Conversation Partner Reflection - #2

Cindy and I met at Fruitealicious one afternoon so she could share one of her favorite drinks – milk tea – with me.  When I arrived, Cindy had already gotten there and ordered.  Since I was unfamiliar with milk tea and how to order it, I got something else but am hoping to have the guts to try it the next time we meet!

During our conversation, we compared our cultural differences.  One of the most interesting things we discussed was the role of education in our upbringings.  I went to a private school that was extremely academically strenuous that left me with little free time if any.  I thought her experience would be similar or maybe even less difficult.  I quickly found out that her experience was quite the contrary.  There is even more importance placed on education in China because universities and jobs are so competitive.  She mentioned how she only slept 5-6 hours a night because of how much school and homework she had to complete.  School was so serious that the teachers would make students of the same sex sit next to each other because relationship were significantly frowned upon until the college years.  This conversation opened my eyes because, in my experience, high school was competitive and demanding, but my experience was not nearly as taxing as hers.

We also talked a lot about food.  She pulled up a lot of pictures on her phone of traditional Chinese dishes.  What she considers Chinese food is significantly different from American-Chinese food.  She said how much she missed it because she can’t find anything authentic in Fort Worth.  While she was showing me the pictures, it dawned on me how different our palates must be.  She says that she loves spicy food and that it is a staple in Chinese gastronomy.  However, if I eat anything spicy, I need a gallon of milk to wash it down, and I will have a stomachache for the rest of the day.  Also, talking about desserts, I am an ice-cream-loving, tiramisu-loving chocoholic.  When she showed me pictures of Chinese desserts, they seemed to typically be fruitier and healthier than American desserts.

While we were talking about food, I asked if something was crunchy, and she did not know what it meant.  To me, crunchy is an inherent term, and I honestly had no clue how to describe it.  I thought that it would be easy for me to explain English terms to someone else since I am studying to be a Spanish teacher and have taken courses on how to teach ESL (English as a second language).  However, I am used to translating between two languages – finding the direct translation.  In this case, the only way I could describe it was the texture of a potato chip in the sense that when you bite into it, it makes a distinct sound.  I sounded crazy in the middle of the restaurant mimicking the sound it makes.  However, this was a really important lesson for me because it reminded be how important it is to have someone who is non-judgmental and willing to help when learning a second language.  I got really frustrated myself because I couldn’t explain an English word, but it reminded me to have patience because I’m sure Cindy was struggling much more than me.

As we continued to talk about food, she told me that she wanted to cook me something authentically Chinese.  That got me thinking; I would love to cook Cindy something authentically American.  But what exactly is that? A hamburger? Thanksgiving dinner? Pot roast?  Meatloaf?  The list goes on and on...or should I take her to get good Texas BBQ since “Texas is the best country in the world?”