Convo Partner Meeting #3

       I met with Ruben again and along with him came two of his lady friends from his ESL program. He started by asking how my “week of Hell” had gone, as I had called my week full of tests and papers two weeks ago. I told him I got four A’s on my tests and an A- on my midterm paper. I asked him if that would be a 5 in Columbia, and he clarified that the grading scale there is 1-5 in “University,” but in school, they use letters like us. An “E” is the best, and an “I” is the worst (for “excellente” and “insufficiente,” or something close to that).

       Ruben then asked if I could proofread one of his papers for his ESL class. The subject of the paper was to describe something that had happened in his life that was important to him, and he chose to describe his graduation from engineering school. The main thing he kept messing up in his paper was tense. For example he would say, “When the graduation party start, I meet many people that congratulate me.” I still get caught messing up for this same subject of tenses, so I was impressed with Ruben’s essay.

       From there, Ruben was asking me what people usually do for Thanksgiving. I explained that on the Thursday of Thanksgiving, most families have work or school off and they are able to get together for a big feast with turkey and dressing. It is mostly just a time of relaxation and giving thanks for all the blessings people have. Then, the Christmas season begins right after Thanksgiving, capped by Black Friday. He seemed especially intrigued with Black Friday, mostly because he had never heard of it and was really wanting an iPad. I told him that most stores have sales of some sort, but the shopping begins at midnight on Thursday night, and people will camp out all night to be the first in line for new, discounted products. Once inside the stores, it is chaotic. He seemed turned off by the idea, which is understandable, considering I would not want to stand in a line for hours and battle for products with tired, angry Americans, especially if I did not know the language as well as others. I then told him about online shopping and gave him some websites to check out for his iPad so that he wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of Black Friday stores. After always growing up with Thanksgiving and Black Friday, it is interesting to get someone from another culture’s perspective on our holidays, and also to wonder about what holidays he celebrates in his country, if there is one that might relate to our Thanksgiving, and his perspective on his country’s own holidays.