Monday was my first meeting with my conversation partner, Young Kim. We met in the cafe part of the library since it was the easiest place for her to find. I found out that she is from South Korea and decided to come to Texas since her older sister lives in Weatherford. The crazy thing is, she wakes up every morning at 5am to have her brother-in-law drop her off at TCU then he heads to work. I could not imagine having to wake up that early every morning! I asked if she took naps during the day since she was up so early, but she said that instead she goes to bed early, at 10pm. I would be exhausted!
We also chatted about the differences she sees in America vs. South Korea. I think the main thing she dislikes is the food. She misses the Korean food, since she fished back home. Her favorite dish is kimchi, which she had to spell out for me so I could look it up on Google images (best invention ever). She described it as being very spicy and containing different vegetables. I showed her some of my favorite things to eat and discovered she isn't a fan of Mexican food, such a shame since the Tex-Mex food here is so good!
Overall, my first meeting with Young went really well! She's really sweet and seems interested in the culture around her. Her english isn't so good, but she is willing to learn. What I had to focus on was speaking a little slower so that she could understand what I was saying. That is quite the challenge for me since I talk fast. We don't realize how fast we speak and how we blend words so much until we encounter someone who does not know the language very well. It reminded me of being back in high school trying to learn spanish and doing listening activities. They were always so difficult when the speaker spoke quickly or had a different accent than my teacher. I can only imagine how difficult it is for Young to try and figure out what everyone is saying all the time! I, for one, am completely guilty of blending or abbreviating words, creating my own new dialect that at times does not sound like normal English!
I had the same problem with speaking so fast. She had to constantly stop me and ask what a word meant and that she didn't know what i was saying and stuff like that. It made it difficult to have our conversations because we spent most of our time trying to understand each others languages.
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