First Meeting with Khalifa

On Friday, I had my first meeting with Khalifa. Right off of the bat, I could tell we were about the same age so we shook hands and introduced ourselves. He is 19 years old and from Saudi Arabia. He is here with his sister and cousin. In the ESL program, he is a level 4 in speaking and a level 1 in writing. I was really curious about this huge discrepancy and he explained that writing in English is so much harder than other languages because things aren’t written how they sound. I jokingly responded, “that’s why we have autocorrect” and we both shared a brief laugh.

He then went on to say that he has only been here for going on 9 months and I was shocked because I thought his English was rather impressive for being here for less than a year. However, he was much harder on himself. He really wants to be able to speak English like native English speakers. The one thing that he said that I think shocked me the most is that he really wants a job, not for the money, but because having a job would force him to communicate with people and help him learn the language. He’s extremely frustrated by the job market in Fort Worth. He is also having a very hard time getting a SSN and said that if he were to get a job, he would be given one which is another incentive for him to find work. Since he was having such a hard time, I told him that I would look into it and see if I could find any possibilities for him before we meet next. 

The other thing that really shocked me is that he’s lost weight since coming here. Usually you hear about people coming to America and gaining tons of weight and this was definitely not the case for Khalifa. He showed me a picture of him when he first got here almost 9 months ago and it was one of the times that we really had a good laugh during our conversation. 

He really seems to be embracing the American culture and really wants to master the language so that he can fit in better. He went to the Blake Shelton concert and had a great time. He loved all of the girls in dresses and cowboy boots (this was another topic that we had a good laugh about). He has taken a liking to country music but said that they talk so fast that he can only comprehend about half of what they are saying. But regardless, it was definitely a good experience. He was also extremely excited for our first football game.

He isn’t allowed to have a girlfriend while he’s here and if he does, his sister will tell his mom and he will have to come home. Right now he is much more interested in just making friends and learning how to communicate. 

I asked him if he had been back to Saudi Arabia yet and he said no. He doesn’t really have a desire to go home especially since the flight takes 21 hours. After he is here for nine months, the Saudi Arabian government will pay for his plane ticket home. They also pay for him to come here and learn English which I found odd just because anytime American students study oversees we have to pay a majority of the costs. If anything, our universities help us out, not our government. 

One other thing he really disliked about TCU is the parking situation and I told him that he definitely wasn’t alone in that regard. He said that parking is very confusing and he has already gotten three parking tickets. I told him not to worry; he probably follows the parking rules better than people who have lived here their entire lives. 

Overall, I had a very good first meeting with Khalifa. He expressed a strong desire to meet again sometime soon and wants me to come over to his house sometime to try Arabic food. The meeting really showed me that there is a lot for both of us to learn from meeting together. One of the things that I am most interested in observing throughout our meetings is if there are large discrepancies between the English that he is taught in class and conversational English that he will hear most of the students in the area use.