The head teacher at my school asked me, last Tuesday, if I would do her a favor and meet for lunch with her college age daughter to speak English with her, so she (the head teacher) could find out "what level her daughter was." I'm just as clueless as you are when it comes to what level someone is in English. How do I rate that?! Regardless, I gave in and said, "Sure" with a smile on my face, because, let's be honest... if the head teacher likes you, work-life is just that much easier!
I was beyond pleasantly surprised when I met Grace, her bubbly, vivacious, liberal, artistic, funny, whitty, well traveled, and fluently speaking- 20 year old daughter!
She had actually just gotten back from a 35 day vacation in Europe! HELLO! Jealous! So, we talked a lot about traveling, while sipping on our drinks and eating this unbelievable waffle creation! I'll have you know... we ordered a sandwich to split, but the server said they were out of sandwiches!
I swear... The waffle was our only choice! Darn!
I asked Okk to come along too, before I knew that Grace was so fluent! I figured it would be like pulling teeth to get her to talk, and that she'd be shy because it was her mom's idea to meet and speak English, when in reality, she was just as fluent as Okk and probably even more comfortable speaking it!
When I asked her where she learned English, she said "from watching FRIENDS!" which explained why her reactions to things I said were so cute! Not only did she learn to speak English, but she had the intonation, slang, and personality to go with it, down pat!
The 3 of us had such a good time together! It honestly felt like a coffee date with my American girlfriends! No need to talk slowly or use simple words... I could finally be myself! :) Even though Grace is 10 years younger than me, we've talked about getting together again for lunch, a movie, coffee... whatever! I told her she could call me "uhni" (older sister), and she immediately latched onto my arm and laughed!
Gotta love when doing someone a favor turns into a really fun (and free-thanks to my head teacher) girlie date... and when you end up with a new friend because of it!
