Photo courtesy Peggy
This month we’re so happy to welcome a special new friend to InterestEng. Peggy is from Peru. Her native language is Spanish and she is a long time teacher of English. The Editor met Peggy through an online course about understanding language. Peggy shared the story below with fellow course participants and we asked if we could use it for InterestEng. as we found it so touching. Thank you, and welcome, Peggy!
I WOULD tell you one experience of mine that was amazing for me. Years ago, a friend from the USA told me that a friend of his was coming to Peru. He was staying in the capital for a couple of days before he set off for Macchu Picchu. My friend asked me if I could show his friend around. When we met, we first went to get some traditional food. The restaurants were full because it was Easter weekend. As we were waiting for a table, some people from his hostel arrived. We didn’t really know each other, or them, but we invited them to sit with us. As we were enjoying our food and drinks, I realized that there we were a Peruvian lady, a Mexican lady, a Brazilian lady, an Italian lady, an Indian guy and a Turkish guy sharing a single table using English as a Lingua Franca. It was just such a nice experience making new friends, all with different native languages, but able to talk and share nice moments through the shared second language of English. We have kept in touch since 2012 on FB. —Peggy