On Thursday afternoon, April 10th, I conducted my fourth conversation partner session with Ahmed. For the sake of convenience, this time we decided to conduct our session at CIES in the back courtyard.
During this session, Ahmed decided to give me his impression of America after living here for six months. He feels that everyone has been very welcoming to him during his stay, however he understands there are some people that do not feel comfortable with him because he is Muslim. This is not a problem for him, because he believes this can be remedied very easily through building a basic understanding of our cultural differences. He is sure, in fact, that most people from his country love America and that only a very few Muslims in the world have a demonstrated a poor example of what it means to be worshiper of Islam. Of course, Ahmed did not state this as eloquently as the writing suggests, but overall, he was able to convey this message to me using his limited English language vocabulary. This tells me that Ahmed is thinking analytically and creatively to ensure effective communication through conversation.
One last thing I have noticed in conversing with Ahmed. He has great difficulty hearing and comprehending the difference between voiceless and voiced consonants, for example "p" versus "b" sounds. This is an excellent point and one in which I will try to work with him in the future.
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