Hassan Conversation: English Help

Hassan recently had some homework questions and I was more than happy to meet up and help out. I was admittedly interested to see how this “tutoring” session would go as the last English/grammar question Hassan asked me (what is the meaning behind “as cute as a button”) left me dumfounded as I tried to explain. Nevertheless, I had developed the impression that Hassan is a pretty prideful guy as he has always turned down my offers to help with schoolwork before, so I knew I needed to bring my A game.

I met Hassan at our usual spot in the BLUU, and before I had even sat down he had taken out his English grammar book with dozens of sticky notes marking questions he had for me. As we moved through the first few questions I found myself a bit surprised that some of the questions were so basic when considering how well he speaks English. As an example, one concept that he was having a difficult time understanding was the difference between “too” and “to”, though after talking with him so much I felt his level of English acumen would be far beyond this topic. However, I had to remember that Hassan is in somewhat of a unique situation in that he has already lived in the U.S. for over a year. This time spent in the U.S. has allowed him ample opportunity to practice his conversational English, but when he sees it on paper he clearly faces more difficulty.

As we moved on through more of the questions I was relieved that he had yet to ask me something that I struggled to explain. This all changed when we got to one of his last questions. Specifically, Hassan was having difficulty understanding phrases that said someone wasn’t “old enough” or that someone wasn’t “hungry enough”. Now I know the fact that I struggled to explain something so simple must sound ridiculous, as when I look back on the situation it certainly does to me, but after I tried to explain the phrase in numerous ways Hassan only gave me an increasingly confused look. I have already alluded to this in a past journal, but I find it almost comical that we can understand something, such as a language, so well but we have trouble explaining even the simplest of subjects to other people. The average adult male speaks approximately 7,000 words a day, and still with all of that “practice” when our knowledge is truly tested we can have problems. However, this is one of the reasons that I think the conversation partner program that we participate in is so great. I found it very healthy to explain some of the basics of our language because I believe that doing so is a great way to build understanding. We can get in a routine where we do something so much that we are just going through the motions as we never think of the meaning behind our actions. However, meeting with our conversation partners certainly has been a great way to break this vicious cycle!

Learning Experience

A recent learning experience that I have encountered occurred during my internship this summer. For the majority of my internship I had been fortunate to be mostly assigned to working on live deals, by far the most exciting aspect of the job. However, towards the latter part of the summer my team’s deal flow greatly slowed down. As a result, for the greater part of a week I was assigned to work on marketing initiatives. This “marketing” essentially entails going through a large excel file of 500+ names of oil and gas companies and searching for executive’s emails. Furthermore, to make matters worse, many of these companies are private and in result there is very little available public information about them. While I first maintained a positive attitude regarding my new assignment, after a few hours of desperately trying to find emails on Google I became disheartened and even bored with my task. I began to think how pointless it was that I had been assigned to this task when considering the slim chance that any of these companies would become PCG investments in the future, and I longed to work on something that I deemed more substantive. I continued to work on the marketing assignment for several more days, and as time went on I found it harder to focus on the task because I became increasingly bored. However, on the Thursday of that week I had a conversation with an analyst that sparked an inflection point regarding my apathy for the marketing assignment. Specifically, in a casual conversation, an analyst described to me how he also has to do the marketing lists and that completing them is just apart of being an analyst. This conversation was especially impactful to me because I realized I had been blowing off a great opportunity to learn more about what it is like to be a full time analyst. This learning experience was the realization that I should never discount a task during an internship because most tasks assigned to interns are those that analysts have to do as well, so in order to truly understand what it is like to be an analyst you need to do these tasks too. Therefore, to most accurately evaluate PCG as a potential future employer, instead of only seeking out the glorious and exciting tasks like I had been doing, I should instead be seeking out a variety of tasks, that when combined, give me the most realistic experience. While I could always try to avoid doing marketing and other mundane tasks, I should not discount the opportunity to do so and instead be embrace the opportunity to get the true full time analyst experience. While this does not mean I have to love every assignment of my internship, or my future job for that matter, because of this critical incident I now understand the value of getting a wide range of experiences during an internship, not only those that you particularly enjoy.

Hassan Conversation

Hassan and I were able to recently meet again. Prior to our meeting I attempted to do some reading into Saudi Arabia. While I had previously been familiar with many basic aspects of the country, I really wanted to learn additional information so that I could more fully appreciate Hassan’s home and culture. Before conducting my research I was already familiar with the Saudi royal family and their basic role within the country. However, as I read more about the royal family and the King (who acts as an absolute monarch) I became really interested because as an American citizen it is hard to imagine life in the absence of democracy. I really wanted to see Hassan’s view on the King and his absolute political power as Hassan is in the unique position of having experienced two extremely different forms of government. I was admittedly somewhat nervous to bring up the topic to Hassan because I was not sure how he would react. We American’s are certainly very proud of our democracy so I was unsure if Hassan would interpret my questions about his country’s government as an insult. However, to my relief, Hassan was more than happy to talk about the Saudi King and royal family with me, and he even seems excited to share additional knowledge about his country.

