In my previous post, my friend Bob described the conversation café scene in Tokyo. The conversation continues.
Do guests always just sit down at the conversation cafes and chat?
No, the cafes also hold “international parties” on the weekend once or twice a month. At a Norton Place party, a pianist provided a mini-concert at the cozy café that looks like someone’s family room.
(Except that family rooms don’t tend to host belly dance parties. But this cafe did. And it displays the photos to prove it, Bob says.)
Leaf Cup’s international party was a standing happy hour type event. Because people are eager to practice English, finding someone to talk to at the parties is easy. They want to hear about where you're from and what your experiences have been in Japan.
Clearly, Japan is a café culture. The last time my friend Bob returned from a solo trip to Japan, I asked him about his travels and he contributed his observations about Japanese cat cafes to my blog.
This time, he stopped in at several English-conversation cafes in Tokyo, where he was a top attraction, I'm guessing, being so good in English and all.
What did you like about going to English-conversation cafes in Tokyo?
Tokyo’s English-conversation cafes give you a chance to interact with Japanese people in ways you might not otherwise.
This is the second year that fall has come around and my thoughts have turned to...Guadalajara.
The foods, the family I lived with there for a few days and the Guadalajara sights.
The San Juan de Dios Market. (I just recently finished the vanilla I brought home from there, which reminded me of my trip every time I baked with it.) The Corona Market in Guadalajara's city center. And much more. My nice teacher at the IMAC Spanish language school in downtown Guadalajara.
I was in a class with about five others, who ranged in age from teens to probably 60's. I loved the fact that la maestra couldn't revert to English to explain things (she didn't speak it well) and that I was able to follow along in Spanish pretty well.
1. I've thought many times aboutvisiting Colombia, ever since traveling in Ecuador several years ago. But I've never seen a travel video of Colombia to know much about what it looks like.
2. After watching the Colombia travel guide for a few minutes, I realized a solo traveler made the video. Yes, the solo traveler you see in all the shots.
At first, I presumed a fellow traveler was filming because there are several shots of the subject walking away or toward the camera.
But then I started to see that funny hold-camera-at-arms-length type of shooting and I realized he'd done this all by himself, setting his camera up at various places or walking along with the camera aimed at himself. I was impressed by what he managed to pull off to record parts of his trip.
(I think my arms are too short for this style. The few times I've tried it I looked rather grotesque. But after seeing this video, I might have to try again.)
Spain has won the world soccer championship and I have faces of Spaniards in my mind rejoicing. Not from the television. Not because I was in South Africa (I wasn't)
But from a week I spent in Spain teaching English to Spaniards, in a little town several hours from Madrid. Which I did on my own. (And wrote about in "Sports brings solo travelers together with locals.")
2010 FIFA World Cup. Soccer. Futbol. Spain. The Netherlands. The countries and the sport blend in a rosy, nostalgic blur in my mind because I've been to these places and met some of the people and it all has a deeper meaning than a game on TV. Ah, the richness of travel.
"Don't worry," my new Spanish language partner explained when we arranged to meet for the first time for an exchange of English and Spanish lessons and he wanted to let me know how prompt he is. "I am sharp with the time."
I laugh, but I'm sure I've cracked up many a Spaniard and South American when I attempted to speak my Spanish to them.
Recently I received an email with the headline, "Up Your Bottom." A Japanese businessman meant to toast an American and Japanese audience by saying, "Bottom's Up." Oops.
A publisher has decided to turn these bloopers into a book and is asking for contributions. You can submit similar tales for possible publication in the book. You have until June 4 to submit a funny story. And yes, there are token prizes.
Heartache?
If you've chosen to travel alone, you didn't get into it to be
miserable. Clearly you have some sense of adventure and a desire to see
parts of the world that intrigue you.
I
personally would not pay big bucks to get on a plane to go somewhere
and be unhappy. Know thyself. My highly useful advice is if you think
you're going to suffer from wretched glumnitude and angst-ridden
despondency (thanks Roget's) here's what I say: DON'T GO. (Okay, I made
up the "glumnitude" part)
Putter in your garden, in your kitchen or online, safe in your happy home, where there's no heartache or misery.
Okay,
now, let's skip past that silliness to get to the useful bits of the
story. I love the advice about trying not being so British, and
channeling one's "inner American" when traveling solo. giggle.
Apparently
what that means is looking up from your feet and making eye contact.
Who knew that every single American was so good at this? Good on us, eh?
Another
suggestion from the story: travel with a purpose. Learn to cook or
dance or to speak another language. That's a better goal than trying just to achieve "plain
happiness." I agree. Showing up in a city and expecting that to be enough doesn't cut it.
The writer also suggests to find an English-language club as a way to socialize. People trying to
learn English in their own countries will be thrilled to have an expert
visit and speak in perfect English. The piece discusses an experience the writer had in China.
Iwas learning Spanish and went to a local resturant in Ixtapa, Mexico. When I got back to my hotel I managed to mix up the words "waiter" and "shrimp" (In Spanish they are very similar - camarero and cameron). So when the parking attendant asked me how my dinner was I replied, "It was fantastic! The waiters were grilled and delicious."
Becky wins a "hide this spanish booK XTREME" language phrasebook just for entering. And I"m totally emphathetic to that camarero/cameron thing. It might be time to switch to "mesero," another word for waiter. Not that I'm sure how interchangeable they are, depending on the country.
Using a random selection process (Three different times I shook bits of paper with names on them, in my hands, then picked one) I have come up with the winners of the language phrase books, chosen from all those who submitted a phrase or story. The other two winners are Lorraine A., who wins the "hide this french book XTREME," and Linda T., who will receive, "hide this italian book XTREME."
Now here's Lorraine's story about studying the Nepali language but not having quite knack for speaking it:
Traveling to the small country of Nepal had been on my mind for over 20 years. My dream was to go trekking in the mighty HimalayanMountains. My dream came true last year when I made the journey to Nepal for 6 weeks. I wanted to immerse myself in the culture and be able to interact with the local people as much as possible.
Over the next several posts I will run some of the entries I received for the contest to win a foreign-language phrase book. I love the following story from B, who did not want his name used:
"My parents lived in Indonesia for a year while my dad was advising a company there.They were sent an Indonesian phrasebook to study before the trip.I distinctly remember (in English) two highly useful phrases in this book that every traveler should know:
1. "You idiot! Just look at this pocket."
2. "Quick, the Commodore's son is coming!"
I can't help wondering how often the Commodore's son showed up and what were the repercussions of that visit, since it was considered important enough to be an item in a phrasebook.And, geez, how often did something terrible happen to these people's pockets?Soo funny. Thanks B.
Surely you've got a story about mangling the language in a foreign country or not being able to get your message across? Click above to read more about the contest.
Send your phrases and tales now by clicking on the email found in "About" at the top left above.
The contest closes February 15. Don't miss out on the fun!
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