First Meeting With Terrence!

I had my first meeting with my conversation partner, Terrence Chen, last Thursday. It is always a little awkward when you first meet someone, especially when you are walking aimlessly around the bookstore looking for someone you’ve never seen before. Nevertheless, we finally found each other and had a great first conversation. Terrence is from a small town in southeastern China and he came to the United States at the beginning of this semester with the intention of studying at TCU for five years. The first year is the Intensive English Program, and then he is going on to get his Bachelor’s degree in Business. He told me that after he graduates from TCU he wants to go back to China to work for his dad for a couple years before going out and finding a job on his own. It was obvious by the way Terrence talked about him, that his dad was a very important figure in his life. His dad was the one who encouraged him to come to the United States and learn English, despite the fact that he has no interest in staying and working here. His dad always encourages him to travel and see the world before he settles down back in his hometown—which he fully intends on doing. 

I asked Terrence how school in America compared to school in China and he said he has a lot more free time here. He told me how after he got home from school he would study all night and all through the weekends as well. There was a lot of “on your own” work at his school. He also explained to me how his specific school was different from most others in China. He went to a high school that was focused on the liberal arts and studying abroad and didn’t offer any science classes. I found it very interesting that Terrence hadn’t taken a science class since the 8^th grade. I have never heard of a high school like that in the United States!

I was interested in learning about how the Intensive English Program worked and how Terrence felt about learning English so I asked him what kinds of things he’s been doing in his classes. He mentioned having to read two books on his own time throughout the semester that he got to choose. I can’t remember the name of the book he chose to read, but he told me he was confused about the message behind the story. He explained the plot to me and it was a typical “rags to riches” story that we see a lot in American culture. I found it very interesting that a concept so commonplace in our society could be completely foreign to someone from a different country. I explained to him that one of the things Americans value is hope, and that even if you are born into unfortunate circumstances, we believe that hard work and dedication can lead you to a better life. He understood the concept more when I explained it like that, but he just wasn’t able to recognize it in the story he read.

I am always interesting to learn about how hard it is to learn English—especially because I am trying to learn a foreign language myself. He told me that English has been a very challenging language to learn because of all the exceptions to the rules. He said that they learn about a grammar rule and then they learn tons of exceptions to the rule that make it extremely confusing. It’s hard for me to understand how difficult of a language English is because I never had to learn it by the rules. I do relate to the frustrating process of learning a language though. No matter how many classes you take about grammar and vocabulary, it is so hard for me to have a conversation with someone in Spanish. I appreciate what all of the ISP students are doing as I’m sure it is very difficult and scary to go to a place where you are forced to speak a foreign language all the time!

I had such a great time meeting Terrence and I am excited to meet with him again this week!!