Back to 2017 again, more discussion of travel. I think much of this stands, for all the bad of social media and smartphones, it has made the issue of international travel easier. That’s a small benefit in the mix.

Recently for work I had to take a trip to Mexico, mind you not a regular business trip of fly in, stay a few days then fly home. Since I was brewing and the brewery hadn’t been in operation the last few weeks, I spent 3-4 days organizing and cleaning, then filled the fermenters, packaged one of the beers we brewed and left. The whole trip took about 3 and half weeks.

It was the longest I had been outside of the US in probably 20 years. But what I found significant about the trip was the lack of isolation and how it handles learning a language. I did have Rosetta Stone and was using it, my reading is coming along at a reasonable pace. Frankly my speaking is still horrid, I made another trip to this brewery 2 years ago and I felt better prepared this time. Listening cognition was okay, for work or some business things it was fine and even food I understood what people were saying. Speaking remains a disaster, my accent has improved but even when I felt I knew the proper vocabulary I ended most sentences finishing in German.

People seemed to respect me trying to use Spanish as much as possible.

The other big thing when living alone in another culture for any length of time is the isolation, when I was a student in Germany I had a radio but besides going out with other students, a weekly chat with family, or the occasional letter I was alone. This time, between modern cell phone with text messaging and Facebook it felt like I wasn’t far removed from family and friends. Sure we couldn’t meet at the pub, but I could post my side trip to Guanajuato or wish people a Happy Thanksgiving. I did also have a TV in my hotel room and kept it on with Spanish language channels often with shows I knew from the US so I had a better base of understanding of what was going on and the language used. Though honestly I am not sure it made that much of a difference. Lastly with my cell phone I had Google Translate app loaded. This was particularly helpful when I was trying to have a business discussion with someone while our translator didn’t understand the technical terms. Often when they would be having long conversation over what should have been a simple concept, I would type the explanation in English and press translate, then show the manager and his face would light up with understanding. 

Overall it was a good and productive trip, but I think for all the bad rap cell phones and social media get, they were the things that helped bring the language and isolation barrier of being far from home.