“Hello, Mr., Can We Practice Our English With You?”

Traveling as an English speaker is a luxury. English is essentially the universal language today, which means that wherever we go, someone speaks our language, with varying degrees of competency. Being able to speak English in the countries we have visited is a highly prized skill, one that everyone we have encountered in Southeast Asia has been eager to hone with us. But the strangest incident of English learning we have seen has been here in Indonesia, where for the past week, we have been physically stopped by kids looking to “practice English” at tourist sites.

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Mini-Post: How Does She Know I Have Baggage??

There have been many phrases that we have heard over the past few months that have made us giggle as non-English speakers try to communicate with us. Naturally, their English is better than our (insert language here), so I don’t judge, but sometimes, you just have to laugh. The best one from today was the following:

Flight Attendant: “Passengers with lots of baggage can claim it at baggage claim 4.”

Oh, idioms. Lots of baggage? Talk to a therapist about it, and frankly, just leave it behind. No need to pick it back up.