Travelling without words
I’m currently travelling in a country where I have never been, and whose language I do not speak. It’s an interesting and strange feeling being in a country that speaks a language other than your own. One that you only know the barest few words in. Whilst common lingual roots and context can help you decipher the meaning of what people are saying, the nuance of the message is lost, and often it is in the frills and embroidery of language where most of its beauty lays.
When I first arrived, there was an anxiety surrounding my clumsy attempts at communication. A knowledge that I was not able to convey my meaning and self-recriminations that I should have tried harder to learn more of the language before making my trip. But life got in the way and my priorities changes, so here I am, travelling in a country where I have the barest grasp of the local language.
For all of that, it hasn’t been so bad. Buffered from my own poor decisions by friends who are local, friends who managed to put in the effort and learn a bit, the locals knowing bits of English, my own stumbling attempts at French, and some design principles that transcend language barriers have managed to get me through. Part of it is this is due to the buffer that friends have provided. Part of it is due to the simplicity of interactions that I’ve had with people, you don’t need many words to order a meal, or a ticket to something. Mostly however, it’s because I don’t tend to interact with people all that much. This was something that I knew about myself prior to this trip, but the focus I’ve put on communications during my time here have acted to highlight the fact.
For all of this, I have enjoyed my time here and am glad that I came. It’s been an interesting set of experiences, if not quite to my general tastes. I’ve spent time in three major cities, but only really spent time exploring two of them. I’ve spent some time in the country, but not as much as I would like. Most of my time here has been spent travelling, which whilst it was what I had planned, it was not what I was really after. Oh, to try and entwine your trip into that of others. What folly.
Not being sure of what I was expecting from this trip, I’m now not really sure what I have gained from it. Certainly, experiences that are new to me, some that I have enjoyed and some that I have not. But I’m not sure that it provided me with new perspectives on life, and isn’t that what travel is supposed to do?
Maybe I’m wrong on that. I have gained one thing, one new perspective which I did not have prior to this leg of my holiday. An appreciation of how the French do lunch. The concept of time in the day set aside for lunch, and that time spent sitting down with others and dining, sits in stark contrast to my experiences of snatching a break between meetings to eat. It’s when non-hospitality businesses close, and contrary to expectations the city comes to life, filled with the murmur of people sitting down to a meal, conversing with friends and colleagues, relaxing. This goes on for hours, time spent away from the desk, time spent living rather than working, time… spent like this every day.
This is going to cause me to rethink my work habits.
Another thing that I’ve come to appreciate here is bread, specifically the baguette. Unlike those that we get at home that have an exterior so crunchy as to shred the inside of your mouth with their tiny glass shards, the baguettes here have a softer exterior. Making them not only eminently edible, but also giving them the perfect crust to bread ratio for something that is a must on every table as an accompaniment to every meal.
I was going to add some travel photos to this, but that would have required that I remove the EXIF data from them… which given that I’m currently on a Mac isn’t the most straight forward of things to do and ended up leading me down a rabbit hole of vetting various options. For now I’ve decided to just post the damn thing and deal with tooling later.