My mom is a world traveler. 108 countries at last count and a trip in the works to cruise from Santiago around the tip of South America and up to Ecuador. She's nearly 90 now, and she has the luxury of time and money, two things that are in short supply when you are, like me, the mother of three and a public school teacher in a state that ranks in the bottom three in the nation for teacher pay. In all fairness, though, my mother had never even traveled in an airplane until she was 65. On that first trip outside the U.S. by plane, she traveled to China for three weeks. It changed her life.
Like many Americans, I have visited Canada, Mexico and islands in the Caribbean. Thanks to my mom, I've been lucky enough to ride a mule to the top of Thera in Santorini, marvel at the Hagia Sophia and Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, visit Wordsworth's grave in the Cotswolds, and wheedle (well, beg) my way into a sold-out summer performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Globe in London. As a mythology teacher and an obsessed Anglophile, these trips were gifts I will never forget.
Yes, travel is broadening, but I find the best moments are often the unexpected ones, the people and places that aren't in your itinerary. Sure, it's a cliche--but it's also true. While standing in a queue in London, I mentioned that I was worried for my 19-year-old daughter who was planning to travel to the UK and Europe alone for a year. I still have the names and phone numbers of three other mums who insisted that she contact them if she needed anything. That brand of human kindness still exists everywhere.
Which brings me to my last comment: language. That lovely exchange in England would have been less possible if we couldn't communicate. You've probably heard the old joke:
What do you call a person who speaks several languages? Multilingual
What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual
What do you call a person who speaks one language? American
Though I've studied French, Latin, and a little Russian in college, I'm basically hopeless in all of them. In Curacao, I was amazed at the facility even the youngest island residents had with Dutch, English, Spanish and the local dialect. I'm working very hard on acquiring Spanish right now, but I truly hope to find out where I'll be teaching and learning through Fulbright so that I can show my respect for that place and culture through using its language.
When you learn a language, you can't help but learn about the people who use it. Here's to helping OUR young people become more fluent in other languages as a way of building global citizenship!