Valencia — 4 Lessons Learned
In mid-May, I had the opportunity to venture out to Valencia with a group of highly talented individuals for Kubecon 2022. I had never visited Spain before — nor was I expecting to learn about anything other than K8s. Rest assured, the memories and lessons I took away from the trip left a big impression on me and I would like to detail a few of them below for your benefit!
- The Importance of Immersion When Learning a Language
Prior to flying to Valencia, I took a few Spanish lessons on Duolingo so that I could learn a few conversational phrases to navigate me in my dialogues once I land. In just 4/5 lessons, I learned a plethora of words and phrases and ways to pronounce them — however repetition didn’t amount to much vocabulary retention. It was only by using these phrases in Valencia to local residents that they stuck and were retained in my long term memory.
Yes, my close companion in this trip was my trusted Google Translate app; we would use it every time we needed to communicate in Spanish. However I would often try to add in a few basic phrases such as “lo siento”, “de nada” and “¿tu comes manzanas?”. Once you break down that the invisible barrier of doubt and lack of self-confidence, you can really surprise yourself with how much you know!
Furthermore, my previous experience with learning Arabic backs this up. I learned it the traditional way; learned by translating Arabic into English and memorising common phrases and conversations. Whilst this made me understand Arabic, it didn’t give me the ability to communicate and conversate. It was only once I began to hold conversations with fellow students and with native speakers that I began to build my speaking ability.
In summary, if you want to learn to speak a new language — just speak it!
2. The Importance of Regular Holidays
This holiday for me came as a suprise; it was booked within a few weeks of me actually leaving. Growing up, I would not travel on holidays regularly — intervals between travels would sometimes be years.
Detaching myself from work and my daily routine allowed for my mind to take a break and to enjoy simple things in life. It meant that that I could readjust and review if the goals I am chasing are truly what I want and if so, am I taking the small daily steps to progress and achieve those goals? Sometimes when we are living day to day, we can miss these retrospective moments. Going on holiday allows you to review your life and refocus on what you truly want to pursue — not what the masses are marching towards.
Note: Planning regular getaways doesn’t have to be expensive nor does it have to be international. There are plenty of areas in your country of residence where you can visit for a weekend or even for a day trip that cost very little!
3. Valencia is a Beautiful City
That is an understatement! Despite consistent 30+°C temperatures, the weather was perfect for a dip in the pool, a stroll in the park or greeting alligators at the local zoo. Moreover, there is an amazing contrast of newly built architecture and older buildings with beautiful carvings that have withstood the test of time.
There are plenty of parks and sight-seeing places for tourists to visit. From amongst these places is the City of Arts and Sciences with its stunning views, water and it grants you the ability to race around on racing buggies. Also, the zoo was an enjoyable visit. It holds a variety of animals from around the globe and allows for you to get close to a lot them with little barrier — giving you a closer look into their lives. Of course Valencia is also well-renowned for its beach!
However it is important to note that the character of the locals is even more beautiful than the city! I met many friendly people who were patient with me and my Google Translate when navigating my through the city. Everyone from the the airport staff to the the taxi drivers to even the owner of the residence I was hiring during my stay, dealt with me in the upmost manner and answered the various questions I had with a big smile.
4. Travelling Broadens One’s Perspective
Often we can be accustomed to the culture that we live in and dealing with our close relatives and colleagues a certain way. Then, when a new person comes into our lives or we find ourselves in interactions that are in opposition to what we are used to, we may get upset or direct some form of negative response to that new interjection in our lives.
From our perspective, this new addition is causing issues: “Why doesn’t s/he do this? Why do they do that? Why do I have to do that? Without a doubt the problem is on their side — how could it not be? Life was good before they came and now they aren’t things properly!”
Travelling forces us to venture out of our comfort zone and become the minority who are “not doing things properly”. We end up becoming the ones we once were antagonising and seeing them for who they really are — people who often mean well but may not be accustomed to the culture quite yet. They just express emotions such as gratitude, love and kindness differently to what we may be accustomed to.
All of this will allow us to gain a wider perspective and understanding the complexities of human expression and emotions and therefore equip us with the right amount of patience and forbearance to get along better back home with those who we may have once viewed as strange. Now we can see them as humans with emotions, thoughts and feelings.
To conclude, travelling shapes us into better human beings as a result. You pick up valuable morals, conduct and lessons from those around us in our journeys that we can take home and implement. I would urge all to visit new places and venture out of your comfort zone. Who knows, you may end up enjoying the experience a lot more than you thought. I, for one, will definitely be back for some delicious Horchata and fresh paella very soon!
What is next?
I am currently on a journey to learn more about the ever-growing ecosystem of DevOps, cloud computing and jotting down any life lessons along the way :)
Expect to see more articles and open-source contributions. Stay tuned for more!
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