Travlyng: Hello Caleb, my name is Jhilam. I am a writer, I am curating the content for the app 'travlyng', along with my two other team members, the software engineer and a writer. So, you are an academician. So how do integrate traveling and education?
Me: That's a good question
So education has actually been the "red thread" through all my travel and living abroad experiences, although that wasn't exactly intentional. For many English speakers, there are lots of opportunities globally in education and maybe people fund their travels through teaching.
Also many people get their first "taste" for travel and the international life through studying abroad, then decide to take a gap year or teach abroad, and so it starts...
I now work in the International Student Office of a public university in the Czech Republic, but that's a recent position and before that I was semi-nomadic. My wife is also a teacher with a career in international schools, so together education has kind of been our "passport" to multiple countries.
In short, I taught in Czech Republic, Japan, S Korea, I studied in Germany and France, volunteered for education-related organizations in India and Tanzania, and worked in school administration in Ivory Coast and now Czech Republic. So Education has been the common theme.
As for independent travel I've taken lots of solo trips while in all those countries, and I had a longer "solo travel" trip over nine months though SE Asia and India.
So that's the last 15 years in a nutshell!
Travlyng: That's amazing Caleb! We would surely check the link. So you have taught English as a language in all these countries (some of which are Commonwealth and have another genre of English literature to speak of), would you say this urgency of learning English has anyhow affected the local culture of these countries?
Me: At the moment the English-speaking culture is more or less dominant in the world, meaning that every culture still has its own culture, literature, movies, language, fashion, etc., but they are highly exposed to the American/British culture also, and probably to a higher degree than they are exposed to the culture of their immediate neighbors.
Definitely this has an impact, and the local culture should be protected, but I think it's also important to see culture as fluid and always in transition. Cultures, languages, and ethnic groups have been mixing, interacting, and adapting to each other for millennia, and that's how cultures and languages evolve. So definitely there is a strong impact because of the importance of English and American culture, but as long as it doesn't remove the local culture I don't see it as a bad thing. Together they create something new and more complex than the two original and isolated cultures.
I recommend the travel writer Pico Iyer, especially the book Video Nights in Kathmandu. He talks about a movie night for Nepalis watching Monty Python... at first he was concerned by this "invasion" of their culture, but he attended. And he realized that they often laughed at completely different places than him. He saw that Nepalis watching a British film through a different cultural filter turned it into another film, it became a prism of culture rather than an oppression of culture. That's been true for me in many countries.
Travlyng: I feel coexistence is beautiful when there is a proportionate blending of two divergent things. What do you think is the most common problem that a solo traveler faces while on the road? How would you like that problem to be addressed? (This is related to areas that are less privileged).
Me: The most common one is probably loneliness, although that is not the most serious problem. I think learning to be with yourself and to be at peace alone is one of the most important benefits of solo travel, but it's true that it can be a struggle.
Then it depends on the length of the trip, if we're talking about two weeks or a year of solo travel...
If it's long-term, I think the most common mistake is not thinking carefully about what the experience is FOR. Many people (including myself) are just enamored with the idea of travel for the sake of travel. But if you're going to take that much time you should make it for something, like improving language skills, helping a volunteer project, keeping notes to write about the experience, etc. At one point I started filming the locals I met in SE Asia and asking them "What is one thing you want to change about your life or about yourself? And how can you make that change come true?" I was planning a series of videos about the answers, but I stopped doing it after a while and that's a big regret.
Travlyng: I am sorry to hear that you did not complete it. The endeavor had great potential. Another thing that just crossed my mind is that there must be a sense of threat that always lurks in the mind of a solo traveler, with life and the journey being so precarious, How does a solo traveler finds strength despite the fear, or in other words keeps the fear suspended.
Me: Well that makes me think of a few things....
I can only speak as a man, and I think it take a lot more courage to be a solo female traveler.
On the male side, I actually think the problem is rather than travelers often aren't concerned enough by safety. I think people who are generally cautious and worried don't solo travel, and people who are confident and optimistic are more likely to solo travel without worrying about what could happen.
Don't get me wrong, I think the benefits of travel far outweigh the risks, but the there risks and travelers should stay aware, and often they don't, in my experience. I like to talk about using common sense, but remembering that "common" sense is different in every place. So you need to stay aware that you are in a foreign country, with different laws, culture, and reactions, and until you know those differences well it's best to be cautious and to follow advice from others.
For those (like me) who do think about safety even at home, I think there are two things I tell myself to keep facing the challenges:
1. There is danger everywhere, even in my home town. So unless I want to live under a blanket in bed, it's better to face the risks that also bring great reward and a full life.
2. Life is short, and it's better to have an adventure that brings slightly more risk compared to living a life of fear and "what ifs." I think all adventurous travelers have to make peace with their own mortality and to accept that they're living how they want to live, and if it's their time to go then it's just time. I have been in many situations where I had to tell myself "Okay, I've lived well, I've tried to live fully, and if this situation kills me then I'll just have to accept that." I think every solo traveler would tell you some version of that, otherwise it's too easy to panic and freak out about situations we cannot control.
So there are ways to mitigate risk and make solo travel only slightly more risky than being at home (maybe on the streets of a big city like New York or London, which might be more dangerous than many places in the developing world). At the same time, when we do encounter those dangers, it's important to tell ourselves that we accepted this risk/reward as part of the solo travel experience, and we have to be at peace that something might go wrong. But we're going to live our lives how we want to despite that (small) chance.
Good questions!
Travlyng: Some great words Caleb! Right now we cannot do anything more than thanking you for your time. We would keep updating you about our progress with the app, and if we require inputs (which we would), we will surely ping you, Thanks once again, and have a great day ahead!
Me: Thanks for the opportunity, we’ll be in touch!
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