First ESL Meeting

This past Thursday I was finally able to meet with Simon for the first time. We decided to meet at the bookstore becuase I thought that it would be a familiar spot for him where we could talk and relax. When Simon showed up it turned out that I would be meeting with two ESL students because he brought along another friend from the program. His name is Harry and conveniently enough they were both from small towns in China that I don't think I will ever be able to spell or pronounce. When I found out that they were from China I became excited because I have spent alot of time in China and Japan. I was actually born in Hong Kong and while I only lived there for the first two years of my life, I spent three full summers there when my dad was working overseas. Needless to say, I was pretty happy that we had something in common to talk about.

When we had finished talking about China, I was curious to know why they had chosen to come to TCU and why they liked the United States. It turned out that from a very young age their parents had wanted them to study in America and just by random luck they ended up in Fort Worth. When I asked them about American food they said that they ate it every once in a while but for the most part they ordered Chinese food and stuck close to their heritage. They said that there were alot of good Chinese restaraunts around, and that we will hopefully get to eat at one for one of our meetings.

When they had both finished their rant on how Chinese food was better than American food we began to talk about sports. The only sport they followed was basketball and they suprisingly knew alot about the American teams and players, and that American players would hopefully play in China if the NBA lockout continues. We also suggested that for one of our meetings we could meet in the Recreation Center and shoot hoops while we talked because they both loved to play basketball as well.

Overall, I was surprised how easy it was to talk to both of them. Although Simon's English was not as good as Harry's, they seemed to understand what I was saying and could speak enough to where I knew what they were talking about. To be honest, I expected their English to be a little better, but when I told them I had lived in China they expected that I atleast knew how to say "hello" in Mandarin which I can't do. Hopefully we will be able to meet this Thursday and every Thursday for the rest of the semester.