So it has been a couple of days but
I recently met with my conversation partner and it went well. She is an
eighteen-year-old graphics design major from China. Her name is Rong Wang but
she goes by Vera. Our first conversation was a bit forced and because of that we
made a deal… that we wouldn’t talk just facts about the other person, that we
would actually get to know each other, how we each think and how our unique
experiences made us the people we are today.
The
first thing that popped into to my head was how to write my name in Chinese so
I asked her to do it. Then after seeing the carefully crafted characters two
thoughts popped into my head: 1. No wonder she was gifted in drawing and
graphic design because literally her everyday writing was an art (my is a bit
less than art… I have doctors handwriting) 2. I bet learning to write that on
Big Chief tablets was incredibly hard. I asked her what it was like learning to
write and if they used something like one of the tablets I remember learning
how to write on and she said yes.
Another
thing that I found incredible was the fact that I lived two hours away from
here and when I first arrived I was somewhat scared because I didn’t know
anyone but here is an eighteen year old girl who came to TCU because one of her
family friends had came several years ago and she had never been to Texas
before. I personally find this incredibly brave.
She
said the biggest diferrence between China and here was the space we have in
DFW. I asked her if she had ever been outside of DFW and she said no. I told
her if she thought this was quiet and country like that she needed to com and
visit my town of 8,000 in the middle of nowhere.
We
decided to meet every two weeks for lunch and I am looking forward to getting
to know Vera better. -Canon
Hi Canon, Thanks for posting about your first conversation with RW/Vera. The first time is always the hardest. But thanks so much for the clever conversation topic. Asking her to write your name in Chinese characters was really a nice way of opening up your conversation. I look forward to reading more of your responses. Good!
ReplyDeleteI think your conversation was very interesting. I think we had a similar experience in that we both had differing backgrounds than our partners which made it initially hard to relate to one another. The fact that she wrote your name in Chinese must have helped you two make a connection that wasn't necessarily verbal.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that you did that was unique to me was how you made the conversation more realistic to how we as Americans would talk; by sharing your experiences with each other rather listing factual statements about one another.
One thing that both of our conversation partners had in common was that they were both surprised to how much space was in Texas compared to China. My partner Brandon and I had a conversation about this. We talked about how he lived in one small room of a 30 story high apartment building. When we first got to Texas, he would look up and be amazed how much sky he could see. I believe this is something that both of our partners would relate with, which shows us the typical environment of these students, as well as the overall diversity of TCU.