"TRAVELLING IS EXCITING"

 

 

I like travelling in summer and visiting new places, but sometimes I am afraid of looking ridiculous ( I think I may look ridiculous). I have travelled with my parents since I was a very little girl, and everything is easier with them.

 

My parents usually choose cultural trips where you can easily get by car, NEVER BY PLANE! You may wonder why... My mother, very brave when bringing up two children and (dealing with) animals, is unable to get on a plane. She is terrified of flying. She is not very happy with the simple idea of being in a confined place and up in the air, God knows how many kilometres far from the ground. She would go mad. This is the reason why we usually go by car. However, my father does not mind going by plane, because he has already flown to Cuba and Germany.

 

Travelling is not always exciting, mainly if you go abroad and you cannot speak the language, because the meaning of similar words in two different languages can be confusing.

 

The protagonist of this story is my neighbour María del Carmen, but everybody calls her “Carmiña do Chi”, who, one day, travelled to England by plane.

 

Carmiña is not like my mother. She is not afraid of flying; what is more, she loves it. She says it is an adventure, very comfortable and, besides, very fast; because you can travel very far in a few hours. The disadvantages are nothing if we compare them with the time it would take you going by car, coach or train.

 

Let's (Let us) keep to the point... Carmiña caught the plane to go straight from Santiago de Compostela to London. The journey lasted less than two hours and she was sleeping and dreaming most of the time.

 

When she arrived she did not feel tired, so she left the luggage in the room of the glamorous five-star hotel she had booked in the city centre. She was so delighted with so much luxury... that she could not wait to go shopping. So, she did. She visited the best shops in the city, from the most glamorous boutique to the most expensive shop. Her terrible command of English did not stop her from shopping. She managed perfectly well, but... Carmiña spent all her money. No problem. There was a cash dispenser two streets further up.

 

She walked to it and then, she put her credit card into the dispenser to get some money, but... oh, no! Something went wrong and the machine gave her neither the money nor the credit card. Poor thing! She went mad. She started to shout: “My target! My target!” The security guard of the bank came to help her but he could not understand why she kept shouting “My target! My target, here!” pointing at the cash dispenser. “I do not understand you, madam”, the security guard told her over and over again. But she insisted, repeating the same words. Suddenly she realised that next to her it was the security guard, the secretary, one of the clerks, the branch manager and two or three clients of the bank. One of the clients happened to speak Spanish, and English, as well; so he became the translator.

 

You may wonder what the problem was. I will explain you. Target is a false friend. Carmiña did not know the word “credit card” in English, which is “tarjeta” in Spanish, very similar to the English word “target”. So, she thought “target” was the English word for “credit card”, and that was what she said, but unfortunately it means something completely different. Target in English may be your objective, your goal, or even the object you aim at when attacking.

 

This is the reason why all those people were puzzled. Carmiña had not travelled to London to see that cash dispenser. That was not her goal. She did not want to attack it either. She only wanted her money and her credit card to go on shopping.

 

So, remember. If you travel abroad and you cannot speak the language of that country, you may find yourself shouting and surrounded by a lot of people who think you are crazy. Never mind, if you feel embarrassed... just remember Carmiña do Chi.

 

SARA MIRANDA SEIVANE

3º ESO