I can’t imagine anyone being capable of meeting someone for
the first time without being a little nervous, but when I was told I would be
meeting someone from the other side of the world just learning English, I was
terrified. What kinds of things are okay
to say? What if I couldn’t understand
her? What if I spoke too fast and she
couldn’t understand me? What if I spoke
too slow and made it look like I thought she was dumb? What could I have in common with someone from
Saudi Arabia? Questions raced through my
head as I watched the door waiting for her to walk in. When she got there, I knew it must be her, as
she was dressed in clothing representative of Saudi Arabian culture. Even this made me self-conscious. Should I have worn something different? Does she think America is immodest? The
questions continued on until we sat down and started talking.
Believe it or not, she is a human
being, and she is not any more difficult to talk to than anyone else I have met
for the first time. Sure she has a bit
of an accent, but I personally think it’s great when people have accents. She really knew a lot more English than I had
expected; I know if I were trying to learn Arabic I would most likely butcher
it. The only issues she had were minor,
and even then she would just pause and laugh a little and tell me she didn’t
know a word and she had to take a second to think of how to explain it. At one point she jokingly blamed her
friends, saying she tries to convince them to speak English outside of class
but she just can’t seem to make them agree.
Rather than an interview, it felt more like
the beginnings of building a relationship.
She was very kind and accepting, and not judgmental by any means. She was interested in my life and simply
acted like she wanted to make a friend. She
told me she loved watching movies, and said the most recent one she saw was
Let’s Be Cops and she thought it was great.
It suddenly clicked in my mind that I didn’t need to put on any sort of
face, we were simply in this situation to learn something new and make a
connection with a person we would not have met otherwise. After I made this realization, the rest of
the meeting was great. We talked about
things any student would talk about: missing home, what our families are like,
what sorts of things we do in our free time, and our favorite restaurants. She even told me she would attempt to make me
a Saudi Arabian meal (although she also mentioned she’s not a great cook) and
that she would teach me to belly dance (I kindly explained that she, nor anyone
else, wants to see my attempt to dance).
We bonded over our love of Chinese food and movies, so this weekend that
is exactly what we are going to do together.
This is only the first meeting we have had and
I have already learned so much, gotten rid of so many stereotypes, and opened
up to the idea of friendships in unexpected places. I am very excited about what I may be able to
learn from her as the semester continues.
My hope is that I may also help her to be comfortable here, because I
personally wouldn’t make it more than a couple weeks in a foreign country
without my family and friends with me. I
know I can’t replace that in any way for her, but hopefully I can provide a way
for her to not only learn about America but also to simply enjoy her time
here. I am excited to meet with her
again and so very thankful that the first meeting went so much better than I
had initially feared.
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