My french exchange partner left a little under a week ago, last Tuesday, on the (I think) eleventh day of his stay in England. It was terribly hard work looking after him. He talked even less than i did when i was over there. I realise that, yes, it was partly my responsibililty to engage him in conversation, but i did try, i really did, in the beginning at least. But eventually i just got put off. I accept that it might actually have been easier to talk to him towards the end of his stay, as by that time he would have settled in more to talking, or at least listening, in English, but by that time i was just fed up. At the beginning we'd had to repeat things multiple times, which did get really tiring, so we just, eventually, stopped.

I do feel guilty, as i remembered how hard it was when i was in that position a few months ago. But it just got so hard to sympathise with somebody who only communicates in grunts. He honestly did! He went whole days without speaking a single sentence- well, not to us. Whether he was, in the privacy of his head, constantly making witty ripostes and scathing remarks in English we'll never know, but i somehow doubt it.