Me llmo Ian!! Soy de Hong Kong

Since I started working at J-hoppers almost two years ago, I have derived a great deal of happiness from talking to travelers from around the world through listening to their stories, and asking about what is happening in their country. Lately, I have also tried to learn from them. I became able to say numbers in Thai reasonably fluently thanks to the numerous guests from Thailand in the last few months! Every Thai guest has become my teacher. Every time when they checked in, I would practice saying their room number, pin number, and at a later time, the room fees as well in Thai. As expected, my pronunciation at first was terrible, and my so-called "Thai" was met with puzzled expressions. But I grew better over time, and now more often than not my attempts at speaking Thai were met with appreciation.  

Thus, in a sense, J-hoppers is like an international language school where you can learn a range of different languages. Now that I think about it, how lucky I am having an unlimited supply of teachers from whom I can learn for free! I have decided to make the most of this wonderful language learning environment. With the summer just around the corner, I have decided to put Thai aside, and tried to pick up some Spanish as we are expecting many guests from Spain in the coming months! And just two days ago, when a Spanish couple was just about to go out, I asked them how to say "see you later" in Spanish. Hasta luego! My teachers taught me right away. But of course, I have been making some effort on my own as well by learning to Spanish learning podcasts. And I have just learned how to introduce myself in Spanish, and will try to practice it with the next Spanish guest I see! 

Bienvenido a Takayama!