Conversation Partner Meet #4

   Today I got to meet with Bandar again. We both talked about our weekends and our break. I told him about my trip back home to California and we discussed the weather for a bit.  I talked about how I liked sunny days with a blue sky in comparison to the gray overcast Texas has been having lately. Bandar disagreed, saying that he enjoys the gray sky and that he had visited Seattle once and that he really liked the weather there. 

   I asked if he had success getting a car in Dallas the week before but he told me that the man selling the car was asking for too much money.  He explained that there are frequent car auctions in the area and how he might go to one of those.  We discussed cars some more and he talked to me about why he likes European and Asian car companies so much better than American.  I told him about the Acura my family owns and he explained that Acura does not exist where he lives so he would not be able to get service on the car or parts for the car if he shipped it back home with him.

   Later he asked me how my classes were going. I told him about how I was struggling in my Spanish class and he was surprised that TCU had a significant foreign languages department.  He asked why Spanish was so difficult when many of the words were close to English and I explained that it had been a long time since I had taken Spanish and I was lacking in my basic knowledge.  He then empathized with me, talking about how he had learned English at a private school when he was young but that there was a long time between then and TCU where he didn't have much practice or training.  I talked about this class for a while and how professors make a big difference in learning experience. This he also empathized with.  He told me about a teacher who had travelled the globe teaching english and how they were so much better at understanding accents and respecting the variety of culture among the students. It is always really cool to hear how the different perspectives between students can still be so similar.  Bandar feels that learning is mostly something he does on his own though, and that teachers are just there to help.  He strongly suggested I find someone fluent in Spanish to converse with, just like he does with me.