Zachary-CP 1

5/16/12 Lofty Pursuits

So after a little miscommunication I finally got in touch and met with my conversation partner, Faisal Alshahrani, and it was Awesome! I cannot stress that enough.

We met at Lofty Pursuits, my place of employment (free ice-cream), around 5:30pm. I had gotten there around 5:00 and spent the 30min interim trying to shake the "first date" feeling and talking with some of the other CIES students who had shown up earlier with their partners, trying to divulge any tips or tricks for the first meet as it were.

When he finally arrived I had worked through most of the nervous anticipation and was pretty psyched to begin. We introduced each other briefly and shook hands before sitting down. Before we got into it I mentioned to him that I was currently studying Arabic and asked if it would be alright to practice a little with him. This is the part I was most excited/nervous for, finally getting to test my Arabic out with a native speaker. He brightened almost immediately after I began my introduction.

I told him my name, my year and major and what school I was studying at, that I was born and raised in Tallahassee and if he should have any questions to please ask me. When I asked where he was from he told me he was from a small town in Saudi Arabia not far from the capitol, that his entire family of 12 (yes he has 9 siblings, 5 brothers and 4 sisters, and his mother and father) all still live in the same town and only two of his older brothers have moved out. All of this he said in Arabic and I was pleased to say that I understood the vast majority of it, granted he was talking much slower for my sake.

I told him I was very impressed with his English skills so far, I had only noticed a few grammatical and syntax errors. He told me that he had only been in the states for 6 months, 3 of which in the beginning he could not speak any English for. I about choked on my root beer float. For only three months of practice his communication skills were far beyond what I would have predicted (two semesters into Arabic vs 3 months in country and his comprehension of his second language dwarfed mine). Certain words still eluded him and it took me a bit to accustom my speech, avoiding slang or overly complicated words or phrases, so that we could communicate easily but once we started the next two hours flew by.

The conversation bounced around between Arabic and English, both of us trying to communicate what we could in the language we were respectively practicing and then moving towards our native language when we could not go any further. This lead to me often times asking questions in Arabic and him answering them in English and visa-verse. He complimented me on my accent and said that while I relied a lot on speaking in the formal language, the one normally reserved for written or very formal occasions, I was understandable and coherent.

We mentioned our hobbies and interests, both of us are big music fans, and we both enjoy cycling (I am hopping to take him on the St. Marks trail at some point). I told him that he should show me some of his favorite Arabic artists and he instantly began listing off names of bands and singers I had never heard of. when I asked him what he would like to get out of our session, and what he would like form me as his CP he simply told me "practice". He said he just wanted someone with whom he could speak casually with and work on getting the flow of the language.

We ended around 7:30 still talking about good Arabic music I should listen to. It was really amazing to hear his story and learn about his experiences adapting to a whole new culture outside of his own. I'm pretty psyched to meet again and practice some more.