My first meeting with Eddie, a student from North Africa, was genuinely an interesting experience. Of course, we began our meeting with the usual pleasantries and introductions. He learned that I have lived in Florida most of my life, and I learned that he comes from Burkina Faso, a country just south of Mali.
Though I am know something of French colonization during the 1800's, I never realized exactly how far their influence extended throughout the African continent. As a French student and speaker, I found this fascinating! Also during the little time he spoke French to me, I noticed he had an accent that I found somewhat difficult to understand as I had never been exposed to it before. It really reminded me of the difficulties English learners encounter when learning. When you think of it, English has many different cultures with many different accents and ways of expression that are not always similar to one another despite the fact that these cultures share the same language. I think this is something that, as native speakers, we often forget and do not take into account when learning English.
In addition to talking about his home, he shared with me a brief history of the country and its political past. His storytelling really helped me contextualize his country and I began to realize how much North African politics are very much affected by the Western world and the conflicts in the middle east. Overall, it was an extremely interesting meeting.
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