Third Meeting With Joe. An English Learning Experience!

My third meeting with Joe proved to be quite interesting. We started off our conversation by catching up on what had happened to both of us during the last week or so. Joe was very intrigued by all the people he saw in Halloween costumes over the weekend. I asked him if he was familiar with Halloween and while he did know what it was, he said it was not something celebrated in Japan like we do here. He told me how he was at a friend’s house during Halloween and found it interesting and funny to see all the kids dressed in costumes come to the door and ask for candy. I guess I kind of figured everyone one participated in Halloween, but obviously that is kind of a narrow-minded thought. I do believe that one of the best things about this conversational partner project is being able to think outside of my American bubble and really see how someone else lives, and also how they experience our country. Life in Japan seems far different than life in the United States but it seems like Joe is doing a great job adjusting to American culture!

At this meeting in particular Joe and I discussed in depth about academics and classes. I went through what a normal week is like for me and how I feel about my classes and Joe did the same.  While both of us are at TCU taking classes, our lives could not be more different. For instance, our schedules during the day are quite the opposite. Because Joe is in IEP he has all of his classes during a blocked schedule time, whereas I feel like I am bouncing all over campus each say of the week. Joe starts around nine and ends at about one, which is when we meet every week. Not only are the times between our classes different but also his classes are all based around learning English. Joe explained to me that after this meeting he had to go take a test over English grammar. I was fascinated to see what he was learning so I asked him to show me what his quiz was going to be over. Joe pulled out his English grammar workbook and flipped to the topic that he was learning about. Since I am so used to looking at Spanish workbooks when it comes to learning a language, it was quite interesting to see what it looks like to learn English. I guess from flipping through Joe’s workbook I came to the conclusion that English cannot be an easy language to learn. Even though I knew everything that was being taught in the book, trying to explain why certain aspects of language are the way they are is a hard concept to grasp. Joe was working on the use of the English “to be” When I was looking at the exercises in his book I could fill in the blanks with the correct answer but when trying to explain it to Joe I found myself stumbling at my words. It is a very difficult task to try and explain how to learn language when you acquired the language so long ago. I found myself coming the realization that what Joe and all the other IEP students are doing is extremely difficult, but it must be so rewarding to accomplish learning a new language. I wish I could say the same about my Spanish speaking and writing abilities.

            A particularly funny event occurred when Joe and I were discussing aspects of language during our meeting. We were talking about the concept of using “good” vs. “well” You would think that by now I would have this part of language mastered but I’m sad to say that I do not. However, I do see a lot of other people my age and older struggle with the same thing. The other day in one of my classes I made an error in using good instead of well and I felt so silly for making the mistake aloud. It baffles me how everything sounds good in my head but when I go to speak it all falls apart. I was explaining to Joe how I had this dilemma in one of my classes and then I tried to explain the idea between the two words. It was really funny trying to explain and come up with examples for Joe, I’m sure people passing by us at Union Grounds thought we were crazy.

            This Third meeting with Joe proved to be quite the learning experience for both of us in terms of understanding the English language. I guess the idea that we never stop learning is fairly accurate, especially after today!