Convo Partner Meeting #2

       My second meeting with Ruben was on Friday the seventh, which came after a hard week of tests and papers for me. He asked how I did on the tests and I told him I got an “A” on one and I didn’t know about the rest yet. Then he asked me what an “A” was. It didn’t even cross my mind that the grading systems would be so different across countries. He explained to me that in Columbia they use a grading system like ours, but instead of letters, they use numbers. A “5” would be the equivalent to an “A,” and a “0” equivalent to an “F.”

       I asked him about his English classes and he told me what they were working on at the time. Each student would have headphones and would be asked a question and the student would have to give a logical, correct answer in response. I was surprised when he told me that he got a 75% on it because I thought that his English was understandable and correct most of the time. He explained that when he cannot see the person talking and he can only hear the English, it makes comprehending it ten times harder. When I am sitting with him at Barnes and Noble face to face, he has an easy time understanding because facial expressions, mouth shape, and overall demeanor are able to assist him in grasping what I am saying. But on the phone or from the headphones, he has a much harder time because he only has what he hears to go off of. Prior to our first meeting, I was expecting someone not as experienced in the language because we had only talked on the phone and therefore our conversations struggled. But in person, Ruben’s English is definitely conversational and improving.

       One of the subjects he was learning in his English class was the similarities between English words. For example, he told me, “quit,” quiet,” and “quite.” When in conversation, how is one supposed to know which is being said, he asked me. For someone learning the language that hasn’t grown up with it his/her whole life, I would think English would be one of the hardest languages to learn, second only to maybe Chinese. English has so many odd exceptions and pronunciation rules that it really is a matter of just time and experience to fully understand it all. I still don’t understand the language sometimes and I’m nineteen years into learning it. I can’t even imagine how Ruben feels.