On my spring break vacation, I traveled to Florence, Sicily, and Dublin. Though I had travelled to Paris and Amsterdam earlier in the semester, I speak French and practically everyone in Amsterdam spoke perfect English, so it was new for me to be somewhere where I really didn't know the language. With an ear not quite tuned for Italian, I found myself drawn to any type of media put forth in English. In Taormina, a small town on the Southern coast of Sicily, very few locals spoke English, so I was surprised to find that our hotel room broadcasted BBC World News 24/7. It took us two attempts to find a store that sold magazines and books in English (for our day on the beach), one of which was an Art Rock magazine that focused on English indie rock and electronic bands. It was really random, and I wondered why they carried that transnational magazine but not typical international publications like Vogue or Architectual Digest.
It was a nice change in perspective to go somewhere where I felt completely foreign. I feel as an American English speaker that I take for granted the fact that I can speak my native lanuage wherever I go. I feel that the Italian portion of my Spring Break widened my perspective and gave me insight into how it feels for those who enter a new country without knowledge of the language, like many who travel to foreign countries for less leisure-oriented reasons.
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