Are you bi? or, Bangladesh, ho!

It's becoming increasingly clear to me that being a successful academic requires that you be at least bi-lingual, although tri-lingual is preferred. I met this guy on Wednesday who had studied Serbian and Croatian at a military language institute in the States. 47 weeks, and he claimed to be fluent. Now, I take issue with the word 'fluent' and whether or not you can be 'fluent' without going to the country that you studied, but I was impressed. Around our little table in Starbucks we had speakers of Japanese, English, German, Spanish, Croatian, Serbian, and Spanish. I felt sort of dumb.

Anyway, on a more successful note, my tickets are coming through for Bangladesh and it looks like I will be presenting at two conferences there. I'm wicked excited about it, although it's going to be so hot. I also get to fly the BEST airline in the world (Malaysia Air, complete with Mecca compass and awesome service). I plan to come back with wide eyes. The group I'm going with is holding conferences in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Iran, Cambodia, and a couple of other places. I am hoping that I can get more and more involved with them as next year they are going to Ghana. I could live in Japan the rest of my life if I got to travel three times a year on someone else's dime.

Oh, speaking of the baby, Yoko thinks she likes metal.