The First Meeting

When I first realized that I had to meet with a student learning English at TCU, I was a little apprehensive. I didn't really know what to expect, what we would talk about, or how to contribute to his comprehension of the language. Little did I know how rewarding an experience it would truly be. As I walked into Barnes and Noble the to meet with him, my first problem arose- finding him. All I knew was that his name was Chanhong Ji and that he went by the English name of Jacob. After wandering the store for a few minutes, I finally spotted a middle-aged Asian man. While I was watching, he got out a piece of paper, wrote "Chanhong Ji" on it and held it up. This was a real shocker to me. I had assumed that he would be the typical college age, around 20, but Jacob was definitely not. Thus, the first issue of finding my conversation partner was resolved.

After the introductions were made, we sat down at a table at the bookstore Starbucks and began talking. At first, I thought it would be difficult to hold a conversation with him, but it really wasn't. He was easy to talk to, but sometimes he would pause and think about what he had to say and translate it in his head before he spoke. I was actually impressed at how good his English was, since he had only moved here last May. As we spoke, Jacob started telling me a little about himself. He is 34 years old and moved to the US from South Korea to learn English. Jacob has three children: John, 7; David, 4; and Grace; 2 plus a wife who all live about 15 minutes from campus. I then told him about where I am from and he was interested in the geography of Texas, and graciously accepted the crudely made map that I drew.

Our conversation turned to how he likes TCU, and Jacob said that he liked it a lot. He admitted to me that while he was at the rec running on a treadmill one day, he flipped to a TCU football game. But he was sad and frustrated because he did not know the rules of football. Suddenly, his face lit up as he asked if I could teach him about football. I could not refuse such a hearty request, so I began teaching him the rules of football as best that I could. This was somewhat difficult, since I was dealing with someone with just a basic grasp of the language, so I could not use typical football terminology like downs or interception. Instead, I told him that each team has four chances to gain 10 yards and if they do not, the other team gets the ball. I used simple concepts like that to express what the game was all about, and whenever he did not understand something he would stop me and ask me to explain again. In the end, he told me that it was a lot clearer to him, and I suggested he take the notes I had given him and watch a game over the weekend to see if he understood what was going on.

This was really interesting an eye-opening experience for me because there were some things that I had always taken for granted. It was strange to me that someone out there did not know the rules to football, since it is extremely popular in America. I was reflecting on these thoughts as we finished up our conversation. Jacob then told me that he had a friend and asked if she could come to speak with us next week. I said sure and he left to do some studying in the library, leaving me to marinate in my thoughts. Overall, the first meeting was a great experience and I cannot wait for next week.