I
met with my conversation partner Mohammed for the second time last Thursday
evening. We went to Gaines Street Pies and walked around Railroad Square a
little bit. He told me about what things are like in Kuwait as we shared a
cheese pizza. He told me that tattoo parlors, dance clubs, and alcohol are all
illegal in his home country. But, he did say that hookah is extremely popular
there, and, according to Mohammed, 95% of the population smokes cigarettes.
Mohammed
asked me how much a tattoo costs. I didn’t have a very good idea, and asked why
he wanted to know. Of course, he told me he’s thinking about getting one here
in the United States. He showed me a photo of a tattoo he already has on his
stomach. I found it interesting that he didn’t just show it me, that he chose
to show me a picture. A cultural difference, maybe? Perhaps a social faux pas
where he comes from? Maybe most Americans would have done the same thing,
anyway, and I’m actually the one who doesn’t realize it.
Like I have posted about before, Mohammed’s speaking and
understanding are pretty decent for someone whose only experience is that he’s
studied English in school for a few years back in Kuwait. One of the only
things I noticed this time in regards to his areas of improvement for my
conversation partner is that our conversation isn’t very fluid. As in, there
were many times where he or I would ask a question and an answer would be
provided, and then silence would follow. Like many other intermediate speakers,
maybe Mohammed’s English vocabulary is limited in that he only knows basic
words for each set of ideas there are to talk about, which could account for
why in a single conversation, we switch between many different subjects.
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