First Meeting with David

When I first received an email from David Corredor, I was a little worried. In extremely broken English he stated that he was my conversation partner from Colombia and asked when we could have our first meeting. We emailed back and forth to set up a time and his emails were still difficult to interpret. Of course he’s in the Intensive English Program so obviously his English isn’t going to be perfect, but I remember wondering what would happen if the language barrier was so significant that we couldn’t even carry a conversation? How could we learn about each other if the whole time we’re just trying to figure out what the other is saying?

Needless to say, I was anxious the day of our meeting, not having any idea of David’s ability to speak English or even his age. I reviewed the conversation topics and tips several times in preparation as if I was studying for a test; I was just as nervous too. I walked to the BLUU where we planned to meet, not having any idea what to expect. Then a guy my age walks up to me, introduces himself as David, and the next thing you know it’s been an hour and a half of conversation as if we had already known each other.

David was very easy to understand and his English speaking was impressive; even more so when I found out he literally didn’t know a word of our language before he moved here this past July. I didn’t even have to worry about the conversation tips or topics because he already knew how to carry a conversation in English. He told me he only struggled with idioms and the pronunciation of some words, one of which ended up being a pretty funny mix up. We were talking about how we both wanted to go to California and go to the beach, and then he stopped and asked me why some people give him weird looks when he says the word “beach.”  The thing was his “ea” sound in beach sounded more like an “i” sound, so you can imagine why he may have received some weird looks. I explained the mix up and we had a good laugh about it.

One thing that got me thinking was when David told me that his uncle, who he lives with in Fort Worth, made it a rule that he cannot talk to his parents who live in Colombia for the next two months. It’s one thing to move away from your family to a completely new country, but it’s another to not have any communication with them on top of that. His uncle made the rule because David’s parents only speak Spanish. So when David switches back and forth between the two languages, words get jumbled in his head which makes it harder to learn. David is focusing on mastering English first so he can then go back to speaking Spanish and eventually be bilingual. This just made me realize that I may be taking my family for granted. My house is a 40 minute drive from TCU, so I see my family fairly often compared to most students here and keep consistent communication with them. David, however, is thousands of miles away from his family and won’t be going back to see them. Talk about being home sick. This just made me even more grateful for being able to see my family, and allowed me to take a glimpse into a completely opposite situation.

David is very positive about his life in America and I admire him for that. I really do look forward to meeting with him again because he exceeded my expectations by far. Now I feel a little goofy for being so nervous and unsure of our meeting. Just because he’s from a different country doesn’t mean he won’t be a person I enjoy talking to. I feel like I have already made a new friend.