Conversation Partner- 2

            Before break, I had my second meeting with Monica. Despite my efforts to begin the meeting speaking in English, she quickly began speaking in all Spanish. For whatever reason (maybe it was the 57493058340 tests and papers I had due that week and my brain had just stopped working) my Spanish speaking abilities were horrible that day. I could barely think of how to say the simplest things; it was one of the more frustrating experiences of my life. Again, this feeling gave me insight to how Monica must feel all the time. I honestly don’t blame her at all for taking her time with me to speak in Spanish. She was beyond patient with all my mistakes and errors; I’m fairly positive I made next to no sense throughout our entire meeting. Somehow, though, I managed to get the point across that I had a Spanish test right after our meeting and she immediately volunteered to help me.

IMPORTANT: We are not the only language that hates grammar! Even while explaining it in Spanish, she had NO idea what the infamously dreaded “subjunctive mood” was until I showed her some examples. Even after, her way of trying to explain it to me was complicated and inconsistent. I imagine the look on my face was similar to the looks on some of our faces the other day in class when we started talking semicolons and dashes. Pure confusion.

The above notice was a bit dramatic. I like grammar as much as the next good Honors kid, but when it comes to the names of the parts of a sentence or trying to explain it to someone else, I’m lost. In my personal opinion, proper grammar shouldn’t even really be a problem (I say as I’m making countless grammar errors). But that's a different blog entirely.

Other than the grammar struggle, we mainly just kept getting to know each other for the rest of the meeting. I got to witness her trying Chik-Fil-A for the first time; it was so, so beautiful. Of course she loved it because everyone loves Chik-Fil-A. If you say you don’t, you’re lying. Squidward said he didn’t like Crabby Patties and we all found out that was a fat lie. We all know the truth about you Chik haters too. You’re not fooling anyone. Yet again, I digress.

      In all seriousness, though, I feel lucky to be partnered with Monica. I can tell she looks forward to our meetings and genuinely cares about getting to know me. Although we are from different counties, we haven’t come across any cultural boundaries yet. She dresses just like anyone else would, complains about school, and inquires about my day and my life. If there weren’t a language barrier, I wouldn’t even be able to tell she was from another country. I know this isn’t the case with a lot of other foreigners. I’m lucky to be able to learn about her life and her culture without worrying too much about offending her with my clothing choices or eating habits. I’ve learned in our meetings that she hates Hispanic soap operas that are shown in the US and loves American game shows like jeopardy. I know she is very busy with school and struggles with learning English everyday, but she is still very determined to keep learning. I’m looking forward to our next meeting!