Since we had met previously, the whole mood of the meeting was much more comfortable. There were no awkward introductions, no scoping each other out, no nothing. This allowed me to focus on more subtle things. The first thing I noticed was just how long Mohanad and Abdul's handshakes were. I don't know if that's just a cultural difference or whatever, but I thought it was funny. Essentially that's a really minor part of an interaction -- although the Neeley School of Business would probably tell you otherwise -- and I just found it interesting how something so simple could also be so briefly jarring in a social setting.
For the record, Mohanad and Abdul are super nice dudes. Again, I hadn't noticed it until our second meeting, but they really insisted on buying me coffee from Union Grounds. They almost didn't take no for an answer. I could tell they were really grateful for the chance to converse. It was really sad actually. At one point during our meeting, in this pure moment of profound juxtaposition, Abdul, with a wide smile spread across his face, told me how happy he was to talk with me -- "I want to learn English so bad. Sometimes I am awake before bed and I cry because I want to learn English, but I can't."
On a less serious note, we talked about more trivial matters. I asked them how they like their coffee. They both said black with a little bit of milk. I asked them about their day as well. They said they had gone to Chili's earlier for dinner, I believe for the first time, and they seemed to have enjoyed it. Mohanad and Abdul also spoke about how they had been trying to go to the Rec lately and get in shape. Their favorite sport is soccer, but when they go to the Rec they like to relax and play on the pool tables. I commented on their attire. They were both much better dressed since the last time I had met with them. Mohanad and Abdul were both sporting bright colored pastel polo shirts. They explained that when they first got here all their clothes were designed for much colder weather, so they had made a trip to the mall recently to get summer clothes. When I asked them about how classes were going they talked about how hard their tests were. Earlier they had to write an essay for a test about their stance on love and how it relates to marriage. It sounded really awful.
Once again, I found the most enjoyable part of our conversation to be hearing their thoughts on the English language from the perspective of new speakers. We discussed the significance of the phrase "What's up?" for an incredibly long time. I had to explain that it was just a slang greeting. When someone asks you "What's up?", it is not a matter of direction. No one cares what is physically above you. My simplest explanation for them was that it basically meant "How are you doing?". This launched us into a whole new area of problems with the English language. Mohanad and Abdul really had difficulties telling the difference between words that rhymed or had slightly different, subtle variations. Specifically, they did not understand why "How are you doing?" and "Where are you going?" meant two different things when "doing" and "going" sounded like practically the same word. Pronunciation remained an issue the whole night. I had to stop them a couple times to understand them when they were telling stories. It was pretty funny to hear them pronounce "elephant" and "eleven" in exactly the same way.
Mohanad and Abdul told me that they were in the United States because their father wanted them to learn English as quickly as possible so that they could be successful when they eventually move back home. They asked my advice on how they should best learn the language. I recommended that they watch the news regularly. I had previously heard that repeatedly watching television programming in a foreign language really helps. My best friend from high school swears that his foreign exchange student learned how to speak English just as much by watching the TV show Friends as she did in class. I also told them to join some organizations around the campus. I asked them if there were any extracurricular groups for ESL students or if they were interested in joining the Crew or something like that.
Eventually we grew tired and we had to wrap up our conversation. Overall though, our second meeting was a great success.
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