            At first I was having a difficult time reading what Hassan’s true feelings were about the royal family. On one hand he said that the royal family really seemed to care about the people of Saudi Arabia and always strove to make the nation better for the masses. Though when we continued to talk about the subject more Hassan was quick to convey that while the royal family does share some of Saudi Arabia’s oil money with the general public, he is somewhat unhappy because he believes the royal family could easily distribute a lot more of their wealth. After receiving these fairly mixed responses to my indirect questions, I finally point blank asked Hassan whether he liked the King and the royal family or if he would prefer to have a political system similar to that of the United States. I found Hassan’s answer to this question quite impactful as it continued to perpetuate one of the main traits that I have seen in him: optimism. After asking Hassan my direct question he took a second to ponder and gather his thoughts. He said that while he does not believe the role of the king and the royal family is perfect, he has many things to be thankful for in the country that they rule and because of that he is happy. Hassan described that he has several friends in the IEP program that come from dangerous parts of the world, and with that in consideration he just considers himself lucky to just come from a place where he always felt safe. I think many people in the U.S. would be served well to hear Hassan’s perspective on this issue and apply it to their own actions. I believe that we often get caught up in our political differences and in a result forget about many of the blessings that we have as an American. Though we may not be happy with every political aspect of our country, we have many benefits and opportunities that others do not.

Hassan Meeting

I got to meet with Hassan again today, which I was really excited about because our meetings are always a nice break from everything going on. There seem to be very few times when I stop everything that I am doing and just talk to someone, so I have enjoyed doing so.

Today Hassan and I talked about something that I am surprised took so long to come up. Specifically, for the first time we had an in-depth conversation about what we each other wanted to do for a career after school. I am surprised that it took Hassan and I so long to discuss this topic because it always seems that it is the one of the first things that comes up in a conversation with most people, though I guess we had so much stuff to talk about before that we had never gotten to it. While I had always known Hassan was studying accounting and that he had already done a significant amount of accounting classwork back in Saudi Arabia, I never knew how close our career ambitions were.  It turns out that both Hassan and I are very interested about going into the oil and gas field. I have accepted a job offer working for an oil and gas investment firm, but little did I know Hassan has been interested in joining the industry for years as well. While it makes sense that he would have a natural interest in the energy industry as he is from Saudi Arabia, it never dawned on me that he would be interested to work with oil. We talked for quite a long time about opportunities in the energy industry both domestic and abroad, and I could tell that while Hassan wanted to work in the industry, he had his doubts. When I asked if Hassan wanted to try to stay in America to work, he looked disappointed as he told me that he might want to, but a person who is fluent in English would beat him for a job every time. This was something that really took me back because I had never quite thought about competing for a job from that standpoint before. While I studied hundreds of pages for days on end to prepare for many of my interviews, I never considered how hard it must be fore international students who not only need to study those same several hundred pages, but might also have difficulty with the language itself. I think interviews can be hard and intimidating enough as it is, but I couldn’t imagine how difficult they might be when language is potentially an issue. However, I tried to cheer Hassan up by telling him about all the opportunities there must be for people who speak both Arabic and English and want to enter the energy industry. I told him that while there are a lot of people who speak either English or Arabic and want to work with oil, few people that want to work in the industry can speak both languages! I could tell that this was something Hassan had not really considered before, as he immediately began to seriously consider what I had said.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Hassan because the topic we discussed was so spontaneous and something I didn’t plan on talking about, though we both had a great time discussing it! It is always fun to unexpectedly find areas that you have in common with someone.

Hassan Journal

I was recently able to meet with Hassan again, and when considering how busy we have both been finding a time to meet is a blessing.  Between both of our classes it has not always been the easiest to find a time to meet but the great conversation we always have is well worth all of the coordinating. I am always glad to see Hassan because while we are engaging in the usual small talk that we have before delving into more substantive topics, he always seems to be so care free. Whether he has a test the very next day or just has a lot on his plate in general, I really envy Hassan for his ability to always be radiate positivity, which for me has been very contagious. As I have alluded to in previous journals, I often find myself so focused on some school or work project that the stress can cloud other positive aspects of my life that are occurring at a certain point in time. Therefore, it is always refreshing to see Hassan because he often serves as a reminder to take a laid back approach to life, which I certainly think is healthy.

            After our usual small talk, our conversation began to focus on our plans for the holiday and in result our families. Like so many foreign exchange students, Hassan has not been able to go home for and see his family for over a year. While I was not surprised by this revelation, I found it very profound to hear Hassan talk about his long (20+ hour) journey home. Even though he doesn’t leave until next Sunday, you could hear the excitement and anticipation in his voice while he described what it would be like to see his parents and siblings for the first time in so long. He has also previously mentioned that his parents are older, but in this conversation he went into more detail as he stated that they are also fairly unhealthy relative to many older people living in America, so he wanted to make the most of his time with them. Listening to Hassan talk about getting to visit his family really made me reflect on how lucky I am to be so close to my home. While I love that college has given me the ability to go out and live life on my own, I also am very thankful for the ability to return home with relative ease to see my family. I can simply not imagine what it would be like to be so far away from your family for so long.  To make the situation even more difficult, Hassan and the other IEP students are not only far from their families from the perspective of distance, but also are undergoing what must be a difficult transition to a completely new culture. I can definitely remember my first semester of college being all too ready to go home for thanksgiving and Christmas break after a semester of being “away”, yet compared to what Hassan has gone through I was not really away at all.

            Overall, I am consistently amazed by the strength that Hassan possesses. While I am sure it is a rewarding experience getting to come to a new country where he can be immersed in the culture, I am sure it can also at times be very difficult, a point which are most recent conversation highlighted.