Slashdot

Last night I met up with Jorg. He'd come over to London for a short holiday, and I'd arranged to have a few drinks with him after work. He's the first person I've known online that I've later gone on to meet in real life. We're both fairly introverted, and even though he's someone I know and like online, I was somewhat nervous that it would be a case of long embarassed silence if I met him in person. Fortunately, it worked out somewhat better than that, and we chatted away reasonably freely for a bit before I had to head off and help my girlfriend prepare for her art exhibition.

So what's he like? Physically slightly taller than I'd imagined. For some reason, I was expecting him to be shorter than that. Vocally, he had more of an accent than I had anticipated. His written English is so good, I rarely think of him as being a foreigner. But even so, he embarassed me with how good his English is. I could have conversed with him in French or German, but it would have been slow and awkward as I fished for the right words and struggled with the grammar, but in English it was smooth and free flowing. He's not only fluent, but uses many of the mannerisms and nuances of language that are the mark of a native speaker. Overall, it was a successful event. Of all the people in the circle (as was), he's the one that's most similar to me, and I'll certainly take the time to meet up again should our paths coincide in the future.