On March 26th, Vena and her sister met me at McAlister's for dinner. While our first two meetings were more serious, allowing us to get to know each other on a deeper personal level, this meeting was full of joy. Because all of the my anxiety had been resolved in our last meeting, I came into this one simply excited to spend more time with them. We waited in line to order our food. I feel very protective of Vena and her sister in public, because I see how people look at them. In such a homogenous culture such as Texas, anyone who looks or speaks differently than the "southern norm" is put under a microscope. Growing up in California, with a graduating class that was 75% Chinese, I have a deep appreciation and tolerance for immigrants limits. I do not feel that a lot of people share this respect. People will give them impatient looks when they cannot understand what they are saying or roll their eyes when they cannot understand what is said back to them.
When Vena made it up to the counter, she rocked it. She stumbled a little bit on her words and got a little bit confused, but kept her composure and was able to communicate effectively with someone who had little tolerance to her limitations. Immediately when we sat down, I commented to her on how much improvement I saw in her speaking ability. Being a humble person, she incessantly denied my compliments, giving herself no credit. Both her and her sister fixated on the fact that in class they were learning things like "how are you" and in real life people will say things such as "what's up". Their inability to understand this slang was extremely distressing for them. What seemed like a point of weakness for them led into one of the most entertaining conversations that I have ever had in my life.
I took it upon myself to teach Vena and her sister slang words. We started with the basics like "sup" and "nothing much". Later we moved on to some throwbacks such as "yolo", "homie", "down", and "rad". To get them really culturally up-to-date, I taught them the words "turnt" and "ratchet". This conversation resulted in endless laughter on the incongruity of these slang words that we view as so common in our slang vernacular. To say that I left that dinner with a smile on my face was an understatement. Vena sent me the sweetest text message after telling me how much she appreciated me taking time out of my schedule to meet with her. She sweetly signed off yolo.
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Conversation Partner #2
On March 10th, I had the opportunity to meet up with my conversation partner Vena again. I was nervous seeing that I hadn't met with her in over a month. I think I came into this experience with very skewed expectations of what this experience would be like. Even though my first encounter with Vena had been nothing but enjoyable, I still came into this meeting viewing this as a class assignment, something that I was being forced to do. Despite everything I had learned about Vena and her sister in our last meeting, I still had the same sense of anxiety that this meeting would be awkward.
Let me set the record straight. After hanging out with Vena and her sister at the bookstore for the second time, they are not just a class assignment, they are my friends. They are people I deeply enjoy spending time with and getting to know on a deeper level. We talked for two hours about their life in Taiwan, their hopes and dreams for the future, and their family. I am constantly astounded by their strength and courage to pick up everything, move across the country, and work tirelessly to make their dreams a reality. Both of them want to be business women back home in Taiwan, but faced the reality that in order to be successful they needed to be able to communicate in English. It was eye opening for me to see how much influence our culture has in foreign countries. After this conversation, something of gravity hit me, which seems so simple, but is a serious realization. At the core, Vena and I, were the same. We had similar dreams and values. Looking at her, standing at 5'2 speaking scattered English, she is almost a polar opposite of me, but in the end of the day we are all human. We all share an innate need to be wanted and needed, to be in community, to share laughter.
I know we are told to never talk about politics, personal matters, or religion in public, especially not on a public forum for a class that has no relation to these subject; however, I would not be true to myself if I didn't address this. Conversing with Vena and her sister has brought me a much deeper spiritual understanding of God's creation. He made each and everyone of us in his own image; we are all fearfully and wonderfully made (in my opinion.... anyone is free to disagree). When Vena shared with me that she was a Christian and had been attending church in Arlington, it hit me hard. This connection that I felt with Vena and her sister, despite the abundance of cultural differences was a connection that couldn't be explained by words, but instead in a share relationship and devotion to our Creator. There are certain things that God has simply blessed the world with, universal love languages to express our joy in his creation. One of those is laughter. Looking at Vena, I understand the beauty of his creation in such a pure and simple way. She loves tirelessly, lives her life in courage, and has a dependence on her Lord and Savior. A lesson like this is so much greater than a class assignment, it is something that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Let me set the record straight. After hanging out with Vena and her sister at the bookstore for the second time, they are not just a class assignment, they are my friends. They are people I deeply enjoy spending time with and getting to know on a deeper level. We talked for two hours about their life in Taiwan, their hopes and dreams for the future, and their family. I am constantly astounded by their strength and courage to pick up everything, move across the country, and work tirelessly to make their dreams a reality. Both of them want to be business women back home in Taiwan, but faced the reality that in order to be successful they needed to be able to communicate in English. It was eye opening for me to see how much influence our culture has in foreign countries. After this conversation, something of gravity hit me, which seems so simple, but is a serious realization. At the core, Vena and I, were the same. We had similar dreams and values. Looking at her, standing at 5'2 speaking scattered English, she is almost a polar opposite of me, but in the end of the day we are all human. We all share an innate need to be wanted and needed, to be in community, to share laughter.
I know we are told to never talk about politics, personal matters, or religion in public, especially not on a public forum for a class that has no relation to these subject; however, I would not be true to myself if I didn't address this. Conversing with Vena and her sister has brought me a much deeper spiritual understanding of God's creation. He made each and everyone of us in his own image; we are all fearfully and wonderfully made (in my opinion.... anyone is free to disagree). When Vena shared with me that she was a Christian and had been attending church in Arlington, it hit me hard. This connection that I felt with Vena and her sister, despite the abundance of cultural differences was a connection that couldn't be explained by words, but instead in a share relationship and devotion to our Creator. There are certain things that God has simply blessed the world with, universal love languages to express our joy in his creation. One of those is laughter. Looking at Vena, I understand the beauty of his creation in such a pure and simple way. She loves tirelessly, lives her life in courage, and has a dependence on her Lord and Savior. A lesson like this is so much greater than a class assignment, it is something that I will remember for the rest of my life.
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