Giving up privacy at the language school

 

When studying a new language in a group, you can forget about keeping your private life private. As soon as you learn about past tenses, the teachers keep giving you homework and group exercises where you have to talk about your past:  Detailed questions about your childhood, your worst holiday, your past relationships, work experience, your fears and habits, interests and dislikes, horoscope etc.  On top of that you have to give a daily report of what you did the afternoon/night before.

 

I have been to 3 different language schools here in Italy: Lingua Due and Passepartout in Milan and Babilonia in Tarmina Sicily. Even though I was in good company by fellow travellers, it soon became obvious that my stories were different from that of most other students…. and started to attract a lot up attention. When students belonging to other classes or in private tuition started to talk about strange things they had been up to the night before or during the weekend. The teachers follow up question would often be: -Were you with Ami? The answer would often be yes.

 

Frequently over the last 10 years, friends, family, acquaintances and even strangers have asked me to write a book about my life. I have felt a bit reluctant, as I don’t have a good ending for the book, nor am I famous (well not that famous anyway). But now with a blog I feel that I can share some good camp-fire-stories without feeling the type of pressure that serious book-writing could give…. mixed with some photography and travel advice.

 

So you could say that I got encouraged to write down the story of my worst holiday ever, thanks to the language school. You will find it in the category Travel and Adventure.