Day 479 of German
I’m about to embark on a long flight to meet people who share my intense interest in language learning. I know I’ll be surrounded by individuals who speak far more languages than I do. In a way, this entire trip feels like a search for my own people—a community that understands this unique passion.
For this journey, I’ve packed two very intentional items: my Internet Phone Book and the bilingual German-English edition of Hermann Hesse’s Demian.
Bringing the Internet Phone Book, a collection of sites that make up the “poetic web”—places where people share their genuine feelings without seeking likes or retweets—is important. Somehow, having photos of this book in Taiwan, at the language conference I’m attending, feels like the right juxtaposition. It’s a contrast between the silent, personal web and the physical space where people gather to share their passion for languages aloud.
I really don’t have much time to read fiction, and the little I’ve read of Demian so far is quite nice. I feel like I’m cheating a bit by relying on the bilingual version, and honestly, I plan on reading the English text more than the German during the flight.
Despite the self-imposed academic pressure, I think this will ultimately be a trip filled with rich feelings—the quiet solitude of the flight, the connection with new people, and the beautiful sounds of many different languages.