Comment on The invention of smartphones probably made the idea of international travel less intimidating since you now have a pocket translator tool and can find your way in a foreign place with GPS navigation.
Horsecook@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
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DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I had fun being (figuratively) feeling lost in school and didn’t speak English, and the American-Born Chinese classmates barely spoke Cantonese and I kinda feel like they felt annoyed that they had to translate for me (just my perception of what they thought of me… maybe it’s just me being introverted). And I’m just in this classroom… and this teacher is talking… and idk what the fuck is happening… I’m halfway cross the world from my spawnpoint and like… everything is giberish.
I was 2010 and I don’t think teachers had Google Translate yet.
So yea I know the “fun” xD.
I also remember just exploring NYC via traveling using the subway system… like we’d visit various places… just randomly decide to go to Bronx one time, to Queens, Flushing, go to Coney Island Beach, just going to the F and Q trains just like go sightseeing lol, like look outside the window of the train (for the segments its abobe ground), like this is a city with so many people, but its only me and my mother in this little bubble because we barely spoke English for the first few years, and they didn’t have smartphones all this time… eventually I did learn English and so I kinda became my parent’s go-to translator lol.
Such memorable times, Iiked that version of my mother… I think she just got so fed up with me when I got older, I got less adorable and more annoying… 🙃
DrunkenPirate@feddit.org 2 months ago
One of my most memorable moments were at Urumqi 2006. A town in China were me as a Westener felt absolutely alien. Street and shop signs were in Chinese letters, Russian letters and Islamic letters. No chance to get an idea.
And over there my Visa debit card stopped working at the ATM‘s. I quickly ran out of money. And my visa needed an extension. And I needed money to get it and my passport back. And I had just a single box of salty crackers left. But I got out of the muddle ;)