I went over to Jassass house again for some arabic coffee. Our meeting was a little shorter than our usual ones, only because it was later at night. He is always such a great host - offering me a lot to eat and drink. His speaking skills are still at the very foundation level so we cannot discuss anything at great depth without the aid of Google translate at times. We discussed the price differences between American food and the restaurants in Saudi Arabia. He is a fan of Chic-fil-a so we also talked about our favorite things to get at the fast food restaurant. There is a shish-a bar near his apartment so we also discussed that and how he enjoys the establishment. Jassass is having a good time in America, but it is hard to not have many American friends and it is hard to make them with the very little amount of English he knows. I tried to explain the "plateau" effect to him - that he will learn a lot at the beginning stages of learning English and then have to work extra hard to get to the next level - but I am not sure if he really understood the concept that I was trying to explain.
I can see some progress in his speaking ability though, I am not sure if it is just us getting used to each other and less nervous, or if he is actually progressing. Either way, he is finding a comfortable way to converse in English with me.
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