Dinner with James (Part 2)

The more conversations James and I have, the deeper they seem to get.  Yesterday over dinner we discussed philosophy, morals and ethics, and theories of psychology.  It’s strange how quickly we jump right from the day-to-day “the weather’s nice” conversations into discussing profound and obscure observations and experiences, especially since we both consider ourselves to be relatively introverted and sometimes even closed-off to initiating deep conversations.

We talked at first about vacations we’ve taken.  James started traveling on his own at a very early age, voyaging across China without his parents since the age of seven.  This was surprising to me because in the US seven-year-olds seem like they aren’t independent and mature enough to travel without their parents.  But because he began so young, James said he has traveled to almost every major city in China, which seems like a lot of ground to cover and great places to see!

After some small talk about school assignments and books we were reading, James mentioned an essay he was writing for the English program that prompted him to compare and contrast morals and ethics.  This prompt would be challenging for anyone, let alone in a second language!  In my head I instantly compared James writing in English to me writing in Spanish, which I studied in high school.  I can’t imagine writing about such obscure, intangible concepts in a second language. To me, that shows how far he has come in learning English that he can write the essay eloquently and put his complex thoughts into words.  We talked a fair amount about what we thought the difference between morals and ethics was, creating a strange and interesting conversation.  It’s not everyday that you knock out the dictionary over dinner.

At our first couple meetings, we talked a lot about our experiences and our likes and dislikes.  This time, we really opened up and got a lot deeper with our topics.  I feel that these conversations will help James a great deal with learning English conversational skills, though he already communicates in English quite well, and will help me to get to know his way of life.