Travel Broadens the Mind

 I've alwayed enjoyed traveling not necessarily because it takes me to famous places I've heard about or that I'm particularly enamoured with getting on airplines or other modes of transportation, but because it's a new experience and makes me enjoy new things and as with most good things, the first time doing it is the best time. Constantly enjoying new experiences is the name of the game. That's a similar mindset as the popular phrase "travel broadens the mind," and actually scientific studies have supported the fact that there's a physiologically change for people who travel a lot: it allows more opportunities for new things, and a broarder vocabulary, more stimulus so that the synapses can fire off mroe things: it can literally broaden the mind. 

Travel also reminds me of how the ordinary American lives. MJ and I often visit big, urban American cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and especially New York, large cross-sections of citydweller America, and I've noticed that one day hanging out around in NYC can surpass many months of me being at home in terms of interactions with other human beings. Most Americans are not like the people you see on Tiktok or Instagram or Twitter; most of America is taking a subway on their way to work, or going to a Yankees baseball game even though there's a rain delay in the Bronx that's causing sheets of rain to fall down; or hanging out by the NYC 9/11 Memorial Pools marking where the towers stood. We did pass by some Youtubers of course who were "yeppeuncheok," or acting pretty as MJ puts it, to look good for the camera, but all in all most people just want to go about their daily lives and enjoy themselves without letting the world know about it. Also, I always get the most FOMO around 7PM on Saturday nights, when I feel like the whole world is doing something other than me, and I'm stuck doing nothing and letting my life pass me by. That's not true! There's apparently plenty of people around 7PM ET even in "the greatest city in the world" (according to some) who are not doing much of anything then, or have to work, or stuck on a PATH train out of New York to New Jersey, or stuck in the rain. Or....they're eating at a A2B Indian Veg Restaurant, eating Impossible Chinese Szechuan Fried Rice with different "Chinese sauces" like soy sauce and ketchup. So glad it wasn't just us having to spend Saturday night finding something to do; the restaurant was completely full and no one was coming from a Bruce Springsteen concert (unfortunately Bruce has been sick during his tour and had to cancel his September events), or came from an awesome wedding, or just attended a raucuous college football game, or a Charity Auction for a grand event......they were just spending a normal weekend and having tasty Indian food at a local restaurant. No need to put so much pressure to do too much on a weekend.

I do translation work as part of my job, and there's many quarks in different languaages that I notice during the course of my work, but the one big pet peeve I have is when native Chinese speakers use the English word "Besides" in situations that they should be using "In addition." Chinese speakers will often use "Besides" to begin a sentence, and I'm looking for some sort of contrast to the last sentence because "besides" usually implies some sort of divergence from the previous sentence like "I wanted to go to the movies but didnt' have enough money. Besides, I have to wake up early in the morning." Chinese speakers are using it after everything like "There are 2 types of whales, baleen whales and toothed whales. Besides, whales are mammals." That's a situation where "in addition" is better; there is no connection in that second section to the first section. There are times "Besides" would be the appropriate conjunction, of course, but Chinese speakers use it almost exclusively when wanting to say "in addition," and it wreaks havoc on editing a document or just trying to read through a document. I get why, of course: there's likely a universal curriculum Chinese speakers use when learning English that gives the primary translation of the Chinese word for "in addition" as "besides," and it just catches on. What they don't know is how cringeworthy it is, like fingers on the chalkboard every time I read it, kind of like when people use "um" or "uh's" and other throatclearing while speaking: it's fine to use it once or twice (heck, I do it too) but using "um" after every single sentence or at the beginning of every sentence, just gets distracting. Rant over because I can't do much about it. Besides, I can't change a whole nation's understanding of English by myself.