29 August 2011

Watching the World on Public Transport

The world passed by me the other day as I made my way from Brussels to Geneva via a Brussels train station, Brussels airport, Geneva airport, and train several train stations in Switzerland.
       I consciously listened to the languages people were speaking in these places, and tried to figure out their culture. There were some languages I did not know, but most of them I could identify. They were:
  • French
  • German
  • Dutch (and Flemish)
  • English
  • Chinese (of some variety)
  • Italian
  • Russian
  • Thai or Vietnamese (a tonal language which always sounds like the person is angry!)
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Norwegian or Danish (could not tell)
  • Portugese
  • Japanese
  • An African language/dialect which I could not identify
  • Polish
Not a bad start to the day! And it was not even mid-afternoon yet!

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