I've never been so long in an atmosphere as multi-lingual as we have here. Our hotel is the athlete village so it's entirely overrun with skiers. Each nation takes over approximately half of a floor. Some of the other nations are staying at the sister hotel closer to downtown Sapporo. But what I'm trying to say is that other than us, the Canadians, and the one English dude, no one's first language here is English. True, most people speak at least some English and many people speak fluent English, but I am surrounded by people whom I know think in and prefer some other foreign language.

It makes me feel timid to talk to people. I hate initiating a conversation in English with someone when I know it's not their first language. I don't want to give the impression that I assume everyone is going to speak my language and I shouldn't need to lean their's. I feel unsophisticated here not being able to speak multiple languages (there's two Spanish athletes here and they're not even staying at our hotel so español hardly counts on the ski circuit). So I'm feeling a little guilty about my linguistic paucity right now and have determined that I must start expanding my languages.

If I'm going to be traveling as much as I am I think it's worth the effort to learn some more languages so I can interact with more people and don't feel like a lame American for only speaking English. German makes the most sense as the next-most-useful-language-to-know-on-the-ski-circuit, but I don't actually really like German. hmmm.