I had had a big job day. After finishing a lot of tasks, reports and a public event, I felt a bit exhausted. However, before all that, I had agreed with a group of friends (former ICPNA classmates) to go to Mundo Lingo that night. Mundo Lingo is an exchange meeting where people met other people in order to practice foreign languages, like English, German, French and other. It usually happens in a bar at 9:00 p.m.

Finishing my job conference, I prepared my stuff and went out immediately with Juan Carlos and Genoveva. Once alone, I ran to Lupulo bar, the place of the Mundo Lingo of that day.

I arrived at the Lupulo bar late. The activity had been started, and my ICPNA friends and Ericka (my friend from Viviana’s wedding) was talking themselves and drinking. Suddenly, Ericka began to speak to a foreign man. Meanwhile, my ICPNA friends started to go to the corner of the hall. I started to think about what to do.

I faced the difficulty with approaching unknown people. I could identify the foreigners of Peruvians via their stickers of flags. So, I approached a Peruvian. A talked with him, but suddenly, he interrupted me and said to me “I noted your Latin accent. I understand you, but it’s worthless. Instead of that, you should approach real foreigners and practicing English with them so, go there, meet a tourist and said to him what you have told me”.

I felt a bit embarrassed. So, I thought his advice was right: I could not improve my conversation skills with Peruvians there. But, how can I approach a foreigner? Although I studied hard advanced level English on ICPNA, I was unsure about me. The environment was so loud, I was shy and the time was going to over. However, I encouraged myself and told an ICPNA female friend “We’ll meet a real foreigner today.”

I was seeing a white guy with the flags of Germany and the United Kingdom. It meant that he is from Germany and he could speak British English. I wait until he was alone and when it happened, I approached him.

“Hello!,” I said.

“Hi,” he answered.

“Where are you from?,” I asked nervously.

“I’m German, I’m traveling across South America. Can I speak Spanish,?” he replied to me.

“Yeah, I have a group of friends that speak English and Spanish. Come with me now, sir,” I said.

The German man came with me to met my ICPNA friends on the corner of the hall. We talked a lot about Peruvian costumes and slang, Latin American countries, and the German language. The conversation was so good that a Mexican man joined us. The Mexican had met the German man before, so we started to talk about differences between Peruvian and Mexican slang. After half an hour, the German left. I forgot his name, but what I can say is that the experience was terrific.

Near 11:00, I left the Mundo Lingo. The next day, at 7:00 a.m. I was going to have an ICPNA written exam.