by Klara Branting Paulsell There’s no better way to learn how to drop your art-speak than sitting in a stranger’s car, knowing you’ll be there for a good chunk out of an afternoon, and the only payment you’re offering is a conversation. It doesn’t have to be the best conversation, but you’ve got no reason to not do your best. You’re just sitting there, watching the world pass by, and you get to ask whatever you like, you get to bring up any theory, any musings, any memory you like, and see how it flies. The catch is, you have to do it in A2 English. The deal is, they don’t know any of your references, not low nor high, not your hometown or your friend-group or that TV-show you watch, nor that philosopher, or that curator, or that sub-genre of a sub-genre from a revival of a sub-culture. And you don’t know theirs. Well, until that Doja Cat song plays and you’ve certainly both heard it before. But once you get talking, there’s so much you’re able to find out, together.
Hitching a Ride on the Highway
A2 version:
Hitchhiking is when you ask a stranger to let you ride with them in their car to somewhere they are already going. I love hitchhiking because I love paying for something without using money. When you hitchhike, the price is a conversation. I like that I don’t know anything about the driver and they don’t know anything about me. I like that we have one thing in common; we’re both looking through the same window, and watching the same landscapes and roadsigns in front of us. Anyways, we start talking. Usually the conversation is in A2 English. It might be because the driver doesn’t speak a lot of English. Or it might just be because we have different lives - different interests, different jobs, and different families. We ask each other questions, and tell each other things in simple ways. Hitchhiking is a good way to learn how to talk about your work in an understandable way.