I love learning languages because it constantly reassures me how similar we all are regardless of superficial differences.
Every time I visited a new country for the first several years I was traveling it was like “oh, but what if the rumors are true and-” and then I’d talk to a couple people and everyone would be like “I value good food, intimacy, housing, and expressing myself”. Maybe they paint, maybe they’re a programmer, intellectually/physically disabled or a pilot, but people are, in my mind, undoubtedly people first, just like all the other people.
Now I’ve been traveling for 15 years and I don’t worry about “them” in a new country being any different than everyone else I know. Chinese are Texans are Guatemalans are people, people, people and you have everything in common with them.
English, Mandarin, Spanish, and I’m crappy to mid in a bunch of others.
I love learning languages because it constantly reassures me how similar we all are regardless of superficial differences.
Every time I visited a new country for the first several years I was traveling it was like “oh, but what if the rumors are true and-” and then I’d talk to a couple people and everyone would be like “I value good food, intimacy, housing, and expressing myself”. Maybe they paint, maybe they’re a programmer, intellectually/physically disabled or a pilot, but people are, in my mind, undoubtedly people first, just like all the other people.
Now I’ve been traveling for 15 years and I don’t worry about “them” in a new country being any different than everyone else I know. Chinese are Texans are Guatemalans are people, people, people and you have everything in common with them.
English, Mandarin, Spanish, and I’m crappy to mid in a bunch of others.