, in other places, like in the pronunciation of the words “mother”, “semester”, and “character”, the participant pronounced the /ɹ/ sound the correct way. It was concluded that the /ɹ/ sound may have been easier to produce correctly due to its word-final position. The Chinese-English language learners who interviewed this student have said from their experience as L2 learners that this problem may be a result of the teaching materials and speech examples she observed and used in China. In Chinese primary and middle school, students were exposed to the British pronunciation of English rather than the American dialect, which plays a critical role in how the student’s pronunciation will be developed. However, due to America’s cultural influence, students were frequently exposed to the American accent after school via television or radio. Because of this mixture of speech influences, it was proposed that this could be the source for the participant’s misuse of the particular letters /l/ and /ɹ/.
Finally, the participant has a problem with pronouncing the sound /θ/. She almost pronounced every /θ/ like the sound /s/, which is also a common error for English speakers from China because there is no interdental consonant in Mandarin (Deterding, 2006). Based on the above-mentioned analysis, we can conclude that the /l/ and the /ɹ/ sounds in English are more complex than other sounds for a Chinese-English language learner. The findings listed in this report provide ample proof that Chinese-English language learners may struggle when attempting to achieve native-like pronunciation.
5. Discussion
5.1. Conclusion
The data profiles of the grammar part of the study are presented in Table 1. It shows that the participant’s grammatical skills did not improve much after one semester.
Additionally, the author finds no significant differences between the two interviews regarding the phonetic component. According to the collected data, the author concludes that the English of the subject has not improved. Following this conclusion, the author began considering whether the participant’s L2 level had become fossilized. Selinker (1972) defines fossilization as the permanent plateaus that learners reach due to no change in some or all of their interlanguage forms. In the study of fossilization, interlanguage is at the centre. Five central processes that could shape interlanguage utterances are language transfer, overgeneralization, strategies of L2 learning, strategies of L2 communication and transfer of training (Selinker, 1972). These factors may all affect the L2 learner’s language level.
5.2. Reason
The discrepancies between the mother tongue and the target language are generally the underlying source of mother tongue interference. Every second-language student will undoubtedly encounter mother-tongue interference. The learner’s familiarity with the rules, grammatical forms, and thought processes of their native language has an influence on the acquisition of the target language. Although mother tongue interference may appear minor, it poses a substantial
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Table 1. Profiles of participant’s data.
barrier to language learners’ development toward proficiency in the target language. The involvement of the mother tongue environment might result in language fossilization.
The authors investigated the participant’s learning and the living environment from this perspective. According to the authors, the participant lived in an environment dominated by the Chinese. She had no friends from English-speaking countries and spent most of her time with Chinese students. There were 820 minutes of class time each week at school, but only 150 minutes were devoted to seminars. That is also the only chance for the subject to practice her oral English. Based on the author’s observations, the participant appears to be outgoing and talkative. In this case, the distinguishing factor is not the inability of the subject to communicate with others. These factors lead the author to conclude that the participant’s speaking skills did not improve in those months. This is due to the lack of practical experience and training in English speaking. In addition, the participant may still be able to improve her oral English skill if she changes the environment in which she learns and lives.
6. Implication and Limitation
Even though the number of participants is somewhat restricted, the findings are not unrepresentative since a considerable amount of international students with comparable circumstances may be seen in educational settings in universities in western nations. The current study’s findings give the following insights for further research: 1) if conditions are favourable, research teams could recruit a large number of international students to testify about the fossilization phenomenon; 2) except for oral performance, researchers could conduct experiments in writing, reading, and listening, analyzing and comparing differences among the four linguistic competences when the fossilization phenomenon occurs.
Higher education institutions in English-speaking nations should pay greater attention to the English oral abilities of overseas students as the number of international students attending colleges in these countries continues to rise. Because they lack the skills to communicate effectively with native speakers, international students may prefer to live with students from their home country, making their circumstances much more difficult. In addition, the institution needs to increase the possibilities available to international students to interact with locals, such as mandating that they participate in online chats or organizing more presentations. Rapid progress toward improved linguistic abilities is possible.
Appendix A. The Transcription of the First Interview
The First Interview—15 minutes in length, conducted in a Capen Library
Italics = question or statement made by interviewer
Bold = pronunciation issue
Underlined = grammar problem
So my name is ***** and I’m from china, um I’m 19.
Are you undergraduate or...?
Undergraduate.
What’s your major?
Accounting.
How is it different here than in China?
Because I haven’t been (unintelligible) a college in China, so I can’t compare them.
How about the weather?
The weather? Here is cold and I really like the cold weather, because last year I was in Los Angeles I didn’t like the sun so I apply for this school and transfer student here.
How long have you been in US?
US? 2 years.
So last for the whole year you are in the...
Yeah I’m in Los Angeles.
How did you to originally choose to go to Los Angeles?
I think the food is good and because they are has Chinese town, a Korea town. So actually I think Los Angeles better than here but the weather is so... so I don’t like the sun so I change for this country.
So which city do you come from?
Shanghai.
