LogFAQs > #978696558

VeesMcGees posted...

But what did you do while traveling? For instance, my diet is restrictive, so any time food is involved instantly becomes a burden, since I'd need dishes fully explained and possibly a list of ingredients, and foods purchased from a store would require me to translate each ingredient listed.

I suppose I could look up food items for sale and translate the ingredients listed beforehand, but that's still an awful pain to the point a vacation would seem like a chore.

I have to deal with tourists a lot at my job. Most of the ones who have English as a second language understand the bare minimum of what I'm saying, so I would expect similar experiences while traveling abroad. Admittedly, their English is probably comparable to the one other language I know some of, though I'm not comfortable enough with that language to the point where I'd be willing to travel somewhere where it's the primary spoken language.

I picked Germany at random, but I will say that most of the German tourists I encounter often have a good understanding of English.

But without being competent in a language, what is there actually gained from travel? I cannot picture a meaningful experience if I could not fully understand or interact with what's going on around me. Like, if I went to Japan, what would I do? Get shuffled through a bunch of tourist spots or places other foreign randos have told people to go?

Admittedly, food is a big part of why I like to travel. I can see why having difficulties around food might put you off.

But no, you dont need to get shuffled through a bunch of tourist hotspots. My last trip was to Japan and it was great. The most touristy thing I did was go to Mount Fuji and everybody I interacted with there spoke English. The rest of the time I just spent exploring Tokyo. Its not hard to find cool and interesting things in a culture thats so different from your own.