First Conversation Partner Meeting

My first meeting with HongLi Chen, or Li, gave me an insight into the challenges of living in a foreign country. Li is a freshman Business major at TCU, and I met with him on September 28th at the bookstore cafe. We talked about classes, the dorms, and what it is like for him to be living away from China for the first time. I was really interested to get to talk to him about this, particularly because of my own interest in traveling, and in studying abroad during a semester at college. Because I live only an hour away from my home, it was astonishing to me that Li moved to the other side of the world for college. 

At first we talked about very basic subjects- what classes we were taking, what we were majoring in, and how the semester was going in general. As we began to talk about living on campus, it became apparent how even students who spend most of their time in an English-speaking environment can avoid practicing the language. Li lives with another student from China, and he said that when they are at their dorm, they usually speak in Chinese. He said that most of the foreign students he knows tend to only spend time with people from their country, and that they have formed a clique in order to stay with those who speak their native language. I can of course understand the motivation to do this- it would be incredibly difficult to live in a foreign country for so long, especially one where the language is so different. However, I had never considered some of the other effects of this problem until I met with Li. He talked for a little while about how very few of the foreign students get involved on campus outside of their group of friends, because of the language barrier. He clearly disliked this inability to move outside of a small group of people, and mentioned that he tried to find other friends and ways of getting involved through his suite-mates. I had never thought about language as a block to getting involved, and I thought it was really interesting that this was something Li was concerned with. 

As we walked back towards our dorms, he made a comment about the Texas weather. I was surprised to learn that the weather in his hometown was not that different, and that he was used to it. So often, I encounter non-Texans who are shocked by the heat, and it was funny to me that someone from so far away remained unaffected by it. 

Overall, my first meeting with Li helped me better understand the life of a foreign student. I was really impressed by how easily he communicated in English, and there were only a few instances where it seemed he was confused by my phrasing, or could not clearly express his own thoughts. In all of these cases, though, I believe we ended up communicating what we meant without too much difficulty. Since our meeting, we have talked a couple of times on Facebook, and Li always seems friendly and eager to work on his English. I look forward to meeting with him again!