That’s weird, I think Shanghai is a kind of hot city, so...you don’t like the weather there? You prefer the cold weather?
Yeah, also Shanghai is cold.
Can you give a brief description of your hometown?
My home town? Shanghai...you are Beijing, right? I think Shanghai is better than Beijing.
Can you describe what is like, is it a big city? How many people?
How many people I don’t know, but it’s really a big city, and Shanghai is (an) economic city in China. And why I think Beijing is not good, because of the weather and people...
What about the people?
They are so... they don’t like Shanghaineese actually...
Why not?
Because Beijing is capital and Shanghai is economic city in China. Maybe...They are the biggest city in China, they always...
You mean one is politic center and one is economic center so there is some confliction?
I’m Shanghaineese and I think we are the topest people in China, they also think that...so it...
I hate that.
Where are you come from?
I come from Wuhan.
That is ok...so what else?
What do you miss about China?
Miss? Food, just food I think, because I don’t miss my family
Why?
Because, you know my mother in China, my father in Spain, actually my mother also does not miss me a lot, so and ...my character is don’t miss my hometown
So like individuals are independent and busy on the own work
Maybe.
So your major is accounting, what do you like about it?
I just want to find a job after I graduate, maybe I will change it because I think it is hard to complete the GPA. Every semester is three zero because my psych is repeat. You know psych101? Yeah I maybe repeat it, because um my first exam is just 40 percent.
So it’s very hard?
Actually I didn’t go to class so the first exam is so low.
Why don’t you go to class?
Sleep.
Did you go to class in Los Angeles?
Yes, because every class is one class one week, one class is about three hours so just one week I have four or five class so it’s ok but now I have twenty class...twelve class one week so maybe I just sleep over the time. My old school is just... the school whose founder is Taiwanese so they are has many exchange students.
Do you know a lot of native English speakers here in UB or do you mostly hang out with other Chinese students?
(Laughs)Um, actually, I didn’t hang out with other country student. And because actually we play majiang in our home and play card game. No, no other things. Or because we don’t have car so we cannot go out.
So you mostly hang out just with the Chinese?
Just with Chinese. Actually we don’t hang out, just in our home.
So do you speak English with each other or do you just....?
If, if we talk with each other, we use Chinese. I just use English in class. Cause, I can’t talk with him with English.
Why not?
(Chinese spoken) Because I saw him all his Chinese side, talk with Chinese.
I know that you love a idol group in, in Korea, from Korea.
Yeah, yeah.
Why do you like them?
They are my life.
Can you give us more details about them?
You know, actually, the idol is idol. And they are cannot be my idol. They are just a part of my life. You know. You know, idol just maybe you know I like them, some few years later, I don’t like them, but, they are my life.
When did you start to?
2006. Umm? 2000? Oh yeah yeah 2006. Because now they are just, you know (Chinese spoken)? Because they are (unintelligible), now they are just two. Actually, they are five people before, but it’s just two and three. So.....so how why (struggles for words). Because I should like all of them, so I should take care of two side of them.
How about your boyfriend?
I want to broke up with him. He is so mean.
Here? Or？
No, no, no. I know about him. Because we are the senior school classmates. So we got relationship six years ago. Yeah, so long.
So is he here in UB?
Yes. We applied for the same school. And why I want to broke with him because.... You know, he is really like... like money.
He like money?
You know. He....he....like to eat a lot. But because of money, he don’t want to buy the meat. Because it is so expensive you know.
So he is cheap?
Yeah, yeah,yeah. Oh my god.
So how can he work out the problem? Don’t eat?
No, no, no. I cook for him.
Oh, so you use your money to buy meat. Then you cook for him. Then he can eat meat without paying anything.
No,no. He will buy a little meat you know. Just buy meat and vegetables I buy and other things I buy.
So the break up issue is caused by meat?
No, it is the money.
So does he know you want to break up?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know about one or two weeks ago I told him I should break with you. And he says no. And I don’t, I can’t just tell him because you like money so I want to broke up with you. I should try another reason to..to..to do that. So...
But you can’t find any other reasons?
No, no, no.. A lot! For example he don’t like take shower, you know? You know? I say you should like take shower.. Okay you cannot take shower everyday but you should two days, one shower. He think (struggles) I’m so (Chinese word). (Laughs). And uhh.. many many problems you know?
So what did he say when you told him you should break up with him?
Just no, I say, you should say something to make me don’t break up with you but he say noo! I didn’t broke up with him. I don’t know why. Maybe because we get together for a long time. Like my family.
You can be friends after you break up, maybe?
I think I can but.. no, I think I can.
Do you think you will break up with him?
Will. I will. Because my mother.. My mother say he can be the boyfriend but you cannot marry with him.
Why?
For many reasons, money is one and my mother don’t like his family. I’m Shanghainese, in Shanghainese view, people in other part of China is rural people. Including Bejing. So my mother don’t like the family because he is not Shanghainese. And uhh.. And because we get together for a long time so the problems become more and more and more. I try to find the timing to broke up with him but..
You have to be firm! We’re breaking up, I don’t care if you say no.
