Charlie - CP#3

Date/Time: May 31 / 3:30 PM

Location: Mission San Luis Park 

Topic Discussed: Kuwait Food, Family, Traveling, Favorite Activities, Learning another language

Cultural and/or Linguistic Topics you and your partner learned: For this conversation partner session, Saleh and I went out to Mission San Luis Park and walked around talking about various topics. We talked a lot about the different kinds of food you typically find in Kuwait and how shopping centers are typically much bigger in Arabic countries. It was interesting to hear how Westernized the food service industry has seemingly become in Kuwait as Saleh showed interest in pretty much every type of food except for traditional Kuwaiti food. After getting to watch Saleh, Husaam and Fahad dance at the CIES Grill Out, I found myself asking Saleh about the dance culture in Kuwait. These types of dances are very typical at big celebrations and events (to the dismay of Saleh) but his favorite dance was one in which a group of men line up facing each other, each grasping a sword and jumping back and forth with each other. We talked a little about what it would mean to be successful in America and how his perspective has changed since he arrived here. He sees being different as an attractive trait now that he has spent time in this country. We discussed the difficulties of language acquisition and I was actually able to add a couple strategies to my tool belt as he expressed his journey through learning english. He stressed to me the fact that he hates being taught every single intricate rule or piece of grammar in the english language and that he would much rather learn in context through real conversation and then be corrected.