My first meeting with one of my conversation partners was with Yousef! He is from Kuwait and has been here in the US for about a month. We started talking about common things... the weather, how it is different form what he is use to, but as he (and I) got more comfortable, we began talking about the different cultural differences that he is experiencing in Tallahassee. Coming from a loud bigger city, he was still trying to adjust to the smaller and not quite as bustling city.
This soon developed into a conversation about languages and how hard it can be to keep all these new things in our heads. I was able to relate to the position he was in due to me doing something very similar while living in Russia studying Russian. We were able to compare stories about things that we went through in different cultures. I think it was refreshing for him (because I know it would have been for me) to just kinda vent on some of the things that annoy you in a new place. I told him that every culture has their crazy "things" that don't make sense to people who have not grown up it in.
After a while we started talking about things we liked doing, and we talked about things we could do in Tallahassee, and I found out that he had not played disk golf yet. I offered to take him and some of his friends to Tom Brown park next week for a while to play some baskets. Over all I really enjoyed getting to know him and talking for that hour. He seemed to be excited about doing something next week, and that is really all I am going for. If I can help someone understand a culture better and feel less awkward while doing it... it's a job well done in my book.
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