I should find another boyfriend! Other question?
Would you ever date someone that was not Chinese?
Yea, I will. I will.
Would your mother approve?
My mother want me to have uh.. a foreigner boyfriend.
Really?
Because the baby will be.. you know (Chinese word). It will be beautiful.
Any other questions? Do you have any other questions? Okay, talk about your roommates.
Okay my roommates.. Oh no, no this one. Another girl, very tall. No taller than him – a girl taller than him. She is the model. She is the (unintelligible word) model. She is the (Chinese word).
Oh a car model.
So you live two girls and two boys?
Yea, the other boy is my boyfriend..
Ohhh..
I have a question.. How did you choose the name ****?
Ah! Because my idol is (unintelligible). They are fan club, their fan club name is ****.
Side conversation:
(Interviewer) And how did you guys choose your names?
(Interviewer)You mean Fred? It’s a very simple story just because the first class of the.. my English class the teacher told us to choose an English name and there is always a name list at the final page of the textbooks and I find the shortest one. Except Tom and others.. it is the shortest ones. Fred.
(Interviewer)Me? Because my Chinese name is Xu Ge so Sugar, it is pretty close. I choose that.
(Interviewer)I use this name for over 10years and I think it is really easy to remember.
My boyfriend’s now name is Cody. Before it is Katie.
Katie? That’s a girl’s name?
Like Hello Kitty.
Ohh, Kitty.
Before, in High School in Minnesota. I don’t know, he just chose the Kitty.
So you took High School here?
No, no my boyfriend.
But you know him for like six years?
Yea, because we are the same year in senior school. We are high school classmates. In the 12th grade he went to America. He repeated the (unintelligible).
Appendix B. The Transcription of the Second Interview
The Second Interview – 10 minutes in length, conducted in interviewee’s room.
Firstly, please introduce yourself.
My name is *****, I come from China, I’m nineteen.
What’s your major?
Accounting.
How is it different here than in China?
Here is clean. And I should be myself and be more confidence here than in China.
How about the weather in Buffalo?
The weather is cold and dry here.
How long have you been in US?
Almost two years.
How did you to originally choose to go to Los Angeles?
I went there before this year because I should to learn the English course at there, there is cheap.
Can you give a brief description of your hometown?
Shanghai, my hometown is shanghai, it is a big city, it is a economic city, And...I love China oh Shanghai.
Can you describe what is like, how many are there?
...Ah?
How many people?
Many many people, I think it’s about more than three thousand million people.
Please describe what is like with more details.
Um...Ah...If they born after 90...90s, they are very...(Chinese: how to say that)...optimistic. If they born in 60 like my mother generation, many many...how to say that? The old...no...the middle age woman, will be more emotional.
What do you miss in China?
The food, because here I cannot buy the chicken blood.
Do you miss your family?
A little but not much.
Why ?
Because I think, my mother didn’t...doesn’t...does not miss me and I doesn’t...do not miss her, because I think just one year then I can see her.
So...your major is accounting, what do you like about it?
Money, I can...because my mother open a coffee shop, so maybe when there I can help her to un...to account the...
Become the checker?
Not checker, account for my mother’s company!
Do you know a lot of English speakers here in UB?
No...not..no no...
Do you mostly hang out with other Chinsese students?
Yes...go to the supermarket and movie...
Do you speak English with each other or...
Just in class, in writing class talk with the Chinese use English. If we at home, we just use the Chinsese.
So, can you describe the idol group you like?
The south Korea band, TVXQ.
Can you give us more details about them?
They are famous in the whole Asia, especially in the Japan and Malaysia.
When did you start to like them?
2006, when I was junior school.
Why do you like them?
Love someone, do not have reason.
How about your boyfriend?
He is clean, he cannot wash his hair for one month...
I remember that you want to break up with him last time, do you still want to do this?
Yes! But I still have no chance.
Does he know that you want to break up with him?
Yes...every day I said I should break up with you....
You can’t find any other reasons?
If this...if the...birthday, the next coming birthday he will not give the present by himself, I will break up with him.
Please describe your life in Los Angeles.
That school in Los Angeles was... there are many exchange students there especially about the Korean and the Taiwanese. Because they are exchange students so they just should go to the Los Angeles school for one years. So I met some friends, the Korea friends and the Taiwanese friends. And last half year...one and half year, I was living in Los Angeles, So I can go a lot of place around the Los Angeles, such as the Las Vegas the San Hosay and San Diago. And the weather there is so hot, so I don’t...I didn’t like there.
Why do you want to break up with your boyfriend.
I think he is very mean and cheap...(Chinese, explain)...And you know every festival of my birthday, I should ask him to give my present, he never give me present automatically.
You mean you have to ask him for your present...
Yeah...ask for many many times you know. One month before my birthday I should ask him, where is my birthday gift and then he said ah...the time is not coming...blablabla...
Does he buy meat now?
Yeah, because he owe my money, I go to supermarket and we half-half. I buy the meat but half is he paid. Because he owe me money so he must buy the meat.
Do you feel better with him than before?
No, I think we did more longer, more many problems will become.