Today I met my conversation partner for this semester, Omar.
After talking for just one hour, I have so much respect for what he did by
leaving his whole life. I especially applaud his efforts in learning English
and his determination to advance his career. Omar is from Mexico and has
already completed his undergraduate degree in biochemistry. Before he left, he
was working as a Biochemist on weekdays from 9 AM to 6 PM and as a grocer at a
grocery store on weekends. He told me he found out about TCU literally by googling
“Intensive English Program” on the internet. TCU’s program showed up as one of
the results, and after some research, he discovered it was located very close
to where his Uncle lives. In June, he decided to apply. By July, he received
his acceptance letter to the program, and in August he was here in Fort Worth.
A big part of our conversation revolved around talking about
Omar’s friends and family. He said it has been extremely hard in this past
month being far away from them. However, he knows that this is what he needs to
do to improve his career and create a better future. I respect Omar for being
able to completely uproot himself from his friends, family and culture, and
start over in a different country. That is not something that just anyone could
do. Omar has one sibling--an older brother. His brother is a doctor and is
currently working towards a specialty in psychiatry. He lives and works in
Mexico. Omar’s mother is a secretary and his father is a family doctor. Omar
talked about his family with an extreme amount of affection and I could tell he
really missed them. Also, when I complimented him about his family being so successful
(I mean, who wouldn’t?) he was so humble, playing off having two doctors and a
biochemist in the family as if it was nothing.
Omar and I also talked a lot about the differences in
culture between the United States and Mexico, especially in college. One thing
that stuck out to me was the costs of an education in Mexico versus in the United
States. Omar told me that in his four years of an undergraduate degree, he
spent around the equivalent of $6,000. This was appalling to me, compared to
TCU’s pricey tuition. He also told me that class schedules were extremely
structured. So, for instance, if you were a psychology major, you would have
every single class mapped out for every semester since your freshman year.
Students in Mexico also were not free to determine the times of their classes;
classes typically ran from 8 AM to 1 PM every day. I thought this was
interesting when comparing this to class schedules at TCU. My accounting major
does have a decent amount of structure with regards to what classes that I am
supposed to take, but with my second major, economics, I can take whatever
classes I want as long as I get them all done by senior year. Additionally,
uniformly across the TCU campus, students can schedule classes for whenever
times they want. This is unlike Mexico where every student was in class at the
same time.
I asked Omar how his classes have been going so far in the
Intensive English Program at TCU and he loves it. Funny enough, his favorite
part is having the afternoons off. He said that every afternoon, without fail,
he goes home and takes an hour nap (which I am slightly jealous about). His
schedule was so crazy back home during college and after he graduated that he
is really enjoying his free time and not being busy 24 hours of the day. Needless
to say, I think he has worked hard enough during college and in his career
before coming here to earn that hour nap.
The hour I spoke with Omar today flew by and I am looking
forward to the next time I get to talk to him. It was interesting getting to
learn about his upbringing and the culture in Mexico because it is so different
from the United States. The whole time I was speaking, I could not help but
think that Omar’s English was excellent, especially since he has only been in Texas
about a month. I respect Omar for his bravery for coming to the U.S. and
learning English—if this situation was flipped I’m not sure I could do the
same.
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