Meeting Mohammed and Alia (ESL Blog #3)

If you know me at all, you would know how bad my addiction to coffee is. I have more than a few cups a day, and become severely grouchy if I don’t get my fix. So when Mohammed told me he would be bringing me some coffee that he had made, I was obviously more than excited to try it. “It’s not going to be what you are used to!” he kindly warned me. Thinking I could easily handle it, I took a big sip from the steaming cup. As he had told me, I was nearly induced to spit it out. It was the most potent cup of coffee I had ever tried. Mohammed laughed as he said that’s what he was expecting from me, so at least I didn’t feel too bad.

            Sipping back on my (now seemingly) weak latte from Union Grounds, I asked them what they had done that weekend. They said they spent their weekend planning their summer vacation to go to Colorado, so they could see the mountains that they had never seen before. Alia then started to tell me about the many places they used to visit when they lived in Saudi Arabia. Ranging from India to China, they had seen more of the world then I could have imagined. They suggested that if I ever decided to go over to that area, I should try to visit Dubai. “It’s like the Indian version of New York City. You feel as if the whole world is pushed into one city. Yet it still has that small town feeling that you get here in Fort Worth.”

            Honestly, I had never thought I would want to visit that part of the world. But after hearing her long description about how many places there are to visit, restaurants to eat in, and people to see, I was definitely intrigued. I guess, like the coffee, I have some cultural biases that I don’t even realize. I’ve always prided myself on being an open-minded person who loves learning new things and exploring other people’s ideas. But I guess I don’t often think about how influenced by my culture I am. Take the coffee for example. I equated all coffee as equal as opposed to thinking that there could be different kinds of coffee. Obviously this is just one small thing among others, but talking to Mohammed and Alia has helped me begin to at least notice these small things in my life.

            One especially new thing I learned this week was that many English words come from the Arabic language, like alcohol and mascara for example. Also, many words are very similar, like tomato and potato. Using a completely different alphabet makes it seem like the two languages would have much in common, but Mohammed mentioned that some of these connections have helped him throughout his learning process. Judging from their superb progress, I definitely trust that they know what they’re talking about.