I met up with my conversation partner, Supin, for the first time Saturday night at All Saints Cafe. At first it was hard to get a conversation going not because we didn't have anything to say but because we would keep exchanging random facts in no order. What I couldn't believe is that what started off as an awkward start turned into a 3 hour conversation...and its all thanks to the easiest topic to go off: food. Supin told me that he was actually studying food service/management back in Korea and that he dreamed of becoming a chef and opening up his own restaurant. So we started to talk about our favorite foods and I was actually pretty surprised to learn that he really enjoys cheese. I had assumed that Asian countries such as China and Japan have a different taste palette that just makes cheese off putting to them. He then went on to ask me about where in Tallahassee would be a good place for mac and cheese. I recommended Voodoo Dog so that he could try the hot dog mac and cheese mix and I brought up pictures for reference.
We then went on to talk about hobbies and I think most of our meetings are primarily going to consist of food and movies so I'm pretty content with that setup.
Over the 3 hour conversation we definitely ran across some language barriers and I was really thankful for the aid of Google Translate. But as we wrapped up the conversation and as I'm reflecting on it now I realized that as it was a cultural exchange the least I could do is learn the Korean alphabet throughout our time as conversation partners. Considering I am interested in Korean culture and have studied Japanese for the last two years it couldn't hurt to try and I feel that even if I struggle to read some of the Korean words he was showing me it would definitely help level the ground of embarrassment for when he couldn't accurately convey what he wanted to say in English.
No comments:
Post a Comment