Conversation Partner, an SF State program designed to connect students from different cultural backgrounds, is kicking off its fall session this October.

The semester-long program is run by SF State’s American Language Institute and pairs up American and International students for weekly sessions to share each other’s cultures.

“The program helps raise cultural awareness for all students involved and fosters cross-cultural communication,” said Angelika Rappe, coordinator of Conversation Partner.

After the participants are matched based on their languages and interests in the first week of October, they meet one another at a small ice-breaker event arranged by Rappe. Any meeting after that is decided on and arranged solely by the partners.

Although the program enables students to share each other’s cultures and experiences, the emphasis is on language skills.

“All of our [international] students speak English, but may not have had the opportunity to use it in conversational contexts,” said Rappe. “So they naturally want to practice this part of their English learning as well as learn about American culture.”

Some ambitious students have spent half of their hour together speaking in one language and the other half hour in another language, said Rappe. However, American students are not required to know a language besides English to participate.

Conversation Partner has already received some early attention from students who are curious about the program.

Audrey Tilson, 24, said it could offer her a chance to help international students learn English and improve their language skills while at the same time she could learn about their culture.

“Just the exchange of language is what attracted me,” said Tilson, a senior Italian and business major.

“It sounds great,” said Melanie Mendl, 30, an international student from Germany. “You can share each other’s culture and language. It might engage people to think about international policies.”

Interested students can sign up for the program in HUM 101 or send an email to conversationpartner@gmail.com. International students must be in high-intermediate or advanced classes at the ALI to participate. The deadline is Sept. 27.