Meeting Mr. Mansour

            As I sat outside the Bookstore on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon, a Middle Eastern looking man with a slight unibrow approached my table. “Jimmy?” he said. And this was my first encounter with Mansour, a 28 year old from the heart of Saudi Arabia.

            To be honest, I am not very good…actually I am terrible…at initiating and keeping conversation. So, our conversation was slow at first. There was one thing that he seemed interested in talking about though: freedom. Mansour has been in the US since November 2010 and in Fort Worth for a little less than a year. Even still, he is adjusting to being free to talk to women in public, having movie theaters, and just general freedom.

            This really intrigued me, because these are just liberties that I take for granted. Eventually, our conversation turned to marriage. Being 28, Mansour’s mother is pushing him to get married. So, my obvious question was regarding whether marriages are still arranged. Yes, they are. But I learned something interesting about arranged marriages. Essentially, when Mansour wants to get married, he tells his mother. Because he is not allowed to talk to women in public, his mother goes out and finds a potential wife for him. Once she finds a lucky lady, the families gather together, and Mansour meets his potential spouse. If he does not feel like things gel well, then he can say so. No harm done. The process just restarts. So, he still has a choice, which is something that was definitely novel to me.

            Then, we started to talk about what he was doing here. After finishing this ESL program at TCU, Mansour plans on heading to UNT to study Business. His English is actually quite advanced, so I asked why he was in the ESL class. His response was interesting to me. He said that he sees a stark difference in the skills of Middle Easterns versus Asians in the program. His fellows Saudis are very good speakers, while they lack written performance. On the other hand, the Japanese and Chinese are subpar speakers that excel in writing. Why? I don’t know. Neither does he. So, he’s working on his writing skills.

            Still, while having this conversation, the two of us did not seem to mesh all that well. It felt sort of awkward. So, I popped the question that I had been anticipating all along: are you a soccer fan? Yes. Yes? Yes. Me too. Instant connection. We spent the final 35 minutes of our conversation discussing the English Premier League, La Liga, and the past and impending World Cups.

            This was a huge win for me. I love soccer. I think it is the greatest sport in the world, and Americans lack the culture that comes with soccer obsession. He told me that even in Saudi Arabia, when El Classico is being played (Barcelona vs. Real Madrid) the entire city shuts down. Everybody is off the streets watching soccer being played 3,000 miles away. How cool is that? I wish Americans had something like that.

            I think he was just as pleased as I was. To run into an American with a vested interest in soccer is rare.

            Overall, Mansour and I are really benefitting from talking with each other. I get the opportunity to learn about a culture that I think is interesting, and talk soccer. He gets to talk in English…about soccer.